I swore to my uncle that if we planted ten crates of tomatoes, I would use every single one of those buggers. Fresh sauce for pasta and pizza. Tomato salad with feta cheese. Tomato soup, frozen for winter tomato fixes. And, of course, salsa.
I hate, despise, abhor chunky salsa. Mostly because it has flecks of raw onion, which still send unpleasant shivers down my spine. So I sought out recipes closest to my favorite easy-to-obtain salsa, Emerald Valley Medium Salsa. These are not-very-adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday
Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa:
1 pound ripe tomatoes--I prefer bigger ones, b/c they're easier to handle
2 jalapenos
4 garlic cloves (don't peel)
Hefty pinch of sea salt
1/2 a small onion
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
Lime
Broiler method:
Arrange tomatoes on broiler pan and position close to the hot unit. Allow one side to blister and blacken (about six minutes) before flipping over with tongs or a spoon.
Griddle method:
I imagine you could do this on an actual grill, too. I just don't have one.
Line a heavy skillet with aluminum foil and heat over medium. The foil is necessary for preserving all the precious tomato juices. Roast while turning several times, until all blistery and soft.
Allow the tomatoes to cool (no, really, it's a good idea) and use that time to roast your garlic and jalepenos on a heavy skillet, ungreased and unfoiled. Again, you're looking for blackened spots. Takes about 10-15 minutes; you want to get the garlic going a few minutes before the peppers.
Then peel your tomatoes, after they're cool, taking care to not let the juices run away. Pull the stems from the peppers and the skins from the garlic. Chop the tomatoes and jalepenos roughly. Don't touch your eyes.
Throw the toms, peppers, garlic, and salt into a blender and make it nice and smooth. If you're serving in a couple days, stick in the fridge.
When ready to serve, dice up the onion nice and tiny. Put in a strainer and run under cool water to remove the sharpness. Add, along with cilantro, to the mixture, and then squeeze in the lime juice. You're done!
Chipotle Salsa (Caution: fairly spicy)
6 tomatillos, husked and washed clean of the weird sticky sap they get
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4-6 of the chipotle peppers from a can of chipotle chilis in adobo sauce
2-3 tsp of the adobo sauce
1/4 cup of water
hefty pinch of salt
Heat a heavy skillet over medium. If you wish to place some foil on most of it, go ahead, but it's not as essential as it is with tomatoes. Add the tomatillos and the garlic (put the garlic on an unfoiled part, if you're using the foil) and turn about every minute or so for approximately ten minutes.
Slip the skins off the garlic. Roughly chop the toms once they've cooled off a bit. Cut the chipotle peppers down their spine and scrape out the seeds. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE ANYWHERE. Add the peppers, tomatillos and garlic to a blender with the salt. Give it a whirl. Taste test. I always add the adobo sauce, but use caution if you're a weanie when it comes to heat. You can add some of the water to thin it out.
Yes, I know that tomatillo salsa does not help with the using of the tomatoes. But I trust that y'all might be smart enough to figure out that you can substitute red tomatoes here. Go forth!
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Friday, September 04, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Alice Waters' Tomato Sauce
Alice Waters is one of my heroes. That should be no surprise to anyone who knows about food--she more or less started the movement that brought fresh and local foods into restaurants. She is an avid promoter of farmers markets, and she started the Edible Schoolyard program, in which elementary schools plant gardens, and the students are able to learn both how grow and how to prepare the food.
However, I'm a bit cheesed off at her right now, or more accurately, at her restaurant, Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse is one of those restaurants that accepts reservations through Open Table, which I love because it means I don't have to have any sort of human interaction. They don't accept reservations until 30 days before the date on which you wish to eat, so on August 26, I signed on, only to have Open Table tell me that I was outside the 30 day window. Ok. I assumed it meant 30 days then, not one calendar month. Imagine my surprise when the next day, Open Table told me that there were no reservations available. So I called Chez Panisse, thinking there must be a glitch. Nope. The man on the phone told me that Open Table, for some reason, doesn't let people make reservations on the first day that CP accepts them. And Chez Panisse knows that! Hey, do you think perhaps that you can advertise that on the website, so that people who are visiting the bay area and have only one day at which to eat at the restaurant of their hero won't be screwed out of a seat?
I wanted to go to Chez Panisse so desperately because Alice has a magical gift for taking simple foods, at the height of their season, and creating something delicious. Evidence of this can be found in her book, The Art of Simple Food. If it's not on your shelf, buy it now. It's the cookbook I most highly recommend, and the one from which this recipe comes.
Fresh Tomato Sauce
2 lbs freshly picked ripe tomatoes (ideally bigger ones than the ones in my photo, as it makes them easier to peel
3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1/4 cup olive oil
Optional (I use all):
Basil
Oregano
Pinch of chili flakes
Lop off the stem of the tomatoes and score the bottom with an X. Drop into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds - 2 minutes. Toss into a bowl of iced (or just really cold) water to stop the cooking. Then peel and gut, as I call it. I peeled the tomatoes right in the water, then moved the skinless ones to a smaller bowl, where I cored them and removed the seeds. This allows me to save as much juice as possible:
I then moved the tomatoes to the cutting board and roughly chopped them.
Heat a cast iron skillet on medium and add the oil. Throw in the chopped garlic (and the chili flakes, if using) and sautee for a bit. Add the tomatoes, then hold a fine mesh strainer over the skillet and dump in the dregs from the bowl. The cores and seeds will stay in the strainer, and all the delicious juices will come out. Add a couple hefty pinches of salt and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the herbs, if using, about five minutes before it's done simmering.
And that's all! It can be used as is, as a great sauce for pizza (or calzone). Throw it on some pasta with just a bit of freshly grated Parmesan, or add olives, mushrooms, red peppers, sausage, or whatever you like in your pasta. It's a simple base sauce that you can dress up or use casually.
However, I'm a bit cheesed off at her right now, or more accurately, at her restaurant, Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse is one of those restaurants that accepts reservations through Open Table, which I love because it means I don't have to have any sort of human interaction. They don't accept reservations until 30 days before the date on which you wish to eat, so on August 26, I signed on, only to have Open Table tell me that I was outside the 30 day window. Ok. I assumed it meant 30 days then, not one calendar month. Imagine my surprise when the next day, Open Table told me that there were no reservations available. So I called Chez Panisse, thinking there must be a glitch. Nope. The man on the phone told me that Open Table, for some reason, doesn't let people make reservations on the first day that CP accepts them. And Chez Panisse knows that! Hey, do you think perhaps that you can advertise that on the website, so that people who are visiting the bay area and have only one day at which to eat at the restaurant of their hero won't be screwed out of a seat?
I wanted to go to Chez Panisse so desperately because Alice has a magical gift for taking simple foods, at the height of their season, and creating something delicious. Evidence of this can be found in her book, The Art of Simple Food. If it's not on your shelf, buy it now. It's the cookbook I most highly recommend, and the one from which this recipe comes.
Fresh Tomato Sauce
2 lbs freshly picked ripe tomatoes (ideally bigger ones than the ones in my photo, as it makes them easier to peel
3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1/4 cup olive oil
Optional (I use all):
Basil
Oregano
Pinch of chili flakes
Lop off the stem of the tomatoes and score the bottom with an X. Drop into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds - 2 minutes. Toss into a bowl of iced (or just really cold) water to stop the cooking. Then peel and gut, as I call it. I peeled the tomatoes right in the water, then moved the skinless ones to a smaller bowl, where I cored them and removed the seeds. This allows me to save as much juice as possible:
I then moved the tomatoes to the cutting board and roughly chopped them.
Heat a cast iron skillet on medium and add the oil. Throw in the chopped garlic (and the chili flakes, if using) and sautee for a bit. Add the tomatoes, then hold a fine mesh strainer over the skillet and dump in the dregs from the bowl. The cores and seeds will stay in the strainer, and all the delicious juices will come out. Add a couple hefty pinches of salt and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the herbs, if using, about five minutes before it's done simmering.
And that's all! It can be used as is, as a great sauce for pizza (or calzone). Throw it on some pasta with just a bit of freshly grated Parmesan, or add olives, mushrooms, red peppers, sausage, or whatever you like in your pasta. It's a simple base sauce that you can dress up or use casually.
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