the experiment and the menu there are all kinds of issues in the house right now. someone is dieting and exercising, and someone should be doing likewise. someone isn't even officially a tween and beginning to show signs of eating us out of house and home. someone has had an aversion to red meat for a few years now, though just the other night ate three adult portions of ribs, and could easily becomes a vegan within a few years. and someone has gas.

health and diet considerations taken to account, i threw out the idea that we go meatless for the week. i thought i could probably pull it off in a way that wouldn't seem like such a harsh shift in our eating. i'd also like to think that in a very small way it's helping the planet, but i can't really say that was a motivating factor.

so when my zuska and i discussed this we also decided to keep the girls out of the loop, to see how long it would take them to figure it out. if i went whole hog (no pun intended) and went vegan they'd know in a heartbeat, eggs and cheese just being too hard to remove from the house without severe problems with proteins and omegas. if the girls would only eat pbj! but with starches and flours already limited to next-to-nothing the lacto-ovo option needed to be exercised.

despite a lapse early in the day -- eggs with sausage for brunch, i just totally forgot -- the rest of the day went smooth. for dinner i fried some more zucchini with a cucumber yogurt dip, adding onions and eggplant to the mix, with a main dish of spanakopita. despite being a very rachel ray recipe, i loved the spanakopita because instead of a giant pan of feta and spinach pie they are personal sized little logs, like greek egg rolls. baked. okay, maybe nothing like egg rolls, but very nice.

just to be clear, this lack of meat is really only being enforced on my zuska and i. breakfasts won't be affected as we'll all be on our smoothie routines (girls will round out with bagels or mini wheats) and for lunch one takes the hot lunch at school and the other brings her trusy ham-n-cheese or hard boiled egg (or both! hungry tween alert!) and that's fine. like i said, they won't do the pbj option so whatever gets them through the day, right?

tomorrow night is a weird hybrid salad, a sort of a meatless cobb salad with some mexican whang to it. not spicy, just the combination of avocado and cheese and beets and jicama and citrus dressing. it feels a little out-on-a-limb but i'm up for it. and i don't think the girlies will figure out what's up just yet.

by tuesday they might. i'm doing a stir fry but i'm going tofu. one girl loves it and the other is going to pout because there's no beef or chicken. and that's when the dam will break. if they ask we'll tell them, and i suspect it'll all be clear before wednesday. then the only trick will be to see if they really are hankering for some meat come this time next week. we'll see how everyone fares.

Labels: feta, greek, rachel ray, spinach, vegetarian, zucchini

  ¶ Sunday, April 22, 2007 0 comments

  all-my-by-my-self fish-in-a-parchment
i came at this from a couple different directions. first, my girls like fish a lot more than i do and i was feeling like i owed them some. second, i found a recipe for pan-seared tuna that looked excellent for me and zuska but i wasn't so sure about for the girls; also, the recipe included udon noodles, which i'm currently off until easter. third, recently recipes have been showing up everywhere in my consciousness showing things cooked in parchment pouches.

so, putting all this together we get the meal i made last night. i winged the whole dang thing and it would up very edible (or eatable, as gets said in our house). and a word about the name: the girls used to say "all-my-by-my-self" when they were younger to indicate when they did something they were proud of on their own. hence

all-my-by-my-self fish-in-a-parchment

• 1.5 - 2 lbs fish steak, swordfish was used, tuna was the plan, salmon was the original back-up (figure 1/2 pound per person)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped to heck
• 4 smallish zucchini, washed and sliced into half-inch thick half moons
• 1 lb shelled frozen edamame
• juice of one lemon
• coarse salt and pepper
• 6 parchment squares, as long as the parchment is wide
• string
  

preheat the oven to 400 degrees
pour the frozen edamame in a bowl of hot water and let sit
in another small bowl mix the butter and mint
salt one side of the fish and flip it
on the unsalted side spread the mint butter on the fish then set in the refrigerator to chill a bit while you get the rest of the things ready
in the center of each parchment divide the zucchini equally into six servings
drain the edamame and divide into six serving into the parchment on top of the zucchini
season the veggies with salt and pepper, about a teaspoon divided across all the servings
remove the fish from the fridge and cut into six equal sized pieces; alternately, you could chop into 2 inch sized chunks like stew meat
place equal amounts of the fish atop the veggies in the parchment, mint butter side up
pour equal amounts of lemon juice over each of the servings, about 2 or 3 teaspoons for each
draw up the corners of the parchment and twist; tie the parchment pouch closed with string
lightly oil a shallow baking dish and place the parchment pouches in the dish; be sure they have room around each and are not touching
pour in enough water to line the bottom of the pan and place the pan in the lowest rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes
serve at the table in it's pouch to be cut at the table or carefully slide the contents onto a plate

timing can be tricky. the swordfish steaks i got were nearly an inch thick but the tuna i was contemplating was thinner and would have taken slightly less time. about 20 minutes in you will need to open a pouch and test the fish for flakiness. is you need to cook a bit longer you can close the test pouch up and cook without affecting the outcome. if you need to test more than once use a different pouch the second time.

cooking in parchment steams the fish with the lemon juice and vegetable moisture and keeps the smell and flavors contained. the mint butter adds a subtle flavor to the fish and then falls nicely onto the veggies for a nice seasoning as well.

because i made six pouches but suspected we wouldn't eat more than four i froze the two remaining pouches in a freezer storage bag for future consumption. i'm hoping it goes well down the line when we need a quick something to eat and don't have a lot of prep time. i'll report back if there were problems.

Labels: fish, mint, parchment, zucchini

  ¶ Thursday, March 22, 2007 3 comments

  greek to me 3a: fried zucchini & cucumber yogurt dip this was a side dish that became the main vegetable for din-din last night. yeah, a fried veggie isn't always (ever) the best choice, but i'm gonna justify it by saying the dip had cucumber in it.

for the zucchini:

• 4 zucchini, at least a pound's worth, washed, trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch disks
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup water at room temperature
• 1 egg, also at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• oil for frying - i used 2 parts olive oil and 1 part sunflower oil

for the dip:

• 1 english cucumber
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 16 oz. greek-style yogurt
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• fresh ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

(yeah, there's a lot of olive oil going around)

start with the batter...
make sure the egg and water are at room temperature, probably easiest to crack the egg into the water and let them sit
start with the egg and water in a large bowl, lightly mix them, adding the oil and the garlic
add the flour slowly so it doesn't turn into one bog ball of gooey glue. if it's too thick and looks more like bread dough add water a couple tablespoons at a time until it's more batter-esque
add the salt and pepper and let the mixture sit for at least 30 minutes

now go with the dip...
grate the cucumber into a colander lined with cheesecloth; weight it down with a plate and something heavy to extract the water for at least 15 minutes
(slice the zucchini now if you haven't done so yet)
pick up the cucumber in the cheesecloth and squeeze out all the water you can, then dump it in a blender
add the garlic, yogurt, red wine vinegar to the blend and set it to puree
drizzle the olive oil in while the blender is going
when it's nice and smooth pour it into a serving bowl, grate some pepper on it and refrigerate until ready to serve

ready to fry some zukes...
heat the oil in a deep skillet or (as i prefer) a wok -- less splatter all over the stove that way!
tumble the zucchini into the batter and give it a good mix with the old hands; they won't be totally batter-covered, just dabbled and streaked
fry the zucchini disks in batches making sure not to crowd them.
once they start to brown flip them to brown both sides evenly, about 5 minutes
transfer them to paper towels to drain and set them aside to stay warm

they should be served when the last batch finishes their frying, so timing is everything. if you want them table ready to start (or serve with) a dinner then you need to start your first batch about 30 minutes before plating.

kid tested and approved. you've never seen kids eat this much zucchini.
there will be no zucchini leftover, but there will be dip which will stand for another day or two in the fridge and can be used with carrot stix or even an interesting dressing for a salad.
hey, why not top some kefta with it? probably a little more drizzle-able than the other sauce i tried
you could use half as much zucchini and replace the other half with disks of equal-sized japanese eggplant
probably my favorite thing all week.

Labels: cucumber, dip, fried, greek, yogurt, zucchini

  ¶ Thursday, March 15, 2007 0 comments

  zucchini moussaka a.k.a. noodleless greek lasagna, a.k.a. zucchini casserole with meat sauce and cheese sauce. it looked and sounded good, but explaining it to the girls in advance was a bit hard. never use the word bechamel when explaining a topping, kids think it sounds like chemicals or something.

of the three dinners for "greek week" that i made this week, this was my least favorite. the spices were a bit too mellow (read: bland) for my palate and i didn't like the bechamel recipe that was provided. i get that the top is supposed to be both cheesy and crusty and not melt into the rest of the dish, but just wasn't my favorite thing. plus, it was a lot more time consuming to make than i would have liked on a weeknight, and a lot of prep in three different directions.

here's the easy-sounding part: layer sauteed zucchini with meat sauce, top with bechamel, bake in the oven. easy.

here's the reality: make a meat sauce that has to reduce because it's very watery and you want it thick; saute zucchini while the sauce is cooking down, because you have a LOT of time for the sauce to cook down; then carefully time your bechamel to be ready the minute you're going to pop the dish in the oven because it will settle into a glue very quickly. at least with this recipe.

the fam loved it, loved it, loved it. ate so much there was nothing leftover. you've never seen kids eat so much zucchini in one sitting. but because the recipe requires three sets of instructions -- meat sauce, bechamel, assembly -- i'm going to make this a "by request" post unless there is a huge outpouring of comments. that isn't me trying to get people to post comments, just me conserving some energy.

fortunately there was another meal during greek week so it didn't end on a sour note. but that's for another post.

Labels: bechamel, greek, moussaka, zucchini

  ¶ Thursday, March 15, 2007 1 comments