My bike of 15+ years finally bit it a couple weeks ago, and what I had hoped to be a *recovery week* after a conference and a visit in T.O. was instead a week spent madly chasing anything with wheels. As luck would have it, this was also the week that the weather finally turned nice–and *everyone* was looking for bikes. After some fairly intense Craigslist-ing, I finally found a bike that suited my needs (the Cannondale), but ever the indecisive Libra, I continued to scour CL for a couple of days afterwards and that’s when I found the Trek. It was listed at $175, and I talked them down to $125, at which point I really couldn’t say no. And then there were two. On the bright side, next time one has to go to the shop, I won’t be stuck waiting for the bus.

But anyways, enough about bikes, on to food. The other reason I haven’t been cooking much (aside from getting stuck at work until all hours) is that Dan is OOK (out of kitchen) this week, and so there’s only been one person to cook for most nights, which makes it hard to resist the leftovers/takeout/grazing option. The produce box came today though (containing leeks and rainbow chard and other exciting stuff) which meant I had to cook, otherwise all the veggies wouldn’t fit in the fridge! We’d been acquiring a surplus of fennel and zucchini from past produce boxes, so I figured I’d use up some of that.

Fennel Barley “Risotto”

Our fennel is insane. I have never seen fennel with so many greens on it (the pile in the pic above came from two (two!) fennel bulbs. Despite putting handfuls of it into salads, I still can’t seem to make a dent in it.

So when I made this, I decided to sub in fennel greens for parsley (I also used cooked the barley in straight chicken stock, rather than diluted chicked stock). The end result was a ok, but a bit dull. It needs an accent flavor of some sort, although I haven’t quite figured out what yet (cheese, maybe? or pancetta…).

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups cups(300 mL) (300 mL) pearl barley
2 tbsp tbsp(25 mL) (25 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
2 small fennel bulbfennel bulbs, diced
2 cloves garliccloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp tsp(2 mL) (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp tsp(1 mL) (1 mL) dried thyme
1/3 cup cup(75 mL) (75 mL) dry white wine
2-1/2 cups cups(625 mL) (625 mL) sodium-reduced chicken stock (I used 1 qt, but no water)
1/4 cup cup(50 mL) (50 mL) chopped fresh parsley (I subbed in fennel greens)

Preparation:
In saucepan, toast barley over medium heat, stirring often, until light golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl.

In same saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; fry onion, fennel, garlic, shallots, salt and thyme until softened, about 6 minutes.

Stir in wine; cook, stirring, until almost no liquid remains, about 2 minutes. Stir in barley; cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add stock and 2 cups (500 mL) water; bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until barley is tender and no liquid remains. Remove from heat; stir in parsley. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.

Serves about 6.

The real winner of the night though was this (another one from the “Recipes for Health series in the NYTimes):

Zucchini Pasta

If you can get past the slightly tedious process of peeling zucchinis into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, this is a really cool (and easy) recipe. Apparently you are supposed to cook it. I missed that step, and simply tossed the zucchini ribbons with the other ingredients, which worked perfectly well and had an air of fresh simplicity about it that seems unique to Italian cuisine. I tweaked the recipe a bit, forgoing the tomato sauce and adding instead fresh mint, basil and a few drops of red wine vinegar (I suspect with a punchier EVOO one could skip the vinegar, but I only had Costco EVOO, so I had to cheat and tart it up a bit).

3 zucchinis (or a combination of yellow and green zucchini)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 handful fresh basil (roughly torn)

1 handful fresh mint (cut into thin strips)

a few drops of red wine vinegar

1/4 shaved Pecorino cheese (more to taste)

1. Using a vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini into lengthwise ribbons. Peel off several from one side, then turn the zucchini and peel off more. Continue to turn and peel away ribbons until you get to the seeds at the core of the zucchini. Discard the core. You can also do this on a mandolin, adjusted to a very thin slice.

2. Toss zucchini with herbs, salt, pepper, evoo, cheese and vinegar.

Alternate 2: Cook the zucchini strips in two batches. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the zucchini ribbons and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Cook, tossing and stirring the zucchini, for two to three minutes, until softened and beginning to turn translucent. Adjust salt and add freshly ground pepper to taste, and transfer to a serving dish. Repeat with the remaining olive oil and zucchini. Serve, topping with herbs and freshly grated Parmesan if desired.

Yield: Serves four as a side, 2 as a main dish.