House Spouse

I was in need of some inspiration. Having been out to eat every day, often twice a day, for a week straight with Andrew’s parents, I found myself getting hooked on restaurant food, tasty tasty food that doesn’t require doing dishes or turning on the stove in my already uncomfortably hot kitchen. So, I went to the library and checked out some cook books. My library fortunately has a nice selection such books and I walked out with Jamie’s Kitchen and The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (along with a non-fiction work and two books of knitting patterns). After picking up some zucchini and summer squash at the farmer’s market earlier this week, I happily chose a recipe out of Jamie’s Kitchen for a stir-fried warm salad of shrimp and baby zucchini and modified it slightly to accommodate just two of us (the original recipe is for 4) and the ingredients I had on hand.

Spicy Shrimp and Zucchini Salad
(Adapted from Jamie’s Kitchen)
-Serves 2
Ingredients
10 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced diagonally
2 small summer squash, thinly sliced diagonally
1-2 T vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1-2 tsp red chile flakes or 1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely chopped
1 small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 small bunch fresh mint, chopped
1 T soy sauce

Have all your ingredients ready before starting this recipe. (It moves really fast and once the shrimp hit the oil, plan on eating within about 3 to 4 minutes.)

Heat the two oils in a pan over medium-high heat, until shimmering. Toss the shrimp with the lime zest and the ginger, then throw in the pan. Stir together for about 2 minutes, or until the shrimp are lightly golden, then remove from the heat and place in a dish. Allow them to cool for about 30 seconds before adding the lime juice, herbs, chile, zucchini and squash. Toss these together and then dress with the soy sauce. Serve.

We ate our salad with a side of brown rice mixed with cilantro, which made it a full meal. I suppose some dressed cold noodles would be good on the side as well.

Note: My in-laws are visiting this week, and have promised to take us out to eat most nights, so I am taking a break from cooking (except of course when we initiate Mom and Dad into the pizza grilling revolution). In the mean time, I’ll be moving some of the older House Spouse archives onto this site. The post the follows, I think, is especially appropriate now that I’ve started to see zucchini at the farmers markets. Enjoy!

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(From January 2008)

Andrew and I returned yesterday to icy sidewalks and brisk air after a week of sunshine and sixties in Los Angeles. My Vitamin D levels are up, and I’m certain this elevated mood will last for at least a few days.

Just before we left, I got to open two Christmas gifts (so as to avoid lugging gifts to and from California): a stand up Kitchen Aid mixer and Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Opening gifts was bittersweet because while I was thrilled with these two new kitchen additions, I knew I’d have to wait an entire week to use them. Last night, after a full day of travel (and a loss of two hours), exhausted we ordered Thai from our fave neighborhood spot and planned for the morning a re-stocking grocery run.

Zucchini and Chickpea Filo Pie
From How To Be a Domestic Goddess
(My notes are in italics.)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/4 tsp ground cumin)
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, finely diced
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander (or 2 T fresh cilantro, finely chopped)
3 plump zucchini
generous 1/2 c basmati rice (I used brown basmati and cooked it about half way before starting)
2 1/4 c vegetable stock
2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained
scant 1/2 c melted butter
7 ounces filo pastry dough

Preheat the oven to 400 F and put in a baking sheet.
Gently fry the cumin seeds and onion in the olive oil until soft (or, if using the ground cumin, wait to add it with the rest of the spices). Add the tumeric and coriander (if using cilantro, add it at the very end, with the chickpeas). Dice the zucchini (unpeeled), add them to the onions and cook on a fairly high heat to prevent the zucchini becoming watery. When they are soft but still holding their shape, add the rice and stir well, letting the rice become well coated in the oil. Add the stock 1/2 cup at a time, stirring while you do so. When all the liquid has been absorbed the rice should be cooked, so take it off the heat, stir in the chickpeas, and check the seasoning.

Brush the insides of an 8-inch spring form pan (unfortunately, mine is a 10-inch pan, meaning my pie turned out shallower, next time I’ll make more filling) with some of the melted butter. Line the bottom and sides of the pan with 3/4 of the filo, buttering each piece as you layer. Leave a little filo overlapping the sides, and keep 3 to 4 layers for the top. Carefully put in the slightly cooled filling, and then fold in the overlaps. Butter the last layers of filo and scrunch on top of the pie as a covering. Brush with a final coat of butter, and put in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the filo is golden and the middle hot.

I served the pie for dinner with orange slices and a salad with yogurt dill dressing. I’m looking forward to a room temperature slice for a savory breakfast.

Who doesn’t love noodles dressed with peanut sauce? (I mean, other than the very unfortunate who suffer from peanut allergies…) Imagine such noodles accompanied by grilled fruit, greens and really really tasty tofu. This is one of those dishes that makes you crazy glad that you’re not opposed to meatless (or even vegan) dinners because those suckers who think you need an animal protein to complete a meal are so wrong.

After returning from the farmers market with a bag of baby bok choy, I did a little research for some inspiration and discovered this fun recipe on Epicurious, but I wanted to make something vegetarian and more substantial. Still, the idea of a peanut sauce sweetened with peach nectar was intriguing so I began collecting ingredients to re-fashion the recipe to my liking. I followed the instructions for the peanut sauce almost exactly, omitting the butter entirely. I substituted the shrimp with marinated tofu and pared down the rest of the ingredients to make enough for two (although, there were plenty of noodles for leftovers).
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