The Dinner Hour

Tuesday July 5 5:00 to 6:00pm:  Favorite Summertime Foods

Special Guests:  Sally Kendall and Elizabeth Shepard

What's Up in the Garden This Week with Sally?

Garlic Scapes - What they are, what they look like

Garlic Scape Recipes - How to use them.  Sally brought in the raw scape Pesto and we all LOVED it!  Great as a cracker spread, with pasta, as a spread on burgers.  Sally also tried adding some chopped scapes to her burger before cooking and was really happy with the results.

This is garlic scape season - they will be gone in the next week or so :-(

Favorite Summer Foods with Elizabeth Shepard

(Elizabeth is a New York Food Professional and former Editor in Chief of Epicurious.com who has a home in Granville.)

Gazpacho - Robin's Version with a secret ingredient...Watermelon!

I grind all ingredients in a food processor to a fine chop - I grind each ingredient separately.  Once everything is chopped, add spices, herbs, and juices. It is best when it is allowed to chill and ideally sit overnight.

• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1/2 large red onion
• 2 seedless cucumbers (leave skin on)
• 1 red and 1 green pepper
• 1/2 to 1 jalapeno (depending on preference for heat)
• 6 tomatoes (preferably fresh)
• 1/4 small watermelon (chopped the same as the above ingredients)
• Handful of fresh herbs (I use two or three different herbs and might choose dill, cilantro, basil, thyme, savory - winter or summer, tarragon, chives.  I do not use rosemary or sage as they tend to overpower the flavor)
• Juice of 2 lemons or limes
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1T Worcestershire Sauce
• 3 dashes Tabasco Sauce
• 1T Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt

Before serving drizzle with some good quality olive oil

Elizabeth's Gazpacho (Actually, Elizabeth's Mom's Gazpacho!)

Be sure to read the cook's notes - great explanations especially for the paste that you make out of the hard boiled egg and garlic which one reviewer claims "makes all the difference!"

Bruschetta

A great appetizer that can be made ahead of time!

Cut bread about 1/2 thick - use a good quality crusty bread only!  Brush with olive oil and grill until crisp and golden.  Rub with a large cut clove of garlic after grilling, but while it is still hot.  While it is great right off of the grill, it is pretty darned good several hours after it is grilled and you can always throw it back on the grill for a quick minute or two to reheat.

Let your guests add their own toppings to keep the bread crispy and assure your guests get exactly what they want.

Toppings (Click on the Bruschetta link above for the recipes below.)

• Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella
• Warm Herbed Goat Cheese
• Radicchio and onions with Balsamic Vinegar

Rustic Green Olive Tapenade

This Bruschetta topping is from Fine Cooking Magazine

• 1 clove garlic
• 2 salt packed anchovies rinsed and filleted or 4 oil-packed fillets
• Kosher salt
• 1/2 pound good green olives rinsed and pitted
• 3T capers rinsed well
• 1t finely chopped savory
• 3T chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1/4 C Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 hard-cooked eggs peeled and roughly chopped

Grind the garlic and anchovies into a paste with a pinch of salt.  Combine olives and capers in a food processor until roughly chopped.  Transfer to a bowl and mix in the anchovy paste, herbs, olive oil, and eggs.