Creamy Tomato Soup

At the end of the summer, there was an influx of farmshare tomatoes. I am not the biggest raw tomato fan (unless they are JUST picked from the garden, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and chopped basil, and layered with fresh mozzarella), so I knew I wanted to cook something with these guys. Usually when I am craving tomato soup, I use this Martha Stewart recipe that uses canned tomatoes. This time with enough tomatoes for a fresh soup, I consulted the goddess Barefoot Contessa. Here, I use her very simple and incredibly delicious recipe for cream of fresh tomato soup. Perfect for those chilly early autumn nights!

Lots of fresh chopped tomato

Cream adds richness and depth

Everything simmering with my homemade veggie stock

Ingredients

•                3 tbs good olive oil

•                2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped and1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)

•                1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)

•                4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large)

•                1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

•                1 tablespoon tomato paste

•                1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish

•                3 cups vegetable stock

•                1 tablespoon kosher salt

•                2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

•                3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and sauté for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.

Blend the soup in a blender or food processor until thoroughly combined. Return  the soup to the pot and put low heat. Slowly whisk in cream. Serve with grated cheese if desired.

Served with buttery, crispy toast. Yum!

Best-Ever Stuffed Peppers

Let me just start by saying, PLEASE MAKE THIS. It is so delicious that I've made it every week since I first tried it. And the best part is you can make a double batch of the filling and freeze it--then all you have to do for dinner is thaw (the night before in the fridge), add filling to the peppers, and shred cheese. It is the ultimate easy dinner.

Onto the peppers...

At the end of the summer Enterprise Farm (the provider of our CSA) began to unload bell peppers on us. I love peppers--in salads, omelets, stirfries, you name it. But there was a slight chill in the air, some dry polenta in the cupboard, and several ears of corn in the fridge. Goey, warm, stuffed peppers sounded like the perfect semi-healthy comfort food I was craving. I googled "bell peppers, polenta and corn" and of course my dear friend Martha had an idea!

I adapted Martha Stewart's polenta and corn stuffed peppers. I love that Martha, but some of her recipes are surprisingly bland. Here is my adaptation of her recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion (or 4 shallots) and 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3-4 ears corns sliced off the cob
• 1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
• 4 bell peppers, halved lengthwise through stem, ribs and seeds removed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high. Cook onion or shallots and garlic, stirring often, until lightly browned, 5 minutes. Add spices and combine. Add 3 cups water, 1 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; bring to a boil.
3. Whisking constantly, gradually add cornmeal, whisking until incorporated before adding more. Reduce to a simmer; cook, whisking frequently, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in corn, remaining 3 tablespoons butter, and half the cheese until melted.
4. Place peppers in a large baking dish; fill with polenta mixture. Add about a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover tightly with foil; bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
5. Return to oven; bake, uncovered, until cheese is golden and peppers are very tender, about 30 minutes more. Garnish with a sprinkling of smoked paprika. Serve immediately.

Ingredients (notice the chopped red pepper--I used that as a garnish but decided it didn't look good)



Farmshare peppers!



Melty, cheesy, pepper goodness.

Tomatillo Guacamole

We got tomatillos in our share earlier this summer. I had actually never had one before, and I had to look them up to see what they were and what to do with them.


Wikipedia told me: The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) is a plant of the tomato family, related to the cape gooseberry, bearing small, spherical and green or green-purple fruit of the same name. Tomatillos, referred to as green tomato (Spanish: tomate verde) in Mexico, are a staple in Mexican cuisine. Tomatillos are grown throughout the Western Hemisphere."


Sounded like I should put it in some kind of salsa or guacamole, and I figured my usual mix of veggie, spices, herbs and oil should do the trick.  I served it with blue corn tortilla chips, and the resulting recipe was tart, tangy, and had a delightful mix of textures. A must-try if you have tomatillos on hand for some reason.

Ingredients

Tomatillo guac!

Basil Pesto - Summer Staple

Nothing beats basil pesto, especially when it is made fresh in the summer with lots of extra virgin olive oil and tons of garlic. I use it on pastas, as a spread on sandwiches, as a base for pizza, to add something extra to omelets...the list is endless! And the recipe is simple:

In a food processor combine a cup and a half fresh basil leaves and 4 to 5 large garlic cloves and 3 TBSP of a hard, sharp cheese such as Parmesan. With the processor on, drizzle in olive oil until the pesto reaches the consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, if you like, to brighten the flavor. You can also pulse in toasted pine nuts, but I never seem to have them on hand.

The great thing about this simple spread is that it freezes well, so if you need to use up some basil on its way out, this is the way to go!

Fresh pesto, ready to be popped in the freezer for future use.

Eggplant Stacks with Mozzarella and Basil Pesto

I've never been a huge eggplant fan. It's not that I have had much of a chance to try any...I guess I just never really considered cooking with them. That is, until our CSA started putting them in our share. I've done a few things now that I have loved with eggplants, and now I seek them out: roasted eggplant spread with tahini, eggplant parms, and now this concoction.

I love that eggplants have a hearty, meaty feeling to them that makes them a good vegetarian main dish. Start with one large eggplant and slice into 3/4 inch disks like so:

Coat each disk in flour, dredge in 2 beaten eggs, and dip in a bread crumb mixture. Lay on parchment paper.

Fry breaded disks in a hot pan with a half inch of olive oil, about 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. With a large eggplant, you will need to do this in batches.  While the eggplant was browning, I mixed together a quick hand-crushed pesto--chopped basil leaves, chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I layered the eggplant stacks like so: eggplant, pesto, mozzarella, tomato, eggplant, pesto, mozzarella. I broiled each stack in the over until the cheese browned. I topped it with a single basil leaf and served it will the potato gratin. A simple, refreshing and pretty summer meal.

Dinner!

Easy-Peasy Potato Gratin

I finally had to face it. Potatoes were taking over our kitchen. Red, russet, white and waxy. We'd been receiving a few every week in the farmshare, but I just hadn't had the heart to turn the oven on. You see, our old apartment was on the third floor. The kitchen had a minuscule window that barely opened. The ceiling fan made feeble attempts to cool things off. It just wasn't an appealing thought: sweating over the stove to make mashed potatoes just to sit down, continue sweating, and eat them. No thanks.

Cue: new apartment! Big windows! Nice, new kitchen! FIRST FLOOR BREEZE! The potatoes no longer seemed like a threat, but an opportunity. I love me a good bowl of mashed potatoes, but I wanted to do something else. Like I always do when I want to steer away from my favorite recipes, I consulted Mark Bittman's brilliant book, How to Cook Everything. It's not kidding. I could spend hours with that thing. I found a sublimely simple recipe for a potato gratin. Here is my adapted version:

Ingredients

Potatoes: 4-5 large, any kind you like (I used several kinds)

About a cup of good cheese. I used Jarlsburg.

Whatever dried herbs you like. I used rosemary and a fines herbes blend.

Warmed cream or milk (or combination), enough to come 3/4 of the way up to the top potato layer.

Salt and pepper.

Directions

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Scrub potatoes and thinly slice. I use a mandoline to get uniform slices. In a 9 x 13 in. oven-safe pan, place down one layer of potatoes, overlapping slightly. Lightly salt and pepper this layer. Sprinkle a handful of grated cheese over the layer and then gently sprinkle on spices. Repeat the layering of potatoes, salt and pepper, cheese and herbs until everything has been put in place. Gently pour the warmed cream or milk into the side of the pan until it barely reaches 3/4 of the way up to the top potato layer. Bake approximately 45 minutes until top is lightly browned and a knife can easily pierce the potatoes. Enjoy!

Ingredients

First layer of potatoes, cheese, herbs and salt and pepper.

Browned cheesy, creamy, potato-y goodness!

Blast from the past! Parnsip Purée and Sweet Potato Chips

In the fall, our farmshare (Enterprise Produce) provides a plethora of autumnal storage crops, including parsnips and sweet potatoes. Parsnips, which look sort of like albino carrots (and are a relative of the carrot) actually have a greater nutritional content than carrots. Sweet potatoes are also a powerhouse for fiber and vitamins…though in this incarnation maybe not so much.

Anyway, one cold autumn evening last year I looked into the pantry. All I saw were a bunch of boring root veggies and potatoes, and I felt despair coming on.

Until I recalled seeing a recipe for parsnip purée over at Jane Spice.

Jane is known for adding flair and flavor to the seemingly most boring veggies, creating dishes with lots of interest and color. I adapted her recipe to make a warming, nourishing and spicy soup.

For the sweet potatoes, I decided to take a stab at my recently purchased mandoline slicer. If you don’t have one, go out and get one. Now. It will change your life. We fried up some crispy sweet potato chips in some neutral oil, tossed with sea salt and black pepper, and plated with the soup to add some crunch!

Parsnip Purée (adapted from Jane Spice)

¾ pound parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 large zucchini chopped
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 quart vegetable stock (I make my own…I will write a post about that at some point. Easy, economical and incredibly useful.)
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp chili powder
1 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and soften for three minutes. Add the garlic and the spices and stir over at high heat until combined before adding the parsnips, zucchini and stock. Season to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer until the parsnips are soft, then liquidize to a smooth consistency (I used a blender. An immersion blender or carefully utilized food processor could work too).

Raw Zucchini and Squash Salad

Wow, two zucchini posts in a row. Can you tell it is summertime?

One of my favorite cooking blogs is Apartment Therapy's "The Kitchn." I appreciate that many of their posts focus on seasonal ingredients, which means the latest post often times coincides with whatever we get in our farmshare box. Right now, we have an abundance of yellow squash and zucchini, so this article immediately caught my eye.

Raw Squash Salad, serves 2

3 small zucchinis and/or yellow squash
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh herbs chopped (I used dill)
1 ounce fresh cheese (I used an asiago parmesan mix)

Directions:

• Trim the ends off the squash and, using a mandoline, cut the squash lengthwise into very thin strips.
• Place in a large bowl with olive oil and lemon juice, and gently toss to combine. Let stand for 10 minutes.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper. Then add the herbs and gently toss to combine.
• Transfer to a serving dish(es) and crumble cheese on top. Serve immediately.

This was a perfectly refreshing light lunch. BONUS: No heat from the stove in our sweltering 3rd floor kitchen! We are looking forward to moving to a new (1st floor!) apartment in August for sure.

New name?

So, I initially thought that this blog would be a place to post food pictures and recipes. And I still want it to be that. However, I think I will likely use this as a more personal outlet (although food on its own is still incredibly personal). As I progress in my post-college life and learn more about keeping a home (ahem...apartment), planning for the future, becoming a partner, etc., I think that I will broaden the topic of this blog to include the greater domestic sphere as well as other aspects of my life. I've never been able to keep a journal more than a few months, and I'd like to use this blog to document my experiences, from the mundane to the momentous. So on that note, here is a recent kitchen caper: a vegan summer meal of grilled tofu, peppers and onions.

Quick, no fuss recipe for the marinade (an improvisation):

Take a couple cloves of garlic, a handful of rinsed parsley, salt, pepper, 1/3 c. of OJ and a couple of fresh limes, squeezed. Blend in food processor until smooth. Add in oil until you have reached a dressing consistency. Let the tofu and veggies marinate in a covered bowl for about an hour. Grill until lovely char marks appear!

Lazy Dinner

One of my go-to dinners is Greek salad w/ garlic bread. It is easy, fast, delicious and always tastes indulgent. I like to make my Greek salads w/ chickpeas to add an extra dose of protein to make it a complete meal.

Ingredients:
Greek Salad
Thinly sliced red onions
Feta cheese cut into small blocks or crumbled
1 15 oz. can chickpeas (rinsed and drained to remove excess sodium)
Roasted red peppers (I pan sear fresh ones)
Mixed greens
Greek salad dressing (I use Tapas from Hartford, CT)

Garlic Bread
One baguette, split
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper
Pinch fines herbes
3 TBSP butter
1 TBSP olive oil
4 cloves finely minced garlic

Preheat over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, melt butter with olive oil and add salt, pepper and herbs. Add in garlic. Spread mixture evenly over split baguette.


Place two slices of baguette together and wrap in foil. Place in over for approximately 10 minutes. After that, reduce heat to 250 degrees. Remove the foil and place, cut sides up, on a cookie sheet. Bake for 5 more minutes.

While the garlic bread is in the over heat 1 TBSP olive oil in skillet. Chickpeas can be added to the salad from the can, but I like to sautee mine in oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes for some extra flavor and crunch. Sautee until golden:

Toss salad greens with onions, feta, red peppers, sauteed chickpeas and salad dressing. For the most amazing Greek salad dressing in the world, try Tapas. While living in Hartford for 6 years, Tapas became my favorite Greek restaurant--their Greek salad w/ their own dressing is to die for!: tapasonline.com.



Enjoy!

Abbie