On Being a Tomato Groupie

Last time we talked about pizza,  and the time before about family secret recipes, and it got me thinking about what other honors could be given to a tomato.  Red sauce is a coveted secret in the kitchen of every Italian grandmother, right?  And not being Italian, I had to get mine off the TV.  That's okay, it still kicks butt!

Being a "Groupie"
I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain.  For those of you who aren't, he's an author-turned-television chef.  If you've never read Kitchen Confidential, get it.  Read it.  You can even find it at the public library.  Fantastic look behind the scenes of fine dining establishments, in quite the irreverent vein.  There's an awesome passage where he describes tasting his first oyster at the age of 9, comparing it to... well, I won't give it away.  But I bring this up because I've learned a lot from both watching his television show and reading his cookbook.  Yes, actually reading his cookbook.  You'll both learn, and laugh your butt off, through the whole thing.  The couple of pages he has on making stock are alone worth the cost of the book.

Why am I bringing it up?  Because watching his show is how I learned to make red sauce.  Granted, I've tweaked it along the way.  It's the go-to recipe that I can make by heart using a grand total of about 4 brain cells.  Here's what I do:

Photo via Travel Channel

Ingredients

• 4 cups diced Roma tomatoes, either fresh (blanched and peeled) or home-canned
• 1/3 cup decent olive oil
• 1 large sprig fresh basil
• 2 large sprigs fresh oregano
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (more or less to taste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• healthy dash red pepper
• salt & pepper to taste (but don't use much)

Directions

1. Steep the herbs in the olive oil over gentle heat for 10-15 minutes, then strain and discard the herbs.
2. Add the garlic,  and tomatoes to the oil, mash with a wooden spoon, and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the consistency is a thick sauce.  Add the butter and stir until melted.  Ta da!
3. If you're using it with pasta (okay, yes that's a blinding flash of the obvious), let the noodles cook their last minute or two in the sauce along with 1/2 cup of pasta water.  You want to aerate the noodles while they cook in the sauce.

Photo via Epicurious

So, let's take a look at some other types of tomato-based sauces.  Marinara is a classic.  One of my family's favorite recipes is this one for chicken in an herby French sauce made from cherry tomatoes. This Provencal chicken stew has a beautiful tomato sauce as well.  Yes, even the humble Sloppy Joe should have a beautiful, rich tomato sauce.  Of course, the most glorious use for tomatoes (after, of course, deep dish pizza) is my Nirvana:  cioppino.  (Let me know if you ever go to San Francisco, I know the greatest place!)

Photo via The Old Clam House

Lemony Shrimp & Broccoli Over Roasted Cabbage

One good thing about being gluten free is it really forces you to rethink bases for dishes.  You can't throw everything into a pita or onto just any ol' pasta. While I've found some incredible GF pasta's, and there's always the good ol' standbyes of rice or quinoa, I like to get creative with veggies to take the place of traditional starches.  Thanks to my friend Natasha (check her out over at Tash's Noshes - and we'll see more from her in a little bit), I'm OBSESSED with "zoodles."  Zucchini sliced thin into noodles and cooked up with just a titch of olive oil and then dressed as you would any pasta.  But the other veggie that has become my jam for a base is...cabbage.  I'm pretty well convinced that I could eat anything if it was put on top of roast cabbage ribbons.  So when I got to the end of the week and I still hadn't used up the cabbage from our St. Patrick's Day boxes (I know, I should be arrested by the Irish police for not making cabbage-something last weekend), I knew I needed to act fast.  I'd thawed out some shrimp and we had that lovely broccoli, so I vowed to somehow make all these things play nice together.  And play nice they did!

Lemony Shrimp & Broccoli Over Roasted Cabbage

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 broccoli crown, chopped
Handful cherry tomatoes, halved
2 lbs shrimp, fully cooked and thawed
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
Zest of 1 lemon
Dash of red pepper flakes
Salt & pepper to taste
See Simple Roasted Cabbage for cabbage portion of recipe


Start preheating your oven and prep your cabbage, according to the above recipe, so that it can cook while you whip up the rest of the dish.

In a skillet over medium high heat, heat your olive oil and then add your garlic.  Cook for about 1 minute or until fragrant.  Add in your broccoli and cherry tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are soft and skin begins to peel, about 5 minutes.  Add in shrimp and toss to fully incorporate, then add your lemon zest and juice and stir to blend all the flavors.  Cook for an additional minute or two, just long enough to heat shrimp fully through.  Season with red pepper flakes, salt & pepper.

Serve over top of the roasted cabbage.

Salmon With Vegetables In Herb Butter Sauce

In Dublin's fair city, Molly Malone may have wheeled about her cart of cockles and mussels (alive, alive, oh!), but she might as well have been wheeling about fillets of salmon for as much as the Irish consume of this meaty, delightful fish.  That's one of the benefits of being an island, all the seafood, all the time!  And while most of us think of fish & chips when it comes to Irish seafood, that's like portraying all American cuisine as just McDonald's.  Those folks know their fishies, and how to best prepare them, and one of my all time favorite recipes comes from Margaret M. Johnson's cookbook The New Irish Table.  In a bit of a twist on a surf & turf, she tops some wine and butter poached salmon with veggies from the land and the sea. I'll spare you having to hunt down dried sea vegetables, and just stick with lovely land based ones.  But this is one dish that is sure to be a winner, winner, St. Patrick's Day dinner!

Salmon With Vegetables In Herb Butter Sauce

Ingredients
2 Tbsp dry white wine
1/2 cup fish stock or bottled clam juice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 bay leaf
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup spinach, coarse chopped
4 salmon fillets, about 5-6 ounces a piece
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 Tbsp parsley, minced
1 Tbsp chives, minced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste


In a large saute pan, heat the white wine over medium heat until reduced by half.  Add in the fish stock/clam juice, lemon juice, bay leaf, and all the vegetables from the carrots thru the spinach.  Place the salmon on top of the vegetables, cover the pan and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the salmon is cooked thru.  Transfer the salmon to a plate to keep warm, and into the pan add your butter and stir till well blended.  Then stir in your herbs, salt & pepper, and cook for an additional 30 seconds.

Serve each piece of salmon with a generous spoonful of the vegetables and butter sauce.

Estofado de Pollo: Chicken Stew

If you can somehow keep yourself from just boiling up this week's corn and not just eating piles of corn on the cob, then reserve the kernels from 4 of the ears and get ready to whip up a quick, Mexican style stew, that is perfect served with some tortillas to sop it all up.  You can add another cup or 2 of liquid and a Tbsp of tomato paste if you want to really turn this into a soup style stew, otherwise think of this as more of a pulled pork consistency but with more tomatoes and corn than you can shake a stick at.  I love to lay out some of the tortillas on a platter and spoon the stew over top to serve this family style.  You could even use this as a stuffing for any baked enchiladas or taquitos, or serve it with large leaf lettuce for some healthy lettuce wraps!

Estofado de Pollo: Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp garlic, minced

3 tomatoes, diced

4 ears corn, cooked and removed from cob

1 chipotle chili in adobo, diced

1 small can salsa verde

2 cups yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup reduced sodium chicken stock

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken (great for using up leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken)

1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (optional)

Kosher salt & pepper to taste

1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

1/2 lime

Corn tortillas

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add in garlic and saute for about 1 minute, until fragrant.  Add in diced tomatoes and corn and stir to blend.  Toss in 1 diced chipotle chili, with about 1 tsp of the adobo sauce, and then your salsa verde and the rest of your tomatoes.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes and then pour in chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and simmer down for about 4-5 minutes.  If you're making this more of a soup type stew, add in 2-3 cups of stock plus 1 Tbsp of tomato paste, and simmer also for 4-5 minutes.

Stir in your shredded chicken, and season with salt & pepper to taste.  You can either stir in any cheese to help thicken the sauce, or use it as a garnish over top.  Garnish top of stew with cilantro and the juice of 1/2 a lime.  Serve with corn tortillas to scoop up the stew.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Wait till you see the amount of potatoes you're getting in the Crop Share this week!  Squee!  Can you tell I'm Irish by descent?  So, after you're done whipping up this Leek & Potato Soup, you're still going to have potatoes left over!  While I suggest using up some in this Potato Salad with Cucumber, Rocket Greens & Smoked Salmon (this is not your Grandma's potato salad, no mayo in sight, it is an actual salad), I've also got another "fishy" recipe below that is one of my all-time favorite preparations for salmon.  The potatoes become this wonderful crispy base, and then you'll be able to throw on some of the tangelos or any leftover citrus from last week, and snag a Meyer lemon or two while you're in the store.  Then, as I mentioned in the "spoiler" e-mail earlier today, hands down one of my favorite salads of all time is this Herbed Shrimp & White Bean salad I'll link to below.  When you see how beefy the green leaf lettuce is this week, you'll have to work to use that up too, and this entree salad will be just the ticket.  We got in fresh cherry tomatoes today, so you'll be able to snag a pint of them along with some local honey to help round out the salad ingredients.

So without further ado, I give you two of my favorite recipes that are sure to help you use up this week's bounty (titles are hyper-linked to original recipes)...

Salmon & Potato Casserole With a Citrus Herb Vinaigrette via Country Living

Herbed Shrimp & White Bean Salad via Cooking Light

Garlicky Chicken, Cherry Tomatoes & Kale Over Quinoa

After the Curried Cauliflower & Chickpea Bake, I knew I had to make something else for dinner to fill me up.  It was either that or spend an inordinate amount of time picking out every speck of cauliflower.  Thankfully, the Mister actually likes cauliflower and loved the dish (who is the person I share my life with?!!?), so the rest went with him to work for his lunch.  Thus out of my fridge I pulled two of my favorite things...kale & McCauley's Roasted Pepper Relish.  I'm unashamedly addicted to this stuff, and that says a lot because coming from Youngstown, OH, we are SERIOUS about our hot peppers in oil.  Good thing we have their full product line in store at Nalls, because I look for every excuse to work this stuff into a meal or snack (see my Spaghetti with Broccoli, Sausage & Hot Peppers for another example).

This is a super quick and healthy meal to throw together, and since we gave you A LOT of kale this week, this is a great way to use up about half of it.  Yes, I used 2 generous cups of kale in this and I still have half my bundle left over.  Guess I better make Sausage, Potato & Kale Soup this week!

Garlicky Chicken, Cherry Tomatoes & Kale over Quinoa

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 cups kale, removed from stem and shredded
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp McCauley's Roasted Pepper Relish (can be found in store!)
Kosher salt & ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup cooked quinoa

Cook quinoa to package directions while preparing the rest.

In a skillet, heat olive oil over high heat.  Add chicken and garlic, and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Once you can no longer see pink on the outside of the chicken, add in your cherry tomatoes.  I like to add them whole as I like when they burst, but if you'd prefer to avoid that, then you can halve them.  Stir occasionally for about 3 additional minutes and once tomatoes begin to burst, add in your kale and get ready for the super, snap, crackle and pop of kale in hot oil.  So satisfying!  Season with garlic powder and saute util kale is wilted.  Stir in Pepper Relish and season with salt & pepper.  Finish with a final quick drizzle of olive oil and toss to evenly coat.  Serve over quinoa or even toss with pasta.

Yellow Squash with Tomatoes & Parmesan

Where most people tire of yellow squash, I can't seem to get enough of it.  And once squash season is going full tilt, I will find new and interesting ways to fit it in to pretty much every meal of the day.  One of my go-to dishes over the past few years has been to slice yellow squash in half, place it into a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and cardamom, and then bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

But when I saw this recipe for Yellow Squash with Tomatoes & Parmesan, over at Kayln's Kitchen, I knew I'd found a new love!  Such a quick and simple weeknight side dish to throw together.  Or, if you're a squash fiend like me, an entire meal to try and hoard all to yourself.  With the Vidalia onion also in this week's share, you'll already have 2 of 7 ingredients going home with you!

Hop on over to Kayln's Kitchen to view the recipe for Yellow Squash with Tomatoes & Parmesan!

Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed With Mozzarella & Basil

These cute little appetizers are just what you need for unexpected guests. Serve these up with a pitcher of iced tea and you'll be a very gracious host. They're easy to make and with it being late summer, you should always have these ingredients on hand. 

Ingredients:
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into tiny dice (to yield about 1-1/4 cup)
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest (from about a quarter of a lemon)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint (about 18) cherry tomatoes, rinsed

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/cherry-tomatoes-stuffed-mozzarella-basil.aspx

Kale Ricotta Cakes

Believe it or not, kale can be sourced locally year-round. This is my favorite green of 2012. Pasta, smoothies, salads; I do it all. These little gems just look too good to pass up!

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups kale, stems removed and chopped (about 2.5 ounces)
3 large eggs
1 container (454 grams) light ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes (optional)

Click here to view the rest of this recipe: http://www.muffintinmania.com/2010/09/kale-ricotta-cups.html

Raw Radish and Cucumber Salad

How beautiful is this salad? It's a great way to incorporate all the great spring vegetables available. You can add fresh corn to it or tomatoes to give it even more color and nutrition.

Yield: 2

Ingredients:

1 cucumber, seeded and sliced into matchsticks

1 medium carrots, shredded

6 medium radishes, shredded

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon agave (or honey)

3 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper to taste



Click here to view the rest of this recipe: http://www.fortheloveoffoodblog.com/2011/06/raw-radish-and-cucumber-salad.html