Browsing Tag

summer

Recipes

Provencal tomatoes

June 19, 2018
Provencal Tomatoes

The best food sometimes is the simplest.  Provencal tomatoes are about as simple as it gets but boy are they good.  This is a great summer side dish requiring few ingredients: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and fresh herbs.

The secret to perfecting Provencal tomatoes, is to slowly fry them.  I mean sloooooowly.  This helps concentrate their flavor.  Make sure to use high quality tomatoes, the fresher the better, i.e., what you have growing in your garden or produce from your local farmer’s market.  Serve with a green salad, braised fennel, and for those without gluten sensitivity freshly baked bread.

Provencal Tomatoes

Adapted from Classic French Cooking by Elisabeth Luard

  • 3 large tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 garlic cloves, peeled
  • a handful of parsley
  • Salt

Directions

  1. Cut the tomatoes in half and remove seeds.
  2. In a wide cast iron pan heat the olive oil at the lowest setting.
  3. Place the tomatoes cut side down, then fry the tomatoes at the lowest setting.
  4. In the meantime, finely mince the garlic and parsley with salt and reserve.
  5. After about 40 minutes, gently flip the tomatoes over and sprinkle with your garlic-parsley mixture. Splash with additional olive oil.
  6. Cook very gently another 30 minutes.

Variations

Try replacing the parsley with thyme, basil, or oregano.  Whatever looks fresh and tasty in your garden.

Serves 2

Recipes

Chive Blossom Butter

June 14, 2017
Chive blossom butter

My mom is what you would call a busy body.  Always out and about: gardening, cooking, cleaning… running a business.  She also happens to be an amazing cook.  This Saturday morning as I was doing my errands, she texted me images of her latest creation.

Beautiful chive blossom's from my mom's garden

Very pretty.  Why aren’t mine like that?

Chive blossoms and lemons

Interesting, show me more.

Unformed chive blossom butter

This does not look appetizing.

Chive blossom butter

Yum!

I can see this tasting great with mashed potatoes, toasted bread, or on a steak.  Although this is not the healthiest recipe, something like this should definitely be shared.

Chive Blossom Butter

Adapted from Popayan www.recettes.qc.ca

50 – 60      Chive flowers with ½ inch of the stem attached, finely minced

1 lb              Unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½             Lemons, juiced

¼ cup        Extra-virgin olive oil

Salt as desired

  1. In a large bowl, mix the butter, lemon juice, and the olive oil together with a wooden spoon. Then, add the minced chive blossoms.
  2. At this point you can either fill ramequins with the butter-chive blossom mixture or you can mold them into individual sized portions as seen above.

Individual sized portions

  1. Mold the butter-chive blossom mixture into a roll and wrap in wax paper and then in plastic wrapping.
  2. Place in the freezer.
  3. When the mixture has hardened, unwrap, and cut into individual sized portions

 

Makes one pound of butter.

 

Bon appetit!