Spoils of Summer - Daikon-Beet Salad with Mashed Plantain

This heat is killing my produce. I had a plantain, two beets, a shallot, some garlic, and a daikon radish (the size of my forearm). They were all on their way out - even the garlic, which is saying something because my garlic standards are pretty low. I made something that actually resembles potato salad - in taste only, though.

I did a teensy bit of interwebs research before embarking on this experiment. I couldn't find anything that exactly resembled what I wanted to do, but this recipe helped me verify that beets and daikons could go together; this one gave me a recipe for a salad using regular potatoes and daikons (and about a million other tasty things I didn't have on hand), and this one told me how to get the plantain out of its skin. Thanks, epicurious!

I peeled the daikon and chopped them into matchsticks. Same with the beets, after cooking and peeling them (I simmered the beets with a splash of apple cider vinegar for about 20 minutes. About 5 minutes in, I threw in the plantain, with its ends trimmed off and cut crosswise into three pieces).

I minced the shallot, mixed it with some honey, (light) sesame oil, white wine vinegar, yellow mustard, slivered garlic, salt, and pepper, and then stirred in the beet and daikon matchsticks. This part then went into the fridge to chill and wait for the mashed plantain.

Once the plantain pieces looked soft enough for me to get the peel off, I drained the water and pulled the peel off with the help of a knife and fork. I mashed the plantain with a little salt and sesame oil (just enough to get it to more or less stick together - not creamy like regular mashed potatoes) and stuck it in the fridge to cool. I cooled it separately from the beet-daikon mixture because I didn't want the heat to un-crisp the daikon, but in retrospect I probably should have mixed the plantain in when it was still a little warm, so that it would have been creamier. I also would have used one or two more plantains if I'd had them. But hey - for a using-things-up dish, this really did come out pretty well! Mike even ate all of his and said something about "liking" it. Success! And pink, pink leftovers!

Spoils of Summer - Pasta with Raw Tomato-Avocado Sauce

This recipe is based upon one that appears in a tomato sauce book that I have out in the kitchen, or, as I like to call the un-air-conditioned part of the apartment, the inferno. I will go look it up and properly cite the author soon. The author credits her friend, whose name is Flavia - that I do remember.

While your pasta water is heating up, you just dice up some tomatoes and avocados, mince or sliver some garlic, and toss with some torn basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little sugar if the tomatoes aren't on their A-game.

Once you drain the pasta (I always use the long and skinny variety, but have used everything from angel hair to the kind that's so thick that it's hollow - anything seems to work), you can either toss it hot with the pasta, which allows the avocados to almost melt their way into coating the strands, or you can rinse the pasta with cold water and serve the dish cold. Either way, you toss the mixture with the pasta and serve. Yum!

Spoils of Summer - Cherry-Apricot Crisp

I tossed the fruit with a little lime juice, salt, and a little cornstarch. The crisp topping was almond meal, coconut oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. I can't remember if I also used a little bit of quick oats for the version that appears in this picture - we had a lot of cherries to use up and I made several batches of crisp! I baked at 350 - 25 minutes, maybe? Just until it gets bubbly.

Spoils of Summer - Caprese

I thought I'd do some brief posts of some no-cook, low-cook, or just-enjoying-the-summer-produce things we've eaten in the last few weeks. It's been a crazy summer so far, so I'm going to go heavy on the pictures and easy on the text, as I try to get the AC unit to meet me halfway between 68 and 105.

Anyway, here's some caprese that we had. That's what it's called, right? Tomatoes, fresh mozarella, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Tortilla de patata - Spanish Tortilla

I LOVE Spanish tortilla. I love that it is firm enough that you can slice off a piece and it holds together, with a beautiful potato-ey cross-section. I love that you can eat it cold or hot, and I love that the Spanish put it in sandwiches (yes - a starch-on-starch sandwich). I love that you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I've only it attempted it at home once or twice, however, and the results were a decided fail. It's hard to get the tortilla to stay in one piece, and if it breaks, you end up with a still good-tasting, but non-sliceable potato-egg scramble.

Cooks Illustrated published a recipe for Spanish tortilla in this month's (July) issue. I tried it out and got a tortilla that stayed in one piece on the first try. Success! They claimed the key to get it coming out right without using half a bottle of oil is to use Yukon Gold potatoes, which don't stick as much and therefore don't require as much oil. They also recommend doing a two-step flip to get the tortilla turned over: after using a spatula to loosen the tortilla from the pan around the edges, you slide it onto plate #1, cover it with plate #2, quickly flip over, remove plate #1 (which is now on top), and carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan so that the second side can get cooked. My tortilla had a couple of minor tears in it, but cooking the second side mended them.

The two final recipes that the article offered include added ingredients: roasted red peppers and peas, and chorizo and scallions. They sound good, but I was just after the traditional, no-frills recipe, which is the one I'll post here.

Ingredients
-6 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

-1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (3 to 4 medium), peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices
-1 small onion , halved and sliced thin (seriously, slice them really thin if you can. You don't want to be able to say "hey, these are onions" when you bite into the final product. They should all but melt away)
-1 teaspoon table salt (I used kosher because it was all I had. It came out fine)
-1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
-8 large eggs

Instructions
1. Toss 4 tablespoons oil, potatoes, onion, ½ teaspoon salt, and pepper in large bowl until potato slices are thoroughly separated and coated in oil.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Reduce heat to medium-low, add potato mixture to skillet, and set bowl aside without washing. Cover and cook, stirring with rubber spatula every 5 minutes, until potatoes offer no resistance when poked with tip of paring knife, 22 to 28 minutes (it’s OK if some potato slices break into smaller pieces).


2. Meanwhile, whisk eggs and remaining ½ teaspoon salt in reserved bowl until just combined. Using rubber spatula, fold hot potato mixture into eggs until combined, making sure to scrape all potato mixture out of skillet.

Return skillet to medium-high heat, add remaining teaspoon oil, and heat until just beginning to smoke. Add egg-potato mixture and cook, shaking pan and folding mixture constantly for 15 seconds. Smooth top of mixture with rubber spatula.

Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook, gently shaking pan every 30 seconds until bottom is golden brown and top is lightly set, about 2 minutes.

3. Using rubber spatula, loosen tortilla from pan, shaking back and forth until tortilla slides around freely in pan. Slide tortilla onto large plate. Invert tortilla onto second large plate and slide it browned-side up back into skillet. Tuck edges of tortilla into skillet with rubber spatula. Return pan to medium heat and continue to cook, gently shaking pan every 30 seconds, until second side is golden brown, about 2 minutes longer.

Slide tortilla onto cutting board or serving plate and allow to cool at least 15 minutes. Cut tortilla into wedges.

You can see that I got our tortilla a little more brown than would have been ideal - but it was all in one piece and tasted great, so I was happy. It keeps really well under a plate in the fridge for at least two or three days - after that, it still keeps, but the condensation makes it a little less appetizing to eat cold.

We had our tortilla with a roasted beet salad (which was pretty good - I'll post the recipe separately) and some gazpacho for me - Mike's not a fan of chilled soups and it wasn't really tomato season yet, anyway.