Potage St. Germain

Potage means thick soup in French and I have no clue why St. Germain had this pea soup named after him.

I can tell you that Potage St. Germain is a delightful summer soup with lots of room for variation.

My dear friend and yoga teacher served it to me for lunch the other day, I was so surprised to find it has lettuce in it !!

Ingredients
2-3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 head of butter lettuce or several baby gems lettuces*
1 cup or so chopped  leeks, spring onions or regular onions
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
4 cups water or stock
salt and pepper to taste

1) Heat the butter or olive oil in a soup pot, add one cup chopped onions or leeks.
    Saute the onions until just soft.

Spring onions.

2) Chop, wash and spin the lettuce.

Butter lettuce.

Salad spinner with lettuce.

3) Add the lettuce and 2 cups of peas to the onions in the pot, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.

4) Add the 4 cups of water or stock, cover and bring to a simmer. Remove the lid and cook until the peas are tender, 5 to 10 minutes.

5) When the soup has cooled enough, puree it in a blender or food processor. To adjust the thickness, use a slotted spoon to scoop out the green stuff and blend in batches.  Add some of the water from the pot to make it thinner to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We like this soup without much other seasoning. In the last batch I did add the juice from one lemon. My friend Laurie adds a pinch of cumin and another recipe I saw online used fresh mint (1/4 cup for a recipe this size). You can top it with some yogurt, sour cream or fresh chopped herbs like parsley.

* Another great option is to use zucchini in place of the lettuce. I used about 2 cups chopped zucchini in my last batch and it was very tasty !!

Seaweed salad without the seaweed.

Over the weekend Bob had smoked some of the salmon we had bought straight off the fishing boat at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor. He did an amazing job. We served most of it for Father's Day lunch.

For dinner tonight I wanted to do a simple roll your own sushi type dinner to highlight the smoked salmon.

 I wanted to serve it with edamame, and seaweed salad. Whenever we go out for sushi we always get a seaweed salad.

My local grocery store didn't have seaweed salad like I thought it would.
Undaunted I decided to make my own version with what I had around the house.

Laurie's Unseaweed Salad

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1 small zucchini
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoons black sesame seeds.

1) Into a medium size bowl add 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes. Whisk together.

2) Grate one large carrot and one small zucchini.

3) Toss into the bowl with the dressing and mix together. Sprinkle with a 1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds.

I was surprised and delighted with how much it tasted like those seaweed salads at the sushi restaurants !!

Zucchini Bites

This time of year there can never be too many recipes that use summer squash :-)
These little bite remind me of the zucchini pancakes I posted a few weeks ago, they make great appetizers at a party or brunch.

The recipe calls for mini muffin tins which I happen to have.

You could probably try them in a regular muffin tin. The recipe with only make a dozen and might need to bake longer.

Ingredients.
2 large eggs
2 cups grated zucchini ( 1 to 2 zucchini depending on the size)

With this size zucchini I needed one and a half to make the two cups.

1 small onion grated or finely chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup finely chopped parsely
1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper

1) Preheat oven to 400 F, spray mini muffin tins with spray oil.
2) In a large bowl, lightly beat the two eggs.
3) Add grated zukes, onions, cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper.

4) Mix together with a wooden spoon. The batter will be sticky and loose.

5) With a spoon, fill each muffin cup to the top.

6) Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops are browned and the mixture has set.
   

7) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.

8) They should keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge and should freeze well. I wouldn't know since they all disappeared at the party they attended !!

Note: You can use any kind of cheese that melts well, or use grated carrot if you want them dairy free. Fresh chopped basil would be a nice addition. Use gluten free bread or crackers to make you own crumbs for a gluten free appetizer.

Zucchini Pancakes

It's time to get this blog back to it's foodie purpose after using it to share my travels with you.

I started cooking again two days after I returned despite my jet lag. 

I am not sure why I decided to look up zucchini pancakes...maybe it was the thought of making something different, the allure of those fresh cucurbits I had purchased at the farmer's market...

I must have looked at half a dozen recipes and some reviews of those recipes and here is what I came up with.

Zucchini Pancakes

Ingredients

2 zucchini or other summer squash

1 small onion
1  clove of garlic

1 egg

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

fresh ground pepper to taste

fresh oregano
fresh thyme

olive oil for cooking

Preheat the oven to 300 F so you can keep the pancakes warm as you cook.

1) Grate the zucchini and the onion into a large mixing bowl. I added the garlic using my garlic squeezer, you could mince it instead.

2) Add one slightly beaten egg.

3) In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. If you want to make this gluten free just use oat or brown rice flour and gluten free bread crumbs or cracker crumbs.

4) Mix the dry ingredients into the grated stuff. Finely chop the fresh herbs and add them.

Any fresh herbs with do, basil, chives, tarragon, parsley would work well too. Or dried herbs if that is all you have, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of two different herbs.

5) Heat olive oil in a caste iron or saute pan over a medium heat. Be sure the oil is hot enough before you drop a 1/4 cup of batter into the pan. You can make them any size you want, mine were about seven inches across because that's what fit in my pan.

6) Cook them for them for 2 to 3 minutes a side. After two or three pancakes I added more oil.  Keep them warm in the oven on a baking sheet until they are all made.

7) Serve with toppings or plain. The right has a Greek yogurt with lemon and the left is a tomato almond pate. It turns out they are great by themselves as well. I served them with a beet and goat cheese salad.

 8) They are great cold later that same night and probably the next day for breakfast or lunch. I wouldn't know since Bob ate the leftovers before I could find out.