Pink Margarita Slushes and Fried Okra

Because of the powerful heat and drought conditions we’ve had this summer, the farm with which we have a CSA share decided to let their plants rest for a couple of weeks. They postponed pick-ups and extended the time for this season. The schedule has now resumed, and I’m having a good time cooking with all the local, seasonal produce. Zucchini and yellow squash are in abundance, and right now, okra is ripe for the picking. There are some great southern dishes to be prepared with these vegetables, and I got to thinking about planning a meal highlighting as many of them as possible. My goal was to create an entirely vegetarian, southern feast, and it was easy to do. The meal began with frosty watermelon and tequila cocktails and fried okra. I left meat out of the menu, but I didn’t say it would be spa food, so yes, the okra was fried.

The recipe for the cocktail is from the Martha Stewart site. I noticed the photo of these pretty, icy beverages the other day, and when I received a little, round watermelon from the farm, this seemed like a perfect use of it. I cut the recipe in half to serve two, and that worked exactly right for the amount of cubed watermelon I had. Those cubes were placed in a blender with lime juice, sugar, and tequila, and the blender pitcher was filled with ice. That was blended until smooth and delicious. For the okra, I didn’t exactly follow a recipe, but this one from Emeril is pretty much how I prepared it. The okra was sliced and covered with buttermilk, and it was then dredged in a mixture of cornmeal, flour, salt, and pepper. Then, it was fried until golden. I made a mayonnaise dipping sauce to accompany it, and the recipe for that is below.

I’ve said before that okra may not be for everyone, but fried okra could be. The warm, crunchy goodness dipped into the spicy and tangy mayonnaise was a good fit with the margarita slushes. If you’re lucky enough to have access to fresh okra and watermelon, I highly recommend this combination.

Ancho Lime Mayonnaise

½ c prepared mayonnaise (Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise is my favorite)
4 or so dribbles Crystal hot sauce
½ t ancho powder
Zest of ½ lime
1 t fresh lime juice
pinch of cayenne (or more to taste)

-combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken

I’m going to file this dish under couldn’t believe how good this was or how quickly it was made. This meal was on the table faster than ever even by weeknight meal standards, even with chicken that needed to be cut into cubes, even though I was reading and following a recipe instead of cooking from memory, and even with the time spent taking photos. Seriously, the rice took longer to simmer than the chicken and sauce to be made. This was one of the 30 Best, Fast Recipes Ever in Food and Wine last September, and it definitely qualifies. It’s from Charles Phan of San Francisco’s Slanted Door.

The dish is an easy combination of fairly common ingredients. The sauce is made with brown sugar, fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, black pepper, and Thai chiles. As I almost always do in savory applications, I chose to reduce the amount of sugar by a tablespoon or so. I usually also increase the amount of chiles, but I played by the rules in that regard this time. The recipe suggests two, halved Thai chiles, but I could go for three or four next time I make this. Once the sauce ingredients were combined, it was set aside while minced shallots were sauteed. Then, the sauce was added to the pan followed by the cubed chicken. That was left to simmer until the chicken was cooked through which took less than 15 minutes. It was served with jasmine rice and was garnished with cilantro.

I used chicken breast instead of the suggested thigh meat because of Kurt’s preference, and it cooked into a lovely tender state in the sauce. The balance of sweetness and chile heat was just right even though I wouldn’t have minded more spiciness, and all the other savory flavors from garlic, ginger, and fish sauce rounded out the sauce nicely. Kurt noted that it was ‘actually’ good. He’s well aware of my track record with Asian cuisine and tasted cautiously at first but then happily. I served the chicken and rice with some sauteed spinach and shitakes, and the roaming sauce on the plate was a welcome taste with the vegetables too. I love finding dishes like this that can become a part of our mid-week routine instead of being saved only for occasions when there’s plenty of time.

Cherry-Zucchini Muffins

In my last CSA pick-up, I received a gigantic zucchini that could have fed an army. I asked around for ideas for using it in multiple dishes. Someone on Twitter mentioned that when his zucchini get that large, he feeds them to his animals. I can understand that given that at this kind of size there are bigger seeds and the texture is starchier, but I was determined to make good use of this monster for human consumption. In the end, I chopped some of it and roasted it for a pasta dish, and for the rest, some sort of zucchini bread was a no-brainer. A quick bread is a good way to go with a big, starchy zucchini because it’s grated before being mixed into the batter, and the texture matters less that way. After looking at a few options for zucchini bread, I came upon a recipe for muffins in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. In the book, these are actually cranberry-zucchini muffins, but I used cherries because that felt summerier.

This is a very quick muffin batter to assemble. The great big half of zucchini was grated and set aside. Eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla were whisked together, and then the zucchini was added. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt were incorporated before frozen cherries were folded into the batter. Into the oven went the muffins, and they emerged golden with little, green flecks.

I liked seeing the bits of green from the zucchini just to remember that it was in there. It’s, of course, completely imperceptible in the flavor, but it does a magic trick on the texture. This is a muffin that can sit for a few days and still taste just as tender and delicious as the first day thanks to all that grated zucchini. These muffins also freeze very well, and I’ve already pulled the second half of the batch out of the freezer to finish them. This size of zucchini wouldn’t be a good choice for a raw salad or for pickles, but it did make some very fine muffins.