Sunday, August 10, 2008

kitchen has reopened

The kitchen was closed for a few nights. Wednesday, I met a friend for dinner while Mr. P foraged for leftovers. Thursday, at the end of a long stressful work week for both of us, we threw in the tea towel and went out. Friday was our usual going out night.

But last night, we'd invited a friend over for dinner, so we cooked. This was the menu:
. Brown rice with wheat berries.
. Green bean thoren (with coconut and curry, fast becoming a staple chez Dinner Report, made with fresh-picked farm green beans)
. Summer squash curry. Mr. P found an intriguing recipe that involves slitting the squash without cutting through, stuffing it with a spice mixture -- we cheated and used fresh garlic and ginger instead of powdered -- then making a tarka (frying spices then cooling down with onions), adding a little water, and steaming the squash. The vegetables were mostly from the farm. We're already thinking about what else we could stuff and how to vary the recipe. We once made a variation on this recipe in an Indian cooking class, where the teacher had grown up in Kenya. It involved tiny blue potatoes stuffed with a spicy crumbled peanut mixture.
. A side salad of farm vegetables -- cucumber and tomatoes -- with some chopped feta and a sprinkling of herbs and salad dressing.
. Sides of Indian chutneys (not home made).
. For dessert, we had a chocolate pie whose other two main ingredients are tofu and graham cracker crust, along with a little flavoring. Mr. P used enough vanilla to make the kitchen quite fragrant.

Our guest had offered to bring something, perhaps summer squash, but settled for raspberry sorbet and vanilla yogurt with raspberry swirls, both of which accompanied the pie ably.

The rest of the pie has made its way to a board meeting today, along with a second companion pie. It was requested twice by the same person, so -- oh well -- we just had to make it.

Dinner was really good. We both worked on prep and Mr. P handled the final cooking. It all seemed to go over well with our guest, and we certainly enjoyed it (and our company)!


Today, I've shredded the remaining summer squash and am flash freezing it before saving it for a winter stir-fry or soup.

Tonight, I think we'll have a variation on last night's salad -- cucumber, tomato, feta, beets, capers, fresh herbs. And I'll get some corn on the cob to go along with it.

Not sure about tomorrow night or what the farm will produce for Tuesday. The kitchen will be closed for a few days this week, with the Dinner Report to resume at an unspecified date.

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