Feta And Tomato Tart
Check out my Feta and Tomato Tart over at DC Foodies. Basil and Tomato, and Italian Herb feta from Keswick Creamery combined with oven dried and carmelized tomatoes made this savory tart a keeper!
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Entries Tagged as 'tomatoes'
Sopa de Mani-Bolivian Peanut Soup
Sopa de Mani is a traditional peanut soup served in Bolivia. It can be a starter or a main course. It’s slightly thickened with peanuts, has a kick from red chili pepper flakes, while sliced carrots impart sweetness to the soup. Sopa de Mani usually takes a long time to make since homemade beef stock is traditionally used. Here, I’ve taken a few liberties and shortcuts given the ingredients I had on hand.
In particular, the soup calls for ground raw peanuts, while my recipe uses roasted and salted peanuts to add crunch. I added a couple teaspoons of raw peanut butter to add creaminess. In under an hour, you can have a hearty soup made from ingredients found in your pantry.
For more information on Bolivian cuisine in our region, check out my Tuesday post on http://www.dcfoodies.com. In this post, I delve into the salteña- a savory stuffed pastry which is a staple of Bolivian cuisine, and can be found here if you know where to look!
Enjoy.
Sopa de Mani
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 Tablespoon vegetable or peanut oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, sliced 1/4″ thick
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup chopped tomatoes
4 cups beef stock
1/2 cup peanuts, chopped in food processor (not bigger than a peppercorn)
2 teaspoon peanut butter
3 small yukon gold (or waxy) potato peeled and diced small (about 2 cups)
salt and pepper to taste
pinch red chili flakes or to taste
Directions
Over medium heat, pour vegetable oil into heavy bottom pan. Add onions and carrots. Saute until onion is translucent and carrots begin to soften, about 8-10 minutes. Add frozen peas and chopped tomatoes. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add ground peanuts, potatoes, red pepper flakes, beef broth and peanut butter. Stir to incorporate. Cook covered for 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Bistro At Home-Roasted Chicken With A Pomegranate Balsamic Sauce and Pistachio Butter Topping, Oven Roasted Tomatoes And Sweet Potato Fries
I’m starting a series of “Bistro At Home” recipes for D.C. Foodies. I hope to make simple bistro fare accessible (and of course more affordable) at home. Check out the recipes for this meal at http://www.dcfoodies.com/.
Golabki- Polish Stuffed Cabbage*
Stuffed cabbage is a dish associated with Eastern European and Asian cultures. It usually consists of cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of meat and grains, such as rice. Growing up in a Polish household, we called these golabki (little pigeons) pronounced ga-WOOM-key. Green leaf cabbage is stuffed with ground meat, either beef or a mixture of beef/pork/veal, and cooked with white rice which is seasoned with salt and pepper. The tomato based sauce can include tomato juice, sauce, puree, soup or even ketchup.
I have always loved golabki, even though as a kid I would peel the cabbage off and shove it to the side, hoping no one would notice (my Nana did). Now I embrace the cabbage and enjoy it as much as I do the meat filling.
Over the years since I have taken over making this dish for my family, my recipe has evolved as a mingling of me, my mom and Martha Stewart.
Unlike my mother and most other people,hey,mheyI do not cut the rib/vein out of the cabbage because I feel I can roll a perfect golabki with the cabbage leaf intact. To make sure that the cabbage, even the rib is tender, I braise the golabki low and slow.
My mother always used a combination of condensed tomato soup and ketchup for the sauce. I have tried changing this up with tomato puree and tomato juice etc. but I’ve decided the flavor of the original sauce suits me the best and is most evocative of my childhood memories of this dish. By the time the dish braises in the oven, the sauce tastes of the meat, vegetables and cabbage. It’s sum is more than the parts, so to speak.
Martha Stewart uses her mother’s recipe for stuffed cabbage. Being Polish, Mrs. Koystyra’s recipe closely resembles my grandmothers, except it has more flavor in the meat, with onion, garlic and green peppers.
Thanks to all of my influenes in developing this dish, I’ve come up with my favorite version of stuffed cabbage. I hope you enjoy it too.
Ingredients;
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup ketchup
1 large head green cabbage
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or meatloaf mix- ground beef, pork and veal
1 medium onion, fine diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped in food processor or grated
1 cup white rice, cooked
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 strips uncooked bacon
Directions:
For the cabbage
Core cabbage and place head in gently boiling water. Using tongs, remove leaves gently as they become loose and start to give. Transfer to collander to drain.
For the filling
Cook rice according to package directions. In pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and green bell pepper to pan. Sautee until softened but do not brown. Transfer to bowl to cool.
In a separate bowl, add meat mixture. Add eggs, rice and cooled vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste. Gently combine but do not over work the meat. In a small heated pan, cook a small patty of the meat mixture and taste for seasoning. This step is very important as you will not be able to adjust the seasoning of the filling once it is stuffed in the cabbage.
Once you are satisfied with the seasoning, you are ready to assemble. First, spread a small amount of tomatoe soup in the bottom of a baking pan. Take a cabbage leaf and place a small handfull of the meat mixture at the base of the leaf. Roll like a fajita and place cabbage roll seam down in the pan. Repeat until you have rolled all of your meat mix.
Spread the remaining tomato soup evenly over the top of the cabbage rolls, followed by the ketchup. Add 2-3 strips of uncooked bacon over top of rolls (optional). Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake in on the middle rack of a preheated 300 degree oven. Braise for 2 1/2-3 hours, basting the rolls with the sauce occasionally.
Remove from oven and allow cabbage rolls to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
*This recipe has been entered into Habeas Brulee’s food blogging event “A Recipe From The Crease Of My Right Eye”
Play With Your Food- Meet Mr. Tomato Head
OK. So I got a little silly when making tomato sauce. What’s food for if not to play with once in a while?
If you follow along with me here at The Houndstooth Gourmet, you know that I’m a big fan of farmers markets and seasonal cooking. Last week, part of my market harvest was tomato seconds which I bought to make fresh tomato sauce using Marcella Hazan’s basic recipe. It’s more like a method than an recipe with exact measurements.
First, I cored the tomatoes and sliced them in half. Using a heavy pan, I cooked them covered, over medium heat for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes were softened, I ran them through a food mill and returned the strained tomatoes to the pan.
Next, I added a peeled onion, cut in half, and about 5 tablespoons of butter (see Mr. Tomato Head above). This was cooked at a low simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Discard the onion before refrigerating or freezing.
I salted the tomato sauce throughout the reduction process, being careful not to load all the salt at the beginning because the sauce concentrates as it simmers away.
Nine tomatoes yielded almost 2 quarts of simple, delicious sauce.
Note: You can use canned tomatoes for this recipe, but avoid using tomatoes packed in puree. Puree tomatoes are cooked and this detracts from the fresh brightness of this tomato sauce.
Serving ideas: This sauce is great for gnocchi and pastas such as spaghetti or linguine. How about serving it with my meatballs? (good idea!) Serve with fresh shredded basil and grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese.
