Asparagus, tomato and Gruyère tart

This colorful vegetable tart is the reason favorite Daughter is hooked on asparagus!   I came across this simple recipe in Martha’s vast recipe collection several years ago and it has been requested many times.   Served as an appetizer or main dish when accompanied with a soup or salad, this tart has a handful of ingredients and is very easy to prepare  – it fits right into a young lady’s busy college schedule.  

I have been fortunate to have children that love vegetables.  We were never a fast-food family as that option was not available to my parents in South Africa when I was little.   My kids ate what was served at our dinner table and our extended family feasts from the get-go.   I was spared the drama of picky eaters and watched their friends exhibit some strange behaviors.  One young neighbor never ate at our home.   He subsisted on a diet of chicken nuggets alone.   I’m sad to see that he is now an obese young man.   Another young girl asked me what that whole bird was I had sitting in a roasting pan.  It was a chicken… And I once come across a kid at the check-out counter that could not recognize broccoli (!) so he couldn’t look up the PLU code.   It’s no wonder we are now in the midst of a health crisis with no change in sight.

When it comes to asparagus,  I always buy the bunch with the thinnest spears and fresh buds.    It’s just a personal preference, but any thickness is good.   An excellent provider of Vitamin K, folate, Vitamins C and A, asparagus is also a natural diuretic and is high in antioxidants.

This recipe combines the flavors or asparagus and Swiss-made Gruyère cheese.  They pair beautifully together and it’s no wonder – they are both common items in the Swiss kitchen.  Here I have added sliced cherry tomatoes to the mix for a beautiful and delicious presentation.

   

Asparagus, tomato and Gruyère tart  adapted from a recipe by Martha Stewart

a little flour for the work surface

1 sheet frozen puff pastry

5½ ozs (2 cups) Gruyère cheese, grated

1½ pounds thin or medium asparagus

8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle.  Trim uneven edges.  Place pastry on a baking sheet (I line mine with a silpat).  With a sharp knife, lightly score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle.  Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings at 1/2-inch intervals.

Sprinkle pastry with Gruyère.  Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears to fit crosswise inside the tart shell. Arrange asparagus and tomato halves in a single layer over Gruyère.  Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake until spears are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Cut tart with a pizza cutter into desirable pieces.  Serve hot.

 

Make sure you sprinkle some cheese on the edges too! 

Prijatno!

Tuna Puri wins 2nd place at the Tournament de Tuna!

I travelled the world in my mind with ideas for a winning combination of flavors that would wow the judges during Saturday’s Tournament de Tuna.  I bounced from Portugal to Spain, Northern Africa to Greece, and I finally settled way out east in India! 

Featuring canned Portuguese tuna, Queen of the Coast was introducing its products to the USA.   The Queen herself made a graceful appearance.

It was an intimate affair – six eager contestants butting into each other in the home kitchen as we plated our promising dishes.  From left to right:  Todd Romero, Chantal Duvall, yours truly, Joni Buck, and Holly Erickson watched Jenn Molholt win with her tasty Baked tuna fritter with spicy/tangy tomato relish and avocado.   It was crispy on the outside, perfectly tender on the inside and delicious! 

After much hype on Facebook,  the romantic and adventurous Raphael made his grand appearance, fresh off his seafaring boat.  He was very handsome, charming and gracious, even when Chantal planted a big red kiss!  His accent made my legs buckle…and it looked like he was enjoying my Tuna puri! 

Pani puri is an Indian snack (chaat) found in street food carts.  A foodie friend, Jay recently introduced me to a great vegetarian restaurant in Houston called Shiv Sagar.  Their dosas are excellent and that’s where I spotted the delicate pani puri.   (Thanks Jay for steering me away from making dosas, oy!)    I picked the soft-spoken restaurant owner’s brain for information and ideas for pani puri and eventually bought a package.  They had potential -  small, hollow, crispy fried breads are the vessels for spiced vegetables and sauces.   In order to incorporate the canned tuna, I checked with my Indian connection and knowledgeable friend, Manjula.  

A vegetarian herself, Manjula described the various sauces I should use and assured me that tuna would fit right in.  Her mother’s own garam masala and a fair amount of chopped onions contributed greatly to the richness of the filling.   Willing taste-tester and an excellent cook herself, my neighbor Cheryl stated that the sweetness of the yoghurt sauce balanced the spiciness of the serrano chiles in the green sauce.  The sauces – one sweet, one sour, and one spicy; and a variety of crunchy and leafy garnishes created a complete flavor and textural sensation. 

This was my presentation.  A shot of Mango lassi completed the plate.

Thanks to Karen, Dwight, Joan and Amber at Soundworks for hosting the fun-filled affair and giving us amateur cooks an opportunity to experiment and revel in each other’s company.  Judges Brandy Graesser of Hubbell and Hudson Viking Cooking School, food marketing wiz George Darsey, and Raphael himself made positive comments and I walked off with a fantastic prize – cooking lessons at the Viking Cooking School, perfect for someone who’s always willing to experiment in the kitchen! 

Yours truly, Jenn, Raphael, Holly and the Queen of the Coast

Now to the recipe!  Start with paper-thin Pani Puri (these are made by Satyam Foods & Snacks, Inc.), and thin, crunchy sev, a vermicelli-like snack made with chick pea (gram) flour.

Here’s the filling…simple ingredients deliciously seasoned with garam masala and black mustard seeds. 

To make a hole for the filling, tap the top of one side of each puri with the back of a spoon, and then fill it with the tuna mixture.  Drizzle with Spicy green chutney, Dahi, pomegranate molasses and top with sev, chives, tomato and cilantro.  Pop the entire puri in your mouth for a blast of savory, sweet, sour and spicy heaven!

Tuna Puri   Please note that this recipe looks more complicated than it is!  You can substitute store-bought Spicy Cilantro Chutney and the rest of the components are very simple to assemble.

One bag (7.4 oz) Pani Puri (small, fried and hollow Indian breads, available at all Indian grocers)

Tuna and Chick Pea filling

1 – 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup finely diced onion

1 – 2 teaspoons garam masala (a spice mixture available at all Indian grocers)

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes, seeds removed

3 cans (6 oz/170g each) Queen of the Coast Tuna Salad with Chick Peas, or 5 oz canned tuna in oil plus 11 oz cooked chick peas

salt, to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes until beginning to soften but not brown. Add garam masala and mustard seeds and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and sauté for 1 more minute. Add canned Tuna Salad with Chick Peas and stir gently until heated through. Season with salt, if necessary.

Spicy Cilantro Chutney ( substitute with store-bought chutney, if you wish)

3 green chiles such as serrano or jalapeno, stemmed and seeded

¾-inch piece peeled fresh ginger

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon oil

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar or jaggery (palm sugar)

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted

1 bunch cilantro (about 5 ounces) less about 6 stems- reserve for garnish

Place all ingredients except for the cilantro in a blender. Pulse until combined and finely chopped. Add cilantro and blend until smooth. Season with additional salt if necessary.

Dahi (sweetened yoghurt)

1 cup plain yoghurt

1 tablespoon sugar or jaggery (palm sugar)

½ teaspoon pomegranate molasses

pinch of salt

Whisk yoghurt, sugar, pomegranate and salt to blend. Adjust to taste.

For the garnish:

½ cup sev, a fried vermicelli-like snack made with gram (chick pea) flour (available at all Indian grocers)

pomegranate molasses or sweet tamarind chutney (available at all Indian grocers)

¼ cup finely sliced scallions or chives

½ cup chopped fresh tomato

leaves from about 6 stems cilantro (reserved from Spicy Cilantro Chutney), finely chopped

To assemble Pani Puri

Carefully make a hole on one side of each pani puri. Fill each one about ¾ to the top with warm Tuna and Chick Pea filling. Arrange pani puri on a serving platter. Drizzle with Spicy Cilantro Chutney, Dahi, and garnishes (sev, pomegranate molasses, scallions, tomato and chopped cilantro). Serve with a shot of Mango Lassi to cool the palate!

 

Mango lassi

2 cups plain yoghurt

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped, or 2 cups frozen mango cubes

¼ cup milk

toasted and ground pistachio nuts and a slice of fresh mango for decoration

Blend yoghurt, mangoes and milk in a blender. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts. Serve cold.

Mango lassi – refreshing and not too sweet!

Click on the link for more pictures of the Tournament de Tuna. 

This post is my entry to the Magic Bullet To Go Giveaway, for which you can find details @ Fun and Food Cafe. You could win a Magic Bullet Food processor!  It’s easy!

Prijatno!

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

As I write, my house if filled with the wonderful aroma of sofregit, a Catalan word for a sauté of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions.  This version has red peppers and mushrooms added ….so fragrant!   Known as soffritto in the rest of Spain, sofrito in Italy, and bećar paprikaš in my homeland, Serbia, it is the flavoring component of the rice dish that is our Daring Cooks’ challenge for this month.  

Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is our host for August.  She has chosen a delicious Spanish recipe by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.  He trained under well-known Ferran Adria at his three star Michelin restaurant El Bulli.  José Andrés now lives in Washington DC and owns several restaurants in the DC area.  The recipe is from his US TV show Made in Spain.

This delicious rice dish includes cuttlefish, artichokes and a few precious threads of azafran, or saffron.  The word is derived from the Arabic asfar meaning ‘yellow’ for the vivid yellow-orange color it imparts to food and fabric.  Saffron is a collection of the stigmas and styles of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) flower.  One of the finest growing regions is La Mancha in Spain.  Painstaking to harvest, it is the most expensive spice by weight.  Fortunately, a few threads is all you need to season the entire dish.  In fact, too much saffron can be toxic. 

My well-travelled son spent a month in Spain this summer and gifted me with a small container of saffron - a wonderful gift for any cook! 

A key element in this dish is an Allioli ‘mayonnaise’.  It is critical to the final flavor of the rice.  And let me warn you…a little goes a looong way.   It is spicy and pungent and suits our Serbian sensibility – you can never have too much garlic!  Making the sofregit and allioli ahead of time will allow you to put the dish together quickly.

Olé Allioli!

Allioli   (I chose to make the ‘traditional’ version.  For the ‘modern’ recipe, please go to Olga’s site)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.

4 cloves garlic, peeled

Pinch of salt

Fresh lemon juice (a few drops)

Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.

Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)

Add the lemon juice to the garlic.  Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.

Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.

Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all!  I pressed the garlic through a garlic press which sped up the process.  I had a smooth allioli with a definite ‘bite’ to it.

Ingredients for the sofregit:

Sofregit  Cooking time: about 1-1 1/2 hours.   (My changes are in blue)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped

2 small onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped (optional)  I used 1 red pepper and 1 red jalapeno pepper

4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional) I used a combination of button and cremini mushrooms

1 bay leaf (fresh from my garden)

Salt

a pinch of ground cumin

a pinch of dried oregano 1 fresh sprig

Put all the ingredients together in a pot and sauté slowly until all the vegetables are soft.  Taste and add salt if necessary.   You will not use all of the sofregit for this rice dish.  Here are just a few delicious ideas on how you can use the rest of it:  as a filling for omelets, on toast, on top of grilled fish,  in soups or with polenta. 

The sofregit after cooking for about 1 1/2 hours:

 Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes  Serves 4

2 cuttlefish   I couldn’t find cuttlefish in my part of the woods so I substituted calamari

4 artichoke hearts, each cut into eighths  I used frozen artichoke hearts but you can use canned or fresh

12 mushrooms, quartered  I used a combination of button and cremini

2 bay leaves

1 cup white wine

the sofregit

2 cups (300g) short grain rice such as Arborio, Calasparra or Montsant

about 6 cups of water or fish stock

a few saffron threads (you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, if necessary)

the allioli

Cut the cuttlefish or calamari into thin strips. 

Heat 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan pan on high heat and add the cuttlefish/calamari in the pan.

Add the artichokes, mushrooms and bay leaves.   Sauté until the artichokes are golden.

Add a little white wine to the saucepan and about 3 spoons (I added at least 1/2 cup) of the sofregit and make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.

Add the rest of the wine and the stock and bring it to boil.   Add the rice and let it cook for about 5 minutes on high heat.

Add a few saffron threads (or the turmeric) to enrich the dish with its flavor and color.  Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor.  Turn heat to low and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”).

Take the away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.  Serve each portion with a small dollop of allioli.

Once I had all the ingredients ready, this dish came together very quickly.  We shared it with my sister’s family and it was well liked by all.  I added a pound of large shrimp (20 count) for the final 8 minutes of cooking time because I felt that there wasn’t enough ‘meat’ to go around – there were 3 teenagers at the table, two of them over 6 feet tall! 

 For more information and instructional videos, please go to Olga’s site.  Thanks Olga for a great challenge, and two thumbs up to our founders Lis and Yvonne. 

Prijatno!

Colorado Vacation and Shredded Pork Tacos with Grape Tomato and Watermelon Salsa

Paradise on earth!  That’s how I describe the Colorado Rockies.  This picture was taken from the scenic Silver Thread highway, just north of the historic town of Creede, near the headwaters of the Rio Grande River and the Continental Divide.

It’s always a special treat to spend time at the Smith Cabin at Pearl Lakes Trout Club.  Our hosts, Ralph and Barbara Smith, are dear friends.  We met when our daughters, Stephanie and Emilia, now nineteen years old, were in second grade.   Common interests in gardening, wine, cooking, photography, travel and books has kept our friendship lively and we cherish it.

This is the cozy Smith cabin near Creede, Colorado, a perfect setting in which to trade the Texas heat, emails, texts and phone messages for hiking, fly-fishing, morning walks and games.

Five lovely teenager girls kept us amused at all times: Karley, Stephanie, Emilia, McKenzie and Rachel (with her big, burly blanket I named Mečka – a descriptive Serbian word for ‘bear’, which describes it perfectly).

 

Russell, Stacey, Barbara, Ralph and Mrs. Lura Smith enjoying an assortment of artisanal cheeses and champagne on the deck before dinner:

 The hummingbirds were marvelous to watch for their speed and agility.

I found them highly territorial after getting caught by surprise in the midst of war between two hummingbirds.  They are so fast that by the time you hear them buzz by you, they are already gone.  The Master of them all guarded his feeder from this perch, just a few yards away:

Mrs. Smith delighted in feeding the birds and chipmunks and she distributed seventy-five pounds (yes, 75) of bird seed on every possible surface around the cabin, and was panicked when there was only one bag left at the caretaker’s store!

By the end of the week, she had spoiled them rotten and they were eating out of our hands: 

This little guy is filling up his cheeks before running up the hill to hide his winter provisions. 

 A Cassin’s Finch joined in the feast:

 Girls can outfish boys any day!  Stacey and her catch - a Rainbow Trout!

 

Emilia weighing her fish - a Brown Trout:

Ok, ok!  Boys can fish too!

Every evening there were intense dart throwing competitions.  The girls could out-smack the men in the smack-talking department, much to their surprise!  Here’s McKenzie showing us her form:

Cupcakes at the Fourth of July celebration.

After two hard days of driving over one thousand miles and two speeding tickets (awarded me on the same day while driving through *charming* north Texas towns which shall remain nameless), we were pleasantly greeted in the cabin by the aroma of a pork shoulder braising on the stove.  It was heartwarming. 

Towards the end of the braising, Stacey did a wonderful thing:  she slathered the roast with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  It added a touch of heat and spice which was complemented by the sweetness of the salsa.  Simple but delicious! 

Stacey’s Pork Tacos with Grape Tomato and Watermelon Salsa

We generously served 11 hungry hikers and fishermen by doubling the recipe and had meat left over for sandwiches the next day. 

One 6-8 lb pork butt (contrary to popular belief, it’s actually cut from the shoulder)

¼ cup oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ bottle red wine or port.  In typical Smith fashion, Ralph pulled out a ‘99 Shafer Port – sweeeeet!

2 cups beef or chicken stock

4 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, mashed with a fork

24 corn or wheat tortillas

Grape tomato and watermelon salsa (see recipe below)

Salt and pepper the pork butt on all sides.  Heat the oil in a heavy pot.  Carefully place the pork in the pot and brown it on all sides. 

When pork butt is browned, carefully add ½ bottle of red wine or port and the stock.  Reduce head to low and cover pot tightly with a lid.  Simmer gently on stovetop for 4-5 hours or until the meat separates easily when twisted with a fork.  Remove from heat. 

When the meat has cooled a little, shred it into bite size chunks and serve with salsa and warm corn tortillas.

Grape Tomato and Watermelon Salsa

2 cups halved yellow grape tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes

2 cups watermelon, cut into 1/2" pieces

½ large or 1 small red onion, finely chopped

½ - 1 cup finely chopped cilantro

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Gently combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve with shredded pork and warm tortillas. 

A delicious addition to the taco would be my Cilantro Crema: a mixture of sour cream, lime juice and chopped cilantro. 

Prijatno!

I say tomahto…

We have been enjoying the produce of our small vegetable patch this summer.  Every March, when we plant ours, I especially look forward to gorging on home-grown organic tomatoes and it doesn’t get much better than these purple heirlooms (next to my all time favorites – figs!). 

This is a traditional Srpska Salata - Serbian Salad.  Sliced tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper.   And Husbie says KISS - Keep It Simple Sam! 

Who can resist Insalata Caprese?  A perfect stack with thick slices of mozzarella and basil leaves nestled between sliced tomatoes and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil:

 What do you do with a mango, a tomato and a jalapeno pepper?  Why, you make Salsa!

To balance the sweetness of the mango, I add red onion, lemon juice and lots of cilantro:  You can never have too much cilantro, if you ask me!

Tomato Mango Salsa on grilled salmon – refreshing summer fare:

Cherry tomatoes in potato salad:

On whole grain bread with melted feta cheese and oregano – bringing out the Balkan in me!

By now, I’m battling the birds and the stinkbugs.  The netting I have cast seems to be keeping the birds at bay, but the stinkbugs have struck overnight.  They are my biggest enemy during tomato season because they suck the Dickens out of the fruit and leave disease and rot behind.  We refuse to use pesticides and one year my daughter and I went out to do battle with our tweezers.  Yes, tweezers!  Stinkbugs aren’t fast, you see, so it was easy to pick them off and stomp them in the ground…as you can imagine, it was sooo time-consuming.  Needless to say, we lost the battle after a couple of days. 

I thought about spraying vinegar…nah, it’ll kill the plant.  My next means of attack is per Husbie’s suggestion – the vacuum cleaner!  Brilliant!  I can see myself with the suction hose, grinning from ear to ear, as those suckers enter the bag, never to pester my home-grown tomahtoes again!  I’ll let you know if it works! 

 

Prijatno!