Robin puts the finishing touches on Pan-Roasted Eggplant with Peanut-Chile Sauce. The recipe is the brainchild of Chef Cal Peternell, formerly of the Berkeley farm-to-table mecca, Chez Panisse.
My daughter, Robin, called to invite me for dinner recently. She was pairing leftovers from a dinner party with some new recipes from the New York Times.
“Great!” I said, “I just put a peach cobbler in the oven. I’ll bring it along.” In no time at all, we’d thrown together a fine meal.
This Corn Soup can be served slightly warm or chilled. The recipe is from Chef Samin Nosrat’s blockbuster cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, as is the fennel-radish salad shown in the center of the photo below.
Vegetables Galore
We began with a chilled corn soup featuring a cilantro-onion topping, a perfect starter for a warm summer evening on the patio.
An eggplant dish caught my eye, as I watched Robin saute the slices and arrange them on a platter with a spicy, ginger-peanut sauce. The rustic dish looked and tasted like one you might be served in a village cafe in the south of France. (More of my favorite eggplant dishes here.)
The meal unfolds.
A Persian salad of sliced fennel and radishes had a colorful and pleasant crunch. Now I’m not a fennel fan, but it was a cool, tangy dish that was quite tasty. (Robin thought the fennel should’ve been more thinly sliced, both for looks and texture.)
I’ve since found a Southern Living recipe for Shaved Carrot, Asparagus and Apple Salad, a mixture that also includes angel hair cabbage. The shaving is done with a vegetable peeler. When mixed with the honey-red wine vinaigrette, the vegetables maintain a light crunch.
Shaved Fennel and Radish Salad (upper left) and oven-roasted vegetables (center).
Vine-ripe tomatoes, the glory of summer dining.
Hmm. . . I don’t think there’s a hundred calories on this entire plate. 🙂
This time of year no day is complete without slices of vine-ripe tomatoes, preferably with a balsamic drizzle. And because Robin is a vegetable enthusiast, there were also some tasty slices of oven-roasted squash.
A Sweet Touch
The finale, the cobbler used up the last of those wonderful peaches that Cyndy brought me earlier in the week. I tucked the dessert under a scoop of ice cream and let the goodness ooze all about.
Peach Cobbler. Sometimes I add a few blueberries, but this time I was long on peaches, short on berries.
The kitchen mashup made for such a wonderful evening. I love those “last-minute, bring-what-you’ve-got meals.” They have a way of working out just fine.
Leave a Reply