Wednesday Food Blogging

Quinoa and Corn on a Bed of Greens

The farm shop bounty, reclassified as dinner.

A friend and I visited Royal Windsor Farm Shop on Thursday, part of the estate of Windsor Castle. I went a little nuts when I saw the produce—I really can't resist the sight of so many lovely orbs, leaves, and roots.

I brought more home than I needed, so I had to figure out a dish that used up my bounty.

With no real direction in mind, I shucked the corn, chopped a shallot, and added a pepper. Then I started some quinoa, after rejecting several other grain options. When the corn was done, I poured it into a bowl and sautéd a bunch of swiss chard, at which point the dish sort of came together on my plate.

In this case, necessity became the mother of a rather nice dinner.

Here's how:

Eggplant and Roasted Pepper Rollatini

On top of spaghetti...all covered with Eggplant Rollatini.

This is a dish I've never tried before. But I love eggplant—aubergine, to those in the know. And I love hot bakey things, otherwise known as casseroles.

Fortunately, I live in a climate that allows me to pop things in the oven in the middle of summer without worrying about wasting air conditioning—what air conditioning?

This dish takes a good while to prepare, but much of it is wait time—waiting for the eggplant to sweat, waiting for the peppers to roast, waiting for the casserole to bake...it does take some time to fry the eggplant slices, though. I experimented with baking half of them in the oven, but it made them too stiff to roll. Maybe a shorter bake, just long enough to make the eggplant pliable, might work.

Further instructions follow. 

Pea, Courgette and Mint Soup

Soup in the summer? Why not?

I'm not much for cold soup, but I can see the advantages, at least in some climates. After having dental work done, I was in the mood for something soupy, but not heavy. The fresh peas in my fridge, and the pots of mint growing in my windowsill, hinted at an answer.

Courgettes, known in North America as zucchini, are plentiful this time of year, too, and add only a few minutes to the prep time. I served this soup lukewarm—I couldn't quite bring myself to cool it down with ice, but if you suffer less of an aversion to cold food than I do, add a few ice cubes after adding the yogurt, to cool the soup faster. Remove them after a few minutes.

This would be a nice starter for a fancier meal, if you're so inclined.

And if you've got a summer bounty of peas and zucchini, be sure to� try Courgette and Spring Pea Lasagna. Meanwhile, click below for directions for summer pea soup.

Food News, Weekend Edition

Mark Bittman from the NY Times visits Campo de Fiori in Rome. If you can get through the first few horrific minutes, where he examines all the varieties of fresh tomatoes* available there, it's a pretty interesting video. I wrote about Campo de Fiori here, but I don't remember seeing so many tomatoes.

What to eat: Curcumin.

What else to eat: Peanuts.

What not to eat: Pretzels.

Don't feed the ducks. 

Don't tease me like this.

Don't give me this: Bacon Salt makes everything taste like bacon. (If you sprinkle it on your tomato, will you have 2/3s of a BLT?)

Cake wrecks, a blog about cakes that never should have been. 

*I do not like fresh tomatoes. Or anything that can be described as "flesh".