Tomato Love

Here is a little fresh summer hors d' oeuvre that I've been whipping up lately. It couldn't be tastier or easier and with fresh tomatoes and basil now coming in season it is better than...ummmm, better than an hour long full body massage. Well, almost.

I'm calling it Olive Oil Poached Tomato Bruschetta. 
Get some fresh little yellow and red grape (or pear) tomatoes and give em a generous rub down with plenty of olive oil, enough so that they are almost covered in it and are very happy. Toss in some slices of garlic and a handful or so of whole fresh basil leaves.
     Put them in a low oven, about 200-250 degrees and give them about 3 hours of privacy, or until they are soft and shriveling up and are done doing their thang and are begging for mercy. (Jeez, I never knew poaching tomatoes could sound so erotic. Nevermind.)

Pull them out of the oven, drain in a strainer or colander and reserve the oil and juices. Discard the basil leaves because they will be dark and withered, and then mash the tomatoes and garlic up with a fork.

Add a chiffonade of fresh basil and season it with sea salt. You can also add a touch of the reserved oil if you are feeling frisky and then use the remaining oil to rub on slices of crusty bread or a baguette.  Broil or toast the bread and serve with the tomatoes. Everyone's gonna be happy!

If you have some garlic, basil, or Italian flavored olive oils use some of them to amp up the flavor.  Although I've already told you how to make this tomato love, you can also find the ingredients and instructions on the "Appetizer" page. Bon Appetit!

Bon Appetit ~ Round 5: Finally Some Fish

Well, well, well...it looks like Bon Appetit is finally listening. It was just last week when I dared them to put salmon on the cover and lookey here what shows up on the June cover!

     Remember ~ I live in Hickville so I know the only way that I will be able to score those tiny tomatoes on the vine will be if I do a little late night raid on someones garden. Reconnaissance mission has begun.

I'm somewhat disappointed in BA because the recipe calls for "wild king salmon." While there is nothing wrong with wild king, in fact I LOVE it, but didn't they know as of May 15 it was officially Copper River Salmon season? At first glance I was hoping that was what that beautiful piece of fish was, but it was not to be.

        I'm on it...like a fat kid on cake!  

 

Results to follow!

If you want to make it with me click here for the recipe. 

The Bon Appetit Throwdown: Round 4

Whose dumb idea was this anyway? I'm talking about this whole Bon Appetit throwdown crap. Well BA must have gotten the memo that dough and I have a love/hate relationship because they have gotten all serious about this throwdown thing and have been playing dirty by bombarding me with yet another cover recipe that features dough. Here’s the thing—I love to eat all things made from dough but I hate to make it. Mostly because I suck at it.

I was coming off a hellacious high from pain meds and wasn’t thinking rational when I made the decision to bring a pound of butter to room temp.

      Think I’m kidding?  There were three plus sticks of butter in a recipe that yielded nine rolls. I can do easy math even when high, so I know that means that there is about a stick of butter in each bun, right? I am usually of the opinion that everything is bedder with budder, but these rolls were practically boiled in butter and that’s just sick and wrong BA!!!   

     The dough was sticky, hence the name I suspect.  So crazy sticky in fact that it would have been easier to get Bazooka bubble gum off of the hind end of a shiatsu then it was to get that crap out of my food processor.  When I finally did I then buttered them up some more and put it in a bowl to rise, just like the BA bully told me to do.  

     Then that shit didn’t rise.

     I waited the allotted time and then some and finally gave up on it and rolled it out, hoping it would rise on the second time around, but nooooo, it just sat there in its own pool of butter all relaxed looking while I looked on in zombie horror from my happy place.

 

So I baked it anyway. Thankfully my friend Shawna had popped over and was there to keep an eye on them, because between the Percocet and Pinot Grigio I almost forgot that I had a bun in the oven. 

Hahahahaha! Are these not the worst looking rolls you've EVER seen?

When Shawna pulled them out of the oven she remarked that they slightly resembled sticky buns. coughbullshitcough, I thought they looked more like road apples.

Hahahahahahaha! Fugly, I know...

I have two friends who also made this cover recipe.  Karen, who is an amazingly talented baker said, and I quote, the texture is awesome and that they were easy to make. I gotta believe her because she knows dough, but Karen, I want whatever pain meds you're on because I think making origami birds is easy compared to making these buns.  

      My other friend, Mrs. Lexus, also an accomplished baker in her own right, made them and said her buns rose to the high heavens and were mighty tasty...but were too buttery. Mrs. L., I want whatever pain meds you're on because I didn't know there was such a thing as "too buttery".

The Lowdown on the Throwdown:

The individual components of this recipe were very good, Vicodin or not. The dough was soft and silky and oh-so-buttery.  The filling, which was butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg was sweet and spicy and did I mention buttery? Then there was the heavenly caramel sauce which was nutty and creamy and UN-freakin-believably buttery!  When you put all that together, minus the fact that my buns were like hockey pucks, what you got was an insanely, buttery, tasty hunka dough. 

      But here is the sad truth...if you are really going to eat a whole sticky bun by yourself, plan for your next meal to be fed to you through an IV tube shortly after you come out of triple bypass surgery.  Just sayin'.   

     Click here to get the recipe.  

OK Bon Appetit you win this one, I'm cryin' UNCLE!  Enough with the dough, would you?  How about some nice fish for a change, like salmon? Are you listening?

Wasabi My Kimosabe

So if you think that I've spent the past five months in the Caribbean just working on my tan and swimming with turtles you are right. Well, only partially right. I did spend a great deal of  time cooking…and doing dishes...or when I wasn't doing dishes I was cooking. It was a vicious cycle.  

This season I added a few new definite keepers to my repertoire of Pisces recipes. One of The Big Guy's favorites was Creole shrimp with Andouille cream, which I served on a bed of kale and then on top of cheesy grits. It was rich and spicy and full of flavor.

One of my faves is a Stephen Pyles recipe that I have been making at home for the past few years but I adapted it to make use of local island ingredients; snapper in a jalapeno broth served on a banana-black bean mash with fried plantains and mango salsa. The picture below is showing it in a serrano broth with fried tortilla strips, which is how I make it at home but in the islands I usually can't find serranos so I use jalapenos and I  also make use of the abundance of plantains and fry some of them up.

But enough about that...we are here to talk about the tuna with wasabi beurre blanc and pineapple-ginger chutney. This is quite possibly thee best thing that I have made in a very LOOOOOONNNNG time, maybe even like forever.

I'd like to take credit for the sauce, but my ass would be chapped if someone took credit for one of my brilliant sauce creations and I don't want no bad karma, so I will tell you that I found the sauce recipe on allrecipes.com.  It was my genius idea thank you very much, to top it with the pineapple-ginger chutney which was my mojo and elevated this dish from "it doesn't suck" to "wow! would it be considered gauche to lick my plate at the table?"

Trust me...you don't even have to like wasabi to like this dish. When you cook the wasabi paste the heat takes the pungency away, leaving a mild flavor that the pineapple and ginger completely love. I know when it comes to wasabi that a little dab will do ya, but by cooking it you knock the sinus clearing effect right out of it and what you are left with is a mild but flavorful sauce that is rich and decadent. I am of the opinion that everything is bedder with budder and wasabi is no exception so don't be afraid to go a little crazy with the green stuff. And just when you think this sauce can't get any better you throw the cilantro in and that's when you want to call a nurse for an IV so you can just mainline it. 

You can make the chutney ahead of time and keep in in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the sauce. Bring it to room temp before serving.
 

To plate this put some beurre blanc on the plate, top with the seared tuna steak, more beurre blanc and then some chutney. Serve remaining beurre blanc and chutney on the side. Then sit back, close your eyes, take a bite and let the flavors explode like fireworks on your tongue!

There you have it! Our new favorite tuna recipe and I dare you to find one person who has eaten this that didn't lick their plate clean and kiss me on the lips! And I can name names.

     I usually serve it with coconut-lime rice (or couscous {I like the Israeli} ) and candied ginger carrots. Go to the "Seafood" tab at the top of this page to see how to put a little piece of heaven on the table. 
     PLEASE let me know what you think after you've eaten this and I'll let you know where to send the thank you flowers.