Mmm … Happy Labor Day!
Heirloom Tomato, Persian Cucumber, Avocado, & Cilantro
Homemade Focaccia with Dried Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives, and Fresh Rosemary
Preparing bread for croutons ...
Grilled Zucchini & Yellow Squash
Grilled Russet & Yukon Gold Potatoes
New York Steaks, ready for the grill
A Nice Cab ...
Earned this dinner!
It is absolutely perfect weather for cycling this morning! I got in just a quick jaunt before I have to head off to work. I needed that … especially after last night’s dinner!
Melon & Prosciutto
Bread Salad
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
Green, Yellow, & Purple Beans with Pesto
Homemade Meatballs ... now that's a spicy meatball!
These meatballs were made entirely from scratch – including grinding the meat. Super spicy, super good. I’m looking forward to trying a few of these on pizza later in the week. CyclingFoodie may have its first guest blogger with this recipe.
Grilled Hearts of Romaine with Prosciutto
Evaluating ...
Apparently I didn't like that at all.
To follow-up on a previous post …
The inspiration for this was a habanero honey, from Pure All Natural Honey, which is available locally at the Davis Farmers’ Market. Here’s a little info about them: (see http://www.theaggie.org/2012/05/02/farmers-market-vendor-of-the-week-pure-all-natural-honey/).
The scallops were pretty simple to make. We had bought some beautiful, fresh scallops at Nugget Market in Davis. I lightly rinsed them with a little cold water, gently patted them dry with paper towels, then placed the scallops in a large zipper bag. I whisked together some extra virgin olive oil, habenero honey, and lime juice. Just do this to taste – you want a nice, delicate balance of hot and sweet. Really fresh scallops have a lovely, delicate flavor and texture, so you don’t want to overpower them with too much. Set these in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the meal. You don’t want to marinate these for long – maybe an hour or so.
While the scallops are marinating, slice and salt the eggplant, then lay out on paper towels. This extracts some water from the eggplant, and if there is some bitterness from seeds, this can help to draw the bitterness out. Lay some paper towels on top of the salted eggplant. If you’re using Asian eggplant, you don’t need to peel them, but for some of the larger Italian eggplant, you may want to peel them.
Light and preheat the grill. Start on the bread and salad.
Got a stale baguette? Grill it!
For the grilled bread, day old bread works best. Simply slice it (3/8 to 1/2-inch thick), brush it with a good quality extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with a little coarse salt. Lightly grill the bread and set aside. Assemble your salad – make it as simple or as elaborate as you want.
Basic Green Salad - heirloom greens, tomatoes, avocado, fresh basil, homemade croutons, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Rinse the excess salt from the eggplant and blot dry with towels. Brush lightly with extra virgin olive oil, skewer, and grill over medium-low heat. Cook until they are nicely colored and softened, but not overdone.
Skewer the scallops and grill over medium-low heat. You want to get good coloring on the surface and to cook them through, but be cautious because they go from not yet to overdone in a moment. You can see in the picture below that one scallop did get a little dark on the outside, but it was perfect inside. When you’re using a honey-based marinade, it’s especially important to watch for charring.
I usually start out with the grill on high, but when I began to cook, I turned it down to low. I openly admit that I am not an expert griller, but I’ve had pretty good success doing it this way.
Both the eggplant and scallops came out perfect tonight. That was especially important because I was cooking for a fellow foodie, who might even be more of a foodie than I am.
Grilled Asian Eggplant
Grilled Honey, Habanero, & Lime Scallops
Last night was one of those, “what’s in the refrigerator?” dinners.
Thursday on my way home from work, I stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up a few staples. I saw some of the most beautiful eggplant I have seen in a while, and for only $1.29 each, I had to get it.
To pick an eggplant, I always look for one that is plump and shiny. Eggplants bruise very easily, so be polite to your fellow shoppers and grocer and do not squeeze them, but handle them very gently.
To prepare eggplant for cooking, I peel it, slice it 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick, lay the slices out on a towel, and then grind some sea salt over it, turn the slice over and salt the other side.
I just use a little salt, but if you accidentally use too much, you can rinse it later; just be sure to pat it dry if you rinse it. The purpose of the salt is to draw some water out of the eggplant. Some eggplant, especially if they’re a little more mature, can be bitter. (Kind of like some people we all know!) The salt will help to draw that out, too. Then cover the salted eggplant with another towel and let them sit a while.
How long you let the eggplant sit depends on the eggplant. This was just about the most perfect eggplant I have seen in a long time and it didn’t need to sit for long, maybe 10 minutes? You can see from this eggplant that the seed were very small and hardly noticeable. That’s what you want. When the seeds get a little bigger, and dark, that’s a sign that your eggplant needs to salt a little longer. It may take some trial and error.
I cooked these on my George Foreman grill. 
To grill, brush or drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and place it on a pre-heated grill. One thing to keep in mind is that the eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so be careful how much you use! It might look like there’s not enough, but you really don’t need much. I used medium heat. If you’re using a GFgrill, then put the top down. After about 1-2 minutes, I rotated the slices to get that pretty criss-cross grill mark. Put the top back down and cook until desired doneness. These cook quickly, so keep an eye on them.
These keep in the refrigerator for a day or so, so don’t worry if there are leftovers. It’s good cold in salads, can be used on pizza, as a quick and light eggplant parmigiana (just pour a little marinara over top, a little cheese, and heat it through – tastes so much better and is far healthier than deep fried!), or just reheated.
I made dinner, so it pretty much goes without saying that there will be salad. This was a very simple salad – artisan greens, heirloom cherry tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, fresh thyme, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a couple of grinds of sea salt. I buy these greens at Costco: http://www.artisanlettuce.com/. They’re a whole head, a pack of 6, and it’s a great deal. I have always been happy with the quality and they keep for the whole week.
Shrimp Cocktail
I also had some shrimp, so I made a quick shrimp cocktail. I just steamed the shrimp. Normally I would roast or grill them, but tonight it needed to be quick. Just thaw them (at least most of the way) and toss them in a steamer, and steam a few minutes. You really have to just go by color on these. For the cocktail sauce, I used a prepared cocktail sauce (Trader Joe’s seafood cocktail sauce) and added some extra horseradish. I’ll often add a little lemon, too.
There were also a few veggies left from last week’s Farmers’ Market – asparagus, brussel sprouts, and spinach. I steamed them lightly, just to warm them up.
Mmm ... steamed veggies!
I stopped by Nugget tonight on my way home from work and picked up a few goodies for dinner tomorrow. Wanna’ see?
Organic Heirloom Tomato
Sweet & Fragrant Organic Basil
Tomato and Basil Salad
Organic Lacinato Kale, AKA Dino Kale
Oragnic Kale
Steamed Organic Kale, with a touch of Uncured Applewood Smoked Bacon
I’m also making boneless skinless chicken breasts, which I’ll marinate briefly in fresh lemon (hmm … Meyer or Eureka?), fresh thyme, and extra virgin olive oil, then cook on my George Foreman. I’ve got a little bit of Forbidden Rice (an incredibly delicious and healthy short grain black rice) that I’ll mix with some short grain brown rice. If you’ve never tried Forbidden Rice, I highly recommend it. I think that the Co-Op in Davis has it in bulk, which ends up being more economical to buy than the 15-ounce packages. Here is a link for information on it: http://www.lotusfoods.com/Forbidden-Rice/p/LOT-00210&c=LotusFoods@All
Dessert
And, of course, what dinner would be complete without …
Don’t you wish you were here?
Heirloom cherry tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil, and a grind or two of pink Himalayan salt.
... grilled zucchini ...
... and crookneck squash
The whole ensemble ... pork loin cutlets, grilled red onion, zucchini & crookneck squash.
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