Everyone I know is looking for a good recipe that uses zucchini. Enormous zucchini appear from behind large green leaves surprising even the most vigilant gardeners. It seems there is always too much of it. No one complains about too many peaches or too many tomatoes. Too much zucchini? It's likely to be left on a neighbors doorstep as a "present."

This salad is one of my favorite ways to cook and eat zucchini. It's based on a salad in Claudia Roden's The Book of Middle Eastern Food, a book I turn to again and again. I like it seasoned with toasted cumin instead of coriander and caraway and a little bit of scallion to add texture and oniony flavor. It's called a salad but it's soft, like a dip. The sweetness of the zucchini is balanced by the saltiness of the feta, the sourness of the lemon. If you want to make even the blandest vegetable taste good, I recommend dousing it in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and topping it with feta!

For a light Summer meal I'd serve this salad well chilled along with bread and other assorted vegetable side dishes like this Middle Eastern carrot salad, tomato salad, marinated mushrooms or with hummus and pita or grilled kebabs. It's a healthy dish to keep in the fridge for a little snack though you may find you polish if off pretty quickly.

Zucchini Salad with FetaServes 2-4

Ingredients

1 lb zucchini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili paste or harissa
1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced and mashed
1/2 teaspoon toasted ground cumin
2 scallions, white and pale green parts only, minced
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
Salt

Instructions

Cut zucchini into about 5 pieces and place in a large saucepan; cover with water, add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cook about 15 minutes or until zucchini is very tender. Drain in a colander, while zucchini is still in colander, coarsely mash zucchini with a fork; pressing out the liquid but not the pulp.

Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, chili paste, garlic and cumin in a serving bowl. Add zucchini and minced green onion and mix. Taste for seasoning and salt, but don't use too much if your feta is salty. Top with feta. Chill before serving with pita or bread.

Enjoy!

Last Friday night I was glad to join the street food revolution, at Off the Grid. Off the Grid takes place Friday nights from 5 pm until 9 pm in the Fort Mason Center parking lot, right near the entrance by the little guardhouse. It's a great mix of carts, people, food and drink. Families, couples and groups can be found mingling, eating, chatting and discovering deliciously affordable bites of food.


There was plenty of room to walk around, chairs and a few tables and there was even some live music. There was no overcrowding, significant waits or lines (Chairman Bao had a line but it moved quickly). The most difficult decision may be what to try because with about 10 vendors, there is no way to try it all. They ranged from traditional taco trucks like El Tonayense to the new fangled Creme Brulee cart.


I started with potato beef curry puffs from Malaysian Lacy Crepes. They were freshly fried to a crisp on the outside with a tender and mid curry on the inside. Like most things, the portion was good for sharing. I want to try their chai banana fritters next.


I was very impressed with Chairman Bao. I tried both a duck confit and mango bun and the pork belly bun, steamed, $2.75 each. Both were juicy and fresh but I think the crunchy daikon pickle in the pork version made it my favorite. They also have a baked version. Next time!


Lee had a cup of chai, which came in various flavors such as rose and vanilla almond. It seemed a bit pricey to me at $4 a cup. Most of the dishes were in the $2 to $6 range. He also approved of the lemon mochi and succulent adobo chicken.


The spiciest bites came from Curry Up Now. The Indian street food truck. The Kathi roll made from roti stuffed with pickled onion, chutney and chicken was hot stuff! In the future I'd love to see Chinese dumplings or some kind of noodle dish along the lines of the Noodle Fest in Chinatown. But the variety thus far is terrific and I will be back!

More on Off the Grid:

A Little Yum post

SF Weekly slide show

Yelp reviews

Are you a stir fraud? Do you stir fry or do you stir faux? During a recent taping of You're Doing It All Wrong for Chow, I learned I was making some pretty big mistakes when it comes to stir frying hence my less than stellar results. The video is not quite ready yet, but to tide you over, here's what I learned from stir fry master and cookbook author Grace Young. Her latest book, Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge is out now.



* Use a 14-inch wok. Other sizes are too small to cook enough food or too large to heat properly on a typical home range. Find a carbon steel flat bottom wok. RESIST the urge to use a non-stick wok! It cannot be heated high enough to give you good results. If you must, use a 12-inch skillet. But again, not non-stick!

* When you marinate meat for stir frying, which only takes five minutes, add a little bit of oil.

* Use a high smoke point oil such as peanut, canola, grapeseed. Grace said rice bran oil is good too and that's generally what I have on hand.

* Hot pan, cold oil! Do not add the oil to your wok until it is hot, hot, hot! Otherwise the food will stick, stick, stick.

* Use the highest heat possible!

* To get good caramelization, spread out the meat and really let it sear before stirring.

* Stir fry the meat only until it's 3/4 of the way done before removing it and adding the vegetables.

* Be sure vegetables are good and dry when they go in the wok.

* Don't crowd the pan! The amount of vegetables will vary depending on the type, but a rule of thumb is no more than 3/4 of a pound meat and maximum 4 cups vegetables.

But you want to know the most important thing I learned? You can make a better stir fry at home than you can get in a restaurant. Really. According to Grace, you are much more likely to use higher quality ingredients than your local Chinese restaurant. And if you do it right, your results should be better.

My thanks to Chow and Grace for inviting me to the taping. I'm only sorry I couldn't stay for lunch!



More tips on stir frying from Grace on Culinate