AUGUST 2008

SUMMER

Summer one dish dinner that goes well with a side of  fresh salad....

Summer Ribolita with fresh field peas and cherry tomatoes.

Polpette con Spaghetti/ Spaghetti and Meat Balls.

Sausage Gumbo with Ciabatta

Mini Burgers with Corn Chips: Grass-fed Beef with Blue Cheese and Lamb burger with Sun Dried Tomato.

Chicken Cacciatore.  Poulet Rouge enhanced the taste of this dish with fresh tomatoes and black olives.  I brought some leftovers to work and one of colleagues commented that I have a superior lunch!  I wonder if I had given her an inferior lunch complex.

Fresh Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Figs, figs, figs... they are ubiquitous in August from the local farmers markets to the neighbor's yard.   They are so juicy and sweet with yogurt and a little oregano honey.

Pan Bagna Salad 

Squash Casserole. The local farmers markets provide the best squash in August.  A little Bechamel, a little Parmesan, and a lot of bread crumbs created  the best dish I've made all summer long. Indeed, it was Superior!

Fresh Figs, Greek Yogurt, and honey.

JULY 2008

SUMMER

Mini-Burger au Cheval with Match Stick Fries.  Where would July be without a grilled burger and fries.  The ground beef is grass-fed from Riverview Farmers in Ranger, Georgia.  The egg is from a local farmer in Clayton County, and the potato  and tomato are  from a local farm in Athens, Georgia.  With all this good shopping, the cooking is easy and good.

The heat is still relentless in July, but one can always benefit from a cool Vietnamese salad. Carrot and Celery Shrimp Salad with Prawn Crackers. One of the things that I realize in contructing this blog is that Vietnamese is a cuisine of many influences, fusion if you will. In this dish, European vegetables are combined with Asian ingredients to create a fresh and crunchy salad that is adaptable for the hot, humid tropics.

Having eaten a light and calorie conscious lunch, we rewarded ourselves with organic Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Banana and Toasted Black Sesame.








Sunday morning is the time to be mindful of the senses with pure ingredients and simplicity: Farmers' Egg Omelet with Cherry Tomatoes and Pesto


Late July, the local farmers markets are full of tasty blueberries: Fresh Farmers Blueberries and Yogurt

Edamame from local farmers make a tasty and healthy appetizer. These soy beans are a tasty treat after parboiling in water for a minute or two.


A healthy vegetarian lunch continued with cold Vichyssoise and farmers fresh Tossed Salad.











To mat pha-si (Tay Boi) with Twice Cooked Eggplant.
Tay Boi is an extinct pidgin dialect used in Vietnam during the French Colonial period. To mat pha-si is the Tay Boi equivalent of Tomate Farsi or stuffed tomato. The twice-cooked eggplant is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. The eggplant is first charred on charcoal or on the grill until blackened. Let it cool down and peel off the skin. The remains are then saute´ed with oil, onion, garlic, and of course the ubiquitous nuoc mam/fish sauce.

Grilled Colossal Shrimp on Tomato/Okra Stew. Accompanied with toast and aioli, this is bomb! The shrimp are scary looking but are delicious and full of natural flavor when prepared this way. I brought some leftovers to work and my twenty-something co-worker commented with a tone of revulsion: "What are those bad ass creatures you are eating?"
Poor thing! my colleague, not the shrimp.

Roasted Chicken with Peach Salad.
Late Monday evening, the temperature climbed to 100 degrees. This is not time to cook but one has to eat. I picked up a roasted chicken at the DeKalb Farmers Market for dinner. The problem with these chickens is the salt. I rinsed the chicken and soaked it with ice-cold water to reduce the salt and temperature. The dinner was still delicious and gentle for the blood pressure.

Peach Melba. It's mid-summer in Atlanta and its all about peaches. Where else in the world, there are a million streets with the root word "Peachtree" in their names. A cool dessert with fresh peach, vanilla ice cream, almonds, and hot chocolate sauce.



Pate' Chaud (Pa te so = Tay Boi) Individual country pork terrine en croute.


Pate Chaud, Grilled Beef Salad, and Cherry Tomato Goat Cheese Salad make a cool summer tapas dinner.

Haricots Verts "Stroganoff." French green beans with mushrooms and creme fraiche.

Fish Stew and Pan Fried Potato

Rose' is the drink of Summer. It goes with all things when things get hot!

Sunday morning crepes, Crepes Menage a` Trois: Marmalade, Cheese and tomato, and Blueberry Coulie.

Homage to Leftovers from Rossana's Nepali Alphabet Dinner

Lamb, Potato and Lentil Cake. Redux into brunch with a saddled egg and lime oil.

Charentais Cantaloupe with Lychees. Hard to find fruit varieties can be found at local farmers markets. Sweet and full of real, summer flavors.

For a late lunch, grilled Lamb Tareko on a bed of Shredded Endive with Honey Sesame Dressing. The lamb was reheated and charred on the grill to heighten the spiced marinade. The salad with an "Asian" dressing and roasted peanuts gives a crunchy counter point to the twice cooked lamb.

Wild Berries Clafoutis and Honeyed Goat Yogurt. Black berries found in backyard and organic blue berries made a light and spongy cake.

For a light supper, Momos in Lemony Broth with Buttered Leeks. Whether in brodo, or a la nage, or as a wonton soup version, the momos (Nepali lamb dumplings) get a second wind in a chicken broth reduction.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Fudge and Rice Almond Anara Cookie Crumbles.

Deconstruction of the Pan Bagna

Pan Bagna: The "bathed" veggie sandwich is delicious and beautiful to make, but messy and sometimes painful to eat with crusty, chewy baguettes.

Voila`.... Pan Bagna Salad. The ingredients are exactly as in the sandwich, but everything is cut up into bite sizes. Same deliciousness without the stress or the mess.

This is hardly a new invention, but a unique variation of the same preparation. This salad is similar to Panzanella in Sicily or Salade Croutons elsewhere.

Roast Duck with Bing Cherries Salad.

The roast duck was purchased at a BBQ shop in Chinatown (Buford Highway). The duck breast, where the flavor is nutty and mild, is tossed with fruits of the season and a mild flavored lettuce. Don't be shy when buying things at a Chinese BBQ. This is no time to be a wall flower, dictate what you want. Otherwise, you will get a bad piece of meat full of fat that nobody wants!

Pork Dumplings with Scallion Soy Vinaigrette

Ground pork purchased from farmers at a local market is stuffed into wonton wrappers and cooked on stove top as with pot stickers.

Salad Caprese with tomatoes and fresh basil from local farmers market.

Whole Wheat Tagliatelle alla Carbonara. Cabonara is a sauce made of bacon/pancetta and eggs. This carbs loaded dinner provided plenty of fuel for the Peach Tree Road Race on the next morning of July 4th!

Vietnamese Chicken Herb Cole Slaw and Cold Sesame Buckwheat Noodle.

Pan Roasted Poulet Rouge with Pesto and Caramelized Green Apples.

Roast Duck with Green Peach Salad

Another variation of roast duck salad using seasonal green fruits and leafy lettuce. Georgia green peach is crunchy and "topped" in mid-July. The curly endive used in this salad was too bitter and too over powering for the roast duck, even with the dark meat.

Peach Almond and Goat Cheese Salad

Grilled Pork Sausage with Mussel Potato Salad. Mussels reign supreme over oysters in the summer. They add a sweet flavor and contrasting texture to potato salads.

JUNE 2008

SPRING/SUMMER

Canh Ngot and Fried Lemon Grass Tofu: A typical Vietnamese lunch of Canh Ngot, a light fish vegetable bouillon, and a salty fried dish. The soup is slightly acidic from lime juice with an undertone of sweetness. The balance of salty, sweet, sour and spicy is again played out in this Southeast Asian meal. The spiciness comes from Nuoc Cham with minced chili served table side and left to the diner's penchant for spiciness. Rice is now the palate cleanser between bites.

A summer dinner begins with a Timbale of Haricots Verts Polonaise on Lime Hollandaise. Polonaise is a dish prepared with bread crumbs and eggs. The lime Hollandaise is an egg-based sauce used to create a fresh twist to an otherwise "old-fashioned" dish.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Honey Truffle Glaze and Peppered Peach

Georgia Peach is unbeatable in late June. Pan seared green peaches with black pepper creates an extraordinaire accompaniment to mild flavor roasts.

Wild Berry Coulie with Chocolate Swirled Vanilla Ice Cream. Black berries grow wild in my backyard at Le Rovine. The birds have been the benefactors, and I'm one of the fortunate recipients in this natural cycle.











Vietnamese Pho and Condiments. Pho is a soup of rice noodle and meat broth. Pho is typically made from beef and beef trimmings; but sometimes chicken may also be used. Some believe that the word pho has its origin in the Chinese word of Fun, meaning wide noodle, while others believe pho is a corrupted form of Pot-au-Feu /Pho, a French boiled meat dish that introduced the consumption of beef into Vietnam during the colonial era. In either case, the Vietnamese cooks have infused the original dish with Southeast Asian ingredients such as star anise, cinnamon, ginger, lime, and herbs. In the summer, I choose chicken instead of beef to make a lighter broth.

The summer continues to bring fresh ingredients from the local organic farmers. White Corn Chowder and Chive, this incredible soup comprises only four ingredients: fresh white corn, milk, raw garlic, and fresh chive. A small amount of raw garlic gives this concoction a suggestive hint of sweet lobster.

Pan Bagna, fresh vegetables from the farmers markets also turned up in a light summer sandwich. Pan Bagna is a Mediterranean vegetable baguette bathed in dressing, olives, and anchovies. I used Vietnamese Nuoc Mam instead of anchovies.

Mussel Salad with Chives

The mussels are cooked a la Mariniere. They are dressed in the reduced cooking liquid and some mayonnaise; and then refrigerated until ready to serve.

This dish is a tasty treat in place of raw oysters which are "traditionally not safe" to eat in the Summer months.

Braised Chicken with Garlic, Ginger, and Lemon Grass: This Vietnamese everyday food is served with brown rice and a sweet and sour salad as a palate cleanser between bites. The chicken is chopped up into bite-size morsels with the bone still attached. This cutting technique allows the meat to remain moist and absorb more flavors. A Taiwanese friend once said that the majority of cases in the emergency rooms in Taiwan involve people choking on chicken bones!

This Vietnamese summer meal is sweetened at the end with Banana Pudding with Coconut Milk and Tapioca Pearls. In Southeast Asia, sweet treats are sometimes sprinkled with toasted sesame salt to create a yin and yang between the sweet and the salty.

Grilled Herb Chicken with Baked Ratatouille: With the abundance of eggplants, zucchini, squash, peppers, and tomatoes from the local farmers markets around mid-June, baked vegetable dishes go well with grilled meat.

This dish was served cold.

Early June is hot in Atlanta and the gardenias on the side of my house are beginning to bloom.   My taste buds are again turning to light and refreshing dishes. Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky and Basil: This cool salad is often served as a snack food on the streets of Saigon. The sweet vinegar, spicy chili paste, beef, basil, and crunchy green papaya create an unforgettable experience.

Grilled Lemon Grass Chicken on cold angel hair rice pasta: This dish in Vietnamese is called Bun; a dish best served at room temperature with shredded lettuce on the bottom and fresh herbs on top. It's accompanied by a chili sauce, Nuoc Cham, similar to a vinaigrette on a summer salad.

For a quick look-up on Vietnamese Cooking, I refer to Corrine Trang's Authentic Vietnamese Cooking. Corrine Trang has a Chinese grandfather and a French mother, and grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In that light, I really could not ascertain how authentically Vietnamese she is; but I like the way she instructs and her insistence on relying on natural flavors in her cooking.

The farmers markets continue to turn out fresh produce. Butter Lettuce and Baby Arugula Salad: This salad is perfect with Bruschetta with Cherry Tomatoes and Fresh Basil for lunch. A light rubbing of raw garlic on the bruschetta is essential.

Whole Wheat Pissaladiere: A Provencal pizza with slow cooked onion. I actually bought the onions from a French woman at the Virginia-Highland Farmers Market. It is a nice feeling to know the people who grow our food, which makes all the difference in the way it tastes.