Italian Overload

I just got back to England from Italy. Needless to say, I'm a bit culinarily depressed. To abate this, I've been filling the kitchen with a LOT of Italian scents since I got home. Tonight it was this:

Zucchini Rice Gratin.

The recipe was taken directly from here, and I made virtually no change to it (little extra cheese here, some generous drizzles of olive oil there). Unfortunately, I was running around the kitchen too dramatically to take pictures of the process. I can almost guarantee, however, that you will have all the ingredients in your fridge on most average days of the week.

So, Penn and I had a vegetarian dinner that felt like nothing of the sort! The wedges of gratin were accompanied by a massive plate of Caprese scattered with olives of various kinds. And this American girl couldn't live without a bit of garlic bread to add some carbs to this delightfully Mediterranean meal.

A long, drool-worthy blog about Bologna food coming up soon!

No-Fry Zucchini Fries

Here in England, fries (aka chips) are sold under the category 'Frozen Vegetables' in the grocery store. I know this because I buy my groceries online for delivery to our flat (free delivery is great) and, in that case, one shops by clickable category instead of walkable aisle. This is all to say, as much as I love me some deep fried potatoes, their nutritional value isn't up to snuff.

So, I asked myself, "Self? What is it you like about french-fried potatoes?" The answer was simple:

Salt

and

Grease

When I looked a bit deeper, I also realized that I like the crunchy texture they add alongside my burger. I like dipping them in sauces. I just like.

Tonight's goal, then, was to get a zucchini:

to accomplish the task of a tater. A real veg for a fake one. If we're aiming for nutrition, I also had to give up the grease. No potato, no grease, but I can keep the rest. The result was very pleasing.

Homemade No-Fry Zucchini Fries take more time to assemble than tossing some frozen Ore-Idas onto a baking sheet, but they do not disappoint.

To get started you'll need:

3 medium zucchini (courgettes in the UK)

1 cup plain bread crumbs (I made my own for the first time! Really easy and embarrassing to admit)

3/4 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. smoked paprika

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs (you may get away with one, so you can start with that)

British Food Fails & Wins

I've been meaning to start a list about my culinary realizations here in England. My fellow expats and I have been comparing notes on what they do well and what they do, um, notsowell here. All of these observations come from a severe American bias, but they are the daily frustrations of An American in Oxford.

Here are a few fails and wins for today. Please contribute your joys and frustrations! I hope that, by the end of our time here (who knows when that will be) this list may be the complete reference for those considering life in the UK (what should they stock up on at Costco before coming over? What treasures must not be missed during a stay on this island?).

British Food Fails:

Crackers (aka Savoury Biscuits). Tastelessly prepared and perpetually impractically packaged. Some American and European imports, but still no concept of how to keep them from turning to crumbs or going stale.

Half-and-Half. Well, it just doesn't exist here. We go straight from whole milk to single cream, which is like our heavy cream and goes sour very quickly . . . don't get me started on the 'tops' for dairy products (and then from there to double cream, which gets poured on desserts). It's not that these cream varieties are bad, it's that my coffee is very lonely.

Mayo. I only recently bought mayo here at all following a craving for chicken salad. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just too much of this random buttery flavo(u)r that overtakes anything it coats (One of the favo(u)rites here is a baked potato stuffed with tuna, sweetcorn, and a blop of this mayo). Maybe American mayo is vinegar-ier?

British Food Wins:

Water. Specifically, the boiling of it. I will be bringing an electric kettle back to the US and it will have a permanent place on my countertop.

Tea. Particularly the black varieties. Full of flavo(u)r and still delicious in decaf (a very hard feat).

Candy bars. There may not be a single candy bar I don't like in this country. They do the chewy/crunchy/salty/sweet combination juuuuuust right.


That'll do for today. I have so many more stewing around in my head. What about you?