Mike grew up eating grilled zucchini that his dad would make "Greek style" which just means with olive oil and lemon juice. His dad would slice the zucchini lengthwise into long, thick strips, then drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, grill over high heat, then toss with lemon juice and a little more olive oil. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious. But I've recently found and adapted a recipe for grilled zucchini that... dare I say... I like even better!
The inspiration for this recipe comes from a grilled squash and prosciutto recipe from Food & Wine's website that I made for Mike's 30th birthday party this year. But like most things I try to cook, I don't have all of the ingredients, so I adapt it to use whatever I have on hand.
I started with 3 petite zucchini from the Madison farmer's market (which is my happy place, for the record). I sliced them on a bias on the mandolin between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thickness. Then I rubbed them down with olive oil, and Mike took them outside to grill them. While he was grilling, I made the dressing.
The dressing was so simple. I took the top 6 inches of 3 mint sprigs from my garden, and did a chiffonade on the leaves. This mint form my garden grew out of scraps. Last year I needed mint and what they had in the store was "living" herbs that still had a little root bulb. I bought no more mint from the store than what I used in this recipe, and it's grown into this bush you see here!
Then since I didn't have lime zest, I used about 1 tbsp of lime juice from a bottle that I keep in the fridge. To that I added 1-2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, and about 1 tsp of garlic paste that I had in the fridge (if you remember from my garlic post, I had to go buy a tube of the stuff to do research, and I determined that it would be best to use in raw applications like dressings. So I put those cloves back and reached for the tube instead!). Otherwise I would have run 2 cloves through the garlic press. After adding a pinch of salt and pepper and giving it a good stir, the dressing was ready to go!
And as long as I had the mint and the lime juice out, I whipped up a little mojito for myself... muddled mint with sugar and lime juice, add some rum, and simple syrup, and shake with ice. Pour into a glass with some soda water, and garnish with another fresh sprig of mint... it was the perfect dinner cocktail to compliment my zucchini.
The last challenge is that I don't keep prosciutto laying around. That would be a crime... if I have prosciutto sitting in my fridge, it will be gone within 24 hours. But part of what makes this recipe so successful is the way that each of your different taste buds has something to do! Sweet from the zucchini and mint, sour from the lime, a little bitter from the pepper, umami from the garlic, and.... salt from the prosciutto! But without prosciutto, just adding some extra salt could have worked but it would have been lacking the extra umami that you get from the cured meat. So I scanned my fridge and found that I had some feta cheese - perfect!!! So after the zucchini was beautifully grilled, I drizzled on the dressing and tossed it all together. And lastly, took some of that salty feta and crumbled it into the smallest pieces possible and let it soften slightly over the hot zucchini. For a recipe that only took me a few minutes to throw together, this came out fantastic. I look forward to making it for a grill out we're having in a few weeks!
Stir Fry is my version of "Weeknight Surprise" - any random leftover veggies in my fridge get sauteed, tossed with some tasty sauces, and served over noodles or rice, and deliciousness ensues.
So tonight, what I had in my fridge was: Broccoli, orange peppers, frozen green beans, onions. In hindsight, I would have left out the green beans. Mike specifically requested we keep water chestnuts on hand from now on because they would have gone perfectly! I just want to share with you guys exactly what I did, but also let you know what I would have done. Would have liked to add snow peas or snap peas instead of the beans, and some chicken would have been a good addition.
So when making a stir fry, the goal is to cook everything at a very high heat for not a very long time. You're not looking to braise your food (braising means cooking low and slow in liquid... think osso buco, or any kind of stew). You want to get a good amount of browning on the outside, which means caramelization, which means flavor. Brown food tastes good. And you don't want the veggies to be mushy, you want them to still have a little crunch. So to do this, you'll pre-heat your wok or huge sautee pan with 2-3 tbsp of canola oil and 2 tbsp sesame oil. Do not use olive oil here for two reasons. 1) it has too low of a smoke point (meaning you need to heat it up hotter than it can safely get. Over-heated olive oil creates carcinogenic free radicals... that means causes cancer) and 2) it has a strong flavor that doesn't mesh as well with Asian flavors as the neutral canola oil would. So go with your canola oil / sesame oil blend (both of which have a high smoke point, and sesame oil has an amazing flavor that goes so well with stir fries). Get it screaming hot, then first add your protein, if using any. Always season your protein with salt and pepper before cooking. If you're using land-based protein (beef, pork, chicken), you'll want to fully cook it through. If you're using shrimp or scallops, you'll want to cook them just till they start going opaque and pink (shrimp) or browning (scallops). Do not fully cook them at this stage, because you're going to heat them more later. So if you cook them all they way now, they'll be rubbery by the end. No bueno. Tofu counts as a protein here too (though I'll be putting up a post later about why I avoid soy-based products when possible and what alternatives I use).
After the protein is cooked and removed from the pan, add another couple of tablespoons of oil. It's almost time for your veggies, but we need to be strategic about it. If you throw all your veggies in at once, toss for a few minutes and serve, you'll wind up with unevenly cooked veggies. Some may be overdone, some may still taste raw. So you need to add the veggies at different times so that they all finish cooking at the same time. And as for the quantity? Whatever blend sounds good to you, but I probably used 10-12 cups of chopped veggies for this stir fry and this quantity of sauce (note: I did not have a protein, so add more sauce if you're using a protein).
Before the veggies though, you need to add the Asian Trinity: onions, garlic, and ginger - the base flavors of so many Asian dishes. For stir fry, I use sliced onions. I would recommend that you do these first so that they can brown on their own. Once you toss in the other veggies, the onions tend to not get the alone-time they need in the hot wok to brown up deliciously. After the onions have started to brown, add your garlic. For this recipe I used minced. Garlic should only cook alone in the pot for literally 30-60 seconds. As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant and you can smell wafts of that deliciousness, it's time to toss in more food. When you add more food, it brings the temperature down inside the pot, so you don't risk burning the garlic. If I had fresh ginger, I would have grated it and added it right after the garlic, but unfortunately I did not. So I used 1-2 tsp. of powdered ginger which I added with the sauces, it just depends on how much of that ginger bite you like.
After your seasonings are done, it's time to add your veggies. You should add them in order from hardest / sturdiest to softest / most delicate. So for my stir-fry, I started with the broccoli. If I had snow / sugar snap peas, I probably would have added them around now as well. After those cooked for a few minutes, I added the orange peppers, and lastly the green beans (previously cooked and frozen, so just needed to be heated through).
It is important to add the sauces to the veggies and protein after everything has been browned. Once you add the sauces, things will start to braise and will no longer be able to brown, so do not do this step too soon. At this point, if you cooked a protein, add it back in, add the sauces, toss to combine, and cook for another couple of minutes until the sauce thickens up. You can choose to either serve it over cooked brown rice, or like I did, toss in some boiled gluten free rice noodles, so they sop up all that delicious sauce.
By the way, the leftovers of this are amazing. I love stir fries because they are so versatile - you can use up whatever's in your fridge in a satisfying way. And when done right, they are quite healthy too!! Great way to get more produce, whole grain brown rice, and lean protein. Win-win-win!!!!
Base Recipe for Stir Fry
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp canola (for veggies, and another 2-3 for protein)
2 tbsp sesame oil
~1 lb lean protein (sliced lean beef, sliced or cubed chicken, sliced or cubed pork, shrimp)
~8 cups chopped Asian-inspired vegetables (broccoli, snow peas, snap peas, peppers, water chestnut, zucchini, onions, carrots, etc. Think about what you can get at Flat Top or Stir Crazy, and add whatever you have)
2 medium onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp fresh, or 1-2 tsp powdered ginger
Stir-Fry Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (unseasoned)
*(optional) 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
*(optional) 1 tsp sweet mirin
1) Heat canola oil in pan; season protein with salt and pepper. Cook till browned on all sides. Remove from pot, let drain on plate
2) Add remaining canola and sesame oil. Cook onions till just beginning to brown. Add garlic and fresh ginger (if using); cook for 30-60 seconds, then add veggies from hardest/sturdiest to softest/most delicate. Cook each type of veggie for a couple of minutes before adding new ones
3) Add all ingredients for sauce (including powdered ginger, if using). Return protein to wok, and toss to coat/combine. Cook for a few minutes to finish heating the protein and so that it absorbs some of the sauce
4) Either toss with noodles, or serve over whole grain brown rice
Enjoy!!
*I would use either one of these two optional ingredients, but not both. They are optional because they aren't pantry staples I expect everyone to have (read: you should have all the other ingredients. If you don't, you're missing a lot of flavor in your life. Hoisin sauce is my jam).
I started with 3 petite zucchini from the Madison farmer's market (which is my happy place, for the record). I sliced them on a bias on the mandolin between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thickness. Then I rubbed them down with olive oil, and Mike took them outside to grill them. While he was grilling, I made the dressing.
The dressing was so simple. I took the top 6 inches of 3 mint sprigs from my garden, and did a chiffonade on the leaves. This mint form my garden grew out of scraps. Last year I needed mint and what they had in the store was "living" herbs that still had a little root bulb. I bought no more mint from the store than what I used in this recipe, and it's grown into this bush you see here! 
