Bruschetta!!!
what you need:
2 large tomatoes
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
pinch of salt
fresh cracked black pepper
3 green onions
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
about 20 leaves of fresh basil
Chop your tomatoes into manageable chunks (don't discard any of the liquid) and slice your green onions into nice rounds. Mince the garlic, julienne your basil. Put everything into a bowl, mix well and let sit for an hour at room temp OR in the fridge over night (or during the day until dinner). Some recipes call for a little balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar and if you are using hot house tomatoes you may want that boost of acidity. With good fresh tomatoes in season I really don't think it is necessary. Slice a loaf of crusty Italian bread into nice 1 inch slices and brush them with olive oil on one side. With the oiled side face down on a foil coated baking sheet, bake until golden brown in a 350 degree oven. In the last couple of minutes you can add a little Parmesan or mozzarella to the bread and let it get brown. I like an "Italian blend" with mozz and parm all in the mix. Kraft makes a very affordable and decent one but if you want it more tangy, got for like Sargento or something (they put asiago in theirs if I remember). Yay!! Eat bruschetta and enjoy.
*note: I did this from memory and I suggest tweaking to your own specifications
*kalamata olives might be a nice addition.....hmmm......
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Question re white bean salad with pita crisps
I have a question regarding this recipe that Lorien posted a while back. We've made this twice now, and it's come out awesome both times, but I noticed that the list of ingredients calls for olive oil, while the directions don't explain how to use it. Is this for brushing on the pita before toasting them, or is it supposed to be mixed in with the salad? We've been making the salad without olive oil, and it's delicious, but I wonder if we've been making it right...
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Thai Eggplant
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 baby eggplants or about 1/2 a big one, cubed into bite-sized chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbs rice vinegar
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs dark brown sugar
20 leaves fresh basil, shredded or torn
1. Heat large skillet or wok on med-high. Add oil and crushed pepper and let sizzle 10 to 15 seconds.
2. Add eggplant and stir-fry 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and stir-fry 3 more minutes.
4. Add vinegar and soy sauce and sprinkle with sugar. Toss for 1 or 2 minutes until liquid thickens slightly.
5. Remove pan from heat and add basil. Toss to combine and serve over rice.
The red pepper flakes make it pretty spicy, so cut down or leave them out if you're not into that. Also, you might want to hold your breath when you first throw them in--they always make me cough.
You can also cheat and use dried basil--I don't measure, I just sprinkle a generous amount and it seems to work.
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 baby eggplants or about 1/2 a big one, cubed into bite-sized chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbs rice vinegar
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs dark brown sugar
20 leaves fresh basil, shredded or torn
1. Heat large skillet or wok on med-high. Add oil and crushed pepper and let sizzle 10 to 15 seconds.
2. Add eggplant and stir-fry 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and stir-fry 3 more minutes.
4. Add vinegar and soy sauce and sprinkle with sugar. Toss for 1 or 2 minutes until liquid thickens slightly.
5. Remove pan from heat and add basil. Toss to combine and serve over rice.
The red pepper flakes make it pretty spicy, so cut down or leave them out if you're not into that. Also, you might want to hold your breath when you first throw them in--they always make me cough.
You can also cheat and use dried basil--I don't measure, I just sprinkle a generous amount and it seems to work.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Bruschetta
This is actually a place-holding post. I can't seem to access the greenonioneater blog at the moment, and I'm hoping greenonioneater-san will be kind enough to post here her recipe for bruschetta. Thanks in advance.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
New Foods (left coast edition)
Lemon Verbena-san had a good idea there, so since I haven't had the energy to make any reportable recipes lately, I'm going to steal it. Here are three things we've tried recently:
1) Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette salad dressing. Brianna's and Newman's are the two brands of dressing we favor; Brianna's because they're all excellent, and Newman's because they make some standard flavors that Brianna's doesn't. This flavor seems to be new, or at least we hadn't seen it before. It's creamier than most vinaigrettes, with a nice spicy kick. A winner.
2) Sierra Nevada Porter & Spicy Brown Mustard. Inspired by Greenonioneater-san, I think, raving about brown mustards, I picked this one up. This makes it sound like it was Cooking with Booze week at our house, which it wasn't... Anyway, this is pretty good. I haven't been into brown mustards for quite a while, but this has a more interesting, complex taste than I remember Gulden's having. I'd be curious to hear from a connoisseur.
3) Sun-dried tomatoes, bottled. This was kind of a bust, not because they don't taste good, but because I don't know what to do with them. I like sun-dried tomato alfredo pasta sauce, the kind that comes ready made in a jar, and I figured maybe putting actual sun-dried etc in a straight alfredo sauce would be tastier, but what I did wasn't. I think it's because I just don't know what I'm doing with them. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to actually use a jar of sun-dried tomatoes?
1) Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette salad dressing. Brianna's and Newman's are the two brands of dressing we favor; Brianna's because they're all excellent, and Newman's because they make some standard flavors that Brianna's doesn't. This flavor seems to be new, or at least we hadn't seen it before. It's creamier than most vinaigrettes, with a nice spicy kick. A winner.
2) Sierra Nevada Porter & Spicy Brown Mustard. Inspired by Greenonioneater-san, I think, raving about brown mustards, I picked this one up. This makes it sound like it was Cooking with Booze week at our house, which it wasn't... Anyway, this is pretty good. I haven't been into brown mustards for quite a while, but this has a more interesting, complex taste than I remember Gulden's having. I'd be curious to hear from a connoisseur.
3) Sun-dried tomatoes, bottled. This was kind of a bust, not because they don't taste good, but because I don't know what to do with them. I like sun-dried tomato alfredo pasta sauce, the kind that comes ready made in a jar, and I figured maybe putting actual sun-dried etc in a straight alfredo sauce would be tastier, but what I did wasn't. I think it's because I just don't know what I'm doing with them. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to actually use a jar of sun-dried tomatoes?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
New Food! Yay! (second installment)
I've had five new foods recently, some of which were pretty interesting:
1. Masa's miso sesame dressing (Glynne's recommendation), which I had on Glynne's cabbage salad. I highly recommend both the salad recipe and the dressing.
2. Sylvia's honey mustard--not my favorite, to be honest. I like my honey mustard on the spicy side, and this one is fairly sweet and a bit vinegary for me.
3. Beecher's Marco Polo cheese (tastes like a jack with peppercorns). This is by the same people who make that No Woman jerk cheese Glynne recommended, and I like this one, too. The peppercorns are good without overwhelming the cheese.
4. Black spaghetti from Target. It's black because it's made with squid ink (which I realized later is probably not very vegetarian, oops). To me, it tastes like regular white spaghetti, but it stays totally black even when you cook it so it looks really dramatic.
5. Mahjoub family harissa sauce, which I ordered from http://www.thespicehouse.com
I have this one Moroccan-style soup recipe (which I will post sometime) which uses harissa, but there's no good place to get it around here. Many Lands down in Provo has had one brand in the past that I didn't like much, and when I made my own it didn't turn out that great. But this stuff is really good, though fairly spicy. The main spices in harissa, from what I can tell, are garlic, coriander, and caraway, and this brand has those in a base of olive oil, pimentos, and sundried tomatoes. So it has this great sweet-and-spicy thing going on that makes me want to experiment with it in other recipes. I think I'll try adding it to bruschetta one of these days. Yum.
1. Masa's miso sesame dressing (Glynne's recommendation), which I had on Glynne's cabbage salad. I highly recommend both the salad recipe and the dressing.
2. Sylvia's honey mustard--not my favorite, to be honest. I like my honey mustard on the spicy side, and this one is fairly sweet and a bit vinegary for me.
3. Beecher's Marco Polo cheese (tastes like a jack with peppercorns). This is by the same people who make that No Woman jerk cheese Glynne recommended, and I like this one, too. The peppercorns are good without overwhelming the cheese.
4. Black spaghetti from Target. It's black because it's made with squid ink (which I realized later is probably not very vegetarian, oops). To me, it tastes like regular white spaghetti, but it stays totally black even when you cook it so it looks really dramatic.
5. Mahjoub family harissa sauce, which I ordered from http://www.thespicehouse.com
I have this one Moroccan-style soup recipe (which I will post sometime) which uses harissa, but there's no good place to get it around here. Many Lands down in Provo has had one brand in the past that I didn't like much, and when I made my own it didn't turn out that great. But this stuff is really good, though fairly spicy. The main spices in harissa, from what I can tell, are garlic, coriander, and caraway, and this brand has those in a base of olive oil, pimentos, and sundried tomatoes. So it has this great sweet-and-spicy thing going on that makes me want to experiment with it in other recipes. I think I'll try adding it to bruschetta one of these days. Yum.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
hoisin beef with soybeans and noodles
i randomly got this recipe from eatingwell.com. we had it for dinner tonight and it was AWESOME.
ingredients:
8 oz. noodles (i used buckwheat noodles, but whole wheat spaghetti would do)
3 tbs lime juice
3 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tsp chili-garlic sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
8 oz. flank steak, thinly sliced (trim the fat off)
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
10 oz. frozen shelled soybeans, thawed
1 tbs fresh minced ginger (or not fresh as the case may be)
cilantro
preparation:
prepare noodles according to package directions. drain.
whisk together lime juice, hoisin sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and cornstarch. save.
heat oil over med-high heat. add steak and cook until just cooked through. transfer steak to a plate. add bell pepper to the meat juices and cook, stirring, for about a minute. add soybeans and cook through, about 2 minutes. (in my case, the soybeans were still frozen, so i did them first and then the pepper) stir in the sauce, and the beef. cook, stirring, about 1 minute. add noodles, toss. sprinkle cilantro on top.
vegetarian note: i think this would taste equally good sans beef, but with more peppers...also seems like it would be a good candidate for tempeh or seitan.
ingredients:
8 oz. noodles (i used buckwheat noodles, but whole wheat spaghetti would do)
3 tbs lime juice
3 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tsp chili-garlic sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
8 oz. flank steak, thinly sliced (trim the fat off)
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
10 oz. frozen shelled soybeans, thawed
1 tbs fresh minced ginger (or not fresh as the case may be)
cilantro
preparation:
prepare noodles according to package directions. drain.
whisk together lime juice, hoisin sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and cornstarch. save.
heat oil over med-high heat. add steak and cook until just cooked through. transfer steak to a plate. add bell pepper to the meat juices and cook, stirring, for about a minute. add soybeans and cook through, about 2 minutes. (in my case, the soybeans were still frozen, so i did them first and then the pepper) stir in the sauce, and the beef. cook, stirring, about 1 minute. add noodles, toss. sprinkle cilantro on top.
vegetarian note: i think this would taste equally good sans beef, but with more peppers...also seems like it would be a good candidate for tempeh or seitan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)