Eight servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 to 40 minutes
Frying time: 2 to 3 minutes
8 medium zucchini
1 pound semisoft cheese, such as Monterey Jack, cut into pieces, 2 inches by 1/2-inch
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oil
1. Cook whole zucchini in boiling salted water until crisp-tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Drain; rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
2. Slice each zucchini in half lengthwise. Remove pulpy insides of zucchini. Put pieces of cheese between two halves of zucchini and press together. Then cut crosswise in half. Roll zucchini in flour.
3. Beat egg whites and salt in medium bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold in beaten egg yolks.
4. Heat vegetable oil in frying pan until very hot. Dip zucchini in egg mixture. Carefully place in oil. Fry, a few at a time, turning until golden brown on all sides. Remove from pan with slotted spoon and put on paper towels to absorb extra oil. Repeat to fry all zucchini.
5. Put fried zucchinis on paper towels to absorb extra oil.
This recipe, for pasta and broccoli, was adapted by The Tribune test kitchen from verbal instructions given by Marcia Capone of Riverside.
BROCCOLI AND LINGUINI
Four to six servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
1 3/4 pounds fresh broccoli
4 tablespoons each: olive oil and vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced, about 1 1/2 teaspoons
1 pound linguini noodles, cooked, drained
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt, black pepper to taste
1. Cut broccoli into 1-inch florets. Peel stems and cut into 1/4 to 1/
2-inch thick slices. Drop stems into boiling water. Cook 2 minutes; add florets and continue cooking until crisp-tender, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Drain; rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
2. Heat oils in large skillet. Add garlic; cook over medium heat until light brown. Add broccoli; cook and stir with wooden spoon until lightly browned.
3. Stir in cooked noodles. Toss to heat through. Add cheese, salt and peppper. Serve.
These Asian recipes are adapted from recipes of Nguyen thi Tuyet Huong
–called Mi Mi by her friends. She is from Vietnam, and now works in the consumer homemaking department of the Illinois Extension Service.
SPICY SALAD
Six servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Standing time: 30 minutes
1 lemon
1 lime
1 clove fresh garlic, mashed
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
4 teaspoons sugar
6 teaspoons fish sauce (nam pla), see note
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 medium cabbage, finely chopped
2 cups cooked diced skinless chicken or cooked shrimp
1/2 cup unsalted, roasted peanuts, chopped
2 tablespoons each: minced fresh mint, cilantro (coriander)
1. Squeeze juice from lemon and lime into large bowl, straining out seeds. Add garlic, pepper flakes, sugar and fish sauce. Mix well.
2. Add carrots, cabbage and chicken (or shrimp). Toss well to mix. Taste and adjust seasonings. Let stand 30 minutes.
3. To serve, sprinkle with peanuts, minced mint and cilantro.
Note: Fish sauce (nam pla) is available in Oriental food shops.
STIR-FRIED BEEF WITH KALE
Two servings
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
1 pound kale leaves
1/2 pound piece boneless beef chuck, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons oil
6 small green onions, chopped
1. To prepare kale, remove center vein. Stack leaves on top of each other, roll up in cigar shape and slice into 1/2-inch slices. You will have about 4 cups.
2. Put steaming rack into 4-quart saucepan. Put 2 to 3 inches water in pan. Heat water to boil. Add kale; cover and steam until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain kale, reserving 2 tablespoons of the cooking water.
3. Combine 2 tablespoons of kale water with flour, soy sauce and pepper.
4. Heat frying pan or wok; add oil and heat oil. When oil is hot, brown onions for about 2 minutes. Add beef; stir-fry until beef is no longer pink. Add soy mixture. Heat to simmer; simmer until beef is tender, about 5 minutes. Add kale; stir to heat through. Remove from heat. Serve immediately.
A GROUNDWORK OF AID FOR WOULD-BE GARDENER
There`s help for vegetable gardeners in the Chicago area.
The University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service, the Botanic Garden of Chicago and the City of Chicago`s Department of Human Services all provide assistance to would-be gardeners.
— The Extension Service helps in both community gardens, operated by several families or persons, and individual back yard gardens. Assistance includes soil testing, pest control, on-site help on planting and maintaining the garden and demonstrations on cooking and preserving techniques. Brian Williquette is project leader for urban gardening and has several program assistants working in the field. For information, call 267-9838 or 737-1179.
— The Botanic Garden of Chicago helps start three or four community gardens a year. It doesn`t assist individual gardeners. Help for the community gardens includes start-up money of approximately $300 to $400 in garden tools, seeds and plants. Becky Severson is in charge of the program. For information, call 835-8254.
— The Department of Human Services runs a neighborhood farm program, assisting both community and back yard gardeners, through its community service centers, in nine Chicago locations. Billye Webb is coordinator. The department supplies start-up kits consisting of seeds and plants. It will sponsor its annual Harvest Fair, a competition based on the quality of produce, at Daley Center on Aug. 21. It will be open to the public at 10 a.m.; the produce is not for sale. For information on the farm program, call 744-4045.
The three groups listed above frequently work in cooperation with each other.
For example, community gardens in the Pilsen area have received help from both the Botanic Garden and the Extension Service. ”I went after whatever help I could get,” says Teresa Medina, who works in Pilsen`s 18th Street Development Corp., an organization geared toward bettering the neighborhood.
Deloris Jones and Alma Mora are two of the extension advisers who spend their days visiting gardens and giving practical advice. Jones works on the north side of the city and lives next door to one of the gardens she assists; Mora`s area includes the Pilsen area; she`s of Hispanic heritage, and easily spans possible language barriers in that area.
Part of Jones` and Mora`s job is finding coordinators for the community gardens. They teach the coordinators, and the coordinators assign plots and teach the individual gardeners. Although it helps for the adviser and coordinator to understand the language of ethnic gardeners, the act of gardening often transcends language problems.
”This garden is in its eighth year,” Jones said, referring to a north side community garden predominantly tended by Asiatics and coordinated by Mamie Thornton. ”A lot of these people don`t speak English, but Mamie still communicates with them. She just has a way.”
Becky Severson, urban horticulturist for the Botanic Garden`s Green Chicago program, also spends most of her time at the community gardens assisted by the program. ”It`s self-initiated (by neighborhood groups), and usually it`s people who are just tired of looking at a vacant lot. They want their neighborhood to look better, and they`re interested in both flowers and vegetables.”
Help from the groups doesn`t extend indefinitely, however. The idea is to get the gardeners going and then leave them on their own.
”We give them as much help as we can, and with different ethnic groups we translate technical advice into their language,” extension project leader Williquette says. ”The idea is to get them self governing.”
CULTURE SHOWS ITS STRIPES IN GARDEN ROWS
The corn you see growing in one vegetable garden means corn-on-the-cob for one family. Another family might consider the leaves, used for tamales, as the most important part of the corn plant.
Much of the same produce is found in all vegetable gardens; what`s different is the way people of different ethnic backgrounds prepare them.
”It`s how you cook it,” says Dena Petito; she and her husband, Will, have been growing vegetables for 24 years. ”I think of escarole as being really Italian–we put it in chicken soup or cook it in a little oil. But others use it mostly in salads.”
Chinese kale, bok choy and water plant are greens found in Oriental gardens; even though the names are different, they are cooked the same way as more familiar greens.
”I had never seen water plant before the (Asian) refugees; they must have brought the seeds with them,” says Brian Williquette of the Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.
Hispanics might add some of their peppers when they cook greens and Southerners would probably throw in bacon or salt pork.
”When I`m cooking greens, I put in cilantro, green peppers or chili peppers, and then I cook them plain for myself,” says Sally Garcia. ”Cubans want everything hot.”
Cabbage and kohlrabi are two products in most German and Polish gardens, according to Williquette. Sauerkraut is an important end product, ”but also we grow cabbage and then stuff the leaves,” says Marcia Capone, who has an Italian garden in Riverside.
Whether it`s tomatoes or zucchini, water plants or banana peppers, there`s nothing quite like going out and picking your own. No matter what the ethnic background.
