Spinach Feta Fritters

As you may know, I have a well-documented fritter problem. If it's a vegetable and I like it, I'll probably try to turn it in to a fritter. Therefore, one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations--spinach, feta, pine nuts, and tomato--was just begging to be turned into patty form. Here's the result; I hope you like it.

Spinach Feta Fritters

• 2 bunches fresh spinach (a little less than 2 lbs)
• 2 eggs
• rounded 1/4 cup feta cheese
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• Juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons canola oil

Set a very large pot of water on the stove to boil. In the meantime, fill a large bowl with water. Cut the stems off the spinach bunches, and place the leaves in the bowl of water. Swish them around until all the dirt is removed, and place the leaves in a colander.

While you'res still waiting for the water to boil, toast the pine nuts in a toaster oven or a 350 degree oven. When the water boils, add the spinach and cook until tender but still bright green, about 2 minutes. Remove the spinach to the colander. There's really no need for an ice bath.

When the spinach has cooled, squeeze the water out of it. Don't drive yourself crazy, though--it doesn't have to be completely dry. Chop the spinach as fine as you can, again without driving yourself crazy.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, feta, tomato sauce, lemon juice, pine nuts, flour, salt, pepper, and spinach, and mix well. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil until shimmering. Add enough spinach mixture to the pan to make a patty that's about 3 inches in diameter.

Cook until the top starts to look a little firm, and the bottom edges look a little dried out. Flip--the top should be nicely browned. Cook the other side until golden brown, just a little longer (the second side will cook faster than the first).

Taste this fritter and adjust for seasoning--add more salt, pepper, and lemon juice as necessary. Also, if the batter is too thin, add a little bit of flour. Once the seasoning is correct, cook the rest of the batter in the same manner, adding more oil to the pan as necessary.

Pumpkin Bread

Here's a nice little seasonal treat that you can whip up in almost no time at all. Is that why quick breads are called 'quick breads,' do you think?

Pumpkin Bread

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup mildly flavored walnut oil
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple butter or apple sauce
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• Scant 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 
• About 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter (or use non-stick cooking spray) and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs, vanilla and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and ginger into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Sprinkle the walnuts in a line down the length of the loaves. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the top. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Salt, Pepper and Sesame Crackers

I have a cracker problem. Unlike the zucchini problem and the corn problem, the cracker problem is pan-seasonal, and it knows no limits. Specifically, I really really love Kashi's crackers (and they're not paying me to say that).

According to the normal laws of food addiction, after pounding them for years, I should be vomitously sick of Kashi crackers. But I'm not. I think that they put crack in them or something, like along the lines of blueberry bar and grill bread crack.

You know how chefs play the last meal game? As in, if you knew that this was to be your last meal on Earth, what would you eat? Well, contrary to expectations, a lot of chefs do not choose foie gras, truffles, or caviar--they choose fried chicken, peanut butter and jelly, cheese burgers, macaroni and cheese, or a nice steak...

Well, my last meal would have to include crackers; heck, it could maybe even be crackers, as a vehicle for some sort of fattiness, whether it be cheese, pesto, or romesco. Therefore, I figured that it's probably time to move beyond the Kashi. Shouldn't I have my own, homemade cracker to obsess over?

That's where these crackers come in. There's nothing especially exceptional about them, but they seemed like a good place to start because they're very approachable--all you do is mix some simple stuff together, roll out the resulting dough, and bake it. 

The original recipe came from Chocolate and Zucchini, and I altered it a bit based on the ingredients I had on hand. You may also notice that my crackers are way thicker than the ones on the Chocolate and Zucchini site. I, being the genius that I am, thought that I would prefer a thicker cracker (like the Kashi ones), as opposed to the light, thin, shattery ones from the original recipe. 

Well, my crackers were pretty yummy, but they're a bit dry and tough. So it's probably best to keep these on the thin side, thus the pasta roller method suggested below. But despite their toughness, Nick still described them as being 'pretty good.' That's saying a lot from someone who does not hear the Cracker Siren Call as I do. The Mister, of course, loves them, but he gets so excited that he looks like he's having a seizure any time there's any cracker in his general vicinity, so that's not saying too much.

If you do feel the need to modify though, I would suggest adding some fresh herbs like some rosemary or sage, or some spices, like anything from cayenne to cumin seeds to cardamom.

Salt, Pepper, and Sesame Crackers

(Adapted from Zucchini and Chocolate)

• 150 grams (5 1/3 ounces) all-purpose flour 
• 150 grams (5 1/3 ounces) white whole wheat or whole wheat flour (or you can use all regular flour)
• 20 grams (3 tablespoons) toasted sesame seeds
• 9 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) water

Place the flours, seeds and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil and stir it in with a fork. Add the water and mix it in.

When the water is absorbed, turn the mixture out on a clean work surface and knead the dough gently to gather into a smooth ball. Add a touch more water if the dough feels too dry to come together, but the consistency you're shooting for is smooth, not at all sticky or tacky.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces of (roughly) equal size, and cover with a kitchen towel.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mats -- this is so you can bake two batches of crackers at a time, but if you only have one baking sheet, that's fine, too. If you have a rectangular or square bread stone, place it in the oven as it preheats; you'll need only one baking sheet in addition to the stone then.

Take one piece of dough (keep the others covered to prevent them from drying out) and flatten it into an oval disk between the palms of your hands. Set a pasta roller on the widest setting, and slip the disk of dough in the roller to thin it out. Fold both ends of the dough back over each other like a business letter and slip the dough in again. Repeat 3 or 4 times until the dough feels supple; you are essentially kneading the dough in the process. If it gets sticky at any point, dust it with a little flour.

Switch the pasta roller to the next (= narrower) setting and slip the dough in (just once this time) to thin it out. Repeat with the subsequent settings until you reach setting #5, and get a thin (I also think that 4 might work), long rectangularish sheet of dough. Place it on one of the prepared baking sheets, or a flour-dusted peel if you're using a bread stone.

(I think that if you don't have a pasta roller, you can probably roll these out by hand. Just make sure that the dough is relatively even, so that you don't end up with burnt spots interspersed with doughy spots.)

Repeat with more pieces of dough until there is no room left on your baking sheets. Using a dough cutter, a pastry wheel or just a knife, score the sheets of dough into square or triangular pieces so they'll be easier to break off.

Insert the baking sheets into the oven (or, if you're using a pizza stone, slide the dough in using the pizza peel) and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until golden to golden brown.

Transfer to a cooling rack, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

The crackers will keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.

Corn Fritters, Home-Ground Burgers, Caramelized Onions

It's summer, so all I want is corn, corn, corn. Well, not really. But with highly seasonal ingredients, I like to eat copious amounts of them--to the point where I've totally OD'd and don't even want to think about said ingredient any more.

You see, that way, I don't mind that whatever I'm binging on is highly seasonal and I won't be eating it again for almost a year. No problem! I don't want to anyway! No pining for tomatoes with basil in the middle of January. Nope, I'm okay with some Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and winter squash.

So how was I to eat this corn? We had already made our Golden Corn Chowder, and I wasn't in the mood to make the Creamless Creamed Corn (coming soon). In fact, I wanted something all-new, something all made-up.

As you may know, I have a zucchini fritter problem. I'm almost successfully rehabilitated, so I figure it's time for a corn fritter addiction. Bring it on.

Corn Fritters

• 6 ears of corn, the kernels cut off
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 2 scallions, light and dark green parts, finely sliced
• Hot sauce (optional)

Place the corn kernels in a large bowl. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne, and cumin, and taste for seasoning. Add the eggs, flour, and sour cream, and mix to incorporate. Add the jalapeno, pepper and scallions and mix again.

In a large skillet, heat 1-2 tablespoons canola oil over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, drop the batter into the skillet to make fritters that are about 4 inches in diameter. Cook until the very outer edges start to look dry; some bubbles may appear. This will likely take about 6 minutes, and when flipped, the fritter should appear golden brown.

Cook on the other side until light golden, about 3 minutes.

I like to serve them with hot sauce and sour cream.

 We enjoyed these with home-ground burgers, which were awesome. As you probably know, store-bought ground meat should not be served medium-rare or medium because all the bacteria that was on the outside is now on the inside where it's multiplying exponentially. Therefore, unless the ground meat product is cooked all the way through, you may get some dangerous nastiness in your meal.

However, if you buy a big hunk of meat and grind it at home, using sanitary technique, of course, then you can eat the ground meat product even if it's cooked to medium-rare or medium.

For this reason, I invested in the inexpensive grinder for the Kitchenaid stand mixer. I'm not a fan of dried out, killed burgers, and it's not a good idea to order 'undercooked' burgers when out in a restaurant. So I figured I'll do it at home.

In fact, this batch was accidentally cooked to medium-well, and they were still better than the average burger, most likely because we used quality meat and treated it right.

So if you decide to get a grinder attachment, here's how to make some yummy burgers:

Home-Ground Burgers

• 1/2 pounds chuck
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Cut the chuck into 1-inch pieces. Season the meat with salt and freshly ground pepper. Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. When the meat is firm to the touch but not frozen through, pass it through the grinder.

Gently form the meat into patties. You don't want to over handle the meat, as it will make the burgers less tender. Grill to the desired doneness. Serve with your favorite fixin's.

We served ours with the standard lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. We also had bacon, because we can. Aaaaannd, we had Nick's awesome caramelized onions, otherwise known as 'tadpoles.' Here's how to make them:

Nick's Awesome Caramelized Onions

(a.k.a. "Tadpoles")

Cut an onion or two into thin slices. I read somewhere that if you go along the lines of the onion, then you break fewer cells, so you get less sulpher-y tasting slices. I don't know if that's true, but that's what we do.

In a small pan, melt a tablespoon of butter. When the foaming has subsided, add the onions. In a few minutes, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook the onions over very low heat for at least 40 minutes, and up to an hour or two. Stir occasionally, and add a little bit more butter if the onions start to dry out. The onions are done when they are a deep golden color, and they're so tender they're almost melting. Or until you're just sick of cooking them.

 

Corn and Toasted Cumin Salsa

Sometimes I like a change from the standard tomato salsas, but I'm not a big fan of the usual alternatives that contain things like mango. This salsa, though, is perfect.

Fresh corn with some toasty cumin and spicy jalapeño makes a delightful summer salsa. I made some to take to our Fourth of July picnic, and Nick ate almost the whole thing, and I easily polished off the rest.

This is pretty easy to make, and it keeps pretty well in the fridge for a couple days. If you make this corn salsa, your friends will be impressed that you came up such a yummy sumer dip.

Blueberry bars, eaten during the fire works, were the perfect finale to our picnic-y feast. If you haven't tried them already, you really should. Or maybe you shouldn't. Like one of our friends said, "They're like crack." Seriously.

Corn and Toasted Cumin Salsa

• 2 cups corn (from 3 to 4 ears)
• 1/2 lb yellow tomato (1 large), chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 to 2 teaspoons chopped fresh jalapeño chile, including seeds
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup scallions, finely chopped

Cook corn in a dry12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. You can use a tiny bit of oil, if you like--it will help prevent little corn bits from melding with your skillet. Transfer to a bowl and cool 5 minutes.

Purée tomato, garlic, and jalapeño with lime juice, cumin, and salt in a blender until smooth, then stir into corn along with scallions. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or lime juice if needed. Sometimes it also needs a pinch of cayenne and/or black pepper.