Sauces 5 and 6: Tzatziki & Herb Butter

Too hot to do much cooking, decided on a few sauces/spreads/etc to use and use up some ingredients. 

Tzatziki

I ended up using this recipe instead of the one in my original delivery post. It seemed more manageable. My interpretation was a little loose. 

1/2 cucumber, seeded and peeled

3 pinches each salt & pepper (or, you know, to taste)

7 oz yogurt

1/4 cup dill

1 clove garlic

I did a (lazy) dice instead of grating the cucumber. Chop up that dill pretty finely, mince your ginger. If you think ahead you can make a paste with the salt so it incorporates even more, but if not it's fine. Everything just gets mixed in a bowl. Easy.

It's a little chunky but good. I wish I'd had good mint- the bunch I picked up at the grocery store was unpleasantly bitter so I didn't use it- but it's still delicious on a pita.When I eat it as part of a dish I'll probably squeeze a little lemon on, but I'm hesitant it'll overpower if originally added to the mix.

Herb Butter

I had a little cinnamon basil that wasn't looking so great, decided to try a little herb butter. Super simple.

1/4 cup herb

1/2 cup butter (i.e. 1 stick)

Salt pepp

Slice the herbs as small as you're comfortable. Soften the butter. Mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garlic (powder, roasted) would be super amazing in this. Will probably just use it on toast or freeze for another occasion. Definitely tasty on a pita.

Notes for Improvement:

- Grate the cucumber next time for a smoother sauce (Tzatziki)
- Buy mint at the farmer's market next time (Tzatziki)
- Add more herbs and/or garlic (Butter)

Sauce 4: Green Harissa

I'm on a roll with sauces. It's such a same this follows the Green Sauce so closely. I hope they both keep. I want them on everything.

I went off this recipe via food52, with a few variations based on what I had. 

- 2.5 cups (packed) roughly chopped escarole

- 1 cup (packed) roughly chopped spinach

- 1 poblano, destemmed and deseeded 

- 2 jalapenos, destemmed and deseeded

- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro stems

- 2 garlic scapes, chopped

- Tablespoon onion (I had some chopped in the fridge)

- 1 clove garlic, chopped

- 2 tbs chopped mint

- 1.5 tsp sea salt

- 1.5 tbs lemon juice

- Zest of 1 lemon

- 1 tbs ginger juice, squeezed from grated ginger

- 3/4 c olive oil

- 1.5 tsp ras el hanout

My process basically followed the recipe, though I roasted and peeled the peppers. My resulting sauce was fairly mild- next time I'll put more effort into finding serranos or just add a third jalapeno. Though honestly the sauce is so wonderfully bright and herbal I don't exactly mind. The heat sneaks up now and then at the end, a nice surprise.

I filled my (roommate's) blender up with cold water and ice while prepping everything- even put the carafe in the fridge to make sure it was cool. Poured that out into a cup when I was ready to make the sauce. So hot out.

Added everything but the greens and olive oil to the blender, then added two ice cubes and a few tablespoons of the oil. 

Blended well. Added the greens in handfuls and eventually figured out how to use the blender to process it down. Low speeds are useful. Drizzled in the rest of the oil to help it along.

Used this with a Moroccan inspired dish, to be posted later today, though I also dipped carrots in it and, um, ate it with a spoon. No judging.

Notes for Improvement:

- More spicy

- Have some bread handy next time

Sauce 3: Green Sauce & Dish 37: Escarole Scrambled Eggs

Salsa verde- it appears- can refer to a number of sauces. Ask wikipedia. My green sauce attempts to be salsa verde in the Italian style- but it's more of an incredibly herbal olive oil. Super delicious. Super variable- I was taught to use whatever was on hand, though I guess a lot of parsley is traditional. Hence me calling it green sauce. So so green.

Ingredients:

1 tbs each: thyme, rosemary and mint, chopped fine 

1 clove garlic

4 capers

Salt to taste

Chop up your herbs with a sharp knife- I settled on the name Sweetness. Chop 'em up good. My rosemary could've stood to be finer, but I don't have those knife skills yet. Eventually. Chop (or grate) up your garlic fine, as well as those capers. Put in a container, I used a half pint mason jar, and cover with olive oil. Taste, add a little salt if you need to. Let sit for a few hours.

I don't think you can go bad with olive oil and herbs. I threw mine in the fridge before I went to bed and added a little more olive oil in the morning. It needed it.

And what can you do with this sauce?

Put it on everything! Scrambled eggs for one. I used escarole, which was crazy bitter raw, but mellowed out when cooked. I added the green sauce after plating. Added a little salt and pepper, too. The bread is Rhubarb and Pistacho from Runner and Stone. I picked up two loaves the other day.

It wasn't a conscious choice- I'd cut the two loaves in half and froze the rest, so this was what was out- but the sweetness went nicely with everything.

I should just be a professional egg photographer. Nom.

Notes for Improvement:
- Make more green sauce, vary the herbage- or have more variety
- Chop that rosemary finer
- Don't wait so long, any brownness is due to oldness, not a dull knife

Dishes 31 & 32: Zucchini Noodle Salad & Garlic Scape Dip take 2

Went to an awesome potluck 4th of July BBQ with some cool people. Was thinking I'd use up a ton of my share- but I wasn't about to make a normal salad, as I have so many issues with those, so it was mostly a bit of spinach and a ton of zucchini- or two large zucchini and a large summer squash. And a few of those scapes. Still! I need to do more potlucks.

Deconstructed Salad:

Constructed Salad:

Followed this recipe. Not sure how much olive oil I added to the pesto- but most likely in the 1/2 cup range. Came together similarly to the Sorrel Pesto. Used walnuts instead of the pine nuts in the recipe. Kept everything separate until I got to the park, then mixed right before we ate. Or started to eat. I had three burgers + all the things. Ugh. In case you're wondering what I did with those seedy zucchini parts and the stems from the spinach used in the pesto, well, you should already know.

And the garlic scape dip came together as before. I ended up using a can of beans instead of my own, and fun fact: a 15 oz can of beans only contains about 10 oz of actual beans. So my using the full 15 oz of my own in another reason my dip was so darn thick. The more you know.

Found carrots and celery cheap at the grocery store so I chopped those up for dippage. Being healthy here folks, watch out. Yay I need to do more potlucks!

**Update: Sauce 2: Spinach Pesto

Dish 15 (Sauce 1): Sorrel Pesto

I don't like traditional pesto. I want to but just basil doesn't do it for me. This I love though.

Sorrel Pesto won my list of ideas, though the drink was tempting if only because I'd have it for a while. I used a few recipes as a base and started with the following ingredients:

- 2 cloves garlic

- 2 cups (packed) chopped sorrel

- (less than) 1/4 cup pecorino 

- 1/4 cup toasted walnuts

- olive oil and salt as needed

Missing something? Yep. The walnuts. We'll get to them later. 

I chopped up the garlic in a (crazy loud) food processor. Added some of the greens, some of the pecorino. The rest of the greens. Drizzled in olive oil. A little salt. Tasted, decided it was good. 

I'd scooped it out into my (tiiiny) tupperware container when I realized I'd forgotten the walnuts. I toasted those up in a dry pan, chopped em up in the food pro then added the pesto, blended a little more. Still turned out well.

After it was out I added a touch more salt. 

Some recipes I read called for lemon juice. Really? Have you tasted the sorrel? It's ammmaaazing. And deadly (in theory- oh hey, so is rhubarb!). 

And before you ask, why such a tiny amount on the bread in the first pic? I used a spatula to get 95% of it out of the food processor, then sliced up that bread to pick up the rest. 

Too good to waste.