Cooking some bone in Chicken Breasts in the Micro/Convection oven on Convection roast to make Chicken salad with grapes and peacans or walnuts. Still in a heat wave so I don't want to heat up the big oven. Don't use this convection feature often, usually just use it as a microwave, but nice to have on days like this. Going to stuff a garden tomato with the chicken salad for lunch.


KB and chicken salad

Steak with grilled onion and small baked potato.
The price was about the same as a fast food burger with fries and a drink.

DAMN FINE lineup, there!

The Gotch

As we struggle to...um...separate from a...er...surfeit of Summer Squarsh, we consider alternatives; this one...so simple, so uncomplicated, so DELICIOUS!

Zuke Fries
Start Finish: The Gotch

Here's a snack I had today, the recipe I got from a guy on another forum. The original recipe called for baking 15 minutes @400°, then tossing, and baking 10-12 minutes longer, but I didn't want to be firing up my oven in this weather, so I heated up my pizza stone in my grill! And last night, I started the dough for a batch of rye bread, to bake in the grill, since I'd be heating it up.

It is super easy, since I had some red curry paste in the freezer.

4 c okra, cut into 3/4-1" pieces
1 1/2 tb oil
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp Thai red curry paste
salt to taste

Preheat oven or grill to 400°. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly, to coat the okra. Spread out in a shallow 10x15 pan, and bake/grill 15 min, then stir, to turn over as much as possible. Bake another 10-12 min, until well browned. Taste for salt - will depend what's in the curry paste, what it needs. Serve immediately.
Okra tossed with Thai curry paste and ginger, half cooked on grill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished grilled okra and Thai curry paste. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also made another batch of gazpacho up yesterday, because I really didn't want to heat up much in the kitchen in this weather!

Oh yeah - here's that rye bread I baked on the grill:
Rye bread, about 3/4 risen, to be baked on grill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rye half baked, getting ready to switch them. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rye bread baked in grill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

@karstopography; it got too late for pictures last night, but we used yer Grilled Pepper recipe with Jalapeño Cream Cheese and the shredded on a coupla Roulette & Gypsy Hybrids, and a Sweet Banana.

Out_Of_This_Freakin'_World...a KEEPER!

The Gotch

New Shrimp pasta dish. Mash up of previous recipes for Shrimp pasta with Zucchini, Thai chilis and herb butter, and a previous favorite lemon shrimp with spinach or arugula. This is Lemon Shrimp with Spinach, Thai Chilis and Basil. It is/was delicious. Feel free to try it and add some white wine if desired. Trying to eat healthier so didn't want to add the extra calories this time.

Lemon shrimp with spinach, Thai Chilis and basil
Recipe:

Saute Shallots, 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped Thai chili, lemon olive oil, add shrimp, when pink add cooked linguine, 1/2c fresh lemon juice, 1/2 c reserved pasta water or as much as you want, zest of large lemon, salt, pepper, 1/4 c Thai basil, and finished with 1T butter and1/2 c Parmeseano Reggiano.

If you don't have lemon olive oil, add zest of large lemon to olive and let sit for as long as possible or overnight and then use, or just use regular olive oil and add a bit more lemon juice to the recipe.

I can no longer get nice plated photos because I am so starving, I don't think about a picture til the eatin is done, lol. So you get left overs.

All my shrimp pasta dishes look the same. They taste different, though, honest.

I made a sort of gumbo dish tonight, using many things out of the garden, plus a few things from Aldi's. I started by liquifying a lot of tomatoes with some fresh marjoram and thyme. Then starting a sauce, in the Instant Pot in sauté, with a large chopped onion in olive oil, followed by a large chopped bell pepper and 6 finely chopped jalapeños and a few stalks of celery, chopped. Then I added about 1/2 c finely chopped garlic scapes, and 3 tb tomato paste, and cooked about 2 minutes, then added the tomatoes. I also added 6 fresh bay leaves, some ground cloves, some more thyme, and let it simmer while getting all the rest of the things ready - peeling and cutting up the bottle gourd, cutting up the okra, and cleaning and pre-cooking the pound of cremini, and pre-cooking the pound of sausage (did those in a wok, so this wasn't a one pot dish). The gourd is added on slow cook high for about 10 minutes, then the okra was added and cooked for 10 minutes, then the mushrooms and sausage was added, and about a half cup of red lentils, to thicken the sauce, and cooked about 20 min. I also stirred in the 2 c of Mizuna, that I chopped up and spun dry.

The night before I had cooked 1 1/4 c of brown rice, with 5 bay leaves, then cooled, and refrigerated it. That was broken up, and added to this, and I let it sit for about 10 minutes, before serving a bowl of it.
A type of gumbo started up, with bottle gourd, okra, and eggplant added to the tomato sauce. Cooked mushrooms and sausage go in last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Added about 1/2 c red lentils to the gumbo, to thicken - cooked rice goes in last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Hard to believe that this mizuna still hasn't bolted, in this incredible heat this summer!
Mizuna, chopped up and added to the gumbo, to cook at the end. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished gumbo, after resting the stirred in, cooked rice for 15 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The end result looks delicous, Pepperhead! I have never had Ocra, and I must admit the look and descriptions do not have me running out to try it, lol. But I sure would try your gumbo! As long as I didn't see it until the end. I must say the early photos of ocra cooking looking a bit off putting to me, but the last photo makes me want to dig in.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ok ... ITLE_HDR_7
Okra is so good for a body. Ornamental also, with lovely blooms and foliage. I love the flavor. Such a popular vegetable worldwide. There are ways of cooking to eliminate the slime factor. @pepperhead212 dives into so many great ways to prepare okra that much of the rest of the world already knows.

We were just talking about making an okra based shrimp gumbo. For the new to okra, roasting split fresh okra in a hot oven totally eliminates any slime and gives a little delightful crisp.

Can't even find ocra around here, lol. I bet if I looked hard for it I could find it somewhere, but I never see it in the grocery store. Just not a New England thing.

Yes, @karstopography, that roasting, or grilling, is a way to get the slime out of okra, and another way to do it is either a dry, or almost dry, stir fry, in a NS wok, over medium heat. Do this with no seasonings for 8 to 10 minutes, tossing occasionally, then add some salt, and seasonings (they would burn, cooking the entire time) and toss another 2-3 minutes. No sliminess at all!

@Sue_CT If you have any Asian market, it will be there, though even around here it's not looking great in any of the markets. It's grown down south, where it's hot, as it likes heat!

Any type of acid will kill the slime

That's all well and good, but I'm struggling to even get a leaf from okra to use as a garnish let alone a whole base for a dish.....
Er p.s. Don't think I'll be sending seed any time soon....

https://slicesofbluesky.com/unusual-greens-part-2/

Okra greens are a thing. Even if the okra plant doesn’t fruit, the green leaves are something you can eat.

karstopography wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:14 am https://slicesofbluesky.com/unusual-greens-part-2/

Okra greens are a thing. Even if the okra plant doesn’t fruit, the green leaves are something you can eat.

I think that @Amateurinawe might have a hard time filling a plate of this one too.

Amateurinawe wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 1:16 pm That's all well and good, but I'm struggling to even get a leaf from okra to use as a garnish let alone a whole base for a dish.....

sad.jpg

Er p.s. Don't think I'll be sending seed any time soon....

If all you want is a garnish (just for show, not to eat), your best shot would be to download and print a picture.

Roast steak thing.
Poblano pepper fried.
Squash onion tomato mushrooms salad stuff.

Steak picanha, various peppers,

Some chicken leg quarters in in the slow cooker to feed 6. BBQ sauce I guess if we have any.