OK, last week when I talked about chorizo and its delish soy substitutes, such as Soyrizo.

Incidentally, I called it a Mexican sausage, but I neglected to mention its roots in Spain and Portugal, where it’s a fermented sausage that gets its color from dried smoked red peppers.

In that post, I mentioned a recipe that I’ve been playing with lately. I hope you like it; it’s been a hit around South Whatcom Fire’s Station 22. It’s from a little cookbook my wife got me for our 15th anniversary, only I can’t remember the title and author.

For the sausage, I’ve been favoring the Soy Chorizo at Trader Joe’s ($1.99), but Isernio’s and Hempler’s make good pork versions with very little fat. When you can find it, Haggen and the Community Food Co-op occasionally make their own sausage in bulk, without a casing.

Chorizo and potatoes

Ingredients
1 pound chorizo
2-3 medium potatoes (russet or Yukon Gold), diced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper

Directions
Warm a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and add olive oil. Add the potaoes and fry until about half done, turning so they don’t stick.

Add oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Add chorizo and fry until potatoes are done.

Serve with salsa, guacamole (see recipe at this blog), chopped cilantro and warm flour or corn tortillas.

Variation 1
Increase olive oil to 3 Tbsp. and add 1 chopped medium onion and 2 crushed garlic cloves before adding the potatoes.

Add one chopped poblano pepper and one diced habanero pepper and fry over medium-low until onions begin to turn translucent. Then increase heat to medium, add potatoes and follow rest of recipe.

Variation 2
Once the recipe is complete, pour in 4-6 scrambled eggs. Do not stir, simply reduce heat to low, cover and let the eggs set. Spread top with grated jack cheese, if desired.

Here’s another quick meal that’s great for a summer evening.

I call it Uncle Nick’s Chicken because my brother-in-law was coming for dinner and what I had in the fridge was boneless chicken breasts.

A deeper look into the fridge produced capers and a lemon. In the larder were some shallots and a bag of sun-dried tomatoes.

So I decided to see if I could replicate a dish my wife had enjoyed during a recent trip down the coast to Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn. You may have glimpsed the place on the news recently, because it is one of the locations that firefighters were staging during the recent conflagration.

Nick loved this, but best of all … the girls will eat it.

Uncle Nick’s Chicken

Ingredients
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
3 T. olive oil
2-3 T. capers
2-3 T. grated lemon peel
1 large shallot
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 loosely packed cups sun-dried tomatoes (or about 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
If using dried tomatoes, soak them in boiling water for 15 to 30 minutes and drain (slice them if they are large or particularly chewy).

Slice the chicken breasts into strips as for a stir-fry.

Warm a deep-sided cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Add the garlic and shallots and sauté gently for few minutes (do not fry).

Increase heat to medium-high and add the tomatoes, shaking the pan and turning to coat. After a few moments, add the chicken. It is OK to let some of the meat sear in the pan, but try not to overcook — you want the inside to remain tender.

When chicken is nearly cooked through, add capers, lemon and seasonings to taste.

Serve over pasta such as spaghetti or linguine with a simple green salad. Top with a little grated Asiago, pecorino Romano or Parmisiano Reggiano.

Note: On cooler days, this dish goes nicely with red potatoes roasted in rosemary and olive oil with a side of braised greens and an eensy splash of balsamic. When I serve it this way, I leave the chicken breasts whole and increase the cooking time accordingly, turning occasionally to avoid burning.

This is another dish that’s perfect for summer. All you do is open a few cans, and it takes less than 30 minutes at the stove.

My kids aren’t very fond of this dish, but my wife loves it — provided I don’t go overboard on the garlic and peppers. Personally, I like it a bit garlicky and hot (experiment for your own preference). I once made this as a fast meal for a dozen people we invited over on the spur of the moment. One family was vegetarian, so a meat sauce was out, and this proved perfect.

Don’t serve this with grated cheese; it goes well with crusty bread and a green salad with simple vinaigrette. This recipe makes more than enough to sauce one pound of pasta. I’d recommend the new Barilla whole-wheat pasta, which you can get at Fred Meyer and Haggen (where it’s often on sale). Even my kids will eat it.

I adapted this recipe from a great book of Italian sauces called “Salse di Pomodoro,” by Julia Della Croce (Chronicle Books, 1996). I googled it, and it looks like it’s out of print, but several copies are available online. Della Croce says that Italians use canned tuna in olive oil for many sauces. This dish is best prepared using a higher-quality canned tuna. See the Food Co-op or Vis Seafoods.

Salsa di pomodoro e tonno

Ingredients
6½-oz. can tuna in olive oil, drained and flaked
28-oz. can ground peeled tomatoes (try Muir Glen brand) or use an equivalent of seeded and skinned fresh Roma tomatoes
½ can tomato paste, or about 3 T.
3 T. olive oil
3 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed (with juice)
½ tsp. salt
large pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp. chopped fresh oregano, or ½ tsp. dried

Directions
Warm the olive oil in a deep-sided cast-iron skillet. Add garlic and sauté gently for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, put the tomatoes and tomato paste in a blender and pulse a few times to obtain an even consistency.

Add the tomato mixture to the pan and add tuna, salt, pepper flakes and oregano.

Cover loosely and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.

It’s so warm these days I can hardly bear to cook.

Old favorites like pizza and roast chicken are out. If I want to roast a chicken for sandwiches or carnitas for tacos, I will bake early in the morning or late at night. But baking for dinner just gives you the Cole Porters (too darn hot).

Someday I’ll get around to making that backyard brick oven.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting some of my warm-weather standards, starting with a light dinner I used to enjoy on swelteringly humid Michigan summer days.

Tuna salad on cantaloupe

Ingredients
1 large cantaloupe
Tuna salad

Directions
Wash cantaloupe, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.

Trim a little off the bottom of the rind so the melon will sit straight and not roll. Prepare tuna salad according to your preference. (For a variation, add freshly shelled peas to the mix.)

Scoop tuna salad into the hollow part of the melon and serve.

With the sudden return to cooler weather all I wanted to eat on Saturday was comfort food. For lunch I Googled a Food Network recipe for baked Mac-n-Cheese that turned out well. But, the real star of the day was our dinner. After poking about in the fridge I found that my hubby had purchased a pizza dough from Trader Joe’s. We are all thoroughly sick of pizza right now, so I brainstormed what I could use the dough for instead. In the past, I’ve made some good dessert-type pizzas using thinly sliced apples and brown sugar. But, I was in the mood for savory.

Here is what I came up with. Sort of a hot pocket/calzone type creation.

Savory roll-ups:
1/2 onion, diced or thinly sliced
6-8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
balsamic vinegar
1/2 package tofu, drained and cubed
soy sauce
flour
oil or butter
miso, optional
pizza dough, removed from fridge and rested

Method
1. Saute onions and mushrooms until barely soft and slightly browned. Finish with a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and your favorite savory seasoning (I used some extra spicy Mrs. Dash, which is surprisingly good). Set aside in medium bowl.

2. Saute small cubes of tofu in same pan. Add a splash of soy sauce, to taste, and continue to saute to preferred doneness. Some folks prefer their tofu to attain a nice brown finish, others prefer it softer and less browned. Finish with a dash of balsamic vinegar and add to onion/mushroom mixture in bowl.

3. In same saute pan, make a roux of either butter or oil and flour. Stir continuously while cooking for a few minutes to brown the roux (this eliminates that pasty flavor of the flour). Add small amounts of water stirring all the time to loosen the roux but keep it quite thick (so your roll up won’t get too runny or soggy). Flavor either with some soy sauce or with miso dissolved in hot water. Add roux to mixture in bowl. The roux-gravy will thicken the juices released from the mushrooms and tofu as they rested in bowl.

4. Divide pizza dough in half or quarters (quarters would make a single serving, halves can be sliced to serve). Roll out and place on greased baking sheet. You can roll into circles, fill on half and fold over to half-moons, or roll to a rectangle, fill in center and fold up sides for a more streusel-shaped roll-up.

5. Fill with onion-mushroom-tofu mixture. Fold up dough and add finishing flourish, if you wish. I used the rectangle shape and folded mine up but if I made half-moons I might press edge with tines of fork for a pretty edge.

6. Bake approx. 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Prep the top of dough to your preference, either egg wash or brush with melted butter about halfway through baking.

I served this with steamed broccoflower and quinoa. Yummy and quite nutritious. The family loved it!

You can create any sort of filling for a dish like this. It could be a veggie filling, cheesy filling, pizza-like filling, meatball filling. The possibilities are endless. The short version of this recipe is whip up a yummy concoction of your choice, wrap it in some dough, bake it and enjoy!