I first met Maili Halme Brocke (http://www.themailifiles.blogspot.com) five years back when we took a cooking class together in Montecito. You know when you meet someone and you feel connected to them instantly? That’s how it is with Maili. Watching her snap photos and contribute her two cents about the recipes demonstrated, my petite food groupie heart was aflutter. I quickly progressed from thinking, “This girl knows what she is talking about,” to inviting Maili to lunch at my house so we could talk non-stop about all things “food.”

Maili is owner and executive chef of Maili Productions, a catering and event planning company here in Santa Barbara. Her celebrity clientele sing her praises, as do most people who are lucky enough to know her and eat her food. When I started my blog last year I knew I wanted to feature Maili as one of the Chefs in My Kitchen. Our focus for her class: create recipes fresh from the garden that would be perfect for entertaining.

On the day of the class she arrived armed with bound recipe books filled with summer garden recipes and information for all in attendance. All eight of us picked produce from my garden (full disclosure — with wine glasses in hand), then we watched and learned as Maili created a simply spectacular orzo salad, arugula salad with truffle oil and Marcona almonds, cold peach soup, stuffed squash and basil blossoms and a savory plum sauce. What better way to spend a summer afternoon … perched around the kitchen island with friends, hearing great tips, fun stories, lapping up her tasty concoctions, and, of course, a little mid-day wine tasting.

Here is the first of the many recipes we enjoyed in my kitchen. It’s so good I almost ate the whole plate before I remembered to take a picture.

Maili says that this recipe is very forgiving. You can toss in whatever you want, in whatever amounts, but the most important ingredient is the sautéed onions. They’re chunky and cooked for 15 to 20 minutes until translucent. The original recipe was developed by Maili’s friend Narisha, who prepared it to accompany roast chicken. Narisha used just five ingredients: orzo, Meyer lemons, arugula, capers and Parmesan cheese. Maili adds a few more.

Maili’s Orzo Arugula Salad

1 one-pound box of orzo

1 large yellow onion

1/3 cup olive oil

Pinch of salt for the onion

1 7-ounce bag of baby arugula (spinach can be substituted)

2 cups sugar plum tomatoes (or grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes), cut in half

1 cup (about five ounces) feta cheese, crumbled (Parmesan is an excellent substitution)

1 cup pine nuts, toasted (can substitute Marcona almonds), nuts are optional

2-3 tablespoons capers, rinsed (optional)

1 13.75 ounce can artichoke hearts packed in water

Juice from two lemons (Meyer lemons if possible)

Minced fresh parsley, basil, and/ or mint

Salt and pepper to taste

1. While you’re getting all of your other ingredients together, cook the orzo in boiling salted water for 9 minutes. Rinse orzo until completely cool before adding other ingredients.

2. Sauté onion over medium heat in 1/3 cup olive oil. This may seem like more olive oil than you would generally use to sauté, but the extra oil will be flavored with the onion and used as the dressing for the salad. Put a pinch of salt on the onion while cooking.

3. Cook onion for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and sweet. (The longer you cook onions the better they are, so don’t skip this part.)

4. In the largest bowl you have, toss the warm onions with the cooled pasta. Be sure to use all the oil from the sauté pan.

5. Add the arugula, tomatoes, feta (or Parmesan), pine nuts, capers, artichoke hearts, herbs of your choice, lemon juice and sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss to combine.

6. Serve at room temperature. Can be kept at room temperature for 6 hours. If you’re planning to wait before serving, then add the arugula as close to serving time as possible. Try not to refrigerate this salad, as it changes the texture and flavor of the pasta.

In March, when Peggy Markel (http://www.peggymarkel.com) was cooking in my kitchen, she provided a bundle of Moroccan recipes that we never had time to try. This salad of zucchini and mint is a version I adapted from one of those recipes. It’s fresh and bright and a terrific side dish to a summer meal.

Moroccan Zucchini Salad with Mint

About 2 cups of chopped zucchini

1 teaspoon of cumin, toasted

1 small clove of garlic*, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon

Pinch of red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons of mint, chopped fine

Salt to taste

Cook the zucchini for 5 minutes in simmering salted water. While the zucchini cooks, toast the cumin in a small dry pan until it releases fragrance.

When the zucchini is done, plunge it into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the zucchini firm. Once it has cooled completely, remove the zucchini from the ice bath and dry on a clean kitchen towel. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, stir in the zucchini, and serve cold.

*Slicing garlic: I use my mandolin to slice the garlic. It creates thin, even slices, but watch your digits.

Italian eggplants are big and meaty but not very interesting — sounds like a few of my past love interests! But it really doesn’t have to be that way because there is quite a selection of eggplants, in a variety of colors, sizes and flavors.

Last year I discovered some beautiful Udumalapet eggplants at the farmers market. They were absolutely stunning-looking: fuchsia with beautiful zebra stripes. So this year when I set off to the nursery to pick summer seedlings I scoured my sources until I discovered one that was similar called Bianca Rosa. This beautiful eggplant is roundish, white and pink, and is quite tasty, and I’ve enjoyed concocting dishes revolving around its exquisite flavor. It rivals the taste of the Japanese eggplant that has always been my favorite and a constant in my summer garden.

My favorite way to prepare eggplant is to roast it in the oven with a few other summer compatriots. It’s an easy and delicious side dish that will have your family eating their veggies and asking for more. Any bell pepper will do but I prefer colorful dishes, so if you use Italian zucchini, choose an orange or red bell pepper. I love the white balsamic in this recipe, as it adds a bit of sweetness and a bright kick.

Roasted Summer Veggies

(Serves 4)

I large Japanese eggplant or eggplant of your choice

1 small onion

1 zucchini or yellow squash

1 orange or red bell pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

pinch of red pepper flakes

5 basil leaves

Warm oven to 425 degrees. Cut veggies into 1” pieces. Toss the veggies in a bowl with the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper flakes and then bake on a sheet pan for 20-25 minutes. Occasionally, check on your veggies and give them a good shake to move them around. When the veggies are cooked through, season to taste with additional salt and pepper if need be. Then tear the basil leaves over the veggies and serve.

Freelancing … and a new dip is born

I made a batch this morning because I had a notion that it might make a good dip. I put the warmed veggies in the blender with 1 small clove of garlic and a pinch of salt, gave it a whirl, and it was absolutely delicious. I will serve it with warmed pitas to guests tonight. This is a great way to repurpose leftovers!

It’s really hot in Santa Barbara right now. Not that I’m complaining — we were socked in with June gloom since May and it actually feels like summer, finally. To wake up with the sun’s rays shimmering through your window is such a treat. We can actually go to the beach and not freeze — hurrah!

At the risk of offending red wine devotees, I’m just not too keen on drinking reds when it’s this hot outside. For those of you who frequent our residence you know that we are fully committed to starting our happy hour with New Zealand sauvignon blancs. We call it “fine chugging wine,” and one in particular, Matua, Paretai is delicious and complements so much of the summer food we like to eat. But sometimes I do like to change it up and when the weather turns really hot, like now, I head to the bar for an iced white port and tonic.

I love serving it to friends when I entertain outside in the summertime because it’s so fresh, bubbly, light and delicious. It’s just different enough to prompt guests to ask, “Valerie, what is this?” as they help themselves to another. Of course, for every mixed drink or glass of wine, I always accompany it with water. Don’t want to get too dehydrated with the summer heat.

White Port and Tonic

For this recipe I prefer Q organic tonic. It’s made with “hand picked quinine and organic agave.” Schweppes contains modified high fructose corn syrup — your choice. The white port is Warre’s, which I buy at our local bottle shop for $16.99.

1 serving:

1 ounce white port

3 ounces organic tonic

Serve in a tall glass over ice and garnish with seasonal fruit (citrus slices or peaches are yummy, too)

My stone fruit trees are going absolutely bonkers in my garden. This spring I added two “Mid-Pride” peach trees to the garden. Mid-pride peaches have yellow meat and are bred to do well in our coastal climate. I have been waiting in anticipation to enjoy their luscious yield — am I such a garden geek that I get so excited about fruit? (Don’t answer that.) Now, of course, all the fruit bears at one time! We have been plowing through them, but still we accumulated quite a stash. This morning I noticed a bunch in a basket on the counter that has seen better days. I don’t know about you, but dimpled and soggy fruit just doesn’t do it for me. So, lesson number one in planting a garden … learn to be creative.

I didn’t have time to make a pie between picking up and dropping off the kids at two different camps — nor did I really want to eat one — I mean, come on, it is bathing suit season. And I know I would be the one to eat the entire thing myself. But I digress … back to the real issue at hand: old stone fruit. I decided to make jam* on a whim and it was so easy and lip smacking good. It only has a teensy-weensy bit of sugar and used up the whole basket of fruit. During my peach and apricot creation, my sister Desiree was visiting.  We spooned the preserves over homemade buttermilk ice cream and topped it with  mashed Maracona almonds, it was absolutely delicious — sweet, tart, crunchy and salty, yum.

*I didn’t can the jam in the technical sense but poured it into small clean glass jars to be stored in the refrigerator. Since they are small and I am known to share with friends, they will be used up pretty quickly, thus saving myself some time and, quite honestly, anxiety from the canning process.

If you have more fruit, then simply double the amounts.  This recipe makes 24 ounces of preserves.

• 4 cups very ripe stone fruit (I used peaches and apricots), cut into quarters, skin on
• ¼ cup sugar
• juice of half a lemon

Combine the ingredients in a pot on the stove and cook on medium high heat and bring to a boil. Stirring occasionally, continue to let the fruit cook and release their juices for about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to low or simmer, mash with a potato masher, and continue to cook for an additional 15 minutes.

The buttermilk ice cream was left over from the 4th of July and was really delicious. For the recipe, go to: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/04/buttermilk-ice-cream/