Zucchini Burger Patties with Greek Yogurt Dip

Last Christmas my meat-loving boyfriend gave me a wonderful surprise in the form of a vegetarian cookbook. This was the best excuse to force feed him loads and loads of vegetables. After all, it was his present. It also justified my excessive visits to the market to buy fresh produce and of course, having more friends over for meals. One of the first recipes I tried from the book was a zucchini patty with feta cheese, tested on my friend Rick. During the cooking process, not only did I discover that it was a pretty time-consuming ordeal (but perhaps I just stopped to take too many photos), I was also given a bonus challenge: gluten free zucchini patties.

Thanks to Rick’s inability to eat wheat, I replaced normal flour with tapioca starch, which was the only substitute I could find in a moment of panic. What is tapioca starch? I’m not quite sure. But apparently it’s used often in Asian cooking. It explains why my mom thought it was absolutely necessarily for me to pack a bag of tapioca starch. Rick, you can thank my mom.

So if you plan to attend a vegetarian, gluten and nut-free dinner party, as is often the case with my friends, this would be the perfect dish. And it’ll have everyone asking you what the hell you’re making – trust me, it’ll make for a nice long conversation (or better said, the listing of all the ingredients while the other person tries to memorize them), as you stand over the stove, pan frying zucchini patties for half an hour or so. Time-consuming… yes. But worth the delicious wait… definitely yes, outweighing the previous yes.











INGREDIENTS//(for four people/eight patties)

+ 3 large zucchinis grated
+ 1 clove of garlic finely minced
+ 3 scallions finely chopped
+ 4.5oz/125g of feta cheese crumbled
+ 2 pinches of fresh parsley
+ 2 pinches of fresh mint leaves
+ 1 tablespoon of dill
+ pepper to taste
+ 1/2 tablespoon of nutmeg
+ 2 eggs
+ olive oil
+ approx. 1-2 cups/140-280g of tapioca starch*

for the dip:

+ 1 cup/250g of Greek yogurt
+ 1/4 cucumber in little cubes
+ 1 tablespoon of dill

* Can be replaced with 1 cup of all-purpose flour. The amount of thickening agent depends on how wet your mixture is. Zucchinis hold a lot of moisture and need to be well dried before mixed with other ingredients. And since tapioca starch is not the best thickener, you’d have to use quite a lot of it.


RECIPE//

Grate the zucchinis into a dry cloth and let dry for 10 minutes or more. It will most likely need to be wrung out for a few minutes afterward. Trust me, zucchinis are deceiving creatures. They hold an incredible amount of water and if they’re not dry enough, you’re going to have problems when you fry them. In the meantime, prepare the dip by mixing the cucumber and dill with the Greek yogurt. Leave it in the fridge to cool.

Mix the zucchini, garlic, scallion, feta cheese, chopped mint and parsley leaves, nutmeg, pepper, and the tapioca starch in a big bowl. If the mix is still too wet, add more starch. Beat the eggs and add them to the bowl. It should be pretty lumpy and thick.

Heat up a large pan and pour in some olive oil. Leave it on medium fire and use a spoon to add the mixture. One big spoonful will make one little patty. Should take about 3-5 minutes on each side. If you have hungry mouths waiting, I would suggest making a big omelet type patty. Flipping it will be the tricky part. I’ll leave that for you to figure out on your own. Bigger patties take a bit longer to cook on each side so use your judgment and check on it often! Olive oil might need to be added after two rounds.

Place the patties on a paper towel to soak up the remaining oil, and serve with the yogurt sauce! When I made this for Rick it somehow slipped my mind that most men ate more than four little patties for lunch. We quickly fried some store bought meatballs and stuck them in the middle of the patties. Voila, hamburger with zucchini buns! Zucchini, also very versatile creatures.

Pumpkin Pasta and Cilantro Pesto

Another pumpkin recipe? Yes another pumpkin recipe. Don’t tell me you’re already tired of it. I had to use up an entire gigantic pumpkin, remember? So bear with me.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how this dish turned out. Up until now I’ve only tried making savory pastas, or the occasional lemon and seafood combination, but never sweet. Paired up with Gwyn’s incredible and ingenious cilantro pesto spread on the side, you’ve got yourself a real Italian meal, that’s actually not that Italian.

Side story! While I was couchsurfing in Rome last year I tried to make a pasta dish for my host but I only got so far as to telling him the ingredients. He said it himself; Italians are very particular about how they want their pastas to be made. My foreigner’s take on Italian pasta was rejected, so I made them couscous instead. I don’t think pumpkin is a common ingredient in Italian pastas, but please let me know if I’m completely wrong and just making up things. And well, the cilantro pesto doesn’t even have basil. Anyway, all that matters is how it tastes in the end. We don’t have to follow any specific formulas.

Since the pumpkin sauce is naturally sweet, the cilantro and almond pesto spread on some freshly baked bread is the perfect balancer. It’s very hard to find fresh basil in Spanish supermarkets. You’d have to buy a plant and try to keep it alive. Oh I’ve tried all right, but in the end I failed. Cilantro however, is overgrowing and cheapity cheap cheap, if not free all together. Gwyn found a huge patch of wild cilantro on the side of the road once and it occurred to her to make this delicious pesto! Good thinking!


Cilantro and Almond Pesto

Cooking for one, I’ve found over the past couple of years, has been relatively easily. Even when I buy ingredients in bulk, like the absurd amount of organic cilantro from El Vergel recently delivered to me, I usually find a way to use up everything. Making preserves and sauces is a great way to store foods for a longer period of time.






INGREDIENTS// for one jar

+ a BIG handful of cilantro with stems
+ 3-4 ounces (approx. 100 grams) of shelled almonds
+ 1-2 garlic cloves
+ 1/2 lemon for juice
+ 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
+ 3/4 teaspoon salt
+ 1/2 teaspoon pepper
+ 1/2 teaspoon cumin


RECIPE//

This recipe will yield a small jar of pesto that will last you perhaps a month or so. Start by roughly chopping up the cilantro, removing any really thick stems. Do the same with the garlic cloves. Now add the almonds, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cumin. Careful that the cilantro isn’t “swimming” in the oil, as Gwyn put it so descriptively. If you accidentally pour too much oil, add more cilantro and almonds.

Put everything in a food processor to mix. Keep in mind, you still want to have little pieces of crunchy almonds so don't blend too finely. You can also use a hand blender or mortar and pestle. (Apologies to my friend Sandy who doesn’t have a hand blender. You can still make it without one! You just need to chop everything more finely, then mash the hell out of it.)

Use as a pasta topping, a spread in sandwiches or just on plain bread, serve with crackers, etc, etc.


Pumpkin Sauce Pasta

I finally used up my giant pumpkin after a month of being in my fridge. It was quite a relief since it took up an entire shelf and my roommates were starting to complain. My friends and I used up the other half of the pumpkin in a delicious savory pie with spinach and other veggies. And as much as I want to share that recipe, I can’t for the life of me remember how we made it or what ingredients were used. Enough of the pumpkin tease, on with the pasta.






INGREDIENTS// for two

+ 1/4 of a large pumpkin
+ 1/2 of an onion chopped
+ 2 tablespoons butter
+ 1 teaspoon nutmeg
+ 1/2 cup of cream
+ a few pinches of cilantro roughly chopped
+ 2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
+ salt and pepper to taste
+ 2-3 large handfuls of penne pasta


RECIPE//

On a low fire, add butter and spread on the bottom on the pan. Throw in your chopped onions and let it sweat for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile cut the pumpkin into about 1-inch cubes. Remove the seeds but leave the skin on if you want - it’ll become soft and edible after 30 minutes in the pan. Add those to the sweaty onions then cover the top to let the softening process begin.

While that’s cooking, make your pasta. I measure how much pasta I’m going to eat by grabbing a large handful. You probably noticed by now that I measure a lot of things by the handful. Since this recipe yields two portions, two handfuls will do the trick. If you have small hands, then maybe three. Toss them in when the pot of hot water starts boiling, along with a pinch of salt. Remove when they’re al dente.

After 30-40 minutes in the pan, the pumpkin pieces should be soft. I overdid it a bit so the pumpkin came out too mushy. They should still maintain somewhat of a cube form, so they look more presentable and photogenic. (Yes, these thoughts do occupy my mind.) Now add the cream, parmesan cheese, cilantro, salt and pepper. If the sauce is very thick, add a few spoonful of the pasta water. Finally, add the pasta, stir for a minute, and you’re ready to eat!

Longaniza Sausage Burgers

I haven’t been back in the states in six months and every once in a while I’ll get very specific cravings for American fast food. McDonalds and Burger King are out of the picture, since they’re everywhere in Spain. What I’m talking about is slightly classier fast food. In & Out burgers are on top of the list, with a side of baked fries drenched in ketchup, mayo, and drippings of their secret sauce. Closely followed by authentic Mexican burritos found in little shacks so prevalent in Southern California, big juicy kosher hot dogs from Costco topped with relish and onions, and of course, food truck tacos! I guess the list involves a lot of meat. So let’s make this post nice and quick, in true American style.

I had a craving for a real greasy burger. And what’s a girl to do but satisfy her craving. I didn’t have any ground meat at hand so I used a spiced sausage filled with ground pork called longaniza. One doesn’t traditionally make burgers with sausages but I’m a big fan of longaniza, or any kind of meat that makes its own grease when you drop it in a hot pan. YUM. We’re young, let’s not worry about calories. Soak up the remaining red, delicious meat juices with the hamburger buns. I dare you.

And by the way, if you're not in Spain you probably won't find longaniza sausages. I don't know what the English translation would be, or if there is one. Spain's highly specialized in pork products and there are so many varieties here. Any raw pork sausage should do the trick. Anyway, this recipe is enough to yield two pretty hefty sized burgers.


INGREDIENTS//

+ 12 inches worth of raw spiced sausages
+ 1/2 an onion
+ whole wheat mustard
+ your favorite type of cheese
+ handful of arugula
+ salt & pepper
+ rosemary & oregano
+ hamburger buns


RECIPE//

Chop your sausages in easily bitable chunks and slice your onions into rings. Heat up the pan and leave the fire on medium, then drop in the meat. After about a minute the sausages should be spewing out grease, which is your cue to add the onion slices. Lower the fire a bit. Throw in just a dash of salt (since the sausages already have a strong flavor), pepper, and a pinch of fresh rosemary and oregano if you have any. Longaniza sausages have a ton of spices but adding more can’t hurt anybody. However, fresh rosemary is pretty strong, so don’t go crazy with it or else the burger will taste overwhelmingly like rosemary.

Let everything cook for 6 or 7 minutes, or whenever the meat is fully cooked/onions become soft. An alternative way to make this would be to sweat the onions first with olive oil in the pan, then add a bit of sugar to caramelize it. Either way works.

Toast the buns in the oven for a few minutes. Top off your burger with whole grain mustard, a bed of arugula leaves, and cheese. I used a local artisan cheese called Payoyo to compliment my longaniza burger. My boyfriend picked it up from Grazelema, a tiny mountainside village near his own pueblo. Payoyo cheese is a mix of goat and sheep’s milk, making it very savory with just a hint of sweetness. I like my burgers to have strong flavors, which is why you’ll never see me use lettuce in almost anything. What a boring vegetable.

Anyway, craving satisfied!

Two Ways to Make Shiitake Mushrooms with Rice Noodles

Right before coming to Spain this third time around, my mother decided to help me with the packing. Before I even got to put any personal belongings in my suitcase, it was already stuffed with three different types of loose leaf teas, freshly ground sesame paste, spicy Korean instant noodles, various hard-to-find Asian spices, sweet Chinese sausages, rice noodles, and a very large bag of dried shiitake mushrooms. Yes, these all went on a plane and passed the security check point in four different countries. From the states, I flew to China to visit family for a week, then got on another plane to Spain with a transfer in Moscow. Everything made it – even the sausages, which were a big hit among my Spanish roommates.

I let those dried little mushrooms sit in my pantry for over four months. I had no idea what to do with them, what with no instructions. But since I’ve been more adventurous in my cooking in recent months, I finally decided to open the package. I’m a bit of a lazy cook I have to admit. I never remember to soak dried food in water overnight, nor do I have the patience to thaw meat (it’s a bit hard when you have two naughty cats with sharp noses around the house), which is one of the reasons I don’t cook meat very often. Anyway, found a shortcut: soak dried mushrooms in boiled water with a lid on it for 15 minutes and voila! Mmm and the aroma that rises up from the steaming bowl when you remove the lid is enough to make you want to take a big bite of that juicy mushroom.

But don’t be so hasty. The taste of shiitake adds a lot of flavor to other vegetables too. So if you’re not living in Spain, where shiitake mushrooms cost a fortune – if you can even find any that is – try these recipes:

Shiitake Stir-fry with Fried Rice Noodles

One day I got off work early and was craving mushroom risotto for lunch. I do this a lot on my walk back home: plan my meals in my head and get terribly hungry thinking about it and start half running towards my house once I reach the river. What a terrible disappointment when I got to my apartment and turned my fridge upside down only to discover that I didn’t have any mushrooms left. My only resort was the dried shiitake in my pantry which I had barely given a thought until now. A pungent fungus traditionally used in Asian cooking doesn’t go well with cheese and butter. All right, skip the risotto idea. A stir-fry, why not? Let’s do it!





INGREDIENTS//

+ 4 large shiitake mushrooms halved or quartered (whichever you prefer)
+ 1/4 of a head of cabbage roughed chopped
+ 1 carrot in julienne (sliced long and thin)
+ 1/2 zucchini in julienne
+ 1/2 piece of ginger minced
+ one spring onion finely chopped
+ one teaspoon of sugar
+ salt to taste
+ soy sauce for coloring
+ rice noodles to deep fry
+ vegetable oil

RECIPE//

This is enough for about two servings. So as I said before, soak your shrooms in boiled water for 15-20 minutes. If you are patient, the longer the better.

First, I made the fried noodles which take about 20 seconds. In a wok or a deep pan, fill with vegetable oil to approximate two inches deep. Wait until the oil is hot then toss in the dried rice noodles and witness magic before your eyes. They pop up instantly like popcorn. Place them on a paper towel to soak up the oil. When the noodles are done, save up the oil for your next frying adventure, but leave just a bit in the pan for the veggies.

Now, put in the ginger, carrots, zucchini, and shiitake first to saute for three minutes. Then add the cabbage, spring onion, sugar, and drizzle in just a bit of soy sauce. Cook for another two minutes, add salt, then you’re done! Serve with fried noodles on the side.


Spicy Shiitake and Tofu Potpourri

For lack of a better description, we will call this dish a potpourri, since it is a confusing mixture of random ingredients that were handy. My friend Gwyn came over one night with the excuse of wanting to play our guitars but we ended up cooking for most of the time. Coincidentally I had just purchased a pack of smoked tofu the same day. Gwyn just happened to have a jar of bamboo in her backpack. Tofu, bamboo, shiitake, leftover ginger – it was an Asian food night.







INGREDIENTS//

+ 4-5 shiitake mushrooms diced or chopped
+ one pack of smoked tofu cubed
+ 1/2 a bell pepper cut into rings
+ one tomato diced
+ 2 small cayenne peppers finely chopped
+ canned bamboo shoots
+ 1-2 cloves of garlic minced
+ 1/3 ginger peeled and minced
+ soy sauce
+ salt to taste
+ olive oil
+ rice noodles to boil
+ raw carrots to garnish

RECIPE//

This would have been nice if we had some spring onions, but alas, none was to be found in the fridge. Let’s not dwell on the impossibility of turning back time. Unless, of course, we had an H.G. Wells patented time machine! I digress, on with the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C, which is about 400 F. Paint your little tofu cubes with soy sauce on both sides then stick them in the oven for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the shiitake in small pieces and toss them into a wok or pan with the olive oil, garlic, ginger, cayenne peppers, and bell pepper. When the tofu is done roasting, add them to the pan along with the bamboo shoots and tomato. Drizzle in just a bit of soy sauce, sprinkle in the salt, and toss for 5 minutes or so (or whenever the tomato juice gets soaked up). Gwyn and I also added a bit of the leftover water that the shiitake were soaking in just for that extra earthy flavor.

As for the noodles.. super simple to prepare. Boil them in water or the leftover shiitake water until they are soft. They cook much faster than pasta so don’t overboil! When they’re drained, add them to the tofu-shiitake potpourri and mix.

Gwyn recommends that you artfully cut some pieces of carrot to garnish. It will get a bit spicy, so carrots are a refreshing element to the dish. So try it out and let me know what you think!