Zucchini or Yellow Squash Soup

"The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini.  Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables.  At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt."  --  Dave Barry

This is my mother's recipe, and the one Joanna Chau used in the Naples Daily News & Collier Citizen. So simple and so delicious!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
2-3 large yellow squashes or zucchini
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 - 1 teaspoon pink sea salt
2-3 cups hot water

Directions:

1. Bring 3 cups water to boil in a small pot.
2. Wash and scrub vegetables.
3. Cut into chunks.
4. Add squash and peeled garlic to boiling water. Boil 5 minutes until just tender. 
5. Carefully put vegetables into a blender, add some boiling water to blend. Use a cloth over the blender top to prevent hot soup from splattering!
6. Cover and blend until smooth. 
7. Add more hot water if needed. Stir to make soup.
8. Salt to taste.

You may garnish with lemon juice, but it's best plain. Other garnish options are hot pepper shreds, sprouts (pea shoots or sunflower sprouts are especially nice), or a few drops extra virgin olive oil.

NYC conf BONUS tip: I learned a new thing about the chemistry of how green foods best benefit us from Joel Fuhrman. He says if we blend the green foods before we cook them, a beneficial chemical reaction occurs that can't happen once the food has been heated. He suggested heating after blending... I haven't tried it yet.

It seems like it would be an easy adjustment. Let me know how it goes if you try it!

"What was your favorite thing about class?"
"Well, I loved the sweet vegetables, but I didn't taste the soup because I don't really like zucchini."
"But you heard everyone, it doesn't taste like zucchini. Just have a tiny lick of it."
"Is this what you do? You just get people to try stuff?"
"I don't know, but you have to just, here, here's the spoon."
"Oh my! That doesn't taste like zucchini!"
"Do you want a bowl of it?"
"Yes."

A snippet, more or less, of my favorite part of the conversation after Simply Vegetables with Joanna Chau of the Naples Daily News. Joanna finished the bowl, and published the recipe.

A Thought Regarding Milk

In light of recent crackdowns on people selling raw milk (poor Rawesome!), I thought I'd chime in with my visual support. I'm very inspired by this excellent column by Ari LeVaux of The Atlantic. He's right on point. Meat companies can do as they please, poisoning hundreds and then only voluntarily recalling when too much attention means profits might suffer. And the FDA is hauling in a few terrifying food co-op coordinators... I love the part about the felons in court laughing at the bail, so much higher initially than their own bond for heinous, violent crimes. Who is this really serving?

For more information in the Rawesome vein, see Food Renegade. They are who my old Italian neighbor would call "HHHEE-peeess", hardening that hhh and spitting out the word. She slung this epithet at us because I nursed my child. Nevermind my former Madmen life, the contents of my closet, or our political views...

Huffington Post is also on the case, and their article includes a Colbert Report version of the raid, which, as usual, is more informative than any of the actual news. Much like The Onion.

The New York Times quotes an FDA source stridently claiming, "people wind up as paraplegics". No data point, no footnote, no study quoted. Just a scary claim without any verification but the power of position and those three little letters that are all the proof we should need: F, D, A.

What about that data? Here's some rational analysis. Regarding data and raw milk cheeses, David Gumpert says at Grist, "The FDA crackdown on raw-milk cheese [is] based on flawed data analysis".

Good gracious, I've sourced a lot of Liberal outlets! What can I say? I'm a shameless health foodie, and don't care who moves my health foodie agenda forward.

So, in the interest of being even-handed I'll include the voice of those on the other side of the issue, yes, with data. After all, you have to make your own choices. And there are many areas of gray between the black and white I present for emphasis in my comic.

In my family, we were organic, grass-fed, low-temp pasteurized, unhomogenized milk purchasers for many years. But we still ended up being unable to tolerate milk without health issues. The raw milk we find causes none of these issues (nasal allergies, asthma, digestive distress, moodiness, black circles around eyes, spectrum disorder issues), in my own home nor among community members and clients I interview on the subject. Not science, but to us our own discoveries count the most because it's the difference between medications with spotty efficacy, or good food choices. We prefer to eat our way to health and regard raw milk and raw milk products as one of many whole real foods that are beneficial to us.

I recommend knowing your farmer, keeping raw milk ridiculously and consistently cold, and supporting local and small farmers as much as possible. We also cycle on and off of dairy, as seasons dictate natural cow cycles, including pregnancy. We opt out of the factory farm mess as much as possible. I eat animal products, but I try to make sure they are at least organic, and that means we eat less of them, but it also means we eat with the respect due creatures who serve us, sometimes with their lives. If you're still not sure why we should all bother, check out the Meatrix.

I welcome you to share my comic in its entirety, and with a link back if you'd be kind enough.

Mirepoix: A Primer

Osso Bucco in White Wine Glazed Mirepoix (photo courtesy Tim Norris)Please read my latest article on food and cooking which can be found at a rather playful hub site called Squidoo. A how-to primer on some of the secrets of French cooking. Alonzi!

http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-make-your-own-french-soup-sauce-base-in-bulk

Dragon Bowl Class

photo courtesy Crystal Mastrofrancesco

We started with a tour of Asia Pok, one of my favorite ways of starting a class, and found lovely seasonal goodies. Of special note were fresh king oyster mushrooms (apparently purchased in NYC the day before!) and fresh lotus root. Two of my favorite things!!!

Back at the studio we made clear soup with shiitakes, kombu and just a few bonito fish flakes.

I began frying the lotus to snack on, which is a thing from heaven, truly. Then soaked wakame for a seaweed salad. Sweet black rice was steaming.

Boniato yams followed the lotus, into the ghee and extra virgin coconut oil. They were sweet bombs of creaminess with a caramelized outside.

Once the rice was done I dressed the wakame with spicy roasted sesame oil, sesame seeds and umeboshi plum vinegar. Then it was time to cook the choi sum (or gai lan) greens and mushrooms with galangal (a wild ginger), garlic, and finish with oyster sauce.

photo courtesy Crystal Mastrofrancesco

Assembling the Dragon Bowls is always fun. The boiled soft silken tofu was dressed with fully fermented tamari and roasted sesame oil. It has a pudding-like texture when boiled. The sweet black rice made a beautiful bed for the stark whiteness of the tofu, the vibrant greens with their little mushroom soldiers sticking up, the yellow and purple yam chips and the diminutive wakame salad. Baby purple onions sliced over all instead of scallions were like purple and green confetti.

All together, it became a new spin on a classic!

photo courtesy Crystal MastrofrancescoThe assembled Dragon Bowl was delicious, all of the flavors combined nicely. Every lotus chip was eaten, most of the greens were gone, and there was not a speck of wakame salad left! Even the tofu was subject to seconds.

A success all around. But the real test is always whether the class felt they could go home and do what I showed them. They said they felt confident, and I got a report from one student saying he went right home and made wakame salad for his wife!

My fabulous photographer was the delightful and multi-talented Crystal Mastrofrancesco, LMT.

Squash Noodles w/Rabe & Capers

This turned out so well, I'm blogging while I'm eating it! 

Peel six to eight little or three to four larger yellow squash or zucchini lengthwise into "noodles". Chop into one to two inch pieces half a bunch of broccoli rabe. Peel and roughly chop two large cloves garlic.

Saute in a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, over medium high heat, two anchovy filets. Smash until they have fallen apart and turned several shades lighter. They should lose their fishy smell and become nutty. (You could easily vegan-ize this by skipping this step). Throw in the rabe and a big splash of water. Saute for half a minute, add the garlic. Continue to toss and saute. Throw in a quarter cup dulse strips, pulled apart to toss in well. Saute another minute or so, scoot everything to one side, add the squash. Let sit to cook a bit as the "noodles" will fall apart easily if abused as they cook. Pull the rabe mixture onto the top of the noodles and gently rearrange a bit. Give another toss after they begin to look cooked and add two tablespoons capers. Give one more gentle toss, squeeze on half a lemon, off the heat, one last gentle toss, and serve! Wowwy!