vegetable "noodles"

Thanks to our wonderful farm box I recently had lots of zucchini and cucumbers on hand. I wanted something crisp and fresh for dinner, but I also had a craving for pasta.

Since it was about 100 degrees in our house even with the A/C on (it's a small window unit) and I didn't want to cook so much as a pot of boiled water I decided to cut the veggies into thin noodle-like strips.

The soy garlic ginger batch was done by hand, not something fun or recommended to do in a 100 degree kitchen, ugh. The pesto batch I broke out the mandolin for. I usually kinda hate my mandoline*, but this made it worth it. Although looking at the two pictures I find the less-than-perfect hand cut strips more appealing, but spending an hour cutting two small zucchinis and one cucumber, no thanks.

These are two sauces/ marinades I use all the time, varying the ingredients slightly to suit my mood and what I happen to have on hand. They go great on all kinds of vegetables, starches and tofu; either one would be good on chicken, but beef works better with #1.

Marinade #1

• minced garlic
• finely chopped ginger root
• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• sesame oil
  
• fish sauce (optional)
  
• red pepper flakes
  

Sauce #2

• chopped basil
• minced garlic
  
• olive oil
• chopped walnuts
• salt & pepper
• chopped tomatoes (optional)
  

If you eat these immediately they are fresh and crunchy, the longer you let them marinate, the more chewy and noodle-like they become. Either can be made up to a day ahead of time and left covered in the fridge, the veggies just absorb more marinade and become more intensely flavored.

*Can anyone suggest a good mandoline? One that can slice hard vegetables, like carrots (mine fails here) and isn't completely terrifying to assemble/disassemble and clean?

Zucchini Margaritas & dinner

This sounds odd, but tastes absolutely fantastic.

Recipe lightly adapted from Andrea Albin's Zucchini Lime Tequila Slushies featured in Gourmet, because I like things boozy and I don't particularly like things sweet. This makes a double batch.



You will need:

• 4 small zucchinis cut into inch long sections (I think this was just over 3 cups)
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 180 ml (.75 cups) tequila
  
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
• shake or two sea salt
• 5 cups ice cubes

Puree all the ingredients in a blender and serve. This made three large glass fulls.

[A brief aside on blenders--I never really thought about them, but had always been disappointed with ones I'd purchased, they leaked, jammed and just sucked. As a wedding present J's mom got us a vita-mix (same brand jamba juice uses) and it is amazing; I even never thought a blender could be amazing. So if you've got a few extra hundred bucks, never want to buy another blender in your life, or see one of these at a garage sale or 2nd hand store get it!]

We needed dinner to go with our drinks, so I threw together this quick and easy mexi-tinged sweet and sour stir-fry; it took only a few minutes and complimented the drinks perfectly.



Make some brown rice ahead of time (or if you're me, have some left in the cooker from yesterday)

• 1/2 cup firm tofu diced
• small onion in slices
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
  
• medium cucumber in half moons
• large tomato chopped (1 cup)
  
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/8 cup ketchup (oh shush, it works)

1. heat some oil in wok over medium high
2. toss in tofu and cook until it begins to turn golden
3. add onions and cook until they become aromatic
4. add cumin and stir well, let spice cook briefly
   
5. add tomatoes and cook until they begin to break down
6. add cucumbers
   
7. squeeze in lemon juice and ketchup, stir well
8. cook an additional minute or two, but make sure cucumbers retain some crispness
9. remove from heat and serve over brown rice

Enjoy!