Celebrate Sun Dried Tomatoes

October is Celebrate Sun Dried Tomato month. These little gems have a sweet and sometimes tart concentrated tomato flavor. They are easy to make at home and great to have around to add flavor to salads, sauces or cheese plates.

When drying tomatoes, it is best to use Roma tomatoes but any variety works. Romas tend to be meatier having more flesh with less seeds and juice. Cherry tomatoes are also a great choice as their already sweet flavor concentrates nicely.

Whatever type of tomato you use, make sure you wash it well before you start and discard any with blemishes. Slice them in half lengthwise and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Two optional choices are to sprinkle with a bit of sugar to enhance their sweetness or sprinkle them with dried herbs if you would like a flavored dried tomato. Just remember whatever you add to the tomatoes will be concentrated as it dries, so use a light hand. Place the seasoned sliced tomatoes, cut side up, on a clean drying screen. If your screen does not come with a top screen, you can cover the screen with cheese cloth to keep the bugs away from your treasures. Make sure the cheese cloth or top screen do not touch the tomatoes.

Place your screen in the sun. Depending on the size of your tomatoes and the temperature it can take several days to two weeks to dry your tomatoes. Make sure to bring inside evenings to keep the morning dew from negating any of your hard work.

Tomatoes can also be dried in the oven. I'm not very patient so oven drying is my preferred method. Prepare the tomatoes the same way as you would to dry in the sun, however place on a baking sheet instead of a screen. Make sure to place cut side up and leave a bit of room between each tomato. Place in a preheated 250F oven for 2 to 6 hours (depending on their thickness). Adding some parchment paper to the baking sheet (or a Silpat pad) will help with clean-up.

Whichever your drying method, you want the tomatoes to be dry with the edges shriveled . The tomato will shrink to about three-quarters to half of its size.

The tomatoes can be stored in an airtight container for a few days in the refrigerator or a few weeks in the freezer. They can also be covered with oil (flavored or not) and stored in the refrigerator for up to two months.


Your dried tomatoes can be used:

In a Mediterranean style salad with greens, artichokes, cucumbers, feta and red onion, drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Tossed with pasta and olive oil (or the oil the tomatoes were stored in), fresh garlic, salt, pepper and chopped fresh basil, oregano or marjoram.

Or made into pesto by combining in the food processor with fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, a splash of balsamic vinegar. Drizzle in some olive oil, toss with pasta and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese.

The pesto can also be spread on lightly toasted bagette slices for a delicious bruschetta. Mix a bit of goat cheese as well for a real sublime treat.

Cherry Tomato and Watermelon Salad

Yesterday, since we finally are experiencing summer weather, I decided to make Cook's Illustrated's Cherry Tomato and Watermelon Salad.

Saturday I had visited the South Lansing Farmer’s Market and picked up several of the ingredients needed to make the salad. It was my first visit to the small market, but was excited to see a nice mix of vendors. I purchased some locally grown produce, a Jamaican meat patty and even a cute pair of earrings (with proceeds to send a grandson to college).

At the market, I was able to find cherry tomatoes and fresh mint. From there a quick stop at the regular market for a watermelon, shallot and feta. The rest of the ingredients were in my pantry. I followed the recipe as it was written. The salad took about an hour to prepare. It was a great combination of sweet (from the cherry tomatoes and watermelon) and tangy (from the feta). The mint added a nice coolness which really helped exemplify the flavor of summer.

As the recipe indicates, I let the tomatoes sit for half hour in sugar and salt. This was ample time to chop the rest of my ingredients. I went a bit over 1 cup of watermelon and next time I will increase the watermelon to 2 cups. I would have liked an even mix of tomato to watermelon.

When the tomatoes had sat, there was quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of my bowl. As I spun the tomatoes of their seeds and liquid even more liquid was expelled. It had never occurred to me to spin my tomatoes. I spin everything else – salad green, herbs, why not tomatoes?! I was just able to get a 1/2 cup of liquid from my spinning.

Next time I make this salad, I will either sweat the shallots, by letting them sit for 5- 10 minutes with a bit of salt on them, or gently sauté them before adding my tomato liquid. The shallot flavor was a bit overwhelming in the final salad.

By reducing the liquid from the tomatoes, it gave you a sauce with a great concentrated tomato flavor. Adding the vinegar really helped cut the sweetness that you get from tomatoes. I did not add any additional salt to my final dish, as feta is usually so salty I did not think I would need any additional, and I was right, I didn’t.

This salad would be a great addition to take to a summer picnic or if you looking for a refreshing alternative to traditional salad. By our serving size (about ½ cup), we were able to get 6 servings from this salad. Here is my modified recipe:


Cherry Tomato and Watermelon Salad
Serves 6. Published July 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated, slightly adapted

If in-season cherry tomatoes are unavailable, substitute vine-ripened cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes from the supermarket, avoiding pale, unripe ones. If using grape tomatoes, simply cut them in half along the equator (rather than quartering them) to expose the maximum amount of seeds and pulp. If you don’t have a salad spinner, after the salted tomatoes have stood for 30 minutes, wrap the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and gently shake to remove seeds and excess liquid. Strain the liquid and proceed with the recipe as directed. The amount of liquid given off by the tomatoes will depend on their ripeness. If you have less than 1/2 cup of juice after spinning, proceed with the recipe using the entire amount of juice and reduce it to 3 tablespoons as directed (cooking time will be shorter).

2 pints cherry tomatoes , ripe, quartered (about 4 cups) (see note)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1 medium shallot, minced (about 3 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Ground black pepper
2 cups watermelon , cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 ounces feta cheese , crumbled (about 1 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves , roughly

Toss tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and sugar in medium bowl; let stand for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt on the minced shallot and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Transfer tomatoes to salad spinner and spin until seeds and excess liquid have been removed, 45 to 60 seconds, stirring to redistribute tomatoes several times during spinning. Return tomatoes to bowl and set aside.

Strain tomato liquid through fine-mesh strainer into liquid measuring cup, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible.

Bring 1/2 cup tomato liquid (discard any extra), shallot, and vinegar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until reduced to 3 tablespoons, 6 to 8 minutes.

Transfer mixture to small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Whisk in oil and pepper to taste until combined. Taste and season if necessary.

Add watermelon, mint, feta, and dressing to bowl with tomatoes; toss gently and serve.

Jen's note: If you are not immeidately serving the salad, wait and toss the tomato dressing when ready to serve.

Meeting Chef Stephanie Izard

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend an event where Season 4 of Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard spoke and prepared some spring salads. It was interesting to hear her speak about her time on the show – one of my favorites!

She talked about her background, her time in Ann Arbor (she is a UofM grad) and about owning a restaurant before being chosen to appear on the show.

She made three dishes for us. The first was an oil poached shrimp tossed with roasted asparagus and roasted shiitake mushrooms and served over soba noodles with a vinaigrette made with fresh garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, honey, sriracha and sesame oil. She told us about making shiitake chips, which I am excited to try. She takes the caps and roasts them after tossing with oil, salt and pepper in a 300°F oven until crisp. That sounds interesting and tasty.

The second dish she made was a skirt steak marinated with an Asian garlic-chili sauce, soy sauce and honey. This was grilled medium, sliced thin and placed a top a salad of shaved fennel, fresh orange zest and juice, roasted red peppers and garbanzo beans then drizzled with a fresh chive yogurt sauce (Greek yogurt and chives blended until creamy). A treat she shared with us (again which I am interested in trying) is dipping garbanzo beans in rice flour and deep frying until crisp.

The third and final dish was a brown sugar cake, which was served as a mini cupcake. There were moist and tasty, sweet without being too sweet.

All three recipes will be available shortly on her website, StephanieIzard.com. She will be opening another restaurant in Chicago in the fall, The Drunken Goat (exact location TBD). It sounds like she has a lot of ventures she is involved in: TV, cookbook, new restaurant. I think she is going to be a rising star we need to keep our eyes on. I feel so honored to have had the chance to meet her. She has an even bigger fan now.

Jewel Salad

Over the last few weeks, things slowed down for me and I have had the chance to cook. It somehow felt different from my regular cooking. I am often cooking for a purpose - testing a recipe, for photos for my upcoming new website, etc. But the last two weeks felt like cooking for the pure enjoyment of cooking! It was fabulous.

I found a few different recipes that were heavenly. I made Afghan Roasted Chicken from The Barbeque Bible by Steven Raichlen and also Dukkah-Crusted Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Molasses from Bon Appétit magazine. The Dukkah Crust was fabulous and the next day I roasted sweet potatoes and sprinkled the left over crust over them. I also sprinkled it over roast pork and chicken. The pistachio and earthy spice combination was finger licking good! I would highly recommend trying out this recipe.

I also made an Autumn Jewel salad created by Abra Bennet. I met Abra through Personal Chefs Network. She is an incredibly knowledgeable woman who I admire so much - versed in it feels like every cuisine, spice and technique. She is now living in France, writing a cookbook and living a life I am very envious of. You can follow her journey on her blog French Letters, but I warn you it is amazing and addictive.

One of Abra's original creations, Autumn Jewel Salad, is the perfect combination of ingredients. And luckily the produce is still available. So I am calling the salad Jewel Salad since it is no longer autumn. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Abra's Jewel Salad

Serves 10 - 12

Dressing:

6 tablespoons walnut oil

3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

2 tablespoons white verjus (see note)

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Salad:

2 cups arugula

1 cup radicchio

2 cups mixed greens

2 Fuyu persimmons -- sliced

2 cups halved red grapes

1 cup pomegranate seeds

2/3 cup toasted whole almonds

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

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Combine dressing ingredients in a small jar and shake to emulsify.

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Arrange salad ingredients beautifully and drizzle with dressing.

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NOTE: Verjus (pronounced vair-ZHOO) is the tart, fresh juice of unripe wine grapes. It is a culinary ingredient indigenous to the world's wine producing regions that is used in sauce making, for poaching fish and meat, and to dress lettuces, vegetables and fruit. Verjus or "verjuice" as it is sometimes called, literally means green juice in the sense that it's made from fruit that has yet to fully ripen — it's green. It is used to add acidity to foods, an important component in food and in cooking.

SUBSTITUTION: To make 1/3 cup verjus, mix 3 Tablespoon white grape juice with 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

Dog Days of Summer

With a forecasted temperature of 95° today, we are experiencing our hottest day this summer. When the temperature gets this hot, the last thing I want to do is turn on the stove, let alone the oven. I thought I would throw out some suggestions for some easy meals that don't require cooking.

Besides the obvious – going out to eat in a nice, cool restaurant – you could pick up some deli items and have a picnic in your dining room. The market’s deli section carries great easy items, from fried or rotisserie chicken to salads of all kinds. You could pick up cold cuts and cheeses and have a build-your-own-sandwich night.

You could make chicken salad and have it on a bed of greens, sub buns or even just with fruit and crackers. I would use either rotisserie chicken that has been shredded or canned chicken that has been drained. Chop a bit of celery, onion, bell pepper and toss with a scoop of mayonnaise, a dollop of Dijon mustard with salt and pepper to taste.

Buy some pre-cooked shrimp, crab legs or lobster. I found 3 easy, no-cook recipes that any of these seafood options would be tasty with.
Quick and Easy Coconut Shrimp Salad
No Cook Sweet Beet Lime Shrimp Salad
Easy No Cook Calypso Coconut Shrimp Salad
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/66544/three_no_cook_shrimp_salad_recipes.html

Or go nuts and have a build-your-own-ice-cream-sundae dinner. Buy several types of ice cream, chopped nuts, fudge sauce, fresh fruit like bananas and strawberries, and don’t forget the whipped cream and cherries and stay cool by eating a banana split or not-so-hot-fudge sundae. I don’t advocate eating like this all the time, but on days like today I think it is okay.

Whatever you do, stay cool and enjoy your day!

PS Can you fry an egg on the side walk? According to the Library of Congress, it is theoretically possible, but it does not actually work. “An egg needs a temperature of 158°F to become firm. In order to cook, proteins in the egg must denature (modify), then coagulate, and that won’t happen until the temperature rises enough to start and maintain the process.” Even on the hottest of days, the pavement temperature only reaches 145°F.

Let Us Examine Lettuce

Salad is usually the first thing that comes to our mind when we think about lettuce. Salads have come a long way from the old iceberg lettuce salad – from sweet to savory and everything in between, on a bed of greens or topped with a mesclun mix. And the varieties of lettuce keep growing.

The name lettuce is derived from the Latin word for milk, lactis, referring to the milky juice of the plant. Lettuce at one time was considered a weed in the Mediterranean basin (countries surrounding the Mediterranean see like Spain, Italy, Turkey and Libya).

Lettuce is a cool season plant and does not like high temperatures so springtime and early summer are the perfect time to enjoy fresh, locally grown lettuces. Some lettuces, like iceberg, have been bred to remove their bitterness. The milky white liquid that gives lettuce its name is the source of its bitterness.

There many varieties of lettuce that fit into five main types:

Butterhead Lettuce generally small, heads with loose leaves folding on top of one another and have tender, soft leaves with a delicate sweet flavor. The bib lettuce and Boston lettuce are varieties of butterhead.

Cos or Romaine Lettuce forms an upright, elongated head with a sweeter flavor than the other types of lettuce, making it a salad favorite. In addition to romaine, popular cos varieties include chicory and endive.

Crisphead Lettuce forms a tight firm head of crisp leaves. Iceberg is the most common variety of this type.

Leaf or Loose-Leaf Lettuce produces crisp leaves loosely arranged on the stalk and available in colors from dark green to red. Green leaf and red leaf are common market varieties of leaf lettuce.

Stem Lettuce forms an enlarged seed stalk used in Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian cuisines. This is not usually found in typical American markets. Examples include asparagus lettuce, celery lettuce, Chinese lettuce.

Pronunciation and taste for some common types:

arugula [uh-REW-guh-la] or rocket: peppery and bitter flavored

endive [EN-dyv, AHN-deev, ahn-DEEV]: bitter flavor that becomes more bitter when exposed to light so should be stored in the refrigerator until ready to consume

escarole [EHS-kuh-rohl]: a type of endive

mesclun [MEHS-kluhn]: also called salad mix, it is a blend of young, small salad greens

mizuna [mih-ZOO-nuh]: a Japenese green, with a mild peppery flavor

radicchio [rah-DEEK-ee-oh]: has a slightly bitter flavor available with green or red leaves


Some of my favorite salads include:

Pear, walnut and goat cheese – try on bitter greens like arugula

Dried cherries, tomatoes, red onion and almonds – try on baby spinach

You can be inventive with any vegetable that you like eaten raw (or blanch quickly); fresh fruits like apples, pears, berries, or kiwi; dried fruits like blueberries, currants, raisins or figs; nuts like almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts or pine nuts; or fresh herbs like parsley, basil or tarragon.

I haven’t tried this salad, but sounds delicious Sweet and Sour Arugola, or Radicchio in Agrodolce

(http://italianfood.about.com/od/vegetablessalads/r/blr0813.htm)

Next time you are at the market and reach for the same type of lettuce you always get, try grabbing a new type and experimenting. I will blog some about dressings because that takes your salad to a whole other level!

Succulent Strawberries

Strawberries are another springtime favorite. These delicious red berries are the world’s most widely distributed fruit. A member of the rose family, it is the only fruit to have its seeds on the outside and is indigenous to almost every continent, exceptions being Africa and Australia.

There are two types of strawberries, an old-word variety (duchesnea) native to Europe and the new-world variety (fragaria) we consume today which are a hybrid of North American and South American berries. The species name fragaria comes from the root word fragans, a Latin term meaning sweet smelling.

And there is nothing like the sweet smell of strawberries. I love the berries right off the plant, warm from the spring sun. Strawberries are a common dessert fair – strawberry shortcake, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry jam. And we think of strawberries classically paired with cream or champagne. Strawberries are great when paired with:

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Almonds.................Crème fraiche..................Port
Basil.......................Currant, black.................Rhubarb
Brown sugar............Figs...............................Sherry
Champagne.............Grand Marnier.................Sour cream
Cinnamon...............Lemons..........................Sugar
Cognac...................Maple syrup....................Vinegar, balsamic
Cointreau................Mascarpone...................Wine, esp. red

Cream....................Nuts..............................Yogurt
Cream cheese..........Pepper, black or pink

Taken from Culinary artistry (by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page ©1996)
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Strawberry Cream Cheese

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1 cup strawberries, hulled

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

powdered sugar, to taste

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Mash the strawberries into the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until you have received your desired sweetness level (will depend on sweetness of berries).

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Spread on toasted bagels or bread, or apple slices . Or serve with pretzel rods.

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Strawberry Spring Salad Variations: Try substituting spinach for the greens. Add thinly sliced red onions. Substitue pecans or almonds for the pine nuts. Add a cheese, like brie or feta.

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Strawberries in Red Wine Serve with alone or warmed slightly over vanilla ice cream.

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Strawberry Cream Dream Muffins For my cream cheese loving fans - a strawberry and cream cheese muffin with a center of white chocolate
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Strawberry Recipes Michigan Dept of Ag recipes (scroll down to find list for strawberries)

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Find the closed market to your home and in a few weeks, go find some delicious red berries:

Michigan's Farmers Market and U-Pick Directory A guide to finding your own locally grown berries