Category Archives: Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomato Recipe

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Appetizer, Cooking, Recipe, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

≈ 1 Comment

This is the first year that I’m growing tomatoes!  We got two plants to start with – a small, cherry variety, and a larger one.  They are growing, almost like weeds, on the side of the house and are delivering a solid amount of fruit (yes, tomatoes are technically fruit!)

One day, as I was admiring the larger tomatoes, a green one, that hasn’t had the time to ripen yet, fell down.  I knocked it down, to be fair.

Not wanting to see it go to waste, I decided to rescue it and fry it up! 

Fried Green Tomato

Ingredients

1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 green tomato, sliced 1/4″-thick
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

1.  Combine flour and seasonings.

2.  Dredge slices of tomatoes in seasoned flour.

3.  Heat oil over medium-high heat in a cast iron skillet.

4.  Fry tomato slices 2-3 minutes per side.

Next time, I’ll add cornmeal to the flour for extra crispness and fry more than just one tomato.  These were delicious!  Experiment with your favorite seasoning blend.  We ate ours with sour cream, but a buttercream-style ranch dressing will be equally delicious!

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Cooking the Matzo and the Last of Summer Basil

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by in Cooking, Ideas, Recipe, Tomatoes

≈ 4 Comments

I wish there was breakfast delivery.  You would wake up in the morning, and your breakfast would be dropped off at the door. Or perhaps served to you in bed.  I must still be dreaming.

Regardless, when the breakfast delivery failed and my refrigerator proved to be empty, I turned to the box of matzo leftover from Passover.  I pulled out a single sheet of this unleavened bread and broke it in half. 

Both sides got smeared with cream cheese.  The savory-to-be-matzo was topped with thinly sliced tomato, cucumber, salt, pepper and the last sprigs of summer basil plant.


The sweet matzo was spread with apricot jam, sprinkled with toasted slivered almonds and a handful of chocolate chips.

Who said breakfast had to be hard?

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Pan Seared Halibut, Braised in Diced Tomatoes with Capers

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Cooking, Fish, Gluten Free, Recipe, Tomatoes

≈ 1 Comment

I was thrilled when I came home to a box of goodies from Muir Glen Organic.  Over the next months I will feature recipes using items from the box as inspiration.  Today, I want to share a three-ingredient recipe with Red and Yellow Diced Tomatoes.  This recipe for Pan Seared Halibut, Braised in Diced Tomatoes with Capers took under 30 minutes to prepare and sang with bright notes of flavor.
The halibut, one of my favorite fish, turned out perfectly tender after leisurely simmering in diced tomatoes.  Salty, briny capers snuggled along the fish and imparted a vibrant, lemony taste.
I served the fish along with Smashed Red Potatoes (recipe to come) and Simply Broiled Asparagus.
 Pan Seared Halibut, Braised in Diced Tomatoes with Capers

Ingredients

12 ounce halibut fillet
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil
14.5 ounce can Muir Glen Yellow and Red Diced Tomatoes
2 tablespoons capers
Directions

1.  Season halibut with salt and pepper on both sides.
2.  Heat oil in nonstick pan over medium high heat.  Sear halibut, presentation side down, for 5 minutes.

3.  Flip the fish and add tomatoes and capers.  Lower the heat, tightly cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes.

4.  Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.  The fish is ready when it’s flaky, bright white, and springs back to the touch.

This was a surprisingly simple meal – after all, only three ingredients!  Try this recipe with your favorite fish.  Serve with smashed potatoes and asparagus, as pictured below, or pieces of crusty bread to soak up the tomato goodness.

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"Baaa!" says the lamb. "Yum!" I say ~ Braised Moroccan Lamb Shanks

08 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Cooking, Dinner, Lamb, Potatoes, Recipe, Tomatoes

≈ 5 Comments

I am my sister’s sister.  And when I saw her post for Braised Lamb Shanks with White Beans and Tomatoes, I wanted to catch the next flight across the county, knock on her door, and sit down at her table for a bowl of tender lamb meat, starchy beans and tomatoes.  Instead, I walked to my freezer and pulled out two frozen lamb shanks.

Rather than follow her recipe exactly, I chose my own combination of flavors, virtually heading to Morocco.  In went cinnamon, cumin, paprika, and brown sugar.  The spices blended together with the red wine and bathed the lamb shanks gently and slowly while they braised in the oven for three solid hours.

Braised Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Potatoes


Ingredients


1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 lamb shanks

salt and pepper to taste

1 large onion, diced

6 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes

4 potatoes, cubed

2 cups red wine

2 cups vegetable broth

Directions


1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot.

2.  Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper and sear in hot oil on all sides until evenly browned, about 3-4 minutes per side.  Remove lamb from the pot.

 3.  Add onion, garlic, and spices to the pot.  Stir and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Add chickpeas, tomatoes, and potatoes; cook for another 5-7 minutes.

4.  Return lamb shanks to the pot and nestle inside the vegetables.  Cover with wine and vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

5.  Cover the pot tightly and transfer to the oven.  Bake for three hours.

6.  Skim off excess fat.  Serve the shanks with the vegetables.  I threw in a handful of peas at the end for a touch of color and freshness.  

Speaking from experience, the shanks keep in the refrigerator for solid 3 days without losing any flavor.  Reheat slowly on top of the stove or in the oven.  If you desire a thicker sauce, feel free to puree some of the vegetables or thicken with a cornstarch slurry.  You may also simmer the sauce, uncovered, to thicken it naturally.

This is definitely a recipe I will make again and again!  Don’t fret if you don’t like lamb or don’t have it on hand.  The recipe will turn out just as fantastic with chicken or beef.

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Project "You Buy, I Cook" ~ Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Beef, Cooking, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Pasta, Recipe, Rice, Tomatoes, You Buy I Cook

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I love my friends, but let’s be honest – they are a bunch of picky eaters!  Alright, some of them are picky.  Others are perfectly happy to eat whatever, whenever, wherever.  Project “You Buy, I Cook” is my way to share cooking and dining experiences with friends – picky and otherwise.  For the most part, I think the project challenges my friends to eat something new, try an exotic ingredient or discover an unusual flavor combination.

For the latest “You Buy, I Cook” I was the one challenged!  The challenge, posed by my friend Nadiya, was to develop a recipe for Gluten Free and Dairy Free meatballs.  Extra challenge points: no onions, minimum use of spices, and obviously no cheese, milk or bread.

Nadiya showed up with a pound of beef, some instant oatmeal, a few eggs, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  We rolled up our sleeves (and later meatballs) and went to work.


Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce


Ingredients



Meatballs

1 cup gluten free instant oats

1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, salt-free

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

1 pound ground beef

Tomato Sauce


Olive oil

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1-2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions


1.  Combine oats, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic in a food processor.  Pulse until oats are coarsely chopped.  Set aside.  The oats are one of the binders in the recipe and keep your meat balls together.  They also add lots of nutritional value!

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and water.  If you don’t mind having some dairy in your diet, feel free to substitute water with milk.

3.  Gently stir the oatmeal mixture and eggs with the ground beef.  Mix enough to combine without overworking the beef.  Overworking the beef will result in tough meatballs and who would want those?

4.  Using a scoop, form meatballs (my medium size scoop allowed for 24 meatballs).  Place meatballs on a lightly greased cooling rack set inside an aluminum lined baking sheet.  Refrigerate the meatballs for 30-60 minutes to allow the oatmeal to absorb the liquid and the meatballs to set.

5.  Meanwhile, make tomato sauce by sauteing canned tomatoes in olive oil along with Italian seasoning.  Add a can of tomato sauce and sugar, and simmer on low until the meatballs are done.  If it were up to me, I would start the sauce by sauteing onion and garlic, adding red pepper flakes and finishing up with freshly grated cheese.


6.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove meatballs from the refrigerator and bake for 30 minutes.

 7.  Serve meatballs, garnished with parsley or basil, along with tomato sauce and cooked rice noodles.

Remember, this is a very basic recipe.  Once in your kitchen, feel free to flavor these meatballs with a variety of spices and herbs.  Leave Italy and travel to Turkey or Morocco, using cumin, turmeric, and perhaps even cinnamon.



Thanks for reading! Let me know if you make these Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce.  Check out the rest of the “You Buy, I Cook” projects.

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Roasted Roma Tomatoes

11 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Appetizer, Book Club, Cooking, Recipe, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

≈ 7 Comments

Love for tomatoes runs in my family so much that my sister writes a blog called Mango & Tomato.

As little girls, we’d eat tomatoes like apples, biting into the ripe fruit and letting the juice run down our hands.  We also ate tomatoes pickled, marinated, or simply cut into wedges and sprinkled with salt.  We fought over tomato juice that collected on the bottom of the tomato salad bowl, eagerly waiting to soak up its goodness with a piece of crusty white bread.

As a grownup, I discovered the joy of tomato juice in a bloody mary, with lots of Tabasco sauce.  Sundried tomatoes entered my cooking repertoire, mixed with pasta and artichoke hearts or in a couscous salad.


Last week, as I was reading the last few chapters of Molly Wizenberg’s “A Homemade Life,” I came across the recipe for roasted tomatoes.  This is not rocket science – even Molly admits it.  But sometimes I need a reminder of a recipe or a cooking technique that I haven’t done in a while to get me inspired, and that’s where Molly’s recipe came in.

I used Roma tomatoes because they have a higher ratio of flesh and hold up better while cooking.  Rather than roasting tomatoes on a cookie sheet, I decided to take advantage of my cast iron skillet.  I poured a little bit of olive oil on the bottom of the skillet and bathed halved tomatoes in the oil (I didn’t bother with removing the core, but feel free to remove it if you want).  Once the tomatoes were evenly coated with olive oil, I arranged them cut side up and sprinkled their tops with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

I roasted the tomatoes in a 300-degree oven for 2.5 hours.  While roasting, the sugars concentrate and almost candy the tomatoes.  They come out looking shriveled up, darker, and richer.  I store mine in a glass jar and eat them with crackers and cheese.  They are delicious and I hope you give them a try.

I’ve had a bunch of these straight out of the jar, but they would be fantastic as a base for a tomato sauce or soup, or mixed with arugula and goat cheese.
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Healthy, Easy Recipe Idea – Savory Cottage Cheese with Vegetables and Crackers

18 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in Breakfast, Cooking, Healthy, Recipe, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

≈ 4 Comments

Good morning!  What did you have for breakfast today?  A bowl of cereal?  Maybe boiled eggs, or a cup of yogurt?  How about trying something new that’s healthy, delicious, and can be put together the night before?
I consider myself a savory girl – I’d much rather have something salty than sweet.  I snack on pickles instead of cookies, but that’s another story.  
For this breakfast, there are just a few ingredients – cottage cheese (I prefer a large curd), a stalk of celery, a tomato, some black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  Fresh herbs work really well – I’ve tried cilantro, dill, and parsley before.  This time I went with basil.  
To put it all together, place a serving of cottage cheese in your to-go-container, add diced tomato, diced celery (if you want to be fancy, peel your celery), drizzle olive oil and season with black pepper.  I would recommend adding the herbs right before you enjoy the dish.  For some extra crunch, I eat this with Nabisco Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil crackers (my new obsession).
Like this?  Please let me know!  Bon appetit

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Simple Ingredients Make for Good Food: Tomatoes

02 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by in Tomatoes

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This has got to be THE best time for tomatoes.  Take them home and enjoy them!  Please don’t store them in the refrigerator.  Do not saute them, puree them, or roast them.  Eat them fresh, eat them raw.  How am I eating them?  Today, the tomato is sliced, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chunks of feta and freshly ground black pepper.

Spring Dinner Saute

18 Wednesday Mar 2009

Posted by in Cooking, Corn, Green Beans, Recipe, Stir Fry, Tomatoes

≈ 1 Comment

The spring is here. The flowers are beginning to bloom, the trees are blossoming, and Birmingham is slowly turning green. And as the temperature outside begins to rise, the temperature in my kitchen starts to cool off. Afterall, who wants to have the oven on 350F or simmering a pot on the stove for hours when it’s warm out? So for dinner tonight, I made a very quick saute – succotash style.

In a saute pan, heat up olive oil, add a cut-up Spicy Italian chicken sausage, kernels of one fresh corn, sliced scallion, and a handful of sliced green beans. Saute for 10 minutes, enough for the corn and the sausage to caramelize – the green beans will still be nice and crunchy. Season with ground red pepper, S&P and gently stir in a chopped roma tomato – the heat of the saute will slightly warm up the tomato. Twist of lime juice and you are ready to eat!