Feels Like Fall-Roasted tomatoes and more

Even though it's approaching 90 right now, it's obvious we're nearing the end of summer. The nights are getting chilly, the trees are (barely) turning, kids are back in school, and I feel like canning. Raised in a family with the motto "Better make two batches for the potluck or we might all die because there won't be enough food", I feel driven to freeze and preserve food (which I then leave in the freezer or the jar all winter, waiting for the perfect occasion to eat it, which never arrives, especially as winter approaches.

More recipes will follow later, as I see how things work out. I'm contemplating wine jelly, tomato basil preserves (I picked 15 pounds of tomatoes yesterday alone), blueberry vanilla bean syrup, and frozen creamed corn.

Here's the basic roasted tomato technique I tried yesterday. I made two batches, each consisting of two 9x13" pans (about five pounds of tomatoes per batch). It's one of the simplest ways to preserve tomatoes I've found, short of just throwing them whole in ziploc bags in the freezer. It does ensure you get a rich tomato flavor in your finished product; I think sometimes freezing tomatoes damages their flavor in the same way refrigerating them is guaranteed to do. I used three or four big cloves of garlic per pan, just a little rosemary (because I had very little; more would've been good), olive oil, salt and pepper.

But, to be honest, I don't fully love the finished product. David pointed out that it tastes similar to sun-dried tomatoes, something neither of us really love. I made one batch with romas, that I froze, and then a batch with some unknown Beefsteak-like variety, that we pureed into sauce and ate with pasta last night. I added a bunch of fresh oregano and basil, then tossed with noodles and cubes of parmesan. I also added a little sugar, as this batch was very, very tart. I'm not sure if it was the variety or the recipe, and will do some more experimentation. And if I was going to make the recipe again for sauce, I'd throw some chunks of onion in to roast with the tomatoes, as tomato sauce without onion is just plain wrong.

Ellie Krieger's Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Trying to get back on to the blogging horse here, and will start with just posting a quick link to a fabulous recipe we tried tonight. My sister introduced me to Ellie Krieger's recipes; I've never seen her show, but you can access her recipes, which manage to be both tasty and healthy, on foodnetwork.com. I started with her Nutty Sweet Potato Soup, which is very rich and flavorful, and moved on to this recipe tonight.

Follow the link for the recipe; I made it largely as written, though didn't have shallots and substituted green curry paste for red. Served over brown rice cooked in broth and a little light coconut milk. Oh, didn't have the energy to fire up the grill, so cut the chicken into chunks to marinate and sauteed in a little vegetable oil. Thinned the peanut sauce with a little more coconut milk (the one drawback I found to the recipe was that it only used 1/2 a cup of coconut milk, leaving most the can. I've had good luck freezing it in the past but didn't really want to bother tonight). Also sauteed a bunch of lettuce with some soy sauce and sesame oil and sesame seeds; a good way to get rid of the lettuce we have exploding out of our garden.

We loved this recipe-David couldn't get enough of it. It tastes very rich, especially since it's calculated to be only 250 calories a serving.

Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Navy Bean Soup

I've made a couple of runs at this soup, as it's one of David's favorites, but hadn't found a recipe we really loved until this one. And hey, it was the simplest one I tried! It's also very adaptable, fitting well with our goal of cooking for the next week with only what we already have in the house. It'd be a good Crockpot recipe, but was too much to fit in mine, so it simmered on the stove all through this cold afternoon. We had a few hours of October sunshine today, but the afternoon ended dark and drizzling, so soup and corn bead and applesauce were perfect. Mary wasn't here for dinner, but Else, now a year and a half, devoured it.

Notes: I had no celery or carrot, but added a little celery seed. I like the addition of the chopped spinach quite a bit, but you could omit. We used 3 smoked bratwurst and the flavor was fabulous. If doing in a Crockpot, I'd soak the beans on the stove, then add with tomatoes to the Crockpot and put on high while sauteing the vegetables, then add everything to the Crockpot. I'd suggest cooking for a few hours on high then turning down to low, but you might want to cook part of the time with the lid off so it cooks down a bit. You probably wouldn't add the entire 3 cups of water, either, if going this route. Like most bean soups, this should freeze very well. It makes a really large amount, easily enough for a meal for six.

Navy Bean Soup
*1 lb. of dried Navy beans, rinsed
*6 cups of water
*1 TBS Better than Bouillon, Chicken, OR a couple bouillon cubes
(OR sub 3 cups of chicken broth for 3 cups of the water)
*1 TBS olive oil
*1 onion, chopped
*2 stalks celery, chopped
*2 carrots, chopped
*3 cloves garlic, minced
*1/2 lb ham, chopped OR 3 smoked bratwurst, sliced into thin rounds OR 6 slices bacon, chopped
*1 14.5 oz can chopped tomatoes, with juice
*2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
*1 bay leaf
*3 more cups of water
*Chopped fresh parsley, 2 TBS or so
*Chopped baby spinach, a cup or two, or one small container frozen chopped spinach
*lots of black pepper, salt to taste

-Cover beans with a generous amount of water; bring to a boil then let them sit and soak for an hour. Drain.
-Towards the end of that hour, heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add chopped onions, celery, carrot and your choice of meat. Saute until the onions are golden. Add garlic and saute a few minutes more, watching closely to make sure the garlic doesn't burn.
-Add beans to pot, along with tomatoes, Worcestershire, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
-Remove lid from pot and add 3 more cups water. Bring back to a simmer and simmer, uncovered, for another two hours.
-During the last few minutes, add chopped parsley and spinach. Add pepper to taste. Don't salt it until you've tasted it, as this will be pretty salty already with the Worcestershire and ham.

Filbert Crusted Baked Salmon

My dad is learning to cook now that he's retired, and seems to really be enjoying it. He's always done some cooking: barbecuing, of course;a phase of baking a lot of bread when I was a child. His anadama bread (a dark bread with molasses, great with butter and honey) was very, very good. Another bread, that didn't rise, we joked should be used as weights in the back of the pickup.

I grew up thinking of these nuts as filberts, though they are more commonly called by their upper class name of hazelnuts. My Grandpa Delbert raised filberts, and I thought that Filbert was actually his name at one point in my childhood.

The girls and I went to my folks' house for the weekend a few weeks back, to celebrate Dad's birthday and a belated Mother's Day. Dad made the following dish, from a recipe in The Oregonian. He modified it slightly by accident, adding the filberts with the mustard instead of sprinkling them on later as directed in the original recipe. I made the recipe at home the next week and made it as originally directed, but have to say I like Dad's version better (though both were very good). This is great with a salad and twice baked potatoes or brown rice pilaf and steamed asparagus. I found wild caught, Alaskan salmon fillets at Trader Joe's for about $6.00 a pound, enough for our family, though the recipe calls for two pounds. Don't use farm raised salmon; it'd be better to substitute a different fish.

*1 tsp sea salt
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 tsp herbes de provence (I used that recipe as a guide and made something close to it with what I had on had, as I didn't want to go to the store)
*2 TBS whole grained or Dijon mustard (I used Dijon)
*3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
*1 tsp fresh lemon juice
*1 2 lb fillet of wild salmon
*3-4 TBS finely chopped filberts (hazelnuts) (Note: subbed cashews one day, and they worked very well, too).

-In a small bowl, combine salt, garlic, herbes, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice, mixing with a fork til emulsified. If you'd like, stir in the filberts now.
-Place salmon on a rimmed baking sheet that you've sprayed with Pam or lightly oiled. Spread the mustard mixture thickly over the top and sides of the fillet. Refrigerate for an hour.
-Preheat oven to 350. Bake salmon, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, then sprinkle the nuts over and lightly press them into the coating if you didn't add them earlier. Return to oven and bake up to another 15 minutes, until salmon flakes when tested with a fork (note: our salmon finished much earlier than recipe suggested it would, so test early as you don't want it to dry out).

Pesto!

Although it's raining and not even 60 degrees here right now, it has largely been beautiful so far this early summer. We are not very skilled gardeners, but we are determined to do better this year, and to this end we have dug out an additional bed in our front yard, the sunniest part of our lot. With new soil, free plants from neighbors and relatives, and enthusiastic watering, this small patch is exploding beautifully. We have a lot of spinach, several beet plants (using both of those to make a regular side dish of sauteed greens with pinenuts and garlic), several artichoke plants, peas twining over anything else, spring onions, herbs, and eight or so tomato plants.

We have basil in the ground, but it's nowhere near being ready to harvest in significant quantities (and saving it from the snails and slugs is a constant battle here), so we picked some up at the farmer's market last weekend and made this amazingly flavorful and pungent pesto, that we try to make in huge quantities every year. Two bunches were about enough for two batches. Normally, we'll make two or three batches at a time and freeze at least one of them, but this time we've been eating it over several days. To freeze, spoon into an icecube tray you reserve for such uses, pour a little olive oil on top, and then transfer to a freezer bags or boxes when solid.

Serving ideas: great as is, on pasta or vegetables. We like to brush a thick layer on salmon then bake or barbecue. This week, we've been enjoying it mixed half and half with ricotta, then tossed with spaghetti. I think that mellows the flavor out a little for kids and it adds a little more nutrition (and helps your pesto last a little longer). Both my girls love this-Mary just ate two servings for lunch, and the baby will eat as much as we feed her. Cooks Illustrated suggests mixing a batch of this with 1/4 cup pasta cooking water until smooth, then tossing with a pound of cooked spaghetti.

Recipe a slight modification from the version in Cooks' Illustrated: The New Best Recipe. Toasting the nuts beforehand is essential. We added parsley for the first time with this batch and it was great-added a nice, fresh taste. We also did half walnuts and half pinenuts, and they were good, though I'd suggest toasting them separately as the pinenuts cook much faster.

*1/4 cu pine nutes, walnuts, or almonds
*3 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled
*2 packed cups of fresh basil leaves
*2 TBS fresh parsley leaves (optional)
*6 TBS olive oil (1/4 cup+ 2 TBS)
*1 tsp salt

-Toast the nuts in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, stirring-PutFREQUENTLY, 4-5 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Transfer to a small bowl.
-Toast garlic in empty skillet until fragrant slightly colored, about 7 minutes. Cool, then peel.
-Place basil and parsley in a heavy duty ziploc bag and bang on them with a rolling pin or heavy small skillet until the leaves are all dark and bruised. If you happen to have a mortar and pestle, use that by all means.
-Place all ingredients in a food processor. Whirl, scraping as necessary, until smooth.
*1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Pepperoncini Pork

Pepperoncini Pork Taco, originally uploaded by stankey.

This is the simplest, and one of the most satisfying, recipes I know. My friend Rick shared it with me-it apparently was his go-to recipe for cooking food at home to impress a date. They really shouldn't've been impressed enough to sleep with him-the recipe is that easy, but I'm guessing it worked. Sometimes. At least frequently enough for him to keep cooking.

We made this recently when my friend Crit was visiting from Australia with her American sweetheart, Jay. They arrived after a long, exhausting trip, and we wanted to fix them something easy, that could be eaten whenever they got here, and that could fulfill a craving someone might have after being out of the States for awhile. Whatever failings there might be about food in America, we do have access to Mexican food, and Mexican ingredients, that is not available in much of the world. Jay and Crit report that you can get flour tortillas and basic salsa in Australia, but not much that's really authentic.

Throw the pork for this recipe in the crockpot in the morning on low. Head to your local Mexican market and pick up good corn tortillas, fresh green salsa, cilantro, cotija cheese, avocado, and some Negro Modelo. Good refried beans are fantastic, too. The pork tastes spicy and vinegary and is incredibly tender. It makes a lot-leftovers freeze well.

*1 pork roast, boneless, about 2-3 pounds. Nothing expensive.
*1 jar, 16 oz or so, pepperoncini.

-Place pork roast in crock pot.
-Pour pepperoncini over.
-Cook on low all day, til pork falls apart when shredded with two forks.
-Remove pork from pot and shred with aforementioned two forks.
-Let people make their own tacos with above ingredients.

Orange and Avocado Salad

This is another item on the sadly short list of things so amazingly good I'd eat them even if they weren't healthy. Others honorees includ mangoes, roasted garlic and green beans, really good hummus, fresh pineapple, and red wine.

This salad is simple, delicious, and we could eat it every night of the week. Play it by ear-no rules here.
*An orange, or two, peel sliced off, sliced crosswise into thin rounds.
*An avocado, or two, sliced into thin crescents.
*Black pepper
*Balsamic vinegar
*Goat cheese (optional)
*Olive oil (optional).

-Arrange the avocado and orange slices in circles on a plate, overlapping each other.
-Grind pepper over all.
-Crumble some goat cheese on top, if you'd like.
-Either drizzle with balsamic vinegar, or mix 1 Tbs balsamic to 3 Tbs olive oil (shake in a small jar) to make our standard, everyday vinaigrette.
-Enjoy. It's wonderful if your oranges were cold-chilly deliciousness. Another great variation is to toss the fruits with some nice salad greens, and dress after that.

Yum!

Spinach Apple Salad with Candied Almonds

This is a perennial family favorite, and a standard to take to potlucks. It is always well-received. It's easy, and the flavors are a good way to introduce kids to spinach (it's fairly sweet, the dressing isn't too strongly flavored, and kids usually are very happy about apple slices). The almonds are delicious, and any leftover would be great on ice cream. Theoretically, that is, as I've never had any left over. This is taken from Bon Appetit, with a few small adaptations. In my experience, if you make the full amount of dressing, you'll have way too much for one bag of spinach (unless you like your salad swimming in dressing). I'd either save the dressing to have salad again the next night, or cut the dressing in half. You can make the almonds and dressing in advance; slice apples and toss all together at the last minute.
-
1/4 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons sugar (divided)
1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds (about 3 ounces)

1 10- ounce bag ready-to-use spinach leaves
2 medium-size apples, cored, thinly sliced

Combine onion, cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, paprika in small bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons sugar. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Note: I usually do this in my food processor-chopping the onion in the bowl then adding the other ingredients without cleaning out the bowl, finally drizzling the olive oil through the tube. You want the onion very finely chopped).

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add almonds. Stir until almonds begin to color, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over. Stir until sugar melts and begins to turn golden, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer almonds to bowl and cool. (Dressing and almonds can be prepared 4 hours ahead. Cover separately and let stand at room temperature.)

Combine spinach and apples in large bowl. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Mix in almonds. Serve salad, passing any remaining dressing separately.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I combined a couple of different recipes for this, and it was wonderfully good. It's a simple recipe, but nourishing, especially when you have a sad, sick husband in the house. It's also cheap, as the only ingredient that costs much at all is the whole chicken, and those are never very expensive. I tried to make homemade noodles for this but was not happy with the results-I didn't roll them thin enough, and was wishing I had a pasta machine to get them wafer thin. I'd use commercial frozen or dried egg noodles next time, until I figure out the right noodle recipe.

2 Quarts Chicken stock, from The New Best Recipe ideally
Breast meat from above recipe, shredded. (two chicken breasts' worth)
2 TBS reserved chicken fat from above recipe, or vegetable oil
2-4 carrots, depending on size and your love of carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4" rounds
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1-3 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
8 oz wide egg noodles
ground black pepper
Sherry

Heat chicken fat in dutch oven over medium high heat. Add vegetables and garlic (is garlic a vegetable?) and saute about 5 minutes, until softened. Stir occasionally so garlic doesn't scorch.

Add stock, chicken meat, thyme and simmer until veggies are tender.

Add noodles and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes (note: if you plan to freeze, don't add noodles now. Wait til you serve, and add at the end of your reheating time, or else they'll get way too mushy).

Add black pepper, salt (if needed) and a dash of sherry, all to taste.

Crispy Ginger Orange Tofu and Vegetables

This was my first experience cooking with tofu, which I've long thought I hated. I live in a very tofu-centric community, and perhaps my resistance was just due to my inherent oppositionality (new word of the day). But I have to believe there's some validity to my distaste. It's got that freaky texture, after all: gummy and spongy, like hardboiled egg whites (I hate hardboiled eggs) with no taste. Tofu-loving friends of mine have tried me to convince me that there is more to their beloved bean curd than I've believed, saying you can make it flavorful and crispy. I finally decided to give it a go, and adapted three or so recipes into the following. And man, it was good. I mean, I'm usually always right :) but I was wrong about tofu. This had us all sneaking the little leftover crispy tofu bits. My daughter wasn't a big fan of the veggies (but I think next time I'll try peapods, which she likes) but she liked the tofu and sauce and rice (though she persisted in calling the tofu chicken).

This is a recipe you can play with a lot. Cook up some brown rice to serve with. Sub whatever vegetables you've got on hand. Recently, I had to use half lemon juice, as I only had one orange in the house. It was very tart, so I added a tablespoon of honey while cooking the sauce. It was still very tart, but also delicious, and Mary still loved it. The trick of dusting the tofu with cornstarch is apparently very helpful in making it golden and crispy.

*1 lb firm or extra-firm tofu
*Soy Sauce
*Dry Sherry
*Sesame Oil
*Vegetable Oil
*Cornstarch
*Several cups of vegetables prepared to stir-fry. I used thinly sliced carrots, broccoli slaw, and green onions. Cabbage, spinach, mushrooms, regular onions would all be good, too, I think.
*1 TBS toasted sesame seeds (or more, if you'd like)
*1 1/2-2 TBS grated fresh ginger
*2 or 3 large garlic cloves, minced
*3/4 c orange juice

A few hours, or the night before you want to eat, slice the tofu into four to six thin slices. Place on a kitchen towel, then wrap the towel over the tofu and weight the whole lot down (I put a cookie sheet on top, then a few big cookbooks). This presses the water out of the tofu. You may need to change the towel part of the way through.

When done, cut the tofu into approximately 1" cubes and put in a ziploc bag. Add a splash of soy sauce, a splash of sherry, and some sesame oil (amounts aren't really important). Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet over medium to medium-high heat. While it's heating, pat tofu cubes dry and lightly dust with cornstarch (I put some cornstarch in a small wire sieve and tapped it over them, turning them occasionally). When very hot, add tofu cubes and cook, stirring occasionaly to turn them over, until they are golden brown and crispy. Be patient at first, as it takes awhile for them to start browning. Watch carefully at the end and lower heat as necessary, as they can suddenly begin to burn. Remove tofu to plate.

Add vegetables to the hot pan-remembering to add the ones that take longest to cook first. So in my case I added the carrots, cooked, stirring constantly for a minute or two, then added the broccoli slaw. When both were done but still had some crispness to them, I added a couple of chopped green onions and the sesame seeds. Stir fry for a few seconds and then remove to a second plate or bowl.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add ginger, garlic, orange juice, a TBS of soy sauce, and 2 TBS of sesame oil. Cook, stirring constantly, until it's bubbly and well-combined. Add tofu to sauce and heat through until the sauce coats the tofu and is somewhat thickened.

Spoon veggies over rice, and then tofu and sauce overall to serve.

Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic

This is a feeble attempt to counteract the death-dealing properties of the last recipe. I have to admit, though, that even though this dish is healthy, it's really, really good. And simple. And easy. It is the only cauliflower dish a friend of mine who hates cauliflower enjoys. Since the cauliflower cooks down so much, it's a very easy way to eat a lot of veggies in one serving. I like to do two cauliflower heads at once, so we can have it for dinner and have leftovers. My daughter, alas, is not a fan, but we keep trying.

*1 or 2 heads cauliflower, chopped into pretty small pieces (say 1/4-3/4 inches-but not a big deal-just chop it up)
*Lots of chopped garlic-the stuff in the jar is fine, though fresh is best. I'll use a tablespoon, at least
*Olive oil
*salt and freshly-ground pepper

Head oven to 375. Put cauliflower in a 9x13" dish. Add garlic. Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir well. Place, uncovered, in oven. Cook until the cauliflower is a nice golden brown, stirring frequently to keep garlic from burning.

Lentil and Brown Rice Soup

This is my favorite kind of meal. It's delicious, it's simple, it makes lots to freeze (and reheats beautifully), it makes your house smell wonderful, and it's healthy to boot. From Gourmet magazine via epicurious.com, which I think is hands down the web's best recipe source. I've made a few changes.

5 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup brown rice
28 oz can chopped tomatoes
3 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried basil
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried orégano
1/4 teaspoon crumbled dried thyme
(or, as I prefer, add a bunch of the above herbs, fresh, at the end of cooking-or do a little dried during, a litte fresh at the end)
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves or cilantro
1 lb smoked sausage (the low fat turkey is good in this)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar, or to taste
hot sauce, to taste, if desired

In a dutch oven or other heavy kettle, combine the broth, 3 cups water*, the lentils, the rice, the tomatoes with the reserved juice, the carrots, the onion, the celery, the garlic, the basil, the orégano, the thyme, and the bay leaf, bring the liquid to a boil, and simmer the mixture, covered, stirring occasionally, for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the lentils and rice are tender. Stir in the parsley, the vinegar, and salt and pepper** to taste and discard the bay leaf. The soup will be thick and will thicken as it stands. Thin the soup, if desired, with additional hot chicken broth or water.

If using sausage, slice into small half circles and cook in nonstick pan until brown. Add to soup near end of cooking time.

*I used chicken "Better Than Boullion", which I think is better than the canned broth, though not as good as homemade. So, 8 cups water and a little less than 2 tablespoons of BTB. I might actually reduce the boullion next time; I love salt, but this was a little too salty.
**The soup was plenty salty, as mentioned above, and I added no extra salt.

Makes about 14 cups, serving 6 to 8. The recipe makes quite a bit; eat for dinner that night and freeze the rest, if you'd like. Excellent with a good crusty brown bread. It's very thick-more stew like than soup-like, but I liked it that way.

Kid factor: My daughter was ambivalent about this, but had burned her tongue when first tasting so was very resistent to trying it again. We'll serve it to her again from the freezer and see how it goes.

Cous Cous Salad with Orange Dressing

This doubles easily, and is open to lots of variation. Very quick, as well.

Salad:
*2 1/4 Cups chicken broth or water, boiling.
*1 1/2 Cups cous cous
*1/2 Cup chopped dried apricots, currants, or raisins (I prefer apricots)
*1 can chickpeas (garbonzo beans), drained and rinsed (or other canned beans)
*1 bunch green onions, chopped
*1/4-1/2 Cup slivered almonds (or other nuts)
*optional: cooked chicken from a roast chicken

Place cous cous and dried fruit in medium to large bowl. Pour boiling broth over, stir to mix, and let stand 5 minutes. Add beans and onions, stir and fluff.

Dressing:
*3/4 Cup orange juice
*3 TBS balsamic vinegar
*3 TBS orange zest (zest from 2 or 3 oranges)
*1 TBS ground cumin
*1/2 cup olive oil

Combine all in a jar. Put the lid on :). Shake vigorously to blend right. Add to salad and toss-start with about 1/2 the jar and more to taste.

Does well made ahead, and left overs are great.