The other day I was determined to make a delicious, healthy Mexican dinner for my boyfriend using local ingredients from the Greenmarket. For the past couple of weeks I have had my eye on the zucchini blossoms that are available at a few of the stands. Zucchini blossoms are just so beautiful and delicate. I have eaten them widely in Mexico, where they often fill quesadillas along with Oaxacan cheese, but had never cooked with them myself. Well, that is not exactly true. When I was in culinary school, we stuffed them with chicken mousseline and then poached them as a garnish for a soup, but that was not quite my style.
For all of you who do not know me, I am half Mexican, and take great pride in that part of my culture, most especially the cuisine. My boyfriend's only exposure to Mexican food has been pitiful (he is Italian), including "fajitas" in Rhode Island that involved a piece of melted Kraft cheese draped across three overstuffed tortillas. You can understand that I had to do it some justice.
On Monday I headed down to Union Square and bought fresh squash blossoms, zucchini, cilantro, spring onions, garlic scapes, scallops, and a lobster tail. The cilantro was from the same stand as the squash blossoms, and is probably the most fragrant bunch I have ever held to my nose. I don't understand people who hate cilantro. Anyway, I made a very simple "salsa" by sauteeing garlic scapes, onion, and zucchini, and then blending them up with cilantro and some lime juice. Confession: I snuck 2 non-local tomatillos into the pan. The salsa was a vibrant green color, with the zucchini flesh giving it a nice, smooth body, balanced by the acidity of the tomatillos. I made another sauce, very similar, but with the fresh squash blossoms and a roasted poblano pepper. The second sauce was slightly more rich, but very subtle. When my boyfriend got home we made the tortillas. I was determined to make pumpkin seed tortillas, so I added some pulverized seeds to my Maseca mix before adding the water. I then taught my boyfriend how to press the dough with the tortilla press (sorry folks, brought it from Mexico), and cook them on the comal. Pretty soon, he was enjoying his job of being the tortillero, and I was relieved of a tedious task. I grilled the scallops and cut them into quarters, and then removed the lobster meat from the tail (the lobster tails come cooked already). We made a plate of garnishes: quartered limes, fresh cilantro, sliced avocado, and shredded cheese. I couldn't find cotija, so I used Manouri, which is a mild Greek cheese, but with the same consistency and flavor that I was looking for. I would have chosen something from the market, like the aged Cheddar we finished last week, but the cheese pickings on Mondays are tough.
We sat at the dinner table and built our own tacos with the squash salsas I had made. My boyfriend loved them both, even though he was convinced that one of them was guacamole. The dinner was fabulous, and let me just say that it is hard to eat as well as we did in many restaurants in the city.
On another note, our Burmese Green Tea Leaf Salad, or Lephet Thoke, recipe was featured on Forks.ca, a cooking website based in California. We were very excited about this, and hope that everyone revisits the recipe from last Summer. It is a cabbage salad with sesame seeds, shrimp, and fried garlic with a green tea leaf dressing. Dana from Forks prefers Romaine lettuce to Napa Cabbage, which sounds just as great to us.