Tangled Branches: Satiated

riveting tales of how we sustain ourselves

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Tomatoes in Spicy Yogurt Sauce

This is an Indianish recipe from the August issue of Sunset magazine. 'Thai Pink' tomatoes are absolutely perfect here, but I bet they suggested larger tomatoes because they didn't want to frighten away those who may not want to peel a zillion tomatoes. OK, not a zillion - just 18 or so.

We liked this dish a lot, but I didn't make it as written. I think they have too many cumin seeds, too much garlic, and too much butter. My changes are as follows: 1 tsp. cumin seeds, 2 tsp. brown mustard seeds, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. butter, and a generous 1/2 tsp. Japanese sea salt. And I didn't seed the chile peppers. And of course, I substituted 'Thai Pink' tomatoes instead of 'Early Girl'.

Also, unless you have very fresh yogurt, it will probably curdle on you. I'd suggest stabilizing the yogurt with cornstarch first - a trick I learned from Claudia Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food. For 1 cup of yogurt, mix about 1/2 tsp cornstarch with a little cold water to make a thin paste. Beat the yogurt in a saucepan, and add the cornstarch paste and a pinch of salt. Stirring constantly, bring the yogurt to a boil over medium-low heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened and smooth. Now, I must confess that I didn't actually do this. I made the recipe 3 times; the first time it cooked beautifully with no curdling, the second time it curdled horribly, and the third time it was somewhere in between. The next time I make it, I'm not taking chances.

I initially served this with lamb burgers (seasoned with garlic/ginger/chile paste and curry powder). Both the spouse and I thought the combination tasted something like the Turkish Yogurtlu Kebab, as an Indian cook might make it.

The second and third times I served it as part of an Indian vegetarian meal. We liked it either way.

Labels: tomatoes, yogurt

Sunday, September 16, 2007

BHT Bread Salad

No, not the preservative BHT, but Bacon, Herb and Tomato. I needed to use up some leftover odds and ends of various breads that were languishing in the fridge - Afghan bread, baguette, and Tuscan bread (it was too late for the multi-grain boule). The garden is still producing tomatoes, but at a more comfortable pace, and the herbs are spilling over the edges of the paths.

Fry 4 slices of bacon in a large skillet.

Cut leftover bread into largish bite-sized pieces - say, 1" cubes. Slice 2 cloves of garlic thickly.

Remove the bacon to a plate, and spoon off most of the bacon fat. Pour olive oil into the skillet to replace the bacon fat. Think about this for a while. Saute the garlic and bread cubes until the bread is toasty and crunchy, but the centers of the cubes are still soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the contents of the skillet into a large bowl (a much larger bowl than you think you'll need).

Dice as many ripe tomatoes as will give you a salad that's mostly bread, but with plenty of tomatoes.

Chop coarsely a mixture of herbs. I used basil, cinnamon basil, red basil, lemon basil, parsley, sweet marjoram and 'Zaatar', but very small amounts of the last two.

Add the tomatoes, herbs, and crumbled bacon to the bread cubes in the bowl. Toss everything together, taste and add salt, pepper, and/or olive oil, as needed. Eat immediately! Before it gets soggy.

Labels: herbs, salad, tomatoes

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Alsatian Gazpacho

I never really liked gazpacho in its original form. Tomato puree thickened with bread is a waste of bread and tomatoes, if you ask me. But the gazpacho at L'Auberge Chez Francois is a very different thing, and I always order it when it's on the menu. (We don't go there very often - it's been our Occasion Restaurant for many years.) Their gazpacho is more like a slightly chunky version of V-8 juice. The recipe is in The Chez Francois Cookbook, but I've adjusted it to suit our tastes. For us, this amount serves 2 with leftovers.

3 cups fresh tomato puree, from peeled and seeded tomatoes

How you get the fresh tomato puree is up to you, but I just bought a food mill, and I think that's the way to go. I cut up some very ripe Striped Roman tomatoes and put the pieces in the food mill, mashing them slightly so the food mill could do the rest. A few turns of the handle, and you have perfect fresh tomato puree.

Mash 1 clove of garlic with salt in a mortar and pestle. Or you could just put it in the food processor in the next step, but the mortar and pestle will give a smooth paste.

Chop the next ingredients very finely in a food processor:
1 carrot, peeled
1 small pickling-type cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 stalk of celery
1/2 of a medium sized yellow onion
1/2 of a green bell pepper
1 fresh red New Mexico-style chile pepper, seeded
1 tiny red Czechoslovakian Black Pepper
I realize that if you're not growing your own, the last two peppers are going to be difficult to obtain. I think you could substitute a very small amount of any fresh hot chile pepper, to your taste, or leave them out entirely.

Add the tomato puree and the mashed garlic to the food processor and pulse a couple of times, just to blend everything. Remove the mixture to a bowl, and stir in by hand: salt to taste (I use something less than a teaspoon; the original recipe called for a tablespoon), 1 teaspoon or less red wine vinegar, several tablespoons of olive oil, and a small amount of freshly ground black pepper.

Taste and add more salt if needed. I had to add a tiny bit of sugar to this because the tomatoes were tart and the teaspoon of vinegar pushed it too far.

Labels: gazpacho, peppers, soup, tomatoes

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Potato and Tomato Tart

This recipe is my conglomeration, but the original inspiration was published in the NY Times, August 20, 2003 in an article by Amanda Hesser. I wasn't keen on the seasonings suggested, so I changed it. It's not difficult, but takes about 3 hours overall. Also, you need to have the oven on a fairly high temperature for several hours, so I usually make this only when the weather is cool enough that I'm not running the air conditioner - I hate to cool and heat the house at the same time.

The basic idea is a base of roasted potato slices topped with roasted tomatoes, flavored with garlic and herbs. I like to make it so there's enough olive oil left in the pan to sop it up with good crusty bread. The original recipe was meant to be a side dish, I think, but for us it's a main dish and serves 2.

First, roast the tomatoes. Amounts are not critical here and ideally the tomatoes should be a thick and meaty variety. For the last batch I used mostly Striped Roman, with smaller amounts of Kellogg's Breakfast and Cherokee Purple. You might as well make a big batch and if there are any leftovers, they'd be great tossed with some pasta. This part is very similar to a recipe in Marcella's Italian Kitchen by Marcella Hazan.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut tomatoes into large pieces, say an inch and a half or 2 inches. Find a roasting pan large enough to hold the tomatoes in a very snug single layer (or even doubled up a bit, but not much). Coat the roasting pan with olive oil and place the cut tomatoes in the pan. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top (say 1/4 cup to several large tomatoes), and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste (remembering that these will shrink in cooking). Place the pan in the oven for 45 minutes. Roughly cut up some garlic cloves, and distribute them over the tomatoes, pushing them down in between the tomato pieces so they don't brown too much. Return the pan to the oven for another 45 minutes or so. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and the skins starting to blacken. Remove them from the oven and let them cool while you cook the potatoes.

Peel and slice thinly about a pound of potatoes. Coat a round 9 or 10 inch diameter pan with olive oil (a skillet with an ovenproof handle works well here). Beginning at the center, layer half the potato slices in an overlapping spiral. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Make another layer the same as the first. I like to drizzle more olive oil on at this point but the original recipe didn't call for it. Place the pan in the oven (still at 400 degrees) for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are starting get a little browned.

Remove the pan from the oven and spoon some of the roasted tomatoes, garlic and the liquid left in the pan over the center of the potatoes, leaving the edges of the pan tomato-free (think pizza crust). Return the pan to the oven for another 20 minutes or so, until the edges are browned. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with chopped basil and parsley. Let it cool a bit, cut into wedges and serve.

This is a good Saturday night supper with the addition of crusty bread and some good Chianti.

Labels: potatoes, tomatoes

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Fried Green Tomatoes

I've had lots of fried green tomatoes with a heavy coating of breading on them, but I don't do it that way.

Step 1: Find a nice green tomato. It should be fairly firm, but getting towards ripening. If it's too soft, it will fall apart when prepared this way.

Step 2: Slice the tomato somewhat thinly, 1/4 inch or less. You want it to cook through before the coating burns.

Step 3: Dredge the sliced tomatoes in seasoned cornmeal. I mixed cornmeal, ground red New Mexico chile (semi-hot), and salt. A bit of dried thyme is nice too. There should be enough moisture in the tomato slices to make the cornmeal stick. You don't want it too thick, so brush off any excess.

Step 4: Heat olive oil (or other good-quality oil) in a frying pan over medium heat. When it's hot, add the tomato slices. Cook on each side until golden brown.

Step 5: Eat as a side dish, or make a fried green tomato BLT.

Last weekend we used a Cherokee Purple for this and the flavor was excellent. The previous weekend, we used a Black Russian and it was insipid. I'm not sure if we just had a more ripe tomato the second time, or if the difference was due to the variety.

Labels: tomatoes

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