I got this one from my favorite greek cookbook. Of course I have no idea where it is right now so I can't give you the name and author. It's a really great cookbook, so as soon as it surfaces I will come back to this post and add the info.
* 2 cucumbers, peeled and diced (any cucumber will do with this recipe. The original recipe does not require the cukes to be peeled, and they are sliced in rounds, but I like it better peeled and diced.)
* 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (Use the nice sheep or goat kind from either France or Greece. Cheap, crappy, pre-crumbled feta will ruin it. Believe me, its worth the extra $$)
* 1 big handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped (You have to use fresh mint for this one, dried will not do. If you find yourself completely mintless, subsitute fresh or dried dill instead.)
* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
* salt & pepper to taste
Throw your cukes, feta, and mint leaves in a bowl and set aside. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper. (Remember, if you make an adjustment to the quantity of dressing, always keep the ratio 2 parts oil to 1 part lemon juice.) Pour dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve at room temp immediately.
Notes:
This will keep in the fridge for 1-2 days, but make sure you bring it out about 1 hour prior to serving so the oil can come back up to room temp. Toss well again.
I LOVE to eat this with a nice crusty baguette. This salad is meant to have alot of leftover dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl, and its very yummy to sop it up with a baguette.
Remember that if you subsitute the fresh mint for dried dill, only use about 1/3 of the amount.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Overflow Tomato Pasta Sauce
Ok, this pasta sauce is meant to be a base sauce to freeze, when you thaw a portion out, you add the finishing touches. This recipe is perfect at the end of the summer when you realize you've got a million tomatoes and they are getting soft faster than you can eat them. What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes, so the prep time is pretty quick. The down side to this is that you will need to be able to cook them down all day long so they loose their bitterness. I'm talking a minimum of 6 hours here. If you've got a food processer use it to dice the onion and carrot to save time. I've adapted this recipe from my mother-in-law's basic pasta sauce, which she adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.
* 1 medium onion, diced (I like vidalia or a sweet onion myself.)
* 1 carrot, diced
* 1 clove garlic, chopped (add another if you are a garlic freak)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if you've got fresh oregano, omit the dried and use the fresh at the end of the cooking process)
* Tomatoes, roughly chopped, as many as you can fit in the pot (use up the ones that are bruised and overripe)
* olive oil
* salt & pepper
* red wine vinegar
Coat the bottom of a large enamel pot with olive oil, just enough to where it can swish around a little. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano, then sautee over medium heat till onions are transparent. While this is happening, I usually start chopping up my tomatoes.
Add the hacked up tomatoes to the pot, stirring as you add to coat in oil. I mean it when I say add as many as your enamel pot can hold. Add the juices from the cutting board, seeds, and all. Cut, add, and stir, till your pot is full.
Reduce heat to a tiny little simmer. Now we wait. Continue to cook at lowest heat all day long while tomatoes break down. Stir occasionally.
After 6-7 hours, add salt, pepper, (and fresh oregano if you are using it instead of dried) and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
Now get out that immersion blender and puree the sauce, leaving a few chunks if you like. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one. They are only $14.99 at Target. If you refuse, do it the hard way and transfer your sauce to the food processor or normal blender in batches, pureeing as you go.
Cool the sauce completely, and freeze in whatever portions make sense to you. Keeps in the freezer hapily for 6 months. Remember this is a BASE SAUCE only. When you thaw it out you will add fresh basil, cheese, meat, or whatever the heck you like to put in your pasta sauce. It will be a bit thin when you thaw it, so plan on re-heating it for at least 15 minutes to cook down a bit.
Note:
I like to add 2 carrots instead. I don't know why, but it makes it very yummy and interesting. Try it both ways and see what you think.
Using canned tomatoes: This recipe works great in the winter when all you can get is canned tomatoes. Use 2 large cans (I think they are 24 ounce) per every 1/2 onion and 1 carrot. You will only need to cook down for 1 hour, so you can use it right away. Still freezes well!
My additions: I always add a handfull of fresh basil and some shaved parmesan cheese before serving.
* 1 medium onion, diced (I like vidalia or a sweet onion myself.)
* 1 carrot, diced
* 1 clove garlic, chopped (add another if you are a garlic freak)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if you've got fresh oregano, omit the dried and use the fresh at the end of the cooking process)
* Tomatoes, roughly chopped, as many as you can fit in the pot (use up the ones that are bruised and overripe)
* olive oil
* salt & pepper
* red wine vinegar
Coat the bottom of a large enamel pot with olive oil, just enough to where it can swish around a little. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano, then sautee over medium heat till onions are transparent. While this is happening, I usually start chopping up my tomatoes.
Add the hacked up tomatoes to the pot, stirring as you add to coat in oil. I mean it when I say add as many as your enamel pot can hold. Add the juices from the cutting board, seeds, and all. Cut, add, and stir, till your pot is full.
Reduce heat to a tiny little simmer. Now we wait. Continue to cook at lowest heat all day long while tomatoes break down. Stir occasionally.
After 6-7 hours, add salt, pepper, (and fresh oregano if you are using it instead of dried) and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
Now get out that immersion blender and puree the sauce, leaving a few chunks if you like. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one. They are only $14.99 at Target. If you refuse, do it the hard way and transfer your sauce to the food processor or normal blender in batches, pureeing as you go.
Cool the sauce completely, and freeze in whatever portions make sense to you. Keeps in the freezer hapily for 6 months. Remember this is a BASE SAUCE only. When you thaw it out you will add fresh basil, cheese, meat, or whatever the heck you like to put in your pasta sauce. It will be a bit thin when you thaw it, so plan on re-heating it for at least 15 minutes to cook down a bit.
Note:
I like to add 2 carrots instead. I don't know why, but it makes it very yummy and interesting. Try it both ways and see what you think.
Using canned tomatoes: This recipe works great in the winter when all you can get is canned tomatoes. Use 2 large cans (I think they are 24 ounce) per every 1/2 onion and 1 carrot. You will only need to cook down for 1 hour, so you can use it right away. Still freezes well!
My additions: I always add a handfull of fresh basil and some shaved parmesan cheese before serving.
Quick Pickles
This recipe is a favorite of my husband and son. Tastes yummy on a hot summer day.
* 1 english cucumber, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds (use any cucumber you like, but I like the english ones because they do not have alot of annoying seeds)
* 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar (find this in the asian section of the grocery store. rice wine vinegar comes in seasoned or unseasoned, so make sure you get the seasoned one)
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Take a gallon size ziploc bag and throw your vinegar and salt in it, shake to mix. Add the cucumber slices. Close the bag and shake to mix again. Lay the bag FLAT on a shelf in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve cold, just pour right out of the bag and into a bowl, vinegar and all.
Notes:
These can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, depending on how thick you cut the cukes. Remember that you just made pickles, so the longer they stay in the brine in the fridge, the less crispy they will become.
* 1 english cucumber, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds (use any cucumber you like, but I like the english ones because they do not have alot of annoying seeds)
* 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar (find this in the asian section of the grocery store. rice wine vinegar comes in seasoned or unseasoned, so make sure you get the seasoned one)
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Take a gallon size ziploc bag and throw your vinegar and salt in it, shake to mix. Add the cucumber slices. Close the bag and shake to mix again. Lay the bag FLAT on a shelf in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve cold, just pour right out of the bag and into a bowl, vinegar and all.
Notes:
These can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, depending on how thick you cut the cukes. Remember that you just made pickles, so the longer they stay in the brine in the fridge, the less crispy they will become.
Bread Salad
There are a million recipes out there for bread salad, so you will probably end up playing with this one to make it suit your tastes. This recipe was originally designed for using up stale bread, but it is also great if you have a tomato overflow.
* 1/2 loaf stale italian or french bread, cut into cubes (you can use fresh bread, but you will need to toast it first)
* a couple of big super ripe tomatoes, cut into cubes & salted (I like to seed them first, but most people just cut 'em up and toss 'em in, seeds and all)
* Vidalia or sweet onion, sliced very thin (again, add to taste. I'm not a huge fan of raw onion, so I only add about 1/4 of a medium sized one. Some people might add up to a whole onion if they dig it.)
* a handful of fresh basil
* Salt and pepper to taste (I only use sea salt and fresh ground pepper these days. It makes a huge taste difference)
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* half of a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I'll explain later...)
* 1 small clove garlic, minced
So this is pretty easy. Just throw your bread, tomatoes, and onion together in a big bowl and set aside.
Lets start on the dressing, because this is where it can get weird. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, & garlic together in a small bowl. Now, in my opinion this amount of dressing is way too much for the amount of salad we have made. I recommend that you add 1/2 of the amount of dressing here, toss first, then taste. With the dressing all you want to really remember is this: 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar, then add garlic. You can add as much or as little dressing as you like. I find that too much really overpowers the salad.
When you figure out your dressing, pour it over the bread salad, toss, and let sit (room temp) for 30 minutes. I like to toss a few times during that 1/2 hour. This allows the salad to sop up all that good dressing. After 30 minutes, add basil, salt & pepper to taste, toss & serve.
Notes:
This salad does NOT keep well in the fridge overnight as the bread becomes soggy. Just make what you need for each day.
Bread: My favorite bread to make this with is ciabatta or tuscan. An old baguette works great too, but you might want to cube it the day before, because cutting a day old baguette is nearly impossible. I don't recommend using pre-sliced sandwich bread for this recipe, but if you try it and it works, let me know your secret.
Feel free to add anything else you like to the salad: olives, capers, anchovies, etc.
Great paired with: a cheese plate, mixed grilled meats, appetizers.
* 1/2 loaf stale italian or french bread, cut into cubes (you can use fresh bread, but you will need to toast it first)
* a couple of big super ripe tomatoes, cut into cubes & salted (I like to seed them first, but most people just cut 'em up and toss 'em in, seeds and all)
* Vidalia or sweet onion, sliced very thin (again, add to taste. I'm not a huge fan of raw onion, so I only add about 1/4 of a medium sized one. Some people might add up to a whole onion if they dig it.)
* a handful of fresh basil
* Salt and pepper to taste (I only use sea salt and fresh ground pepper these days. It makes a huge taste difference)
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* half of a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I'll explain later...)
* 1 small clove garlic, minced
So this is pretty easy. Just throw your bread, tomatoes, and onion together in a big bowl and set aside.
Lets start on the dressing, because this is where it can get weird. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, & garlic together in a small bowl. Now, in my opinion this amount of dressing is way too much for the amount of salad we have made. I recommend that you add 1/2 of the amount of dressing here, toss first, then taste. With the dressing all you want to really remember is this: 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar, then add garlic. You can add as much or as little dressing as you like. I find that too much really overpowers the salad.
When you figure out your dressing, pour it over the bread salad, toss, and let sit (room temp) for 30 minutes. I like to toss a few times during that 1/2 hour. This allows the salad to sop up all that good dressing. After 30 minutes, add basil, salt & pepper to taste, toss & serve.
Notes:
This salad does NOT keep well in the fridge overnight as the bread becomes soggy. Just make what you need for each day.
Bread: My favorite bread to make this with is ciabatta or tuscan. An old baguette works great too, but you might want to cube it the day before, because cutting a day old baguette is nearly impossible. I don't recommend using pre-sliced sandwich bread for this recipe, but if you try it and it works, let me know your secret.
Feel free to add anything else you like to the salad: olives, capers, anchovies, etc.
Great paired with: a cheese plate, mixed grilled meats, appetizers.
Recipes for summer overflow
Several people have asked me to post my recipes that use up summer garden produce. I will happily do that! I keep making the same recipes over and over this summer, and it will be good to catalog them for next summer.
If you have any additional recipes to share please let me know. Also, let me know if you try any of these and how they turned out.
Also, my recipes are usually ones that I have taken from books or magazines and then edited over time. I will note where the original recipe came from on each post. Please note that sometimes I don't really measure things, I just eyeball it, so you might need to add more or less according to your taste.
If you have any additional recipes to share please let me know. Also, let me know if you try any of these and how they turned out.
Also, my recipes are usually ones that I have taken from books or magazines and then edited over time. I will note where the original recipe came from on each post. Please note that sometimes I don't really measure things, I just eyeball it, so you might need to add more or less according to your taste.
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