This is what I had for dinner last night and for lunch today. It's miiiighty tasty, and it fed 2 people supplemented by 2 small corn tortillas with cheese and roasted poblanos each.
- 6 eggs.
- 1 large tomato, chopped.
- a loose handful of basil leaves, chopped, chiffinaded, ribboned, whatever you feel like.
- 2 small cloves of garlic, minced.
- 1 jalapeno, chopped with seeds and ribs discarded.
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained.
- a small pinch of ground cumin, black pepper, and salt.
Crack the eggs and beat them in a bowl, adding in the basil. Take your chopped tomato and throw it in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. Let it cook, stirring so nothing gets burned, until it's soft. Add in the jalapenos and garlic, continuing to sautee. Then add the chickpeas, letting them heat up a bit. Throw in the cumin and cracked pepper, mixing occasionally. Then pour the egg in, turn the heat down (because you want the egg to cook all the way through without scorching the bottom), and cover it. Let it cook until the egg is just set. Slide out of the pan, slice into wedges, and enjoy! :)
I didn't add milk to the egg because the tomato had enough moisture. And obviously everything is a million percent riff-able...
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Gad-Zukes!
I had 2 hefty zucchinis sitting in the fridge, and nothing is more revolting than rotted zucchinis. Even when they're fresh, they have a hint of sliminess. Kind of like, "Heh heh heh, if you leave us long enough, we will ooze ALL OVER YOUR FRIDGE..."
So, I decided to take action before the fridge microbes reduced them to a puddle of glop. (As if we need further convincing that wasting food is bad.)
But anyway, here're two ways to take care of zukes.
One way involves a grill. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise into strips (roughly 1/4" thick; perfection is not key). Have some soy sauce in a dish with a bit of oil and a brush (or spoon) on hand. Put the slices on a hot grill, and either brush or dribble the oil/soy sauce over them, turning them when they get a little cooked and have grill marks. Apply oil/soy sauce to the other side, cook a little more, and then eat. We call them snakes.
You could put teriyaki on them or even a curry-based marinade, and they'd taste great. This is the most stripped down quick way to do it. You could probably even cut them into cubes and skewer them, alternating with tomatoes. (Grilled tomatoes are very underrated. As are grilled onions. You know who has the grilled veggie thing down? The Persians. They know what's what in the grilled veggie department.)
Actually, this just came to me... if anyone is vegan or has friends who are and you're throwing a 4th of July party, take the vinaigrette from this recipe. I tried it with tofu which I sauteed, and it's fresh-tasting and I kind of want to drink it. It would probably rock with tempeh, which has more chewiness and flavor than tofu. I'd marinate the tempeh, and alternate tempeh chunks on skewers with zucchini, tomato, and onion. (Or just grill the tempeh in burger-sized pieces; incidentally, Trader Joe's sells tempeh as do most crunchy hippie health food stores.) Judging by how the tofu came out, you'll have to beat the meat-eaters off the tempeh. I don't have a BBQ at my disposal - hooray apartment living - but if anyone tries this, I want to know how it comes out!
So... the other way to cook zucchini requires an onion, several cloves of garlic, a can of tomato sauce (so I just realized I have no idea how big said can was, but it's the size of cans that beans typically come in), and dried oregano, basil, and chili flakes, or whatever herbs you like. Cut your zucchinis (I think I probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 pounds) in half lengthwise, and then slice into 1/4-1/2" slices. Chop your onion and garlic. Heat some olive oil in a pan, sautee the onion. When it starts to turn brownish-translucent, throw in the garlic and the zukes. Sautee until the zukes start to turn bright green, get limp, and start to turn brown. Throw in the tomato sauce and your herbs (I have no idea how much; ~2-3 dashes), cover the pot, turn the heat down, and let it simmer until the flavors have time to mix. Done.
You can skew the ratio of veggie chunks:sauce in favor of the veggies and you have a side-dish, or if you like 'em saucy, it can top pasta. I had mine over some ravioli, even though it was more zucchini than sauce, but I like zucchini. And this typically tastes even better the next day.
(As a side-note... zucchinis will probably be tastier and more plentiful a little later in the season for those of us in the northern hemisphere. So enjoy!)
So, I decided to take action before the fridge microbes reduced them to a puddle of glop. (As if we need further convincing that wasting food is bad.)
But anyway, here're two ways to take care of zukes.
One way involves a grill. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise into strips (roughly 1/4" thick; perfection is not key). Have some soy sauce in a dish with a bit of oil and a brush (or spoon) on hand. Put the slices on a hot grill, and either brush or dribble the oil/soy sauce over them, turning them when they get a little cooked and have grill marks. Apply oil/soy sauce to the other side, cook a little more, and then eat. We call them snakes.
You could put teriyaki on them or even a curry-based marinade, and they'd taste great. This is the most stripped down quick way to do it. You could probably even cut them into cubes and skewer them, alternating with tomatoes. (Grilled tomatoes are very underrated. As are grilled onions. You know who has the grilled veggie thing down? The Persians. They know what's what in the grilled veggie department.)
Actually, this just came to me... if anyone is vegan or has friends who are and you're throwing a 4th of July party, take the vinaigrette from this recipe. I tried it with tofu which I sauteed, and it's fresh-tasting and I kind of want to drink it. It would probably rock with tempeh, which has more chewiness and flavor than tofu. I'd marinate the tempeh, and alternate tempeh chunks on skewers with zucchini, tomato, and onion. (Or just grill the tempeh in burger-sized pieces; incidentally, Trader Joe's sells tempeh as do most crunchy hippie health food stores.) Judging by how the tofu came out, you'll have to beat the meat-eaters off the tempeh. I don't have a BBQ at my disposal - hooray apartment living - but if anyone tries this, I want to know how it comes out!
So... the other way to cook zucchini requires an onion, several cloves of garlic, a can of tomato sauce (so I just realized I have no idea how big said can was, but it's the size of cans that beans typically come in), and dried oregano, basil, and chili flakes, or whatever herbs you like. Cut your zucchinis (I think I probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 pounds) in half lengthwise, and then slice into 1/4-1/2" slices. Chop your onion and garlic. Heat some olive oil in a pan, sautee the onion. When it starts to turn brownish-translucent, throw in the garlic and the zukes. Sautee until the zukes start to turn bright green, get limp, and start to turn brown. Throw in the tomato sauce and your herbs (I have no idea how much; ~2-3 dashes), cover the pot, turn the heat down, and let it simmer until the flavors have time to mix. Done.
You can skew the ratio of veggie chunks:sauce in favor of the veggies and you have a side-dish, or if you like 'em saucy, it can top pasta. I had mine over some ravioli, even though it was more zucchini than sauce, but I like zucchini. And this typically tastes even better the next day.
(As a side-note... zucchinis will probably be tastier and more plentiful a little later in the season for those of us in the northern hemisphere. So enjoy!)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Alton Brown en papillote...
I assume Alton Brown is pretty well-known. On one hand, he irritates me with his excessive gadgetry and obsessive-compulsion, but on the other, I not-so-secretly find him ridiculously attractive, erring on the side of sexy. It's probably the geek/food factor, but I'd definitely have a one- or several-night-stand with him. Just long enough to get one-on-one with him in the kitchen. But the sad truth is I'd be gone pretty quickly. OCD is so not my thing.
Alton, baby, it could have been beautiful, but it would have never worked out regardless of how many batches of lemon curd we licked off each other. I just can't stand the fear of getting dirty in the kitchen.
Anyway, I digress. He has a recipe for fish en papillote, or fish cooked in parchment paper. You can fix the recipe to be single serve with fillets or whatever... you can mess around with it so it becomes the ultimate healthy fast food. Have a piece of fish thawing in the fridge, get home, throw some veggies, salt, pepper, spices, cooking liquid (wine, broth, whatever), and couscous in a piece of parchment paper, bake it, and there's dinner. It's a beautiful thing. And ever so elegant and classy served with a glass of wine.
Danny (my current partner-in-crime) and I have made this using a whole fish (red snapper) before with delicious results. This last time was a riff on a very harmonious theme....
I had some kumquats from Trader Joe's (the best place to buy food in possibly the entire universe). For anyone who doesn't know, kumquats are nifty little orangey things the size of large grapes. The peel is sweet, the interior is an intense blast of sour, and you shove the whole thing in your mouth unpeeled for the ultimate explosion of citrusosity. (Chinese celebrate the New Year by letting kumquats sit in sugar for a week before eating; they signify a sweet new year.)
I love them raw and untainted. Danny doesn't.
So I decided to include them somehow in a salsa of sorts to put on top of some oily fish. I reached this obvious conclusion as I ate lunch one day. I had some tomatoes and basil alongside some stirfry we had made. After I ate, I had a couple kumquats for dessert. Then, I burped. My burp was delicious. It was tomatoey, basilicious, and kumquaty, with a touch of onion. This was my inspiration, I kid you not. A burp.
Wolfgang Puck better watch out...
Anyway, Danny and I went to Whole Paycheck, er... excuse me, Whole Foods for some fish seeing as the fish guy we usually go to closes at 6 PM. The lady told us the perch we purchased was oily and more fishy than not. Perfect. Omega-3 and kumquat bliss.
We went home, washed the fillets, rinsed some whole wheat couscous (another delicious Trader Joe's product), sliced some onion, lemon, garlic, and tomato as per Alton Brown's lovely recipe. We then sliced up the remaining kumquats into thin little rounds. Some went into a salsa bowl with a few chopped tomatoes, basil, onion, and a little pepper, and some we set aside. 3 fish fillets (we had 6) went down, and we put a bunch of lemon slices, onion, garlic, a sprinkle of kumquat slices, salt, and pepper. 3 fillets went on top, followed by more onion, lemon, garlic, kumquats, and pepper. Then we put couscous around the whole thing, threw some tomato chunks, sliced good olives (we didn't have artichokes although they would have totally ROCKED), and more kumquats on the couscous. We put wine over it all (more on the wine later), sealed the paper, and baked it up (425 F for ~30 min.).
We sandwiched the fillets to simulate a whole fish, and it worked really well. Alton tells you to discard the lemon and onion from inside the fish cavity if you do use a whole fish, but when sandwiched between fillets, it gets all cooked and jammy and is really delicious with everything. So we had fish and couscous with my pseudo-salsa which almost blew my head off because it was so tasty. Something about unadulterated citrus and basil full blast in my mouth is totally freakin' sweet.
(Side note: I want to make kumquat basil gelato.)
As it was, the fish wasn't as fishy as I thought. The kumquats were the power flavor, and I would not hesitate to use them with the fishiest of fish, like bluefish or mackerel. If you're not rocking the omega-3's hardcore, when you cook kumquats, they get much, much more mellow and blend in, but raw... be careful. They'll dominate.
So, about the wine for the fish... use a white you'll want to drink. We got a bottle from the Vouvray region. I've completely forgot what the name was, but it was one of those dangerous wines. You know what I'm talking about, wine with low acidity and uber smooth enticing flavor, especially when cold. It's the kind where you always want another sip. You could drink and drink, and never notice a thing until it's too late.
The whole meal was excellent. I think it was healthy, too. I would have maybe added more veggies, but we were low on tomatoes so the salsa couldn't be expanded very much. Ah well, next time, right?
Alton, baby, it could have been beautiful, but it would have never worked out regardless of how many batches of lemon curd we licked off each other. I just can't stand the fear of getting dirty in the kitchen.
Anyway, I digress. He has a recipe for fish en papillote, or fish cooked in parchment paper. You can fix the recipe to be single serve with fillets or whatever... you can mess around with it so it becomes the ultimate healthy fast food. Have a piece of fish thawing in the fridge, get home, throw some veggies, salt, pepper, spices, cooking liquid (wine, broth, whatever), and couscous in a piece of parchment paper, bake it, and there's dinner. It's a beautiful thing. And ever so elegant and classy served with a glass of wine.
Danny (my current partner-in-crime) and I have made this using a whole fish (red snapper) before with delicious results. This last time was a riff on a very harmonious theme....
I had some kumquats from Trader Joe's (the best place to buy food in possibly the entire universe). For anyone who doesn't know, kumquats are nifty little orangey things the size of large grapes. The peel is sweet, the interior is an intense blast of sour, and you shove the whole thing in your mouth unpeeled for the ultimate explosion of citrusosity. (Chinese celebrate the New Year by letting kumquats sit in sugar for a week before eating; they signify a sweet new year.)
I love them raw and untainted. Danny doesn't.
So I decided to include them somehow in a salsa of sorts to put on top of some oily fish. I reached this obvious conclusion as I ate lunch one day. I had some tomatoes and basil alongside some stirfry we had made. After I ate, I had a couple kumquats for dessert. Then, I burped. My burp was delicious. It was tomatoey, basilicious, and kumquaty, with a touch of onion. This was my inspiration, I kid you not. A burp.
Wolfgang Puck better watch out...
Anyway, Danny and I went to Whole Paycheck, er... excuse me, Whole Foods for some fish seeing as the fish guy we usually go to closes at 6 PM. The lady told us the perch we purchased was oily and more fishy than not. Perfect. Omega-3 and kumquat bliss.
We went home, washed the fillets, rinsed some whole wheat couscous (another delicious Trader Joe's product), sliced some onion, lemon, garlic, and tomato as per Alton Brown's lovely recipe. We then sliced up the remaining kumquats into thin little rounds. Some went into a salsa bowl with a few chopped tomatoes, basil, onion, and a little pepper, and some we set aside. 3 fish fillets (we had 6) went down, and we put a bunch of lemon slices, onion, garlic, a sprinkle of kumquat slices, salt, and pepper. 3 fillets went on top, followed by more onion, lemon, garlic, kumquats, and pepper. Then we put couscous around the whole thing, threw some tomato chunks, sliced good olives (we didn't have artichokes although they would have totally ROCKED), and more kumquats on the couscous. We put wine over it all (more on the wine later), sealed the paper, and baked it up (425 F for ~30 min.).
We sandwiched the fillets to simulate a whole fish, and it worked really well. Alton tells you to discard the lemon and onion from inside the fish cavity if you do use a whole fish, but when sandwiched between fillets, it gets all cooked and jammy and is really delicious with everything. So we had fish and couscous with my pseudo-salsa which almost blew my head off because it was so tasty. Something about unadulterated citrus and basil full blast in my mouth is totally freakin' sweet.
(Side note: I want to make kumquat basil gelato.)
As it was, the fish wasn't as fishy as I thought. The kumquats were the power flavor, and I would not hesitate to use them with the fishiest of fish, like bluefish or mackerel. If you're not rocking the omega-3's hardcore, when you cook kumquats, they get much, much more mellow and blend in, but raw... be careful. They'll dominate.
So, about the wine for the fish... use a white you'll want to drink. We got a bottle from the Vouvray region. I've completely forgot what the name was, but it was one of those dangerous wines. You know what I'm talking about, wine with low acidity and uber smooth enticing flavor, especially when cold. It's the kind where you always want another sip. You could drink and drink, and never notice a thing until it's too late.
The whole meal was excellent. I think it was healthy, too. I would have maybe added more veggies, but we were low on tomatoes so the salsa couldn't be expanded very much. Ah well, next time, right?
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