Roasted Tomatoes
We were down at the shore this past weekend celebrating birthdays - my 60th and my nephews 16th. We were in Point Pleasant - way north of Atlantic City and only 11 miles south of Asbury Park.
I have some pretty foggy memories of Asbury Park circa 1978. I was living in Tahoe and one of my roommates was an east coast boy. We flew east for a 2-week vacation that included Memorial Day weekend at a "little summer home" in Cape May. But before we could get to Cape May, we had to stop off and see the family of another friend of ours - who owned a bar in Asbury Park. It was named Killeen's and was near the boardwalk, somewhere. It may have been across the street. Alas, I was only there once, and when I left, I was quite drunk. Pat Killeen's sister, Colleen - I think - was bartending, and when she learned we were friends of Pat's... well... let us just say that the liquor flowed like liquor. We didn't pay a cent and got totally trashed - before noon.
We then drove the 110 miles to Cape May. It was also the weekend Resorts opened in Atlantic City - the first casino. There were no worries of speeding. It was a great introduction to New Jersey and The Jersey Shore.
But back to Point Pleasant...
There's an Italian specialty store in Point Pleasant named Joe Leone's that has some pretty remarkable - and rather expensive - gastronomic delights. Lots of fresh breads, cheeses and meats, but also freshly-prepared foods that included meatballs, cutlets, eggplant... tons of stuff. I picked up a few things - Locatelli with peppercorns, some "00" flour, a bag of Polenta Puffs (don't ask) and some sesame cookies for Victor's mom.
One thing we saw - and didn't buy - was roasted tomatoes. They really looked good, but they were selling for more than I wanted to pay. Besides, we both knew we could make them at home with no problem.
And today, Victor did just that!
The tomatoes at Joe Lone's were thick-sliced beefsteaks, but we had roma tomatoes from our garden, so we used those. He did some sliced in rings and some sliced lengthwise and seeded.
Roasted Tomatoes
- tomatoes
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- garlic cloves, minced
- sugar
- salt
- pepper
Preheat oven to 450°.
Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add a pinch of fresh herbs, if you want.
Roast about 30 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to caramelize.
No measurements because it will depend on how many tomatoes you're doing. Drizzle means just that. No need to soak anything.
A bit of sugar - just a bit - helps to create that kinda gooey caramelly texture and flavor. Even a sweet tomato will benefit from it. And don't be afraid of the garlic. Use a lot.
They went excellently with some hot Italian sausage, imported provolone cheese, and a loaf of fresh bread.
I see more of these in our future...
Grilled Chicken, Pesto, and Apricots
My impulse purchase at the grocery store today was some apricots.
Once upon time, apricots - along with plums - were my most favorite summer fruit. That, of course, was in the days before huge agri-farming where everything became grown for mechanical harvesting and shipping and not for flavor.
I did produce-buying for a gourmet food distributor once upon a time. I wandered the produce markets at 4am looking for new, fresh, and vibrant. I still have a fairly good eye for some things even after all these years. Seeing the apricots, I was slightly skeptical because I haven't gotten a good apricot at a grocery store since moving here. The apricots I espied did look nice - and they were ripe. They had a nice blush to them. I went for it.
Sadly, they didn't taste quite as good as they looked. They weren't totally bad, they just weren't really good. Too dry and just not sweet enough. They weren't for eating-out-of-hand, but I knew I could turn them into a savory dinner.
I had made pesto earlier in the day and wanted to incorporate the pesto - made with pistachios - into dinner, as well.
Grilled chicken breasts were born! I sauteed red onion with a bit of olive oil and then added the sliced and unpeeled apricots. I wanted to add a bit of sweetness, so I added about a tablespoon of honey. Not just any honey, though... I used Mount Rainier Fireweed Honey that our friends Bonnie and Print gave us a while back. It has a really unique honey flavor that worked perfectly with the onions and apricots. And then, just for grins and giggles, I added one dried chile pepper that I crumbled into the skillet. It added just enough balance to the sweetness of the honey.
And the pesto...
It is pretty much a traditional pesto, but I used pistachios instead of pine nuts. They added a fun and unique flavor while at the same time staying true to the pesto flavor. You know it's different, but it's a subtle difference.
Pistachio Pesto
- 1/4 cup pistachios
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 packed cup basil
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Place everything but olive oil into food processor and process until smooth. With machine running, slowly drizzle in olive oil.
Refrigerate or freeze.
So...
For dinner, I grilled the chicken breasts. I brushed them earlier with olive oil and then salt and pepper. I purposely didn't add any other seasonings because I knew the toppings were going to be quite powerful.
When the chicken was done, I spooned on the basil and then topped it with the apricots and onions.
The sweet potato was boiled and mashed with just butter, salt and pepper. Again, I didn't want too add any more competing flavors.
And it all came together just as I hoped. The garlicky nutty basil complimented the sweet and barely spicy apricots and onions. The simplicity of the potatoes actually made them stand out on the plate. And the grilled chicken was the vehicle to pull it all together.
Even being less than perfect, the apricots came through, although I probably won't be buying too many more unless they're local.
And in other news...
The Pasta Issue arrived today!
Victor will soon be back in the kitchen working his way through the entire magazine!
He decided to change the day from Monday to Sunday to allow himself more time to create. Besides, we'll be able to get the family over a bit more often to share in the fun.
Look for this to start in September.
Tomatoes and Peppers
Farmer Victor did another harvest today.
It really is fun having a couple of things growing outside our door. The peppers and tomatoes are doing great, as are the herbs. Unfortunately, the critters are loving them, too. A couple of absolutely perfectly red and ripe tomatoes had been attacked. We're now at the point where we have to pick the big ones before they fully ripen if we want to eat them! I actually don't mind the critters having a meal now and again, but it does irk me when they go for the absolutely-most-perfect-tomato and then don't even eat it all!
Oh well...
I knew at lunch that dinner was going to involve fresh-baked bread and tomatoes and peppers, but I wasn't really sure how it was all going to come together. Victor started and I followed his lead.
Farmer Victor roasted the green peppers and then peeled and drizzled olive oil, minced fresh garlic, and salt and pepper on them. I had the bread in the oven so I knew dinner was going to be picky-foods. Stuff on top of bread. How could that be wrong?!?
I had the bread dough in the 'fridge, so it was just a 30 minute rise outside (in Mother Nature's Proofing Box) and 30 minutes in the oven. Active work time was less than 5 minutes.
Roasted peppers meant sausage and onions. And candied tomatoes. I had some andouille sausage in the freezer, so that came out and was fried up with half a red onion. Candied tomatoes was another no-brainer. I am infatuated with them! They are just the most fun way to eat cherry tomatoes! I'm loving them.
And since there was a hunk of brie in the 'fridge, the tomato jam from the other day came out along with some pecans. Into the oven it went to ooze goodness... The tomato jam is another serious keeper. I see more of that in our future.
And, with slices of bread in hand, we dove in!
The fun part was making all of the different combinations... Peppers and candied tomatoes, sausage and peppers, sausage and cheese, onions and tomatoes, cheese, onions, and peppers, tomatoes and sausage, a little bit of everything... There were just too many combinations but I tried as many as I could.
It really was a great dinner. Lots of variety, lots of flavor, and lots of fun.
Dr Frankenstein's Tomato Jam
Saturday is cooking shows. Back when I was The Boss and worked M-F (with weekends and holidays off) we would start early and catch all the shows on KQED in San Francisco. They would always be on in the background as we did our daily chores. There was Brother Whomever who baked bread, Ciao Italia, and a score of other shows, ending with Lidia at 4pm. Sometimes some great dinners came out of it.
Fast-forward almost 11 years, now, and I'm working on Saturday - but Victor still has the cooking shows on TV. The players have changed, but the concept has not.
Yesterday, he saw someone (Giada?!?) make a savory blackberry jam and when I got home, commented on it and said I should think about creating a tomato jam. He had just picked another million cherry tomatoes and they were sitting on the island in a lovely basket. I hadn't made one before, but that usually doesn't stop me.
The wheels started turning.
I did a google-search for tomato jam and found plenty - but none of them were really what I wanted. I decided to take the best of what I was seeing - and just create my own. I'm horrible at following recipes, anyway.
I had about 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes and a couple of perfectly-ripe heirlooms from the garden - maybe 2 1/2 pounds, total. I started playing.
Dr Frankenstein's Tomato Jam
- 2 1/2 pounds tomatoes
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 fresh cayenne pepper, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, minced
Keep cherry tomatoes whole and roughly-chop large tomatoes.
Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to boil. Continue boiling and stirring regularly until jam is thick - about 90 minutes. Place in a sterile jar and refrigerate after cooling.
This really was easy to make - and W-O-W it is good! The secret is boiling/stirring/boiling/stirring to keep it from scorching on the bottom.
Use a heavy pot and if you're lucky yo have a diffuser (Thank you Ann & Julie!) it makes it all the better. The steam just didn't allow for a very good picture, here, but it started off as more than half the pot and cooked down.
It is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. There's just a hint of spice from the pepper, and the basil plays off the sweetness of the sugar perfectly. The lemon and lime add the tartness... Dr Frankenstein did good.
I made just under a pint of jam so I didn't bother actually canning it. For half-pint jars I'd probably do about a 20 minute water bath.
And speaking of tomatoes...
Last night was a Caprese that Victor made - with homemade pesto!
This really rocked! We ate it atop slices of crusty baguette.
The tomatoes are just so fresh, so ripe. So totally flavorful!
And we have weeks to go with even more to come!
Broccoli
So we found out that we really should have planted the broccoli earlier or later. This is not prime broccoli-growing weather right now. But prime time or no, we just had ourselves some really good broccoli!
I've done a lot of things in my food career, but actually growing the food has not been a part of it. We did have a garden in Boston on Parker Street and I've grown zucchini (solely for the flowers to stuff!) but I've just never taken it seriously.
I've waxed poetically about fresh peas from the farmer's market or the perfect peaches from the orchard my sister lived on for years, but other than tomatoes and herbs, the stuff really hasn't been coming from my own yard.
I have been seriously missing the boat.
But I think that's about to change.
We're looking at the yard in a new way and with some work - and everyone knows I hate work - I think we can get rid of some way-too-big dogwood shrubs and build some raised beds. I'd even be willing to put in a drip irrigation system.
It's all in the dream-stage right now, but I think we could pull it off.
In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this little bit of home-grown goodness.
Steaks rubbed with smoked paprika and garlic, Phoebe's Baked Beans, and steamed broccoli with lemon zest and lemon juice.
Really simple, fun, and flavorful.
I'm actually amazed at two things - that it's taken me this long to get excited about home-grown food and that I am as excited as I am about home-grown food. I know so many people who have had gardens for years - and years. It's not like I haven't been exposed to it - or partaken of the bounty. It just wasn't in my yard.
But that's going to change.
Suburban Gardeners
Farmer in the Dell I am not. I have always had an affinity for fresh produce - I was a produce-buyer for a gourmet food distributor once upon a time and my years in hotel receiving and purchasing was an education unto itself - but my growing of produce has been pretty much limited to tomatoes and fresh herbs. We've just never seemed to have the right space and sunlight to do much else.
Until this year.
After the winter storms did a bit of tree-damage, we (I am using the royal we here. Victor has actually done all of the work) moved some plants around and gained a bit more direct sunlight. Tomatoes, four types of peppers, broccoli, and corn went into the ground.
The neighborhood critters ate the corn before it ever had a chance but the rest has flourished. Even the broccoli, that we just found is more of a cool-climate plant. (Lots of water and partial shade helped it thrive!)
And what a difference it is over the crap you buy in the grocery store.
I've been on a tirade for years about seasonal produce and locally-grown foods. I do not want to eat peaches and strawberries in January and I don't buy peaches and strawberries in January. I love 'em both - but at the right time of the year. I still remember the summer fruits that came out of my grandfather's backyard. The strawberries and the grape arbor with the huge black grapes. The peach tree next door at Mrs. McNamee's. Fresh peaches with juice running down your arm. And the best peach pies and peach ice cream a kid could ever have. And string beans that actually had strings that needed to come off. And fresh peas.
I'm sure those childhood experiences - plus a mother who cooked from scratch every night - were the major influences that kept me in the food business all these years. I watched my grandfather kill chickens and my grandmother pluck feathers. And I remember just how wonderful that fried chicken was.
Real food - back before the agri-industrial complex took over the food supply and ruined it for everyone. Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex, but I think the agri-industrial complex has done much more harm. I'm reading Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook right now. It's shocking. But what is even more shocking is that people really don't care. They just want it cheap. No matter what it is and no matter what the human or environmental cost.
I know that it is impossible to buy everything fresh, local, and organic and sometimes we do need to make decisions based upon expediency or cost. But the majority of the foods we eat should not have barcodes on them. And they should be made with recognizable ingredients.
So as I remember the days of watermelons with seeds (they tasted so much better) and grocery stores with fewer but infinitely better products, I head back outside to see how we (Victor) might expand the garden plot for next year.
And then head back in to cook lunch. Sausage and peppers and onions.
The peppers really were fantastic. There is just so much more flavor than anything you can find at a store. We have a couple of hot peppers out there as well. I want to try my hand at some hot sauce this year.
And I harvested the broccoli. That will be with dinner tonight with grilled steaks.
Simply prepared.