Grilled Chipotle Tomatoes

We need to have a word about these tomatoes.

These have to be the best thing I've ever eaten that came off of a grill. As a vegetarian, I can't get too excited about grilled meats, but I do get excited about smoky, spicy grilled vegetables.

I made these with my parents last week while visiting home. They may look a bit messy or gross from the picture above, but it's easy to forgive them.

Start off with however many tomatoes you'd want (we used plum tomatoes—they're meatier), sliced in half. Squeeze out the tomato gel and salt each open side. Stack cut side down on a plate to drain for 20 minutes or so.

In the meantime, mix an amount of creme fraiche (maybe about a half a cup?) with a diced chipotle pepper and some adobo sauce. You can pick up the canned chipotles and just freeze the rest in small portions for later use. Use your judgement, these can get really spicy.

Grill the tomatoes, cut side down, until they begin to turn black, then flip over and fill the cavity with some of the chipotle sauce. Keep on the grill until they look bubbly and soft.

I had these for dinner with my mom and dad last week, served on grilled slices of italian bread that's been drizzled with olive oil and scraped with garlic. You could put the tomato on the bread and mush it up since they're already very soft from the roasting. They don't taste at all like raw tomatoes (which is a good thing, in my opinion) and they are all you need for a light summer meal.

Recipe originally from Bobby Flay.

Rosemary Shortbread

I'm back from the west coast, and after a long red-eye flight I jumped right into baking and cooking during my week visiting home.

I had a rosemary shortbread cookie last week at a coffee shop in Berkeley (I think it was called 1 2 3 local? It was really nice.) My mom and I gave it a shot here using fresh rosemary from the garden.

It's amazing what the rosemary flavor and aroma does to complement shortbread. This would be great with a cup of black tea. It was also really easy to make.

Recipe originally from Gourmet Magazine.

Best Sandwich

So this is what this blog has become. Sandwiches. Anyway, this one was really good.

Toasted grainy bread, scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, chipotle salsa, avocado, and cilantro.

Updates

Best after work snack: Strawberry Guacamole.


Oh hey food blog, it's been a while. I'm sure the three people that read this occasionally wouldn't be too upset if I abandoned this page, but that's not the case. I've been busy with life for the past few weeks but I still want to maintain this page over the summer and update you on all the glorious food I'm experiencing.

So, if you do not know, I'm currently in the Bay Area in California, doing a summer internship. What this means: I'm around a ton of awesome food and produce, but nothing near a proper kitchen (my definition of a proper kitchen might be a bit insane, however). I'll continue to post whatever I manage to cook (if it looks interesting at all) and also maybe throw in some shots of great things I get out. Which is what I'm going to do now!
Strawberry Margarita. Ok, so no lime, so it was really more of an alcoholic slushie. Still, it was nice to sit down with this after a long afternoon of walking in San Francisco.
Great Indian take-out from some place in the Haight.

And a burrito! One of the foods I've really been looking forward to. This one was HUGE, and stuffed with lots of beans, rice, cheese, guacamole, and cilantro. I couldn't finish it— definitely bigger than Chipotle burritos!

Roasted Vegetables + Berry Strata

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. I've finished my junior year of college with a pretty taxing finals week; since I finished classes I've been decompressing and doing a lot of cooking. Eamae and I had a great dinner last night—salad with strawberries, feta, romaine, and a balsamic vinaigrette; roasted vegetables, and a berry "strata" for dessert.


The vegetables are easy, this is my favorite way to make vegetables recently. I soaked a chopped clove of garlic in olive oil while I cut up some carrots, parsnips, and brussels sprouts and tossed them in the oil with pepper and sea salt. I also did some small potatoes (I think they were called butter potatoes?) with just oil, salt and pepper. Then I threw them all on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for maybe a half an hour, or until they got browned and soft.
The berry strata is a result of my addiction to food network, which I don't get at school so whenever I visit my parents I watch a lot of cooking shows. I saw the recipe for this on Giada's Everyday Italian. It's such an easy dessert and it's really delicious!



Berry Strata
adapted from Everyday Italian



2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it was fine)
Splash of vanilla
4 slices of bread, torn into 1-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
1 (10-ounce) bag frozen mixed berries, thawed and drained

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Turn off the heat, add the honey, and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the eggs, ricotta, and sugar. Using a fork, mix to combine and beat the eggs. Add the milk, vanilla, butter and honey mixture, and bread. Stir to combine. Gently fold in the berries.

Place the ingredients in a 10-inch round (2-quart) baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the strata until golden on top and baked through, about 40 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon into dishes and serve.

Banana-Chocolate Cupcakes

I don't eat bananas. For one thing, raw, they make me physically ill. And, (coincidence?) I've just never enjoyed the taste or texture.

For some reason the other day, I decided I wanted banana cupcakes. Blame it on some photo I saw on Tastespotting. I made this batch in anticipation of a great backyard party/barbeque last Friday.Banana cupcakes, recipe from Orangette, which can be found here.

As for the frosting, it had to be cream cheese based, because of course, that's the best kind. I was a little skeptical about chocolate cream cheese frosting, but it turned out amazing! And also really dark because of the extra dark cocoa I used.


Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

about 3 cups confectioner's sugar
8 oz block cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup dark cocoa
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature


Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Beat in cocoa, then confectioner's sugar in 1 cup portions until icing is as thick as you want. I only used about 2.5 cups of sugar.

Makes more icing than you need. Which isn't really a bad thing.


Overall, I was surprised at how well the flavors balanced out. One element didn't overpower the other, and these turned out to be a nice cupcake version of a chocolate covered banana.

Calzones

I've been sitting on this post since spring break, two weeks ago. While I was home I made calzones with my mom and Eamae.

Homemade calzones are way better than anything you can get in a pizza shop. This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated. I don't have the recipe with me, but you can see the process here, taking place in a much nicer kitchen than what normally appears in this blog.



The filling had lots of garlic, fresh ricotta, and mozzerella.These photos are making me hungry.