Tomatoes & Gazpacho

I am heading out of town tomorrow for a family wedding in Chicago so I won't be posting until I'm back the week of August 8th.  And this week hasn't been a great week for cooking as I've been rushing around a lot before hitting the road.  Fortunately my tomato plants have been very generous with their bounty.  My grape cherry tomatoes are almost the size of small plum tomatoes. I've been eating them right off the vine or with some fresh basil, a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt - yummy!!

The one thing I did manage to make this week was a spicy gazpacho that came out really flavorful with a lot a heat so I've only been consuming it in small amounts. It's so refreshing this time of year.  My "recipe" is below but for me it really is about lots of vegetables in the food processor with ingredients similar to a Bloody Mary.

Have a good week!

Jenabeth's Spicy Gazpacho
2 lbs of tomatoes, cut into chunks - I used a mix of plum, grape cherry & heirloom
1 English Cucumber, peeled & cut into chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 celery heart (inc leaves), ends cut off & cut into chunks
1 red onion, cut into chunks
1/2 jalapeno pepper
3 cloves of garlic
3 T sherry vinegar
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
3-5 T Hot Sauce (to taste)
3 T horseradish
2 cups of V-8 juice
3 T honey

Put all vegetables (tomatoes - garlic) into a food processor and pulse until desired consistency. I like a little pulp to my gazpacho so I leave some texture.  Then add vinegars, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce & horseradish and pulse a few more times.  Transfer to large bowl and add juice.  Whisk in honey to temper the heat.  Chill for several hours before serving.

Seared Tuna Over Warm Cole Slaw

First planned off night in almost four weeks from baseball!  In addition to making stock, I also made dinner.  One of my favorites seared tuna and I used the napa cabbage, purple carrots and sweet onions to cook up a quick, warm slaw. 

Seared Tuna over Warm Cole Slaw
Tuna Steaks
Sesame Vinaigrette (see recipe in Seared Tuna over Arugula Salad post)
Peanut Oil
Napa Cabbage, shredded
Purple Carrots, sliced thin
Sweet Onions, sliced thin
1/2 Lemon, juiced

Marinate tuna in sesame vinaigrette for 20 minutes, flipping half way through.  Sear tuna in oil over high heat for 2 minutes per side.  Remove tuna to a plate and let rest.  Lower heat to medium and in same pan, add onions to saute for 2-3 minutes.  Add carrots and cook for 2 minutes before adding cabbage and a couple of tablespoons of sesame vinaigrette and the lemon juice.  Once cabbage has wilted remove from heat. 

I flaked the tuna with my fingers and place over the cole slaw.  You could slice it on the bias but I find the flaked tuna a little more casual and comforting.

SEARED TUNA WARM COLE SLAW

Week Seven!

Wow summer is getting crazy!  Heading to Chicago next week for my cousin Caroline's wedding plus the baseball season is coming to an end and that means lots of end of season stuff to do.  Both those things mean not a lot of time for cooking.  Luckily its the time of year when veggies are best when just eaten plain . . like fresh tomatoes off the vine! This week we got:


Arugula
Summer Squash
Yellow Fin Potatoes
Napa Cabbage
Cucumbers
Basil
Cilantro
Chard
Sweet Onions
Tomatoes
Carrots

The first thing I did was make up some pesto using parsley from last week, cilantro from this week, mint from my garden and lemon verbena. I added walnuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and lemon juice.  I used the pesto in a salad with orzo, peas and feta cheese.  Totally yummy salad and good to bring with you to baseball games!

I am ashamed to admit that some of the veggies from last week were in my fridge and starting to look on the wilted side.  And I had new veggies and am leaving town this weekend. So instead of letting them go to waste, I made stock.  I threw all the veggies and in some cases just tops of onions or carrots into a large pot with cold water.  I added a good size handful of salt, couple tablespoons of peppercorns and bunches of herbs from my garden.  I brought it to a boil, let it simmer for a few hours, strained it, poured into air tight container and put in freezer. Now I have homemade veggie stock next time I want to make a soup.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

Wow it's been hot out there and when you can say that on Cape Cod you know it's really hot!  Tonight we did a little tailgating at the baseball game.  I made my most favorite sandwich in the world - a Cobb Salad Sandwich. I discovered this about 12 years ago at the Hilton Hotel in San Jose and for a while I spent a lot of time in San Jose but it's been years since I've been back. I have re-created the sandwich from time to time.  In order to do it right you need to cook the chicken breast and bacon fresh and then assemble everything in the perfect order.  Oh heck I'll give you my recipe below!  Anyway the Watermelon & Feta Salad which is the true "vegetable" dish that I intended to blog about tonight was a perfect accompaniment and it's a great summer salad that travels well. And it's ridiculously easy.  Here is hoping is cools off!

Watermelon and Feta Salad
1/4 Seedless Watermelon, cut into chunks
8 oz Feta cheese, crumbled*
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
Olive Oil - maybe 2 T
Pinch of Salt

Mix watermelon, feta and mint lightly. I buy a chunk of feta and crumble myself as opposed to the crumbled feta because I don't think that tastes like feta.  Add olive oil and just a pinch of salt and toss lightly.  

Cobb Salad Sandwich
Scali Bread
Mayo
Chicken Breast
Crisp Bacon
Iceburg Lettuce
Sliced Tomatoes
Sliced Avocado
Blue Cheese, crumbled

I use split chicken breasts and toss them with olive oil, salt & pepper and then cook for 30 mins at 375.  Once cooled I remove the skin and bones and slice the breast meat on the diagonal. 

I cook the bacon in the oven on a baking sheet at 375 for about 15 minutes. Then drain on paper towel.

Ideally you assemble the sandwich when the bacon and chicken are still on the warm side.  Not hot but typically I'd let them rest maybe 30 mins.

Spread just a little may on the bread - the Hilton used sourdough bread but I have trouble finding good sourdough that slices well for sandwiches so I've used the Scali bread for awhile. 

One one side of bread layer, in this order, blue cheese, chicken and avocado. On the other side lettuce, tomato (be sure to salt & pepper your tomato), bacon.  Put together, cut in half and enjoy!

WATERMELON & FETA SALAD

I forgot to take the picture before I left the house so this is my Mother's plate at the game . . and my Brother's foot in the background!

Week Six!

It's a hot one today - thank god for the ocean breeze! Just picked up the following:

Lettuce
Arugula
Summer Squash
Parsley
Baby Bok Choy
Stuttgarten Onions
Red Gold Potatoes
Salad Turnips
Kale

I'm heading to our Nation's Capital this week to visit some friends, family and then attend a conference. It's suppose to be VERY hot - yikes! I'll post what I can but not sure how much of a chance I'll have to do some cooking. 

Stay cool!!!

Ginger Senposai with Orange Bell Pepper

Senposai is apparently is a new hybrid between cabbage and Komatsuna recently developed in Japan. Everything I read says you can eat it raw or simply saute it in some oil.  I had another pork tenderloin that I was going to grill up and was making herb & butter egg noodles to go along with it.  I have to admit the only time I ever buy egg noodles is when I make beef stroganoff and even that I don't make very often.  However I saw them at the grocery store and felt compelled to buy them.  I cooked them according to package directions until they were al dente. Then I tossed them with butter and fresh, chopped parsley.  Back to the senposai I wanted to be sure I incorporated some strong flavours.    Check out the recipe below.  It was a delicious dinner - tender pork, buttery noodles and some spicy greens!

Oh and I was getting tired of my same blue & white dishes in every photo so I pulled out my "party" white plates!


Ginger Senposai with Orange Bell Pepper
Olive Oil
Garlilc clove, minced
Ginger, 1 inch of ginger grated
Crushed Red Pepper, good size pinch
Orange Bell Pepper, sliced
Senposai, cut into bite sized pieces

Sesame Oil, 1 teaspoon
Salt, to taste

Pour oil into cold saute pan and add garlic, ginger and red pepper and then put pan over medium heat and let everything warm.  Just as oil starts to sizzle add bell pepper and saute for a 2 minutes.  Add the greens, sesame oil & salt and cook for a 2-3 minutes until wilted.

Lemon Verbena and Mint Iced Tea

My herbs are nothing short of out of control this summer so I am scouring the web to find different ways to use them up.  One of the new herbs I planted this year is lemon verbena which smells so lemony I'm a little addicted to smelling the leaves.  I found a recipe for lemon verbena and mint tea which helps use up one of the other fast-growing plants, mint, in my garden.  I made the tea much stronger than the recipe called for and let is steep longer so that I could put it over ice for iced tea.  It's a very refreshing beverage and I added only a little superfine sugar to heighten the natural sweetness not really sweeten it much. 

Lemon Verbena and Mint Iced Tea
1 cup mint leaves, picked from stems and washed & rinsed
1 cup lemon verbena leaves, pick from stems and washed & rinsed
4 cups water
1 T superfine sugar

Bring water to almost a boil then pour over the leaves and add sugar. Let steep for 1/2 hour.  Strain water into pitcher and serve over ice.

Tea Steeping

Glass of Iced Tea