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too hot to cook! (the kitchen, not me.)

anyone have a favorite pasta or grain salad?

Liz,

We have a summer friday at work so I'm about to head out for this amazing weather.

I'm thinknig pasta for dinner tonight. I found a recipe for Chard Pasta from Everyday Food. I'm going to try it tonight. Click my name for the recipe link.

Liz - I've made a really great barley salad with corn which has a great summery dressing of basil and chives. It's great for hot weather, although you DO have to heat the kitchen a little too cook the barley, but it's really worth it. Click my name for the recipe.

here's an obscure question:

buffalo cheeks. what to do with 'em? (we've got them and they must be eaten this weekend in order to clear space in the freezer.)

I've heard they are the tenderest of cuts, but I'm a bit daunted. (I am also weirded out by the fact that when I fully defrosted them, I noticed that there was...um...HIDE and FUR somewhat still attached. They are from Elk Farm, union sq. greenmarket purveyors, so I trust the product fully. But still!)

any ideas--hopefully that involve grilling and NOT long cooking in the oven?
thanks!

Liz
i cannot praise more highly the humble chopped salad
grab whatever suits you vegetables, fruit, cheese, meats, dried stuff, herbs
chop them small, then toss with the simplest vinagrette, fresh herbs and salt and pepper
delicious
i'm very partial to tomatoes, berries, chives, minced hot chile pepper, corn, cucucmbers, minced garlic, basil, thyme, etc, etc, etc
be creative, get artistic, you can almost not go wrong!

Liz,
Try Nina Simonds' Rainbow Peanut Noodles - http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0698/rainbow.html

Yummy, cool, easy and can be made with soynut butter for any peanut allergic friends

Liz
how about quinoa salad? super light for summer

boil the water, put on a lid and turn it off, then toss it with whatever, like
tiny cubes of herby baked tofu, lots of herbs, tomato, some kind of green (snowpeas, aspargus, spinach), lemon, soy sauce, s+p, Eden Shake (sesame seeds and shiso)

I have a "carribean" salad that I throw together - the proportions are inexact but here goes...

2-3 cans black beans (drained)
1 cup frozen sweet corn (thawed)
1 cup diced tomatos
1 can artichoke hearts or hearts of palm, diced
1/2 red onion diced
2 avocados, diced

Toss together with 1/4 cup lime juice (sometimes I dissolve a little honey in the juice) as a dressing.

Sometimes I do everything except the avocados the night before (to let the corn thaw) and then add avocados right before consumption.

Easy and tasty. And quite colorful and pretty!

And check out GRANT's website for a quinoa salad. I'm eating leftovers for lunch right now - sans shrimp.

I just tried this great chicken recipe and thought I'd share. The best part... it's authentic Indian home cooking, which doesn’t need curry powder.

2 pounds of chicken - skinned and jointed (drumsticks and thighs)
1 tbsp oil/ butter
2 onions pureed
1 ½ tbsp fennel seeds ( dry roasted and then ground with a pestle and mortar)
½ tsp red chili powder (or left over ckili flakes from the pizza place dry roasted and then ground)
1 tsp ginger powder
3 large tomatoes - skinned, deseeded and chopped
2 cloves
2 large cardamoms
350 ml water/chicken stock
Fresh mint finely chopped for garnish

Fry the chicken in hot oil for 5 minutes to seal. Remove from pan. In the same oil, sauté onions until golden brown in color. Add the chili powder, fennel seed powder and ginger powder. Stir well (should be a deep brown color) and season.

Add tomatoes to the pan. Stir in cloves and cardamoms. Cook for 5 minutes before adding water/stock. Bring to a boil.

Return chicken together with any accumulated juices to the pan and simmer over a gentle flame until tender (about 20 minutes). Garnish with fresh mint and serve over basmati rice. The best basmati rice in India comes from the town of Dehradun. Pick this up on your next trip to Kalustyans.

I went wild at the farmer's market (click my link for some pictures). I ended up with some lemon basil and cinnamon basil from the farmer's market. The lemon basil seems like it could go great with blueberries in a smoothie or ganita or cake . . . any suggestions or recipes?

Happy weekend everyone.

ok, on the off hand anyone is checking this board right now...squid recipes? i just got a mess of squid at the greenmarket and should really cook it tonight.

lisa, in case you still have squid, how about grilling them? serve with a salad.click my name.

liz, I was also thinking quinoa salad-a friend makes it with chopped tomatoes,red pepper,red onion, cilantro, corn, ground cumin,hot pepper.

guido, can you explain the baked tofu? I like fried tofu, baked must be good too!

when we were in croatia, they would stuff beautiful whole squid with risotto and then grill them and serve slathered in the local, divine extra virgin olive oil
seriously one of the best things i've ever eaten

waaay late to be be useful perhaps
unless you froze the squid
but it you can't grill
there's cold salad (chopped celery, rice vinagrette, herbs)
or SQUIDY RICE
my friend and I used to make it, trying to mimic what her grandma would do
we'd stew the squid with tomato and garlic and whatever else was around with extra liquid and rice -- the rice should come out soupy. Finish with parsley...

BAKED TOFU
is denser - the water is pressed out
and marinated with herbs/tamari etc
I don't think it is actually baked all the time
I buy a brand called Smoke & Fire, the Thai style
but you can of course make it

Yeah, this is too late too, but I got to visit the Chez Panisse Café on my vacation last week and I had this amazing baked/roasted squid with breadcrumbs and herbs - rosemary or thyme, I think. It was very tender and delicious. I think the general rule with squid is to either cook it very fast or for a long time; anything in between will give you rubber.

One other cool thing about that meal was one of our desserts came with the famous Chez Panisse gingersnaps - the recipe for these has been floating around food weblogs for a long time and I have made them and love them. It was cool to have them at their source. It was the best meal I had on that trip; it was like eating directly off the pages of those very inspiring cookbooks.

Also, I bought some delicious good things at the Farmers Market in SF, including rosemary sea salt, which I used to prep a Zuni-style chicken - to be roasted this afternoon.

And I really like the new thread image - lovely carrots. :-)

thank you for squid advice! by then, i'd made a corporate decision (the corporation=me) and sauteed it with basil, garlic, red pepper flakes per mark bitman. honestly, it was Not Bad. next time i will try one of the above recipes though. i'd just bought a whole mess of it cheap that morning.

I used to make deep-fried squid rings, served with a thick homemade tomato sauce for dipping.
have to dig out recipe from 'the vaults'!

guido, thanks for the baked tofu rundown. Haven't seen the brand mentioned, but I will look for ways of making it myself maybe. Sounds yummy.
I have banana leaf-wrapped Mexican tamales in freezer at work -yay, someone else made them!

Love the new OT image too! nice colors...

I have to admit I get a warm fuzzy seeing *my* photo being used on this great website. ;)

I lived on mangos, blueberries, raspberries this weekend. Summertime is so great.

help! i'd love to have a simple bastille day lunch on friday, anybody have any menu ideas?

http://frenchfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa070700a.htm

I'm no Francophile but I'm always insanely curious about food. I just googled "Bastille Day Menu" and found lots of interesting hits.

Some restaurants have elaborate PrixFixe menus. But here is a simple one that immediately popped out at me...

http://frenchfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa070700a.htm

Who knew!

pan bagnat sandwiches
YUM! they're basically a salade nicoise on a bun
or, heck! why not do a salade nicoise buffet so people can construct their own to taste (some might not like eggs, others might hate tuna, and some crazy people might be offended by potatoes!)
oh, that would be fun! serve some champagne and baby quiches
oh la la!
fraternite! libertie! egalite! bon appetite!

I just had a dinner of Trader Joe's crab cakes. The kitchen smelled like a seafood restaurant and the cakes were really good. A little homemade cocktail sauce, a little lemon, a glass of champagne - I'm so content. I suggest you give them a try. Hey, 2 for $3 is a bargain.