Summer Semester '10: Squash Flowers are in Season

Figure 46.u - Behold, the mighty squash flower!

Squash blossoms are what I consider the ultimate seasonal food. Unlike even the venerable pomegranate (formerly only available around Thanksgiving, now seen in grocery stores year-round) you can only get squash flowers over a few weeks at the end of spring and the beginning of summer.

I'm lucky enough to have a family friend who sends me a beach-ball sized bag every year.

These edible flowers have a taste that's unlike anything else like them. They are very un-floral in taste, and not perfume-y at all. They have a very delicate, vegetal flavor with just a slight sweetness. So, what do you do with them? Traditionally, they are dredged or battered and fried. I have seen them on restaurant menus stuffed with cheese. When I get sick of frying them, I've been known to top pizzas with them, and I'm thinking about baking them into a quickbread in lieu of regular zucchini. My mom recently made a frittata (read: thick italian omlette) out of them, and it was better than a regular zucchini frittata she made the same day.

If you happen to have your own squash plants, make sure you only pick the male flowers, which grow on long stems. The female ones will eventually develop into the actual squash itself. Don't pick too many at once, or there won't be enough male flowers around to pollinate all the female flowers in the first place.

Traditional Squash Flowers

• As many male squash flowers as you can get your hands on, long stems removed. Leave the green leafy part at the bottom, though.
• A glass pie plate full of all purpose flower
• Another glass pie plate with 5-6 eggs, cracked and whipped up with a fork.
• Vegetable oil for frying.
• Salt to taste

Wash each flower thoroughly, making sure to rinse out inside the petals, as ants and other critters may have haplessly fallen in. Dredge each flower first in flour then in egg and fry at medium heat. Flip once, when golden brown. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb any extra oil, salt to taste and eat hot. In my house, these never make it farther than the paper towels, never mind a serving plate.

Figure 46.v. - Ready to eat, hot out of the pan.

Next week we have a cool dish for a hot night.

Summer Semester '10: Summer Reading List

Recommended:

"Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman – This book goes beyond just bread. It breaks any and all baked goods, as well as some sauces and other dishes, into simple ingredient ratios that can then be infinitely varied upon without any further help from the book (i.e. without recipes). This book comes the closest to how I cook for myself: I use a somewhat set number of techniques and vary ingredients to accomplish the dishes and flavors I want.

"Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating" by Ari Weinzweig – This book is broken down by ingredient, and tells you how to buy and use the highest quality items in each category (i.e. cheeses, spices, meats, grains).

"Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen – This book will present a very different view of mass-market food, especially processed and prepared foods than what the marketing that surrounds us does. The best part is, that Mr. Pollen does it in a non-preachy, non-judgmental way. He understands why some people need to buy cheap, high calorie, low quality food, but he also understands the consequences.

"My Bread" by Jim Lahey - Previously covered in the course "Other People's Food 101." Will give you the tools you need to make amazing bread with relatively little work, and includes many variations on the basic loaf of bread. Also includes other savory baked goods.

(Optional):

"Heat" by Bill Buford – A cautionary tale of what happens to a journalist/amateur home cook when he decides to join the world of professional chefs and kitchen staff.

Tony's Food 101: Pork for a Party

I know I was initially going to post a recipe inspired by me watching both seasons of HBO's Rome, but I got a request for something I served up at a small dinner party at my place a while back. It's a tasty way to cook up a pork loin. I like to buy one of those HUGE ones at the grocery store (or your local whole-sale warehouse store), then cut it down the middle and freeze half. Feel free to pick up one of the smaller ones, but know that you'll pay $2-4 more per pound. This particular recipe is cooked like an Italian porchetta, but with a filling similar to my mom's braciola.

Stuffed Pork Loin

• Half of a large pork loin, roughly 5-6 lbs. There's a few butcher-type tricks you'll have to pull with this piece of meat, described below.
• Two big bunches of parsley from the grocery store, stems mostly removed.
• An entire bulb of garlic, all papery peel removed.
• About a quarter pound of Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese coarsely diced.
• Black pepper, coarse salt and olive oil in sufficient amounts to lightly coat the outside of the pork loin.
• (Optional) Adding fennel seeds to the garlic/parsley/cheese filling will make this more like a true porchetta.
• (Optional) Feel free to add an herb blend (herbs de provence, italian seasoning, et cetera) to the pepper/salt/oil coating.
• It's not edible, but you will need about 2 feet of clean twine.

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Take your pork loin, and score the fat along the side of it into a diamond pattern. There's an easy way to stuff this baby, and a hard way. For the easy way, cut it lengthwise like a baguette and put the fillings in the middle. For the hard way, make a shallow cut in the same area, open it up, and then keep making a shallow cut in the same area until you have a large, flat piece of pork (that you will later roll back up into a pin wheel). Once you have your pork loin open, sprinkle the fillings in an even layer over the flat surface. Roll it up and secure it in three places with twine. Cover the outside of the loin with the pepper, oil and salt. Place on that roasting pan that came with your oven - the one with the slotted metal part that fits over the deeper roasting pan. As soon as you put it in the oven, decrease the heat to 350 degrees. Cook for 2 1/2 hours, then make sure to have the pork rest for 10-20 minutes after you take it out of the oven. Slice into thick or thin slabs (remove the twine first) and serve.

I will try to update more frequently, I'll be making up a bunch of new recipes with the random greenery the CSA my girlfriend and I joined sends me.