Southwestern kolokethokeftaide

I didn't intend to make kolokethokeftaide. I hadn't heard of them until a moment ago. I just improvised some squash fritters and ended up making kolokethokeftaide accidentally. This Greek recipe isn't far off from the Turkish kabak mucveri I made three years ago but since I wasn't actually making it intentionally, I ended up with a Southwestern flavor profile which moves it a bit farther away.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures; I ran out of AA batteries for my camera and have had to fall back on my phone's crappy camera. Also, I didn't expect to write this up, as I was just throwing stuff together, so I don't have any process pics to share. Or many measurements.

So, anyway, I grated the two CSA summer squashes, salted them, let them sit a few minutes and then squeezed out an enormous amount of water. I ended up with no more than a cup and a half of squished squash.

To that I added about half a cup of pepper jack cheese, a dollop of caramelized onion confit (really just the caramelized onion I made last week mixed with a good bit of olive oil), a minced hot pepper, a dash of chili powder, one egg and enough breadcrumbs to make a dough that held together but wasn't wet.

I heated my oil and made little Tablespoon-volume patties. Those got fried at just over medium-high heat until just over golden brown. More of a brazen brown.


Tasty stuff. And it tastes mainly of squash, not dough with a bit of squash in it like most fritter recipes make. A nice chewy/creamy texture inside and crisp outside too. Maybe they could use a dipping sauce just to mix the flavors up a little bit, but I didn't bother with one.

CSA week 20 - vleeta

Next stop on our callaloo world tour is Greece! And, as I warned you on Saturday, the recipe isn't terribly exciting. Typical Greek really: boil to death and dress with lemon and olive oil. Maybe add some onion and red pepper for little pizazz. Serve next to a slab of under-seasoned meat and maybe some orzo.


The results are, well, not bad really. It doesn't improve in flavor with overcooking like green beans do, but it certainly stands up better than spinach would have in the same situation. There's some small hint of callaloo's character left in there, both in flavor and texture and I do think lemon and olive oil are good accompaniments. I suppose it would be a decent option for someone who doesn't really care for the stuff. I do, myself, so I'm a bit disappointed. This did seem a particularly tender bunch; maybe that's why it didn't hold up as well as I hoped it would. So things go. Next time I get my hands on callaloo, I've got an Indonesian recipe to try.

CSA week eight - Hirino me selino sto sáltsa avgolemono

a.k.a. Pork with celery in egg and lemon sauce

This is a Cretan dish that I read is typically served around the holidays. Traditionally it uses pascal celery which, judging from the pictures, is a small parsley-like herb rather like the Chinese celery we sometimes receive in the CSA shares. A pound of that is rather hard to come by around here so using regular parsley is a small compromise. The recipe I'm making, originally from The Food of Greece by Vilma Liacouras Chantiles, using the standard Greek methods of light seasoning and long boiling, but has a few more changes from most of the other versions I saw. I assume, because these additions build additional flavor elements, they're taking it away from the traditional Greek version. Is that being unfair? I'm probably being unfair. I don't really know much about Greek cuisine.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 pound lean pork, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
salt and pepper
approximately 2 cups hot water
1 bunch celery, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths
1/2 carrot, peeled and small diced
1 Tablespoon flour
1 egg
juice from 1 lemon
parsley to garnish

1. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent. Add the pork and cook until it loses its pinkness. Don't brown it. Season with salt and pepper. Add hot water to cover, bring to a boil then cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the celery and carrot. If your celery is particularly leafy save some for the garnish. Take the egg and lemon out of the refrigerator too.

3. When the pork is not quite tender, add the celery and carrot. Bring back to a boil, re-cover and simmer gently for 30 more minutes or until both meat and vegetables are on the verge of falling apart.

4. When you're ready, remove the solids from the pot into a bowl. Pour the liquid into a measuring cup. If you have less than 1 1/2 cups add some water. If you have more, pour some out.

5. Add the other Tablespoon butter to the newly emptied pot. When it is melted and sizzling add the flour. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes until the floury clumps melt down. Add the 1 1/2 cups of pork stock and stir until it comes to a boil.

6. Meanwhile, in a small bowl beat the egg. Slowly drizzle in the lemon juice while beating. When the liquid in the pot has come to a boil beat a little into the egg-lemon mixture to temper. Then pour the mixture into the pot, mix well, turn the heat to low and stir until it thickens. Pour the sauce over the pork and celery. Garnish with parsley and any reserved celery leaves.



I'm rather surprised how much I like this. Boiling the heck out of celery really mellows it out. It's still celery, but it's not CELERY any more so it plays well with the lemon and the pork.

Pork, on the other hand, is better as PORK so boiling the heck out of it doesn't serve it so well. But the flavor lost is in the sauce so it's still in the dish and I can't complain over much.

The sauce is, foremost, tart, but also rich and with some depth of flavor from the use of the pork stock.

Overall, quite tasty and a fine way to use a whole head of celery which is a very small class of recipes indeed.

CSA week two - Zucchini and bulgar keftedes

This is the recipe I mentioned on Saturday, but I misremembered my geography. These are Greek meetballs, not Spanish. More specifically, this are a variation on a recipe by chef Jim Botsacos of Molynos in New York based on Macedonian and Thracian versions. Although, to tell the truth, because I couldn't get kefalotyri cheese or ouzo (I chose the grocery to shop at poorly) and because I cut down on the mint (I've had a bad experience with overly-minty meatballs before) [link], these aren't all that Greek at all.

The recipe I'm vulgarizing I found at the Atlantic's food channel.

It goes something like this:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 pound zucchini and/or squash, grated
1 cup onions, finely chopped
1 chopped hot pepper, or red pepper flakes to taste
1 cup bulgur wheat
2/3 cup milk
1 pound ground sirloin
2 eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons dry white wine
1 Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
2 teaspoons kosher salt or to taste
flour for dredging
oil for deep frying

1. In a large cast iron pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add zucchini and sauté for 10 minutes, until they become meltingly soft. You don't want browning, but you do want the zucchini to lose a good bit of moisture. That means you should use a 10-inch pan so the zucchini is piled up and steams somewhat instead of a real proper sauté.

Add the onions and peppers and cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes longer until onions become translucent. Remove from heat and stir in the bulgar wheat. When the pan seems cool enough that the milk isn't going to sizzle away, stir in that too. Let stand for 15 minutes until the bulgar softens.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the ground sirloin, eggs, garlic, mint, parsley and wine. When the zucchini mixture is ready, mix it in too. Mix in the cheese and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. [The recipe says up to 8 hours. I don't know what happens after that.]

3. Cook a small amount of the mixture in a pan or microwave to check for seasoning. Adjust if necessary.

4. Heat frying oil in whatever you like to deep fry in (I use my flat-bottomed wok a.k.a. migas pan). Measure a heaping Tablespoon of the mixture (I found a coffee scoop worked well), flatten into a thick patty and dredge in flour. Shake off excess flour and fry in batches for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through if your oil is shallow. You're aiming for a deep browning, but not a thick crust. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Makes around 50.

Serve hot or room temperature, preferably with a yogurt sauce or a Greek salad. Or just pop them into your mouth while you're cooking as soon as they're cool enough to handle.


These are pretty darn tasty. It's got that sort of meat loaf nature of meat, vegetable and starch that have all absorbed each others flavors. It's weird that you can't even pick out the mint or the beef, which actually tastes a bit more like lamb. Other than a little chewiness from some of the bulgar, the textures have melded together too. This would be a great way to sneak zucchini into someone's diet.

CSA week nine - Greek salad

I had a Greek roommate a while back and to his mind a proper Greek salad consisted of tomatoes, feta, olive oil, salt and pepper and that's it. He was quite firm on this point. You could maybe gussy it up with some onion, a few olives or a bit of oregano, but adding cucumbers, peppers or especially lettuce was right out.

With a recipe that simple there's a lot riding on the quality of the ingredients. The tomatoes need to be very ripe and juicy, the feta should be flavorful and salty, and the olive oil should have a spicy bite. Unfortunately, I had problems on all three counts.

My tomatoes from last week's share were threatening to skip right over ripe to rotten so I figured today was the day to use them, but when I cut one open I discovered I was mistaking the firmness of a meaty tomato for the firmness of an underripe one. So the tomato was ready to go but it was the wrong sort for this recipe. However, it is a perfectly fine sauce tomato and I have been meaning to make a batch so I know where the other one is going.

As for the feta, I was able to find three varieties at Whole Foods but none were the really salty and sharp salad feta I wanted. I bought the least blah one I found, but it really didn't work. The texture was a bit off too. A good salad feta should be crumbly, but the block should be moist on the inside so it melts into the olive oil combining with the tomato juices to make the salad dressing. I really can't imagine what a cheese this bland and dry is meant for. I can't imagine it melts well, but maybe it will work crumbled on a focaccia.

And the extra virgin olive oil I have on hand happens to be a relatively mild fruity Spanish oil. Not really right for this application. Really, both the feta and the olive oil for a good Greek salad should be a bit too strong to enjoy without the tomatoes and bread to mellow them out.

I added sweet onion, fresh oregano and some kalamatas hoping to salvage it, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Even the flatbread I bought has kind of a fluffy wonder-bready texture I don't care for.

I guess I need to stop trying this sort of thing and adjust to Miami by cooking more Cuban. Those ingredients I can find.