More quick snacks

Vegan red pepper pasta from Ohio City Pasta, Sungold, Yellow Pear, and small Roma tomatoes sauteed in olive oil, and basil. A bowl of summer.

Romanian made Polish food. Pierogies and red onions sauteed together in butter. The cheddar cheese/potato pierogies were from a Romanian-run stand at the Shaker Farmers Market, the onions from Blissful Acres, also at the Market. With a Polish grandmother married to my Romanian grandfather, it's not shocking that these have become my go-to snack.

Borrowing ideas

Banana pepper stuffed with veal, parsley, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper with a thin tomato sauce. Corn (off the bone to all you Cento frequenters), and toasted bread heels (for all those who are looking forward to The Greenhouse Tavern and have peeked at the posted menu).

Stuffed peppers. These took a few minutes to make, but I think it was worth it. First I roasted the peppers over an open gas flame to get the skin all charred and blistered (there are ways to do this sans gas). Then the charred peppers went into a bowl, which was covered with plastic wrap, and left to sit for a while. While the peppers were steaming from their own heat under the plastic, I chopped up some parsley, pine nuts (didn't even toast them first--what an amateur), and parmesan (chopped, not grated), and minced some garlic.

Once all that stuff was prepped I began removing the skin from the peppers. It's kind of relaxing, kind of tedious. After the skins were removed I cut the tops off the peppers, cut a slit along the sides, and scraped out some of the seeds and ribs. After the peppers were eviscerated I mixed all the non-pepper ingredients, along with salt and pepper, with the veal and began stuffing the peppers chile relleno style.

After the peppers were ready I got some tomato juice (leftover fluid after making a bunch of brushetta--it was basil infused) warmed up in a pan on the stove with some salt and set the oven to 425. The tomato juice had been in the fridge for a day, which was nice because I was able to skim off the water from the top and use just about pure juice for this. I placed the peppers in the juice filled pan (pictured below), and once it was simmering I placed the pan in the oven for about 10 minutes.

The banana peppers added some heat to this dish, and if one was heat adverse but still wanted something like this there are tons of options at the farmers markets. Thanks goes to Maybelle's Mom for getting stuffed vegetables on my brain. Hers were prettier.

The other stuff was simpler. The corn was super sweet, and it just took a quick saute in butter with some salt and pepper to make a really worthwhile vegetable side dish. I forgot how good corn can be. Even without the bone.

The bread was simple ends of baguettes (also part of yesterday's brushetta) that I doused in Spanish olive oil and placed in the 425 oven with the peppers (in a separate pan, of course). As noted above, I stole that idea, if it is possible to steal an idea from a restaurant that has not yet opened.

Sources: Corn and veal from Plum Creek at the Shaker Farmers Market. The bread was from the West Side Market--it was okay, but unremarkable. Olive oil from Mediterranean Imports at the WSM. Pine nuts from the West Side Food Co-op. Tomato juice, parsley, garlic, and peppers from St. Paul's patch, a small community garden on the near west side of Cleveland (I only grew the tomatoes and garlic for this one, the peppers and parsley were from other gardeners--we like to share). Raw milk butter from Stutzman Herdshare.

I'm not sure if this is 99.9% local (is that by weight?), but it was very tasty.

Fuss Free Food

Diced tomato (Roma and Jubilee), basil, and brie on toasted bread that had been drizzled with olive oil prior to being placed on a very hot ridged griddle. A little salt and pepper in with the tomatoes and basil and that's all it took. Could've rubbed the warm baguette slices with garlic before adding the cheese and tomatoes, it would have been nice, but why bother? Same with an extra drizzle of olive oil over the top--didn't do that either. Simple was good.

And why should the Italian's have the monopoly on cheese paired with tomato and basil? Despite their problems, the French have earned this much. Indeed, it's hard to imagine how conflicts over the past hundred years or so would have been different had France showed its artisanal spirit in them. Maybe that's what holding us warmongering types up in the food front--too busy with other stuff.

Anyway, too many questions. Perhaps the picture below will shed light on some of the answers.

The ever controversial raw milk. And The CFT, soon to be the proud owner of 1/40th of a cow.

Let's hope we don't get arrested.

Gazpacho with Scallop

Normally I'm not a gazpacho man. Sad, but true. But we're in the thick of summer, and when I came back from the garden with tomatoes, a green pepper (I'm letting the bulk of the bell peppers ripen further.), garlic, and cucumbers I just couldn't help myself. So I did what any self-respecting person who has eaten in Jaleo or Cafe Atlantico (mini bar technically, but close enough) would do and googled Jose Andres and gazpacho and then began pouring through the links. After reading this post I didn't have much of an interest in posting on the subject here. That one seemed just about perfect. But I couldn't help myself and here we are.

I kept it simple, with just the aforementioned ingredients and salt, pepper, a slice of bread (no crust), olive oil, and red wine vinegar. As tempting as it was to add a serrano and throw in some chopped basil, I just didn't have the heart--some things are sacred. The tomatoes were blanched and peeled, the cucumber skinned, and everything that could be was cut into chunks and went into the blender along with some extra water. After being blended and the seasonings adjusted it went through a strainer (the one pictured above) and chilled in the fridge.

Because I can't leave well enough alone, for serving I added one huge sea scallop I had picked up at Kate's Fish in the West Side Market. They were scaringly fresh, and all it took was some salt and pepper and a quick sear in some bacon fat (Surely a Spaniard would forgive the addition of scallop if it was cooked in pork fat?). Not quite cooked through, it went perfectly with the soup both right off the heat and also after being cooled down to soup temp in the fridge--I tried both ways. With a drizzle of olive oil, this will be a solid dish for summer company.

Not too rich a red--I used a lot of cucumber.

Pasta with Lamb-Tomato Sauce

Curry flavored pasta with a ground lamb-tomato-onion-carrot-squash-basil sauce. There were some chili flakes in there too. Lamb, carrots, and onion from the farmers market, canned tomato from the West Side food co-op, Italian heirloom squash and basil from the garden, and homemade pasta.

Short posts lately, and not too many this week either. It will be the trend for the next few weeks while The CFT relocates. Not sure whether it's a move up, down, or sideways, but the new place will be mine, complete with peaches, black walnuts (at least for the remainder of the season), mint, concord grapes (that will be replaced with a more worthy berry), a chicken coop that predates me, and enough work to warrant a 40 yard dumpster (not to worry--I'm saving/repurposing what I can). In the meantime, please bear with me.