Dinner tonight was a baked (yellow) sweet potato, sauteed zucchini and reheated dumplings from a take-out order.
The dumplings were originally fried and reheated well after 10 or so minutes in a 400 degree oven.
The sweet potatoes could have been cooked about 10 minutes longer, but they were done-ish after 50 in a 400 degree oven. Delicious with just a little butter and salt. Oddly, I don’t like the orange-fleshed variety of sweet potatoes most commonly found in the US. I far prefer the yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes found in Asian super markets. I far prefer the flavor of the yellow (sometimes called white, I think, though I have no idea why) over the orange.
The zucchini was good, but missing something. That’s where you come in. I cooked the zucchini with sun-dried tomatoes (dried them myself, re-hydrate them before using – they have fantastic flavor) that I chopped small and briefly sauteed before adding the zucchini.* Olive oil plus sun-dried tomatoes plus zucchini tasted good, but it lacked something. At the end I added just a splash of sparkling apple cider (just because, not for any particular reason). Overall it was too sweet without balance – as I said, something was missing.
Any thoughts on what might go with zucchini and sun-dried tomatoes? Maybe a splash of a vinegar (perhaps an apple cider vinegar)? I think the zucchini needed a savory note, but I can’t think of what to add.
*As a side note, to saute zucchini without getting mush, try salting it with a large granule salt and letting it drain for about 30 minuts. I like chunky Korean sea salt for this purpose, but kosher salt would work, too. This makes it easier to remove the excess salt when the salting process is done. Salting removes much of the excess water that zucchini has and provides a far better texture after cooking.
amandatheatheist 