Winter Squash Risotto with Sage

Risotto is one of the ultimate comfort foods in our house. A little leftover winter squash and turkey stock from the Thanksgiving bird were transformed into a delicious dish, satisfying enough to constitute an entire meal with just a salad of bitter greens and pears on the side. 

My typical proportions for risotto are ¼ cup of rice per person for a main dish, a little less for a side, cooked with 1-1¼ cup of stock. I end up using a little less stock when I’m adding something that contributes to the liquid content, like squash. So for this I used ¾ c Arborio rice, 3 cups of turkey (or chicken) stock and 3/4 c pureed squash.

Needing something to spark up the dish, I made browned butter and sautéed a few sage leaves, which I stirred into the risotto and also sprinkled on top. This was an entirely local and organic meal with the exception of the rice. I used a hard local cheese instead of the usual Parmesan.

Winter Squash Risotto (for 3 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish)

1 small onion, finely chopped

Butter (or olive oil)

¾ c Arborio rice

¾ -1 c squash puree

3-4 c chicken or turkey stock, warmed

Salt and pepper

¼ c grated Parmesan cheese or other flavorful hard cheese

Lightly sauté the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Start adding the stock, about ¼ c at a time, regulating the heat to keep the liquid at a simmer. Keep stirring and adding additional ¼ c of stock. The entire risotto should take about 20 minutes to cook. About half way through, start adding the pureed squash with the stock. When the risotto is just finished, adjust the seasonings and add the grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Optional garnishes: sage leaves browned in butter, parsley or other herbs, sautéed leaves of Brussels sprouts or other greens.

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Oven-Roasted Garnet Yams with Cinnamon and Garlic

The organically grown baby “garnet yams” in our local produce market were just too good to pass up. I roasted them, slightly covered in olive oil and lightly salted, in a 350-375 degree oven, accompanied by whole garlic cloves and chopped stick cinnamon. They were ready in 15-20 minutes. I thought I would share them as part of November’s Spice Rack Challenge.

The idea came from the New York Times food writer Melissa Clark, who describes the cinnamon infusion as a great reference to the flavors and aromas of the Thanksgiving season. While I began roasting the yams whole, I thought that slicing them would help the cinnamon infusion. So would lightly crushing the cinnamon sticks. You wouldn’t get the same result from ground cinnamon since it would probably just burn. 

The cinnamon sticks were from a jar of pickled grapes that I made last spring, and just replenished, starting with new sticks. As the old adage goes, “Waste not, want not.” This was a terrific way to re-use what would otherwise have ended in the compost pile prematurely.

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Cinnamon Pickled Grapes and a Refreshing Grape Shrub

Getting ready for the year-end holidays, I decided to pickle a new batch of grapes with a cinnamon stick and simple syrup made of sugar and vinegar. Brilliantly easy, provocatively mysterious yet delicious, the grapes can be served with pâté, meats and poultry, and probably with a root vegetable terrine of some sort. They’re addictive, so make lots. They can be ready in a matter or days or kept in a tightly sealed jar in a dark place for months. The cured batch illustrated here hailed from last spring, and while the skins are a little tough, the flavor is extraordinary. And so is the liquid as the base for a type of vinegar-based drink called a “shrub.”  A double treat. 

The source of the recipe cracks me up. In 1986, the famous food writer M.F.K. Fisher annotated a 1967 edition of Catherine Plagemann’s cookbook Fine Preserving, and the marginalia are as charming as the original recipes and their stories. This one in particular is a real period piece. First, Fisher declares that this is one of her favorite recipes in the book and then goes on in her slightly feisty way to take it apart and reconstruct it, leaving out the onion saying, “I don’t think it adds anything.”  She uncharacteristically doesn’t pick up on an amusing mistake Plagemann makes about Moroccan food (which I’ll write about sometime), and describes the hot syrup as “really a kind of bar-mix, called ‘simple syrup,’ I think.” I love it. 

Using Fisher’s take on the recipe, this couldn’t be simpler to make. Place washed and thoroughly dried grapes in a container with a tight lid. Insert a cinnamon stick. Simmer sugar and white vinegar (or white wine vinegar) for five minutes, pour the hot liquid over the grapes, seal the jar and set aside in a dark cupboard for a week to several months.  Plagemann claims the grapes are ready in a day, but they’re just barely coated by then. Fisher says to use them after a month, and I agree, since by then they’re well infused with the spiced syrup and the skins of the grapes haven’t hardened too much. They’ll be perfect by Christmas.

By the way, don’t throw out the liquid from the pickled grapes. It makes a terrific drink with added seltzer water. A drink made with a fruit base that includes vinegar and sugar is called a shrub and makes a refreshing beverage.  Characteristically, I also re-used the cinnamon stick since it still was potent, adding it to a pan of oven-roasted baby garnet yams and garlic.

Cinnamon Pickled Grapes after Catherine Plagemann and M.F.K. Fisher

For each pint jar:

1½ c light red grapes, stemmed, washed and thoroughly dried

¾ c granulated sugar

½ c white wine vinegar or white vinegar (I used white vinegar)

1 3-inch stick cinnamon, in two pieces

Place the grapes in a very clean pint jar that has a tight lid. Bring the sugar and vinegar to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the grapes and insert the cinnamon stick in the jar. Use a skewer or chopstick to release any air bubbles. Cap tightly and store in a dark cupboard for a month before using.

Variation: Plagemann added minced onion to hers and Fisher omitted it. I am going to make a batch with halved rings of red onion and white wine vinegar to see how it varies the outcome.

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Chard Stuffed with Winter Squash, Brown Rice and Currants

These flavorful little bundles are perfect for a fall meal, simply served with a salad of bitter greens, pears and walnuts or as a side dish for roast chicken. I wrapped lightly blanched leaves of young chard around a risotto-like combination of roasted winter squash and brown rice, perked with little bites of dried currants and a pinch of ground mace. The bundles were baked on top of blanched slivers of freshly dug carrots and chard stems (don’t throw them away, they’re delicious!). The texture of the slightly crisp slivered vegetables complemented the soft centers of the stuffed greens, and the flavors were a great combination.

This dish was a real workaround of the weather. First, with a pending snow and ice storm (yes, in October, do you believe it?) I harvested an armful of chard from my garden and tented the remaining crop just in case.  The chard was young, with delicate leaves and long leggy stems, so I was determined to use both.  Second, after the hurricane that we had here a few months ago, the local crops of winter squash were compromised. Our CSA warned us not to keep the squash too long and to wipe down the outside with hydrogen peroxide or diluted bleach when we took it home. Scary idea. While I normally would have stored the squash in our cold basement until sometime in the winter, we’re eating our way through the small crop right now. I used a portion of a small dumpling squash, dicing it into ¼-inch pieces and roasting it in the oven. For the rice, I decided on short-grain brown rice since it’s stickier than other types and I thought that it would hold its shape better.  I made the stuffing the day before and stored it in the refrigerator.

Chard Stuffed with Winter Squash, Brown Rice and Currants

6-8 stalks of green chard

1/3 c short grain brown rice

Water

1 c diced (1/4–1/3 inch cubes) firm winter squash (e.g., butternut or dumpling)

Olive oil

1 tbsp dried currants

¼ tsp ground mace (or nutmeg or cinnamon)

Salt and pepper

1 small carrot, cut into 1½-inch long matchsticks

Slice the stems from the leaves of chard, reserving both. Cut the stems into 1½-inch matchsticks and set aside.

Make the stuffing (this can be done a day in advance and refrigerated). Add rice to boiling water and cook it, at a gentle boil, until al dente, about 30 minutes. Drain and set aside. Toss the diced squash in a little olive oil and salt and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until soft and slightly brown, about 10 minutes, turning part way through roasting. Remove to a bowl to cool. Combine the rice and squash, add the dried currants and spice of choice, and season with salt and pepper.

When ready to assemble and bake, bring a large pot of water to boil and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Plunge the chard leaves in the boiling water and remove them quickly to an ice water bath. Drain the leaves immediately and place them on a towel to flatten and lightly dry. Add the carrots and chard stems to the boiling water to blanch them and remove them to a baking dish, sprinkling them with salt and a few drops of olive oil.

To make the chard bundles, place a spoonful of the rice mixture (amount depends on the size of the leaves) on each chard leaf, roll up from the stem end, adjusting to make sure no filling is visible and folding in the sides to make a neat package. Place on top of the carrots and chard stems. Bake for about 25 minutes.

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Apple-Mace Muffins

These are the ultimate Sunday morning muffins – light but rich with a delicate crumb and a lingering spiciness. The tops are crunchy from a sprinkling of brown sugar crystals and the inside contains tiny cubes of fall apples. When I thought about making muffins for this month’s Spice Rack Challenge, I envisioned a perfect autumn breakfast in the garden, with the air crisp and clear, orange leaves slowly drifting down, and the smell of smoke from a neighbor’s chimney. Spiced muffins fresh from the oven, hot mulled apple cider, sliced pears….

Ahem, the only thing that materialized in that little dream of mine was the tray of muffins. A late-season nor’easter tore up the coast yesterday and dumped about 6 inches of snow on us. Snow and ice! This is the freakin’ day before freakin’ Halloween. This is October. Normally, we would think a storm like this was early if it came around Thanksgiving. So I spent Saturday canning tomatoes that I picked at our CSA last week. Haha. That was, after I harvested all of the peppers and other perishables from my garden as the sloppy wet flakes fell to the ground. Stores closed, games were postponed, trees and power lines were down, parking lots were 4 inches deep in slush, and everyone looked at each other and said, “This is ridiculous.” 

So, I’m glad I took the time to make the muffins. I adapted them pretty liberally from a recipe in Marion Cunningham’s excellent Breakfast Book, which she called the “last word in nutmeg muffins.” I substituted mace for nutmeg (they’re related, and I actually liked the mace better than I would have nutmeg), added diced apples, sprinkled the tops with sugar and made them in several sizes. Her recipe was supposed to make 12 muffins. Mine made 12 full size and 12 minis.  This is the first time I made these muffins and I have to say that they’re a keeper.

Apple-Mace Muffins adapted from Marion Cunningham

2 c all-purpose flour

¾ c granulated white sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1½ tsp ground mace (or grate a whole nutmeg)

½ tsp salt

5 tbsp butter, melted

1 egg, room temperature

¾ c heavy cream

¾ c milk (I used nonfat)

1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into ¼-inch dice

1 tbsp turbinado or Demerara sugar (brown sugar crystals)

Butter for the muffin pans (or use paper cups)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin pans (18 regular size or 12 regular size and 12 minis or 36 minis) by buttering them or inserting paper muffin cups.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Melt the butter in a 2-cup glass measuring cup in the microwave oven, until just melted. Cool slightly and add the egg, beating the mixture with a fork. Add the cream and milk (you can measure this right into the cup to keep the number of dishes down since the butter and egg will equal ½ cup).

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, stirring lightly until the flour is just absorbed. Do not over mix. Fold in the diced apples. Spoon batter into the muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full. Sprinkle the sugar crystals on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Let them cool for 5 minutes and remove them (gently, they’re delicate when warm) to a cooling rack. Serve warm.

Makes 18 full-sized muffins, or 12 full-sized and 12 minis, or 36 minis.

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Two Pots of Homemade Mustard

My antique German cobalt blue and white mustard pots with hinged with pewter hardware  – charming miniatures of beer mugs from the same manufacturer – showcase my latest attempts at mustard.  Making your own mustard is a snap and happens in a matter of a few minutes, with waiting time between. No one in her right mind should pay the kind of prices these condiments command in specialty shops, though I’m sure there are amazing choices out there that would be hard to duplicate.

The technique using whole mustard seed is simple. (There’s another technique using powdered mustard.) You soak the whole seeds in vinegar (sometimes with spices) overnight. Puree the mix into a paste in a food processor or blender. Add salt, sweetener (honey or sugar) and seasonings and let sit at room temperature for a couple of days or until the flavor is mellow enough for your taste. Then refrigerate it to store. That’s it. 

The first recipe is new for me and comes from a recipe for Sri Lankan mustard paste in At Home with Madhur Jaffrey.  It contains ginger, which I increased, and garlic and cayenne, which I decreased. I used yellow mustard seeds since I wanted the purity of color (boosted by a pinch of turmeric.). This was fresh and clean tasting and lovely in color. Jaffrey serves it with curry or slathers it on pineapple. (I  haven’t braved that yet.) 

The second is a riff on Dijon-style mustard that I’ve made before.  This time I used half yellow and half brown mustard seeds, which provided a slightly grainy texture. I find that the yellow seeds are mellower, dissolve more quickly and make a fluffier mustard.  I decreased the proportion of vinegar to seeds that I used in the first recipe to account for the addition of white wine. I also drained off the soaking vinegar, reserving it to add back in, before I ground the mustard to a paste.

Sri Lankan Mustard adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

6 tbsp yellow mustard seeds (or a combination of yellow and brown)

2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 two-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 c cider vinegar

½ tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to taste but be cautious)

2 tsp salt

¼ tsp ground turmeric

4 tsp sugar

Soak the mustard seeds, garlic and ginger in a bowl with the cider overnight. Blend the contents in a food processor or blender until a paste forms. Add the remaining ingredients and whir to combine. Put in a jar and leave, unrefrigerated, to mellow for 2-3 days. (You should taste after two and add more cayenne if necessary since pepper mellow when it ages.) Refrigerate.

Grainy Dijon-style Mustard

3 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

3 tbsp brown mustard seeds

¾ c cider vinegar

¼ c white wine

1½ tsp salt (or to taste)

2 tsp sugar or honey

Soak the mustard seeds in a bowl with the cider overnight. Blend the contents in a food processor or blender until a paste forms. (The paste might form better if some of the vinegar is drained off first and then re-added.) Add the remaining ingredients and whir to combine. Put in a jar and leave, unrefrigerated, to mellow for 2-3 days. Refrigerate.

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Coconut Chicken Curry and Indian-Style Green Beans with Mustard Seed

This month’s Spice Rack Challenge features mustard seeds, and while I’ve experimented with a couple of recipes for prepared mustard, I wanted to use mustard seed in some Indian dishes. I’ve virtually been cooking my way through the excellent cookbook At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, which I happily consulted when I had a glut of okra.  (One of the recipes I tried also used mustard seed.)  As with many cuisines, Indian food starts with heating oil in a pan and adding spices to cook them slightly before combining them with other ingredients. 

This chicken curry starts with cumin seed and brown mustard seed. The recipe is simple but the flavors are complex due to the combination of ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, paprika and chilies, as well as curry leaves or basil. (I didn’t have the real curry leaves used in Indian cooking, which come from a small tree and grow in a pinnate formation, like an ash. So I used slivered basil, However, I did have an herb that’s referred to as a curry plant, which I grow as an ornamental plant and sometimes use to garnish food. Its silvery leaves resemble rosemary, and are quite aromatic. I think it’s more typically used in potpourris.)  The curry can be made as hot as you like with the addition of birds-eye chilies. The addition of coconut milk at the end smoothes everything out. 

I served the curry over jasmine rice and added a side dish of green beans, which were blanched and then stir-fried in hot oil with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and sesame seeds.

Coconut Chicken Curry adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

3 tbsp olive or canola oil

½ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp brown mustard seeds

1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise and then crosswise into half rings

2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

3 cloves garlic, chopped fine

4 pieces skinless and boneless chicken pieces (breasts and/or thighs)

¼-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or more to taste

1 tbsp bright red paprika

1 tsp salt

15-20 fresh curry leaves or 8 fresh basil leaves, slivered

1 c water

1 c well-stirred coconut milk

Optional: 1-4 birds-eye chilies

Have all ingredients measured and ready to go. Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop (a few seconds), add the onions. Stir and fry the onions until lightly browned.

Add the ginger, garlic, chicken, cayenne, paprika, salt, and the curry or basil leaves. Stir for a few minutes, allowing the chicken to become gently seared. Add the water and bring to a simmer. Cover, lower heat and simmer gently for about 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove the chicken to a plate and cover to keep warm. Boil down the liquid until about 1/4 c remains.  Return the chicken to the pan, pour in the coconut milk and the birds-eye chilies if using. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes. Serve over jasmine rice.

Indian-Style Green Beans adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

1 lb green beans, topped, tailed and cut into 1-inch lengths

Water

Salt

1-2 tbsp olive or canola oil

½ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp brown or yellow mustard seeds

½ tsp sesame seeds

A pinch to 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

Bring salted water to a boil and add the green beans. Cook until just tender, 3-5 minutes. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the cumin, mustard and sesame seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop (a few seconds), add the green beans. Turn the heat to medium low and stir the beans to coat them with the oil and seeds. Season with salt and a little cayenne pepper, to taste.

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Cumin-scented Tomato and Chickpea Soup with Socca

Arabic cooking around the Mediterranean as well as in the Middle East is characterized by combinations of spices, such as the C-lettered group: Cumin, Coriander, Cinnamon and Cardamom. I use them in various combinations to flavor stews and soups, from this tomato version to a really good winter squash soup that I’ll make next season. Cumin and cinnamon find their way into a Moroccan spice mix called “Ras el Hannout,” which I use to flavor oven-roasted chicken or cooked chickpeas. Cumin and coriander are the prime flavors in the Egyptian seed and nut combination called “dukkah,” which I serve with carrot puree thanks to chef Ana Sortun. You can sample it at one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Oleana, in Cambridge, Massachusetts or read about it in her cookbook, Spice, Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean.

 This week, with 20 pounds of tomatoes from our CSA ripening in the dining room, a big batch of just-cooked chickpeas and a Spice Rack challenge featuring cumin, I couldn’t resist making a soup inspired by a recent article by Mark Bittman in the New York Times Magazine.  Onions, ginger and garlic and cooked in a little oil and cumin, coriander and cinnamon are added to make a paste, much like a curry.  Vegetable stock and tomatoes are tossed in to cook slowly, and chickpeas are added at the end. I prefer cooking my own chickpeas rather than using canned ones because of the high salt content, but honestly, good-quality canned chickpeas and beans are acceptable. 

Since I was on a roll with the chickpeas, I decided to make socca, crepes made from chickpea flour and seasoned with black pepper and cumin. Hunks of the thick crepes from southern France (they’re hardier than standard French crepes) hot from the oven were terrific with the soup since their hit-you-in-the-face spiciness counterbalanced the sweetness of the soup.  They’re often served on their own as an appetizer.

Tomato and Chickpea Soup adapted from Mark Bittman

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tbsp ginger, chopped

2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

6 medium-large tomatoes, chopped (peeling optional)

1-2 c vegetable broth

1 tsp salt

1 c chickpeas (or the contents of a 14 oz can)

Optional: red pepper flakes or harissa

Cilantro

Saute the onion, garlic and ginger in the oil until softened. Add the cumin, cinnamon and ground coriander and cook, stirring until it forms a paste. Add the tomatoes to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil the tomatoes for about five minutes to release their juice and add the broth and a little salt.  Cook for about 20 minutes, add the chickpeas and cook for another 20 minutes.  Adjust the seasonings (salt and pepper). Serve with fresh cilantro.

Socca with Cumin and Pepper

1 c chickpea flour, sifted

1 c warm water

1 tsp whole cumin seed, lightly toasted and lightly crushed

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

¼ c olive oil + 1 tbsp for pan

Mix all ingredients (except the 1 tbsp olive oil reserved for the pan) and set aside for at least an hour, or even overnight.

Turn the oven to 450 degrees and place a cast iron skillet or griddle in it to heat for about 10 minutes. Swirl the reserved olive oil in the pan to coat and add the batter, evening it out across the surface. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until set.

If you would like the top browner and crisper, run the crepe under a broiler for a few minutes. Serve hot or warm.

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Thai Basil Chicken

Basil of all varieties epitomizes summer for me. It’s persnickety about cold, so I start growing it in June when the weather warms, and between my garden and our CSA, we are harvesting it from June 21 to September 21, quite literally the summer season. I freeze basil pesto in little tubes to add to soups and braises throughout the rest of the year and I make a terrific jelly with lemon basil, which I promise to post as soon as I make another batch.

Because there are so many varieties, with differences in texture, color, flower habit and taste, basil is actually a very versatile addition to the summer repertoire. Of course, there’s the classic tomato and mozzarella salad with Genovese-type basil, as well as pasta and vegetables with basil pesto. But among my favorites are the dishes made with the varieties associated with Asian food: Thai basil of several types, cinnamon basil, holy basil, and so on. The aroma that rises from a few fresh leaves tossed into a hot stir fry is alluring and memorable and addictive.

Here, I made a Thai Basil Chicken dish, served with rice or with rice or bean thread noodles. This week I also made zucchini and noodles with Thai curry paste and coconut milk, again with the basil leaves tossed in to wilt and lend their wonderful flavor and aroma.  Though it was maybe “gilding the lily,” I served the Thai Basil Chicken with a refreshing cucumber salad dressed with rice vinegar and sesame oil and garnished with slivers of Thai basil.  

Thai Basil Chicken

½ or 1 whole boneless chicken breast

Vegetable oil

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce or wheat-free tamari

1 tbsp brown sugar (I used raw turbinado sugar)

2 shallots, slivered

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

½ small hot pepper such as jalapeno, minced

1 medium zucchini, cut into matchsticks

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

1 c Thai basil leaves, including flowers but not stems

Place the chicken in the freezer for about ten minutes to make it firm enough to slice into thin strips. Cut into pieces about 1 x 2 x ¼ inches.

Combine the fish sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar and set aside.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a wide sauté pan large enough to hold all ingredients.  Saute the chicken slowly until it turns white and is nearly cooked through. Remove to a plate.

Add a little more oil to the pan and add the shallots, garlic, hot pepper, zucchini and red bell pepper and stir fry for a few minutes until still crisp. Add the reserved sauce and cook for a few seconds. Add the chicken and stir to heat it. Add the Thai basil and let it wilt. Serve immediately with rice or rice noodles. (If it’s too dry you can add more fish sauce and soy sauce to taste.)

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Zucchini and Noodles in Green Curry Sauce with Thai Basil

Long strands of yellow and green zucchini lighten up a pasta dish, whether combined with spaghetti seasoned with lemon juice and zest, or here, served in a delicious, spicy and creamy Thai–inspired coconut milk sauce with green curry and Thai basil. The strands are also good as a salad lightly dressed with olive oil and vinegar, or steamed as a vegetable dish. If your zucchini is big and seedy, shredding the edges down to the core eliminates those less desirable sections, which can be stewed and combined with a vegetable stuffing. 

Zucchini Noodles in Green Curry Sauce with Thai Basil

1 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk (I used light)

1 tbsp green curry paste

1 lime, peel removed with a vegetable peeler, and juiced

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp fish sauce (optional)

Asian noodles (I used wheat lo mein noodles, but rice or soba noodles would be good)

2-3 scallions, white and light green sections, slivered vertically

1-2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

Vegetable oil

1 green zucchini, shredded lengthwise

1 yellow zucchini, shred lengthwise

½ c Thai basil leaves

Place the coconut milk, green curry paste and lime peel in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the green curry paste. Remove the lime peel and add the lime juice, brown sugar and optional fish sauce. Meanwhile, cook the noodles until al dente, drain them and add them to the warm coconut milk sauce. Lightly sauté the scallions and garlic and add to the noodle mixture. Reserve some of the raw zucchini, and add the rest to the coconut milk sauce, stirring to combine and lightly cook the zucchini (this can be done off the stove since the liquid should cook the vegetables. Add the Thai basil to wilt and, just before serving, add the reserved shredded zucchini.

Serves 4

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