"broiling" news and stories

Despite all my foodie tendencies, I've never made stuffed squash flowers. I grew up with zucchini plants in the backyard every summer and I don't even remember an opportunity to harvest the flowers. I guess they are one of those delicacies that are only available during a very short window of time and if you miss it, then you are out of luck.

However, I've been gazing at the pictures and recipes that other food bloggers have been posting of their own squash blossoms and my curiosity has been piqued. I'm planning on getting over to my favorite local farmers' market early next Sunday, in the hopes that I'll be able to snatch up a few of these little guys for my own experimentation. In the meantime, I will just have to satisfy myself with the digital fruits of the labors of others. Like this recipe for Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Goat Cheese that the Curdnerd posted (he got it from the Santa Barbara Independent). Looks fairly simple and (I imagine) so delicious.

One weekend four summers ago, my then-boyfriend and I drove from Philly to a little town in the New York Berkshires, to spend some time with his mom and her boyfriend of 15+ years. They had a gorgeous, mid-century modern house, with a vibrantly green yard, that gently slopped down for several hundred yards, until it met a stream. Sunday afternoon, after a slightly tense, but mostly fun weekend, Susan served us one last meal before we hit the road. She pulled out some cold, poached salmon, a spinach salad with a special, broiled lemon dressing and a blueberry and mango fruit salad. It was all delicious, but the thing that really stuck with me was that spinach salad. I must have gushed over it, because a few days later, the recipe appeared in my mailbox.

It was printed in the New York Times Dining and Wine section sometime in 2002 or the first half of 2003 (there's no date on the clipping she sent me) and is adapted from Lemon Zest, a cookbook by Lori Longbotham. The recipe is after the jump...

photo by Marisa McClellan

Yes, the 4th of July in the United States is about being All-American, but in my house, we celebrate Korean-style. At least when it comes to food.

One of the centerpieces of any Korean BBQ is galbee, the cross-cut shortribs that are marinated in a sweet soy sauce, then grilled. It's the same basic marinade as for bulgogi, which I shared before. If you want to do galbee up right, make sure you're prepared - you've got to marinate the shortribs overnight at the very least.

What would a collection of SuperBowl dip recipes be without a little blue cheese, considering that it is held to be the gold standard of hot wing dips - excluding hot wing sauce itself, of course. Blue cheese (or bleu cheese, if you prefer) dip is made with a pungent, creamy cheese that cuts into the spiciness of hot wings by adding a new layer of flavor and a cooling sensation that dulls the heat of the chicken. The strongly flavored cheese, in most of these dips, is often combined with sour cream, mayonnaise or cream cheese, each of which contributes to the overall texture of the dip without bumping up the flavor to the point where it overpowers the hot wing itself.

This particular dip is a pretty standard recipe that you'll probably find in several different places. It calls for sour cream and mayonnaise in addition to the cheese, so "healthy" is not something that could be applied. You can always substitute low fat or nonfat sour cream/mayonnaise; using a good quality blue cheese will make up for any loss of flavor in either of those ingredients.

For most of my friends, getting to eat bulgogi is a treat because they have to go out to a restaurant to eat the Korean marinated and grilled beef. For me, eating bulgogi is about the equivalent of eating meatloaf for my friends. It's boring because we ate it a lot when we were growing up. I know that Korean people always tell non-Koreans that they are wrong when they think that all Korean people eat is barbecue and kimchee, but for my family, it was true. We were in the midwest, and the ingredients for bulgogi and galbee were easier to find than say, fermented soybean paste.

So, since bulgogi seems to be such a treat for my friends, I have written up the "recipe" that my Mom and I use when we make it at home. I say "recipe" in quotes because everyone, of course, makes bulgogi and other Korean foods by taste. Make the marinade, take a taste, and adjust to your liking. It's the same nasic marinade we saw last year for Korean-marinated Flank Steak, but don't you dare call that bulgogi.