Shrimp Quesadillas, Turkish Delights, Baked Bhindi, Italian Stacks, Cioppino

Shrimp Quesadilla Vera Cruz
Shrimp, onion and bell peppers, and spices, wrapped in a giant tortilla with cheese and griddled to perfection!

4 large Tortillas
32 large raw Shrimp, peeled
3 Yellow Tomatoes, diced
1 cup White Onion, diced
1 large Red Bell Pepper, diced
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
3 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp powdered Coriander
2 cup shredded Cheese
Optional Cilantro to taste

Saute the tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, cilantro if using, and spices together until tender.  Add the shrimp and lime juice and cook until the shrimp are turning pink and the liquid is almost gone.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds, so they fold easily.  Scoop a portion of the filling onto one half of a tortilla, top with the cheese, fold in half and transfer to a hot dry skillet or griddle.  Cook each side just a couple minutes until browned and the cheese inside is melting.  Transfer to a plate.  Serve with a side of salsa and tortilla chips.

Kabak Dolma
"Dolma" means 'stuffed'.  "Kabak" is Zucchini.  Get it?  I found these great globe-shaped Zucchini at the Farmer's Market and just had to try them.  Sally's been learning Turkish, and we had a Turkish meal while in St. Petersburgh over the weekend, so here you are.

*  Zucchini  -- any size, shape, color.  My globe was about 4" diameter and I carved a 3" diameter cup in each half.  Cut into lengths or halve into boats and remove the centers. 

Stuffing
1/3 cup of my black bean burger mixture, normally it would be ground lamb or beef
1/3 cup fine diced Onion
1/8 cup Tomato Paste or 1/4 cup grated tomato plus 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/8 cup dried Parsley or 1/4 cup fresh
1 tsp dried Mint or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped.
1 Tbsp  Water
1 tsp Oil
salt & pepper to taste
Tomato slices to top, or halved Cherry tomatoes

Stand the lengths of zucchini open end up in a pot with a cover.  Spoon in the filling, leaving some space because the rice is going to swell. 

Top the lengths with halved cherry tomatoes.   

Turn the burner on to medium  heat and pour boiling water around the lengths, about half way up.  Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rice grains are tender.  

Serve with a side of Kisir... our next recipe:

Kisir
Not quite the national dish of Turkey, it is certainly ubiquitous, with thousands of variations across the country.  First cousin to Greek Tabbouleh (don't tell the Greeks!).  Kisir is a Bulgur grain salad with additions that vary from day to day, place to place; Tabbouleh is a Parsley salad with additions.    This is Kisir, my way, today.

8+ oz.  Bulgur Wheat -- fine grained, not the coarser grind used for tabbouleh
.5 Liter Boiling Water
3-4 Tbsp Tomato Paste
Hot Pepper Sauce to taste
1/2 cup diced Onion
1 med, Yellow Tomato, diced
3/4 cup diced Peppers --  Red Bell and Green Cubanelle
1/4  cup Pomegranate Juice or molasses
Lemon Juice to taste

Soak the bulgur in the boiling water and let it swell and soften while you chop the other ingredients.  Gently fold the other ingredients into the soft bulgur, and drizzle over the pomegranate molasses and lemon juice.

Other additions:  English cucumber is very nice, unsalted cashews, fresh parsley and mint, green onion, chopped kalamata style olives, spicy pepper flakes or pastes to kick up the heat.  


Baked Bhindi Amchur
Usually I dry-fry this Indian street food recipe, but I decided to try roasting them instead.  We were gifted about 3/4 pound of fresh-from-the-garden okra, which is always better than veg from a bag in the mega-mart.

3/4-1 lb Fresh Okra (frozen would work but you want to thaw and dry it before proceeding
1 Tbsp Amchur Powder -- Indian dried mango powder
1 tsp Coriander because no Indian dish is ever a one-note wonder!
Optional Lime-Salt -- make your own by putting lime peels in a covered bowl of salt froa few days

Crispy, salty, tart, slightly sweet -- what more could you ask?


Italian Stacks
Individual Eggplant Parmesans or or less.

1 small oval or round eggplant per person
Jar Pasta Sauce
Fresh Tomatoes
1 Onion, sliced thin
Panko bread crumbs
Grated Parmesan
Shredded Cheese

Slice the eggplants into 1/2" to 3/4" thick rounds, keeping track of which rounds make up each whole eggplant.    Broil the rounds for 5-6 minutes per side -- enough to get them turning brown, but not soft.

Stack the rounds from one eggplant, layering slices of tomato, onion, panko, parmesan and pasta sauce in whatever way you choose.  Top with more pasta sauce and shredded cheese.  Repeat with the other eggplants.  Bake the assembled stacks for about 30 minutes at 400F to warm everything through and melt the cheeses. 

If your stacks are small, a nice salad will round out the meal.


Vegan Cioppino
Normally a wine-laced seafood stew, this version uses meaty Crimini and/or Oyster mushrooms plus chickpeas in place of marine protein.  Plenty tasty no matter what! The original FoK recipe has you using salty commercial vegetable broth -- I used water plus my Scarborough Fayre herb blend I've written about recently.

1 lb sliced/chopped Mushrooms
1 cup chopped Onion
1 cup chopped Celery 
1 cup Water + 1 Tbsp Scarborough Fayre -- shake well to mix
2 cup halved Cherry Tomatoes
1 bulb fresh Fennel, thinly sliced
6 cloves Garlic
1 Tbsp reduced-sodium Old Baytm Seasoning
3 cans (45 oz) no-sodium-added Chickpeas with liquid
1 can no-sodium-added Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Optional: wedges of lemon, toast to mop up the juice, black pepper to taste

Saute the mushrooms in a large skillet,  hot and fast, so they don't shrink before browning.  Reserve.

In your soup pot, saute the onion, celery, garlic and fennel, adding the "broth" a little at a time to prevent sticking.  Add the chickpeas and diced tomatoes, along with the Old Bay.  Simmer the flavors together for 10-15 minutes, then add cherry tomatoes.  Continue simmering until the tomatoes start to lose their shape.  Add the mushrooms and lemon juice and cook another couple minutes to warm them through.

Of course, if you're not vegan/vegetarian, you can always add fish, shrimp, scallops and/or clams.

Cioppino is a dish invented in the 1800s in San Francisco by Italian immigrant fishermen.  At the end of the day,  the unlucky fishermen would visit their more successful  comrades, carrying a bowl or bucket, asking them to 'chip in' a bit of seafood to take home.  Knowing of course that tomorrow the luck may change and a small shared catch was better than none.  The fishermen's wives then turned the 'chip-in' catch into some variant of the regional seafood soups/stews from the Old Country.  Over time the recipe became somewhat standardized into what we know as Cioppino today.