High Summer Stuffed Zucchini

This is one of our favorite summer dishes- the kind that makes you wish for August all year round.  The squash look beautiful coming out of the oven and taste even better thanks to the lovely combination of garden tomatoes, fresh basil and ricotta cheese.  We've served this recipe in its original vegetarian rendition as taken from Verdura, Vegetables Italian Style and with the addition of roasted chicken as in our adapted recipe below.  We can say with certainty that the rendition with roasted chicken is preferred at our community table. 

This is definitely one meal where it pays to know a farmer or a few avid gardeners.  It can be tough to score 10 monster zucchini in the city, but if you ask around at the farmer's market, you may find someone willing to save his or her mongo zukes for you.  In our case, Vikki the Farmer at Genesis Growers lavished us with 20 lbs of beautiful zucchini and yellow summer squash and we're extremely thankful!  (If you're looking for a great CSA program [i.e. a weekly box of farm-fresh veggies delivered to a drop-site near you in Chicagoland], we highly recommend Vikki's program.)  If you don't run into a windfall of garden zucchini, you can certainly pull this off with squash from the veggie market or even the supermarket.  At this time of the year, Stanley's is usually overflowing with summer squash, some of which are local, and the price is just right.  Smaller squash mean more squash, however, so plan on a bit more prep time for hollowing and scooping. 

This is a longer meal to put together, so it's best to get several hands working on the various steps required for the zucchini right away.  By doing so, the stuffing should be ready just as the zucchini are finished par-baking. You don't want to skimp on oven time, as the dish is infinitely better when the zucchini have cooked long enough to be fork-tender.  We serve this with a light appetizer and a hearty BLT salad  just to be sure there's enough heft in the meal for larger eaters.  Sided with chilled melon and ice cold lemonade... mmm, mmm, only in August.

TOMATO BRUSCHETTA WITH PITA CHIPS

(Serves 36 as a light appetizer)

• 10 loves of 6" round pita bread (about 2 lbs), (we like Sanabel Bakery's fresh pita bread available at their grocery in Albany Park or sold at Stanley's)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 8 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
• 3 lbs garden tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cup Greek or green olives, roughly chopped
• Sea salt and freshly grated pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Arrange the pita loaves on a large sheet pan.  Using a basting brush and half the olive oil, brush the top and undersides of all the loaves. Transfer loaves to a cutting board and cut into 1" thick strips, cutting the longest strips in half to make chip-sized pieces.  Return the chips to the sheet pan, toss with the Parmesan cheese and season generously with sea salt and freshly grated pepper.  Bake the chips for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned and crispy.

While the pita chips are baking, dice the tomatoes into (small) bite sized pieces.  Transfer the tomatoes to a small mixing bowl, toss with the chopped basil and chopped olives, and season generously with sea salt and freshly grated pepper.  Pour the remaining olive oil over the tomatoes and allow to sit for a few minutes before serving.

To serve, plate the pita chips in a large serving bowl or platter and place the tomato mixture alongside. Serve each guest a handful of chips and top with a generous scoop of tomatoes. 

HIGH-SUMMER STUFFED ZUCCHINI

(Serves 36 generously)

• 20 medium zucchini OR 10 HUGE garden zucchini (about 20 lbs of zucchini in either case)
• 1 generous loaf (about 1-1/2 lbs) of day-old bakery bread (we like Trader Joe's Asiago-Peppercorn)
• scant 2 cups whole milk
• 5 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 lbs ricotta cheese (cottage cheese will also work in a pinch)
• 8 oz Parmesan cheese
• 3 lbs roasted chicken meat pulled from rotisserie birds 
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided into 1/4ths
• 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 cups basil leaves, sliced into thin ribbons
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2-3 lbs garden tomatoes, roughly chopped for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Preheat flattop grill to med-high heat.

Halve the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the pulp to make shallow boats.  Reserve the pulp in a large mixing bowl.  Place zucchini halves cut-side up on large sheet pans.  Using a basting brush and 1/4 cup of olive oil, lightly brush the cut side of each zucchini with oil and season generously with salt and pepper.  Transfer zucchini to hot oven and roast for 20+ minutes while stuffing is being prepared.  (The larger the zucchini, the longer you can let them roast at this point.  The idea is to par-bake them until just softened before stuffing them.)  Remove from oven when squash has just begun to lightly brown.

While zucchini are roasting, roughly chop the reserved pulp.  Heat 1/4 cup olive oil on the flattop grill until just shimmery, being careful not to overheat.  Saute zucchini pulp until juices are released and pulp has been cooked through.  Add garlic and saute for 2-3 more minutes.  Return mixture to original bowl and allow to rest.

Cube the bread into 1-inch dice and place cubes in a small bowl.  Douse the bread with milk until just saturated (not soggy). Season the mixture generously with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a separate large mixing bowl, add beaten eggs, ricotta, Parmesan, 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, and basil. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Add the bread, the sauteed zucchini and the pulled chicken meat to the bowl and gently mix to combine.

Remove zucchini halves from oven.  Generously stuff the cavity of each zucchini, mounding slightly, cover pans tightly with foil and return to oven.  (Bake any extra stuffing in separate pan alongside the zucchini). Bake zucchini for 15-20 minutes, remove foil, and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes until stuffing is crusty and lightly browned.  Note that cooking time will vary significantly depending on your oven.  The times given above are for a commercial convection oven.  If using a conventional oven, plan to roughly double the cooking times.

While stuffed zucchini are roasting, roughly chop the fresh tomatoes, place in a mixing bowl and season generously with salt, pepper and the last remaining olive oil.   Set mixture aside to garnish zucchini.

To serve, place one halved, stuffed zucchini on each individual plate and garnish with fresh tomatoes.  If you used huge garden zucchini, cut each horizontal half into two portions and place each portion on an individual plate, garnishing as described above.  Serve immediately.

BLT SALAD

Serves 36

• 4 full heads of Romaine or 6 hearts of Romaine, sliced into 1/2" thin strips
• 24 oz good-quality, thick-cut, nitrate-free bacon (we like Trader Joe's applewood smoked bacon)
• 4 lbs garden tomatoes
• 16 oz blue cheese dressing
• 8 oz wedge of blue cheese
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 375 degees. 

Slice romaine hearts perpendicular to the leaves to get 1/2" thin ribbons.  Soak chopped lettuce in cool water until well washed and shake dry in a colander (or spin dry in a lettuce spinner).  Slice tomatoes into thin wedges and drain off excess seeds and juice.  Break blue cheese into small crumbles and set aside.

Arrange bacon slices on a sheet pan with plenty of space between slices.  When oven is warm, cook bacon until just underdone.  Remove pan from oven and carefully pour off rendered bacon fat into a heat-safe bowl.  Return pan to oven and cook until bacon is very crisp, being careful not to burn.  Remove bacon from pan and allow to rest on paper towel until cool to the touch.  Once cooled, break or roughly chop bacon into bite sized pieces.

About ten minutes before serving, toss lettuce with tomatoes, dressing and crumbled cheese.  Season well with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.   Just before serving, top salad with crumbled bacon, reserving a serving or two of salad as required for those who don't eat pork. Serve immediately.

Sweet and Savory Stuffed Peppers

These peppers are as loaded with flavor as they are with nutrients.  The combination of savory lamb, warming spices, sweet raisins and salty feta cheese is a pleasure for the palette.  The protein-packed quinoa (a whole-grain power house) is a tasty departure from rice and wheat, and keeps the stuffing light and toothsome.  Don't be intimidated by a few unfamiliar items in the list of ingredients.  Everything here is readily available in a well-stocked grocery or easily substituted with good results.  As for the side dish, we've never met a sweet and sour cucumber we didn't like.  And after serving them several times, we can safely say our guests feel the same. 

The pepper recipe calls for a technique commonly used in ethnic cooking-- a brief saute of dried spices in hot oil before the addition of other ingredients.  As you can imagine, the heat of the pan intensifies the flavor of the spices. The true benefit, however, is in the health department.  The combination of fat (in the form of heart-healthy olive oil) with the dried spices makes the phytontutrients in the spices more readily available to the body for absorption.  This is particularly true in the case of turmeric which, like quinoa in the grain world, is a nutritional power house in the spice aisle.  As always, when using oil on the flattop grill, be careful not to burn or overheat. The spices need just half a minute to become fragrant. 

But the peppers...  Yes indeed, 36 bell peppers can be a budget breaker.  If we were limited to a conventional grocery, we probably couldn't pull off this meal, but we purchase the peppers from Stanley's where they often come in around $1/lb.  Beyond that, no one item is very expensive although the number of items called for in the recipe makes savvy shopping a must.  One splurge we have to recommend is the ground lamb.  While it's marginally more expensive than ground beef, the flavor makes the peppers something special.  As with all of our ground meats, we typically shop at Whole Foods or Gepperth's where the meat is ground in house on the day of purchase.

Attempt this meal with a full roster of cooks or give yourself a bit of extra time to prep.  The peppers need their full cooking time to become fork tender.  While they're taking their final turn in the oven, you'll have plenty of time to carve up a watermelon or two for dessert.  This menu takes a bit of TLC in the kitchen, but we promise it will be one of the more memorable in flavor and beneficial in healthfulnes.  Enjoy!



SWEET AND SAVORY STUFFED PEPPERS

Serves 36 (2 halves per person)

• 1 gallon spring water
• 8 cubes salt-free vegetable bouillon (we like Rapunzel brand salt-free herb bouillon available at Whole Foods)
• 8 cups quinoa or Basmati rice (we find quinoa at Costco or in the bulk bins at Whole Foods)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 TBS ground cinnamon
• 1 TBS ground cumin
• 1 TBS turmeric
• 4 large red onions, finely chopped
• 3 lbs ground lamb or beef (or 1-1/2 lbs of each)
• 90 oz canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained of liquid and crushed by hand
• 4 lbs marinated jarred artichoke hearts, drained of marinade and roughly chopped (we like the XL jar of artichokes available at Costco)
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup dried parsley flakes
• 2 cups raisins
• 18 red bell peppers, halved, stemmed and seeded
• 18 green bell peppers, halved, stemmed and seeded
• 2 lbs feta cheese, crumbled and divided (we use sheep's milk feta available at Costco)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Preheat flattop grill to med-high heat.   Place the water and bouillon cubes in a large stockpot over high heat.

In a large mixing bowl, rinse the dry grains of rice or quinoa under several changes of cool water until the water runs clear.  Carefully drain off the water and add grains to the stockpot.  When the water reaches a boil, reduce heat to low.  Cover and simmer until the water is absorbed and the grains are tender.  Remove grains from heat, keep covered and set aside.

Halve each pepper horizontally, leaving the stems intact, and arrange peppers cut side up on several full size sheet pans.  Transfer pans to hot oven and par-bake peppers for 20 minutes until softened and lightly browned.  Remove from oven and set aside.

While peppers are roasting, drain the plum tomatoes and crush them by hand in a full size hotel pan.  Add the raisins and parsley flakes to the tomatoes and season generously with salt and pepper.  Add half the crumbled feta cheese, mix well, and set aside.

Add the olive oil to the flattop grill and heat until just shimmering.  Add the dried spices and saute for 30 seconds until fragrant.  Immediately add the onions and and saute until  translucent.  Add the artichoke hearts and saute until lightly browned. Add the ground meat and saute until just lightly cooked, not browned.  Add garlic and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes.  Transfer the sauteed vegetables to the hotel pan with the crushed tomatoes.  Add the cooked grains and mix well to combine.

Divide the grain and vegetable mixture equally among the peppers.  Once again, cover the pans tightly with aluminum foil and bake until filling is heated through and the peppers are very tender, about 15-20 minutes in a commercial convection oven.  (Cooking time will vary greatly depending upon your oven; check the peppers periodically.)

To serve, place 2 bell pepper halves on individual plates and top each pepper with a spoonful of crumbled feta cheese. 



SWEET SOUR CUCUMBER SALAD

Serves 36 generously

• 10 lbs garden cucumbers, peeled and very thinly sliced
• 6 TBS coarse kosher or sea salt
• 3 cups rice wine vinegar OR distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup finely chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 cup agave syrup OR 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 TBS freshly ground black pepper

Place cucumber slices in colander. Sprinkle with salt; toss to coat. Let stand 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To prepare dressing, stir vinegar, dill, sugar, and pepper in large bowl until sugar is dissolved.

Drain cucumbers well and pat dry. Add cucumbers to dressing and stir to blend. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours before serving.  Serve cold.

Morning-After Steak and Pepper Hash

When we received a request for steak and eggs at the men's shelter a few months ago, it didn't make our to-cook list for obvious reasons of economy.  Beyond that, we didn't think ourselves functional enough at seven in the morning to attempt steaks for a crowd of 30+.  So it was with great anticipation that we left a recent grill-out with enough surplus steak kabab to do something interesting for a day-after breakfast. 

The kebab was cut from sirloin top roast (not sirloin tip roast) which yields a a tender bite when marinated overnight with something salty and/or acidic (in our case, plain yogurt mixed with a lemon juice marinade).  Our take-home after the grill-out was about 4lbs of beef.  If you're planning your surplus ahead of time (i.e. overshooting at your next BBQ), purchase about 4-1/2 lbs of beef as you'll loose some water weight on the grill.

Hash wouldn't be hash without an egg or two resting on top.  If there's an easier way to cook eggs than described below, we haven't discovered it.  We came across this method when surfing for "easy eggs" and haven't looked back.  It makes deliciously simple baked eggs with or without a runny yolk at your discretion.  We found that it's best to serve some eggs runny and some firm as guest preferences diverge on this topic.  One area where guest preference may not diverge so much-- you'll most likely find that a group of 30 men really enjoys steak and eggs for breakfast.  We hope you do, too.




MORNING-AFTER STEAK AND PEPPER HASH

Serves 30

• 10 lbs frozen potato wedges or steak fries (we like Trader Joe's Crinkle Cut) 
• 4 lbs day-after grilled beef sirloin top roast, cut into in 1/2" cubes
• 4 TBS unsalted butter
• 4 TBS canola oil
• 2 poblano peppers, finely diced
• 2 red bell peppers, finely diced
• 2 green bell peppers, finely diced
• 2 orange or yellow bell peppers, finely diced
• 4 large yellow onions, finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

The night before: 

Grill sirloin until medium.   Remove from grill, cover with foil and allow to rest.  When cool enough to handle, chop sirloin into 1/2" cubes.  If you're grilling more than a few days ahead of time, place cubed sirloin in a tightly sealed, freezer safe ziplock bag (or double bag) and freeze for up to one month.  Set beef in the refrigerator the night before your breakfast to defrost until morning.

In the morning:

Preheat flattop grill to medium-high heat.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a full-size hotel pan on a warming shelf to preheat.

Prepare peppers, onions and garlic as described above.  Add butter and canola oil to flattop grill and heat until bubbles have subsided.  Add peppers and onions and saute until lightly caramelized, about 15 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Add the reserved sirloin to the grill and cook until heated through.  Be careful not to overcook as the meat will become dry.  Transfer the steak and pepper mixture to the preheated hotel pan and cover tightly.

While peppers are cooking, arrange potato wedges in single layers on several sheet pans, being careful not to crowd the pans.  Roast potatoes until the edges have become browned and crispy.  Remove pans from the oven and transfer potatoes to a clean, dry cutting board.  Working in batches with a large chef's knife, roughly chop potatoes into thirds and immediately transfer to the hotel pan with the steak and peppers, laying the potatoes on top of the other ingredients in the pan.  Just before serving, mix potatoes into the other ingredients until well combined.   Serve steaming hot, topped off with a pair of eggs (recipe below) and sprinkled with a garnish of fresh parsley.   Be sure to offer a bottle or two of hot sauce at the table.

EGGS FOR A CROWD

Makes 64 eggs, or 2 per person

• Olive oil and basting brush OR non-stick cooking spray
• 64 large eggs
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Spray the inside of (6) 12-count muffin tins with non-stick spray or brush the compartments with olive oil making sure to get full coverage on the pans.  Break one egg into each muffin slot and season with salt and pepper.  Transfer pans to hot oven and bake until egg whites are set and yolks have reached your desired degree of firmness.  Cooking times will vary greatly depending on your oven, but will probably range from 10-15 minutes.  Remove pans from oven and allow eggs to rest for several minutes.  Using a butter knife or very small spatula, loosen the egg from the pan and gently remove with a spoon.  Serve immediately or transfer eggs to a pre-heated, covered hotel pan to keep warm until ready to serve.

[One note:  you may have to BYO muffin tins as many shelter kitchens will not stock the pans, but it's well worth the effort.]