Apple and Tomato Sorbet

A failed jelly transforms into a happy sorbet. I had been attempting to make a tomato (aka love apple) jelly using a pectin-making technique that involves melting down and draining green apples with tomatoes (like making herb jelly). I had followed what appeared to be an all-in-one technique in a new cookbook on preserving, which I now doubt. I’m in the camp that avoids powder or glop that magically gels liquid in the jam-making process. Halfway through making tomato jelly, I aborted the mission, pureed the apples (without skins and cores) and combined them with the tomatoes and sugar that were in the works.  Hmmm. What to do with this tomato applesauce? Muffins?

The puree sat in my refrigerator for a couple of days until we were out of our weekly supply of sorbet. So I processed it, being prepared to toss the whole thing. Not at all!  It was refreshing, familiar but elusive in taste, and well textured. For anyone who makes sorbet regularly, there’s an iciness factor to be overcome. You can call it granita or fix it. Artisanal shops have the capacity to introduce more air in the churning process. They might rely on invert sugar, which I’ve yet to try. But for the home cook with a conventional ice cream processor (mine’s from Krups, which uses a pre-chilled bowl), the texture of the contents is what keeps the sorbet creamy. Apples work, and so do plums, peaches, nectarines.  Other types of fruit need some support, which includes adding a tablespoon of vodka or a complementary liqueur or, for some, a tablespoon of light (clear) corn syrup.

The happy accident of this apple and tomato sorbet is worth repeating, possibly drizzled with balsamic vinegar or saba (a fermented reduction with a balsamic base)… or maybe shredded  basil, to pique the tomato flavor… or a pinch of cinnamon to complement the apples. Meanwhile, the trusty apple proves – once again – that it is the staple of the fruit world.

Apple and Tomato Sorbet

3 medium tomatoes, about 1- 1 ½ lb

3 granny smith or other tart apples, about 1 lb

1 c sugar (could reduce to ¾ c)

Juice of 1 lemon

Pinch of salt

Chop the tomatoes and place them in a saucepan over high heat. Cook until the juices are rendered and cover the tomato chunks, 3-5 minutes. Remove the tomato chunks and reserve them, leaving the liquid in the saucepan. (Or strain the tomatoes through a sieve and capture the liquid to return to the pan.)

Meanwhile, peel and core the apples and cut them into chunks. Add them to the tomato liquid along with the sugar, and cook them slowly, stirring occasionally, until the apples are completely broken down.

Puree the apple mixture, add the tomato chunks and lemon juice and cool the mixture. If the mixture tastes “flat,” add a pinch of salt. Refrigerate the sorbet mix until very cold and process it in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 1 quart.

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Tomato Salad: Simplicity of the Season

I cook with color.  I am as interested in balancing the colors and textures of food, as I am the taste. I say, “balancing,” but that doesn’t mean “equal-equal.” Cooking with color allows me to emphasize seasonality, to make a completely green dish in spring and an overwhelmingly yellow dish in fall.

Here is a scrumptious German striped tomato, grown in my own garden, a yellow giant with red stripes bleeding into the golden flesh like watercolor on paper, served simply with the best olive oil and sea salt, a few melting morsels of mozzarella strewn with color counterpoints of green and violet basil snipped just steps from my kitchen door. Just so.

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Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 3

After the steamed and fried okra served as sides and the pancakes as a main course, we made gumbo. Three ways: with chicken, with fish and a vegetarian version. Gumbo is basically a stew with a dark roux base (flour cooked in oil until very dark brown, like an over-cooked gravy base), stock (chicken, fish, vegetable), poultry or fish with or without some andouille sausage, and okra. I like to add tomatoes and corn to mine, and garnish with cilantro, but I’m probably not making it authentically. Traditionally served with rice, all versions were delicious.

I discovered that making the roux in advance, letting it cool, then adding it to the “stew” allowed it to flavor the dish without making the result too floury or gravy-like. It seemed lighter and more balanced than adding the liquid to the roux and continuing straight on. My opinion. Will probably get slapped around by someone who really knows her gumbo.

Chicken, Corn and Okra Gumbo

¼ c roux (see below)

2 small boneless chicken breasts cut in thirds (or boneless chicken thighs, halved)

Vegetable oil or butter

1 onion, chopped (1/2-3/4 c)

2 stalks celery, sliced (1/2-3/4 c)

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

4-6 plum tomatoes, chopped (or ¾ c chunky canned tomatoes)

2 c chicken broth

½ tsp each paprika and cayenne (or more to taste)

Salt

Andouille sausage, diced (optional)

1-2 ears of corn, kernels stripped

1 pt + okra

Parsley or cilantro

Sliced scallions

Rice

Make the roux. Heat ¼ c vegetable oil over medium heat, whisk in ¼ c all-purpose flour until smooth and cook over medium-low heat, whisking, until medium-dark brown in color, about 15 minutes. Watch it carefully. You do not want little black specks, since that means it has burned and will taste nasty. Remove from heat and set aside.

Brown the chicken on all sides in a little vegetable oil and set aside. Saute the onion and celery in the same pan until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and stir to cook until it releases its aroma. Add the tomatoes and cook them down slightly.

Add the chicken broth and roux and stir to combine. Return the chicken to the pan, add salt and pepper and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 15 minutes. (Add the andouille sausage with the chicken if you’re using it.)

Meanwhile, top and tail the okra and cut it crosswise into rings. Do this at the last minute to reduce the potential gelatinous character. Add the corn and okra to the gumbo and simmer until they are cooked through, 3-4 minutes. Add parsley or cilantro, scallions and more salt and red hot pepper if needed.

Serve hot over rice.

4 servings

Variation:  Fish and/or Shrimp Gumbo

Substitute fish or shrimp stock (or bottled clam juice and water) for the chicken broth. Substitute fish and/or shrimp for the chicken, and add it to the stew when you add the okra. Corn and sausage are optional.

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Birds Fly South: Cowpeas and Collards

I am not remotely Southern but after eating okra and various gumbos over the past weeks, I can say that I appreciate Southern food. Collard greens are back in our CSA farm’s choice group.  I’m always happy to welcome a member of the Brassica family, which includes cabbage and broccoli, because of the high nutritional value. While my research into Southern food ways tells me to stew collard greens slowly and for a long time, the freshness of those large fan-like leaves and the tenderness of the stems made me think otherwise. So I cooked them for minutes rather than hours (as I would if making a gratin) and dressed them as I would wilted dandelion greens or curly endive: with onions and a cider vinegar and oil vinaigrette.

Cowpeas, the type referred to as black-eyed peas, are legumes that are high in protein (some sources say 24%) for the consumers and high in nitrogen for the soil they’re planted in.  Double whammy.  I have a particular way of cooking dried beans and legumes, which is not the most conventional but produces a gently cooked and tender result.  I bake them slowly, covered in about an inch of lightly salted water, in a tightly covered casserole (Dutch oven) for an hour or two in a warm oven (250 degrees). Simple. No soaking, no boiling to let sit for an hour.  Of course, all dried beans and legumes are best purchased in bulk from a source with a high turnover, and those cook in a remarkably shorter time than the packaged supermarket versions.

This was a delicious combination. It is traditionally cooked with smoked pork hock or bacon (I added smoked pork hock to the beans), but the meat is optional albeit genuinely Southern. I served this with sliced heirloom tomatoes, a fresh counterpoint to the deep flavors of the braised greens and legumes.

Braised Collard Greens

1 bunch collard greens

1 medium onion, sliced vertically into thin half-moon pieces

Vegetable oil

1 tbsp cider vinegar (or more, depending on amount of collard greens)

1 tsp sugar (proportion with the vinegar)

Salt and pepper

Prepare the collard greens. Wash the leaves.  Cut out the stems and shop them into ¼-1/2-inch lengths. Slice the leaves crosswise into ½-1-inch strips.

Saute the onion slowly in the oil in a large pan for a few minutes and add the collard stems. Cook slowly over low heat, covered, for about 10-15 minutes. Add the sliced collard greens and a little water, stir to combine, and cook, covered for about 10 minutes or so, checking for doneness. They should be soft and pliable and not hard to chew. Continue cooking until they reach that stage.

Add a little vegetable oil combined with the vinegar and sugar. Stew for a few minutes to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with black-eyed peas.

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Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 2

On we go with a bonanza of okra harvested weekly from our CSA farm. Here we have fritters (or more properly pancakes) that combined cornmeal and flour with buttermilk and eggs, and added okra, scallions and corn. They were served over tomato sauce and garnished with steamed okra and corn and snipped herbs.  This recipe makes a thick pancake. I made vegetable pancakes another way also, with half the flour, no buttermilk and more eggs, which I prefer because it showcases vegetables like zucchini. It doesn’t bind the corn or okra as well, however.

Okra-Corn Pancakes with Tomato Sauce

½ c fine stone-ground cornmeal

½ c sifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ c buttermilk at room temperature

¼ c sliced scallions

1 c corn kernels (lightly steam if using older corn)

1 c sliced okra (lightly steam if using large okra)

Herbs such as parsley or cilantro (optional)

Salt and pepper

Tomato sauce

Garnish: steamed okra, corn, herbs

Sift together the dry ingredients. Thoroughly combine the egg and buttermilk and add the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Fold in the vegetables.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a preheated griddle or skillet. Cook slowly until browned on one side and the batter stops bubbling on top. Flip and cook until brown on the other side. Keep the pancakes warm while you finish making the batch and serve with sliced tomatoes or a light tomato sauce, possibly seasoned with hot pepper.

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Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 1

With okra in great supply over the past month, I have been making it in all kinds of ways, often combining it with corn and tomatoes. Some people object to the texture of okra, which can get gelatinous. I harvest my own, between 2-4 inches and cook it soon afterwards, and it’s not gooey at all.  I think the trick is to use very fresh vegetables and to prepare them quickly and simply, except in the case of gumbo.  This Part 1 covers some steaming, some stewing and some oven-frying. Future posts will cover gumbo, fritters and even pickles!

The earliest okra of the season was steamed, tossed into a slightly warm salad of red potatoes, corn, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped red and green peppers, and herbs, lightly salted and dressed with a little olive oil and white wine vinegar. Simple and seasonal.

We went on to make a light stew with tomatoes, sometimes with okra being added plain and other times oven-fried and added at the last minute to a tomato-based vegetable stew.

Oven frying is a cinch. The way I do it is to plunge the sliced okra into buttermilk and then toss it quickly in a light mixture of 50% finely ground corn meal and 50% flour, seasoned with salt and a little cayenne if you want it spicy. Place on a baking sheet coated with vegetable oil, stir to coat the okra and cook in a preheated 375-degree oven for about 10 minutes or until crispy, turning once or twice. You can roast the okra at a higher temperature as some recipes suggest, but it doesn’t always cook through and the coating turns into a rock.

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Potato, Zucchini and Red Pepper Gratin

When the humidity drops and the nights become cool, late summer gratins seem like the perfect transition to fall cuisine. I am not ready for the creams and cheeses of the gratins of late fall and winter, but it does feel good to have a warm and homey dish that is still redolent of summer.  The potatoes provide that comfort feeling and the peppers and zucchini remind us that it’s still summer.

Modeled after a dish that Patricia Wells published in Bistro Cooking (which she dubs “Gratin Grand-mere” after the name given to it by a restaurant near Nice), layers of thinly sliced potato are intermingled with red pepper and zucchini. Dressed only with olive oil and seasoned with a little garlic, salt and thyme, the flavors melt into each other in a light but satisfying way. I use a combination of silver leafed thyme and lemon thyme (or if I had more I would use only lemon thyme), which adds a little spark. This recipe makes enough for two or three people depending on what else you’re eating but can be adapted to a much larger group.

Potato, Zucchini and Red Pepper Gratin adapted from Patricia Wells

1 garlic clove, peeled

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb potatoes, preferably a baking type, thinly sliced

1-2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, stripped from the stems

Salt to taste

1 small red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into thin rings

1 medium or 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the garlic in half and rub the bottom of a gratin dish. Coat with a small amount of olive oil, Thinly slice the garlic.

Place a layer of potatoes (which should be 1/3 of the sliced potatoes) on the bottom of the pan, overlapping them and covering the entire surface. Sprinkle with a little salt and thyme and add about a tsp of olive oil. Layer on half the red peppers interspersed with half of the garlic, then add a layer of half of the sliced zucchini. Sprinkle with salt and add about a teaspoonful of olive oil. Repeat the layers and top with the remaining potatoes, sprinkling with thyme, salt and olive oil Decorate with some red pepper if you want.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake the gratin for about 50-60 minutes until the vegetables are very soft and tender. Serve immediately.

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Corn and Tomato Canapes

These lovely little bites of creamed corn and miniature cherry tomatoes on puff pastry used up a little of this and that to make some tasty treats. Melissa Clark, writing in the New York Times this last week, talked about her summer-long obsession with creamed corn. This is not something I’d normally make but now that I have I can attest to its infectious qualities. She cut corn from the cob and poured a little bit of heavy cream on it and cooked it on the stove for a few minutes. She served hers as a side dish on top of tomatoes, garnished with thin strips of basil.

Since I had leftover puff pastry from a green chard tart, I cooked rounds at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, and then split the little pillows in half to make little dish-like containers for the corn. Topped with diced cherry tomatoes and basil, this was pure summer on a plate.

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Green Chard Tart

Chard is an easy and versatile green that finds its way into all kinds of dishes at our house. With frozen puff pastry, making the tart shell is a snap. The tart dough can either be fitted to a pan with a removable bottom or be slightly rolled out. I prefer the latter since it makes a more finished look and I find the scraps of dough useful for other things.  I make this with green chard only since the multi-colored or red versions make a muddy looking product.

I sometimes precook the chard since I get armloads full of it at our CSA and it won’t all fit neatly into the refrigerator. With the chard prepared in advance, this is a pretty quick meal to assemble on a weeknight, although with the baking and cooling time, it will take about an hour.  I have also added corn and/or sliced or diced red pepper to this, but the simplicity of the chard alone is terrific.

Green Chard Tart adapted from Antoine Bouterin

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed and rolled out to ½-¾ of its original thickness

1 medium onion, thinly sliced in half-moon pieces

1 large or 2 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Olive oil

1 lb green chard

Freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ c heavy cream

Prepare the tart shell and set aside in the refrigerator.

Saute the onion in olive oil slowly until well cooked and nearly brown. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Prepare the chard. Wash the chard well, strip the ribs and reserve them for another use. Cut the leaves into ½-inch chiffonade (slices), allowing some water to cling to the leaves. When the garlic releases its aroma, add the chard and cook, stirring, until the chard is wilted, 5-6 minutes. Drain and cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the chard mixture in the bottom of the tart shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Lightly beat the eggs and cream together, season with salt and pepper and pour over the chard. Bake until puffed and golden, about 40 minutes.

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Asian-inspired Plum Sauce

I’m really happy with my first pass at a plum sauce: slightly sweet and sour, with a tang from the ginger and mustard seeds, heat from the jalapeno, and a rich spice flavor from star anise. I made a small trial batch so I canned only one 8-oz jar and had one 4-oz jar for sampling. It was great with vegetarian egg rolls, since it had a good mouth feel in contrast to the crunch of the egg roll wrapper. I can easily imagine it with crispy potatoes, vegetable fritters or with meat, for those who aren’t vegetarian.

Now I’ll be on the lookout for more red plums, with red skin and red flesh, though I admit that I used up a couple of stray pluots in this batch.  Since I had a hard time getting the skin off the plums that I used in my jam to become soft enough, this time I pureed the fruit before cooking it. The origin of the recipe is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving but I adapted it pretty considerably. Note that when I double the recipe I’ll be careful not to increase the cinnamon or star anise, since it will pervade whatever amount of sauce is in the pot.

Asian-inspired Plum Sauce

2 c pitted plums, pureed in a food processor

1/3 c brown sugar

¼ c white sugar

¼ c cider vinegar

3 tbsp finely chopped red onion

1 small red jalapeno or other hot pepper, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp yellow mustard seeds

¼ tsp ground coriander

1 star anise

1 small stick cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer until thick, about an hour or so. Ladle into hot jars prepared for water bath canning and process for ten minutes after the water returns to a boil. Remove the lid, turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before removing to cool undisturbed.

Makes about 12 oz

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