Tag: Tomatoes

Friday Finds 7:5:13

Jonah and I are in Chicago for the holiday weekend. Today we’re actually heading to Wisconsin, where Jonah’s playing drums (!!!) with his old Cajun band in a music festival. It should be pretty entertaining. Here’s the Friday finds for this week.

1. Salt & Straw

Salt & Straw // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
A flight of ice cream from Salt & Straw

The famous Portland ice creamery just opened a third location on SE Division, which is awesome and oh so dangerous.

2. Sour Plum Upside-Down Cake

Sour Plum Upside Down Cake from A Cozy Kitchen // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Sour Plum Upside Down Cake from A Cozy Kitchen

This sour plum upside down cake from A Cozy Kitchen sounds absolutely wonderful. And now that plums are coming into season, it is definitely on my list.

3. Roasted Tomatoes

Roasted Tomatoes // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Roasted Tomatoes

I am waiting patiently (or not… whatever…) to make some roasted tomatoes this summer. I had mostly forgotten about them until my dear friend Rosanne told me she was making some. Now they’re all I can think about.

4. Blackberry Mint Lime Fruit Leather

Blackberry Mint Lime Fruit Leathers from In Sock Monkey Slippers // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Blackberry Mint Lime Fruit Leathers from In Sock Monkey Slippers

Doesn’t that title just kill you? Blackberries, AND mint, AND lime? And if you take a look at the recipe over on In Monkey Sock Slippers, it looks pretty dang simple to make. The key is not forgetting about it in the oven after 6 hours.

Shakshuka

Shakshuka for breakfast! Looks amazing.

I have discovered possibly the best Israeli-inspired brunch dish of all time. You think that’s a really specific category? It’s not. I know this because I now have two whole cookbooks from chef Yotam Ottolenghi (“Plenty” and “Jerusalem”). Born and raised in, guess where, Jerusalem, Ottolenghi moved to London in 1998 where he has a deli chain and a restaurant (or two… I’m not positive). Anyway, last year, my mom gave Jonah “Plenty” for his birthday, and while the pictures are absolutely beautiful and the food looks delicious, the recipes are a little intimidating. Lots of kind of obscure ingredients like muscovado sugar and tamarind paste and harissa. So we made maybe one or two things from it. But in the last year, we have grown much more ambitious in the kitchen, so when I was in Berkeley visiting my sister and I saw “Jerusalem” (and it’s latke recipe, which I will sharing with you shortly) I wanted it. Badly. And guess what. I got it. For my birthday. From my sister. Because my family is awesome and gifts each other beautiful cookbooks and kitchen appliances.

Anyway, when I was home for Thanksgiving, my dad made the shakshuka out of “Plenty” for brunch one morning. (Let it be noted that there is ALSO a shakshuka recipe in “Jerusalem” and that they are, indeed, different.) Now, as one who has only recently grown to love bell peppers, I was skeptical about liking this dish. It is, afterall, mostly bell peppers. But oh my gosh you guys. Go make this NOW. It’s so amazing. Really complex flavors (thanks saffron and muscovado sugar), brilliant colors, and delicious leftovers. Best enjoyed with some crusty bread (think rye or a French batard or something like that).

Shakshuka

Serves 4 generously

Ingredients

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil (I would maybe do a little less than this, but try it and see what you think)
2 large onions, sliced
2 red bell peppers, sliced into 3/4-inch slices
2 yellow bell peppers, same preparation
4 tsp muscovado sugar (yes, it’s an obscure ingredient, but now I want to put it in everything)
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs worth of thyme leaves, roughly chopped
2 Tbl chopped parsley
2 Tbl chopped cilantro, plus extra for garnish
6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped (if it’s not tomato season, 2 small cans of canned tomatoes will work perfectly, but I would recommend draining most if not all of the juice first.)
1/2 tsp saffron threads
pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper
up to 1 1/8 cups water
4-8 eggs

Instructions

In a very large pan (seriously, probably the biggest pan you’ve got is a good idea), dry roast the cumin seeds on high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the oil and onions, and saute for about 5 minutes. Then add the peppers, sugar, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, and cilantro, and keep cooking it on high heat for 5-10 minutes, until everything is starting to get some nice color to it.

Now add the tomatoes, saffron, cayenne, and a bit of salt and pepper. Bring the heat down to low and cook for 15 minutes. If you aren’t using canned tomatoes, keep adding water during this time so that the mix has kind of a chunky spaghetti sauce consistency. Because the canned tomatoes were pretty juice and I didn’t drain them completely, I found no need to add water. Give the mixture a taste, and adjust the seasoning as you see fit. More salt? More pepper? More muscovado sugar? Go nuts.

After 15 minutes on low heat, go ahead and remove the bay leaves. Now Ottolenghi has you divide the mixture among 4 little frying pans, but let’s face it, I’m not going to unnecessarily dirty 4 extra dishes. If it’s a fancy breakfast and you’ve got those adorable mini cast-iron skillets, maybe that’s your thing. But I just kept it all in the same one big pan for this part. Make some gaps in the pepper mix, and break one egg into each gap. (I surveyed my crowd to see how many eggs we each wanted, so I did 6.) Sprinkle with some salt and cover the pan with a lid (or tightly with some foil, if your pan doesn’t have a lid). Cook on “a very (!) gentle heat” for 10-12 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. A runny yolk is preferable. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with some crusty bread. Enjoy! I promise, once you make this, you’ll come up with a million excuses/occasions to repeat it. It’s so delicious. And as I said, it makes great leftovers because the flavors just get to deepen even more.

Using those roasted tomatoes…

Tomatoes
tomatoes

tomatoes

Remember those roasted tomatoes I made a while back? 2 things about them.

One is that I’m reading Molly Wizenburg’s book, called “A Homemade Life,” and it’s lovely. She’s a fabulous writer, and there are recipes! I can’t wait to try them. I already loved her, but then I got to the part where she talks about her own roasted tomatoes, and how great and easy they are, and now I feel like we may be soul mates. Oh my goodness. Read her blog Orangette and also the book mentioned above. She’s working on another book, and I can’t wait to read it. Her writing is really lovely, full of nostalgia and a clear love for detail. She notices the little things.

The second thing about those tomatoes: pasta sauce. They’d been sitting in the fridge for a little while, and I thought to myself, “I won’t let these go bad! I must use them!” So I decided to do something easy with them besides just eating them cold. I threw them in the food processor, heated them up, and put them over some sauteed mushrooms and onions to make a sauce. Scoop the sauce over some noodles of your choice, and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan and voila! Dinner. You can find the original recipe for the tomatoes here.

Caprese Salad

Caprese Salad

In the summer, when the heirloom tomatoes are big and soft and perfect, there is perhaps nothing better to do with them than to make a caprese salad. For the past two summers, my little sister has worked at a tomato stand at the farmer’s markets in the greater Seattle area. And sometimes, if I’m lucky, when she comes to visit she brings me the most beautifully colored, gigantic, perfectly ripe tomatoes.

The other day after work, I went to the grocery store to grab some beer (it had been a long day – and I’m currently in love with Deschutes Brewery Chainbreaker White IPA… if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it). At the store, I saw this giant pile of tomatoes and almost bought some until I remembered I had my own even better ones at home. So I bought the freshest mozzarella I could (my local grocery store doesn’t carry mozzarella de bufala, but if yours does, that’s what you want), brought it home, sliced up the tomatoes and cheese, drizzled a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and voila: the most wonderful summer salad, great for an appetizer or snack. (If you feel like buying basil OR you’re one of the lucky ones who has it growing in their garden, throw a leaf on top).