Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Rough Puff Tomato and Olive Tart


Hands up, who has been to Paris?  Who’d like to go?  And what is one of the number one destination for tourists in Paris.  The Louvre, of course.  Well, guess what?  I saw some treasures from the Louvre today.  In Abu Dhabi.  Yes, that’s right.   Right here in the Sandpit.  Apparently, a new Louvre is being built, and it is scheduled to open in 2015.  The plans look fabulous and there is already a small museum to introduce the bigger one to come, full of painted treasures by the likes of Picasso, Gauguin, Klee, Magritte, Mondrian and Twombly, as well as sculptures, ceramics, metalwork, tapestry and even a fascinating mobile by Alexander Calder.  Appropriate to the educational mission of the Louvre Abu Dhabi - bridging and connecting cultures - two ancient religious texts, the Koran and the Pentateuch, sit side by side in one protective glass case.  Entrance to the current exhibit - Birth of a Museum - is free, along with the narrated audio guide.  Now I can’t wait for the whole Louvre Abu Dhabi to open.  It’s going to be a beautiful place filled with beautiful things.

And now you know why I am late in posting this recipe.   Let us tarry no longer.  We have tart to bake!

Ingredients
1 rectangle rough puff pastry dough from this recipe
7 oz or 200g large grape or tiny Roma tomatoes
2 spring onions
2 cloves garlic
4 1/2 oz or 125g (drained) fresh mozzarella
3 1/2 oz or 100g feta
15 whole black olives
2 eggs lightly beaten
Sprinkle cayenne – optional

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Roll out your chilled rough puff pastry, with a floured rolling pin on a lightly floured surface.


Laying your tart pan on top, cut a circle out of the dough with a sharp knife.


Transfer the circle of dough to the tart pan.


Fold the top under to neaten the edge.


Use a fork to dock the bottom and sides of the dough.


Pop this back in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

(Stack the leftover dough and wrap in cling film and freeze for later use. Don’t make it into a ball or you will lose your layers.)


Thinly slice your garlic, chop your green onions and crumble your feta cheese.

Pit your black olives and halve them and then halve the little tomatoes.   In a small mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs.

Okay, now, in a larger mixing bowl, add in your tomatoes, olives, green onions, garlic and the beaten eggs.  Stir to mix.

Fold in the feta.


Pour the mixture into your tart pan.

 I like to straighten out the tomatoes and olives and make the rounded sides face up, because I think it’s prettier that way, but if you don’t care, skip this step.  The flavor will be just as lovely.  Probably.


Now slice the fresh mozzarella into little pieces and poke them in and around the tomatoes and olives.



Sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper if desired.


If your tart pan has a removable bottom, you’ll want to put it on top of another pan before putting it in the oven.  This will make it easier to remove from the oven when hot.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is nicely golden and the cheese on top is too.


Allow to cool for a few minutes and then remove the tart pan.  Slice into pieces.


Enjoy! 

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Spicy Sweet Tomato Chutney

Spicy sweet tomato chutney based on Madhur Jaffery's delicious recipe from Spice Kitchen. Perfect with any meat.


If you have been reading along for a while, you know that our family has lived all around the world, in a variety of great places.  This nomadic lifestyle introduced us to vegetables, fruit, spices and other ingredients that we grew to love and adopted into our family meals, but when we moved on, sometimes those items weren’t available in the next place and we had to do without.  Mourning the loss not just a little.

With the advent of catalog shopping, the world got a little bit smaller.  When I posted my recipe for potato curry, I went on about Madhur Jaffery’s Spice Kitchen cookbook, and how I came to own curry spices again in Brazil, so I won’t tell the story again here.  But I will show you a photo of the little containers those spices came in because I remembered to take a photo this summer.  Empty now, and a little bit rusty, they live on the small shelves over my sink in Houston and their bright colors make me happy, even when I’m washing dishes.


Anyway, this tomato chutney recipe is adapted from that same well-worn, food-bespattered book. It makes a great gift for neighbors and relatives but I always have a couple of jars on hand for personal consumption.

Spicy Sweet Tomato Chutney

Tomato chutney dresses up a plain grilled chicken breast or pork chops like nothing else can, with a hit of sour, sweet and spicy. But most importantly, it preserves a bumper tomato crop for enjoyment year round.

Ingredients
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1 piece fresh ginger, about 4 inches long, 2 oz or 60g
3 cups or 710ml red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons mustard oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
12 fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon kalonji
4 lbs or 1.8 kg fresh ripe tomatoes (2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes can be substituted)
3 cups or 600g sugar
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 – 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (according to your personal preference – I use at least a teaspoon)

Method
Measure your spices out so that they are ready for adding to the pot in a hurry.

Cut the brown ends off of your garlic and peel and coarsely chop your ginger.



Put the garlic, ginger and 1/2 cup of the vinegar into the container of an electric blender and blend at high speed until smooth.




Halve the fresh tomatoes and cut out the hard cores.




Pretty summer tomatoes from the UAE.  Yes, farms do grow things in the desert. 

Heat the oil in a 4-quart, heavy-bottomed pot with non-metallic finish, over medium high heat.  When hot, add the mustards seeds.  As soon as they start to pop – this takes just a few seconds – add the fenugreek, cumin, fennel and kalonji.



Stir once quickly and add the paste from the blender. Stir paste for one minute then add the tomatoes (and juice from the can, if using,) the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, salt and cayenne pepper.  Bring to a boil.



If such things matter to you, feel free to pick the skins out of the pot with tongs as they become detached from the tomatoes.  Some can be rather thick so I do pick them out when I have that type of tomato.  Otherwise, I leave them in.


Lower heat a bit and cook, uncovered, over medium heat at first and then, as the chutney thickens, on increasingly lower heat for about 1½ - 2 hours or until chutney becomes thick.


Stir occasionally at first and more frequently as it thickens.


Pour chutney into sterilized jars while still boiling hot, putting a metal teaspoon in each jar to keep it from cracking.


Remove the teaspoon and screw the lids on tightly and turn jars upside down until they are cooled.


When the jars are cool, you can turn them upright and the vacuum seal will pop in, keeping the chutney fresh for months in a cool dry cupboard.  If the seal doesn't pop back in, store the jars in the refrigerator.


If you are giving it as a gift, by all means, make and print a pretty label.






Enjoy!


Want to continue to enjoy the season’s bounty all year long? Have a look at the wonderful Preserving the Harvest recipes we have for you today.

Cool Condiments

Fabulous Fruits

Other Outstanding Recipes
Vivacious Vegetables


Monday, April 22, 2013

Cheesy Spinach Muffins #MuffinMonday

A cheesy muffin with cheddar and feta and spinach, topped with thinly sliced tomatoes. There's thyme in there too! These guys are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch or a snack. 





There are a few staples I keep in my freezer, just in case.  Frozen spinach is one of them.  In a pinch, spinach can be thawed quickly and added into omelets or quiches or cheesy sauces for pasta.  It adds color and nutritional value without an overly strong or objectionable flavor.   It is also beautiful added into muffins.  (See exhibit A, above.)

I've got to tell you that this is my all-time most-visited on this entire blog. I published it originally almost four years ago and have made these muffins countless times since then. It is almost my most-pinned recipe. It give me great joy to know that folks are pinning and saving and making these!

Ingredients - for 12 muffins
3 1/2 oz or 100g frozen spinach
2 2/3 oz or 75g feta
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar
2 tomatoes
2 cups or 250g flour
Sea salt flakes
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil
1 cup or 240ml milk
Several sprigs fresh thyme
Black pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan liberally with non-stick spray or butter.

Thaw your spinach with a few zaps in the microwave.  Or allow to thaw naturally, if you have time.  I never seem to.  Allow to cool, if you zapped it too long.

Buy the spinach that is frozen in cubes.  It's much easier then to thaw just what you need. 

Grate your cheddar cheese and crumble the feta.

Slice the tomatoes fairly thinly and leave to drain on some folded paper towels.  You need 12 slices so if you have any tomato left over, save it for a sandwich or share it with your helper.




Measure your flour, salt, baking powder, grated cheddar and some of the leaves off of your fresh thyme sprigs into a large mixing bowl and mix well.



Measure the milk and olive oil into a smaller bowl and whisk with the eggs and thawed spinach.   Just two eggs, pay no attention to that double yolk behind the curtain.  (Sorry, watched too much of The Wizard of Oz in my youth.)




Here’s something incredible, and I use that in the literal sense.  Hard to believe.  But true!  In the last week, I have opened SEVEN eggs that had double yolks.  I think I may have had one or two in the whole rest of my life!  And they weren’t all from the same batch of eggs, although they were the same brand.   Isn’t that something?!  Have you ever found a double yolked egg?

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ones until just mixed.



Fold in the crumbled feta.


Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.


Pat the tomato slices really dry with another paper towel and top each cup of batter with one.



Sprinkle the tomato slices with a little more fresh thyme, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.


Bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can see that the sides are turning golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove from the pan, loosening gently with a knife if necessary, and cool further on a wire rack.




Enjoy!






For those who might need a gluten-free version, check out this post.  The author/baker saw this link on Pinterest and modified it for her family's needs.  Thank you, K!