balsamic vinegar

steamed wild pacific cod with green pea purée and cherry tomato salad

by Heguiberto on April 4, 2011

I confess I thought we’d eat out much more during our kitchen remodel. It just hasn’t happened, since neither of us could really get into it. Cooking at home is just too fun. As it turns out, the single, plug-in electric burner on the dining room table and the grill on the porch have saved us. We have been able to cook many of our simple “work-horse” dishes with these. Thank goodness!

steamed wild pacific cod with green pea purée and cherry tomato salad

steamed wild pacific cod with green pea purée and cherry tomato salad

Clean-up is a nightmare without a kitchen sink or dishwasher, and the whole apartment remains a complete mess, but it is nice to feel empowered. You can live fully even kitchen-less. Who knew? I suppose this has been a bit like camping, though I cannot imagine doing that for three or four weeks in a row…

I was thinking about spring when I made this dish, even though our vegetable markets are still carrying lots of winter produce. That’s the reason I used organically grown fresh frozen peas here. Fresh peas should be coming out soon, so look for them at your local markets. The codfish was fresh wild caught in the Pacific Northwest.

Especially considering the limitations, I think this dish came out pretty good. Steven said it looked and tasted like something from a gourmet restaurant. What a compliment.

who says that you cannot cook gourmet in primitive working conditions

who says that you cannot cook gourmet in primitive working conditions

steamed wild pacific cod with green pea purée and cherry tomato salad

for the green pea purée:

1lb fresh or frozen green peas
4 tbsp grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 cloves garlic
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

for the fish:

1lb fresh codfish
salt and black pepper to taste
2 slices red onion
juice of ½ lemon
5 sprigs fresh oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
red pepper flakes to taste

for the cherry tomato salad:

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
salt and black pepper to taste
1 to 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 basil leaves shredded and tossed with tomatoes just before serving

Pre-heat grill to highest temperature (ours gets to around 500F).

Toss tomato, salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar together and let it macerate in room temperature for about 15 minutes. Toss with basil just before serving.

Line a small metal baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving enough extra to cover pan. Drizzle lined pan with a bit of olive oil, add oregano sprigs and onion slices. Gently arrange fish on top. Add salt, peppers, lemon juice and olive oil. Fold foil to seal. Put pan on grill and steam fish for 12-15 minutes.

Meanwhile bring two cups of lightly salted water to a boil. Add peas and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain, reserving half a cup of cooking juices, and a couple of tablespoons of whole peas for decoration.

Throw garlic, cooked peas, olive oil, and reserved cooking juices in food processor. Purée until smooth. Process in cheese, salt and pepper. Adjust flavors if needed. Transfer purée back into the cooking pot and keep warm.

To serve, spoon some green pea purée in the center of a dish, carefully lay fish over it and to one side, and add cherry tomato salad to the other side. Garnish with reserved whole green peas.

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black-eyed pea croquettes with tomatillo salsa and spicy tofu cream sauce

by Stevie on March 22, 2011

This recipe was a last-ditch effort to improve my mood after a freezer thawing disaster. We had a large container filled with what I thought were pinto beans. I put them out overnight only to realize in the morning that I was mistaken. The pintos, in fact, were black-eyed peas.

black-eyed pea croquettes with tomatillo salsa and spicy tofu cream sauce

black-eyed pea croquettes with tomatillo salsa and spicy tofu cream sauce

Normally that would be fine. The problem was that I was still recovering from a recent black-eyed pea mishap and wasn’t sure that I was ready to face this formidable adversary again so soon. (Perhaps I’m exaggerating a little here. What actually happened was that I was making a vegan stew with black-eyed peas and I accidentally over-did it with white pepper. I’d thought that I was using about a teaspoon but my brain was clearly on stand-by. I think that I ended up throwing in about a tablespoon or maybe even more! All you could taste was white pepper. Whoa. It ruined the dish and the meal. Hegui and my friend, David, were good sports about it, but I was mortified. And unfortunately, though how could you expect otherwise, there were ample leftovers to re-live the disaster for days more to come. I’d just finished the last of the “white pepper stew” a few days before, and now black-eyed peas again. Oh, no…)

Well, Southern-style black-eyed pea stew was out. But what else can you make with them?

I’ve had marvelous croquettes cooked with dendê oil then filled with shellfish once before in Brazil. That was too ambitious, but I thought that perhaps I was onto something.

Earlier that week, I’d read an exciting recipe for spicy tofu cream sauce on The Tomato Tart. Sabrina’s trying to go vegan right now. This was her awesome suggestion for a sort of spicy alternative to sour cream or dairy-based sauces for soft tacos. The recipe is a snap and tasted very, very good. Follow the link to her blog if you want to try it.

They’re lots of recipes for black-eyed pea croquettes. Here’s one, and another and another; and finally, one more. I sort of blended a few together based upon the ingredients that I had on hand, mostly following the first, from Vegetarian Times.

Inspired by Sabrina’s diet, I went veggie on these (I used egg to help it stick together). They’re more like patties than anything else, so would undoubtedly be great on sandwiches, sort of burger-style. We had ours with Sabrina’s “cream sauce” and homemade tomatillo salsa, which I prepared that same day. Yum!

black-eyed pea croquettes

2 to 3 cups cooked unseasoned black-eyed peas
4 cups panko bread crumbs
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can tomatoes, diced with juice
1 tsp prepared garlic chili sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, sliced fine
½ cup cilantro, chopped fine
2 eggs, beaten
flour for dusting
olive oil for pan-frying

Start by sautéing onion in some olive oil until translucent. Avoid burning. Add minced garlic, garlic chili sauce, vinegar, salt and black pepper. Sauté a minute more then add tomatoes with juice. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer, covered, for about twenty minutes.

Add black-eyed peas to tomato sauce. Adjust flavors. Remove from heat to a large bowl. Purée half of bean mixture and return to bowl. Mix in cilantro and scallion; then egg and breadcrumbs. It should be moist but not too runny. Adjust with more breadcrumbs (or water if too dry.)

Form into patties and dust with flour.

Heat large skillet. Add olive oil and sauté patties for a few minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot with spicy tofu cream sauce and tomatillo salsa.

{ 8 comments }

basic foccacia

by Stevie on March 18, 2011

I tried making foccacia long ago, right as we were starting weirdcombinations. I used a recipe from Saveur magazine, which looked gorgeous on their cover and at my home. Unfortunately, the taste wasn’t quite right. The dough was too heavy and doughy, if you know what I mean. At the time I had intended to try other versions until I fond one that worked for me. But like so many things, it was put on hold. That is until now.

basic foccacia topped with parmesan, black olives and oven-roasted onions with balsamic vinegar

basic foccacia topped with parmesan, black olives and oven-roasted onions with balsamic vinegar

I planned to use a recipe from allrecipes, which looked simple because they only let the dough rise twenty minutes without a second rising. But once I started exploring other options, it didn’t sound long enough. So my trusty 1997 Joy of Cooking came to the rescue again. I ended up mixing the two recipes and sets of instructions to arrive at the perfect foccacia. Finally!

basic foccacia

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
black pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
1 cup warm water
olive oil

for toppings:

1 tbsp parmesan cheese
oven-roasted onions with balsamic vinegar*
12 black olives in halves

Mix flour, salt, yeast, sugar, dried oregano and black pepper together. Add canola oil and water. Mix until firms up a bit. Kneed dough for ten minutes. Form into a ball. Pour some olive oil into a large bowl and coat dough ball with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 90 minutes in a warm place.

Grease a large baking tray with more olive oil (I covered one with aluminum foil to make clean-up easier.) Press dough flat into tray. Cover and let rise another 60 to 90 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 450F.

Gently press some depressions across surface of dough and brush with more olive oil.

Sprinkle with parmesan. Top with olives and roasted onions. Bake about 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, cut and serve warm.

*To make roasted onions, peel and slice two onions into rings. Toss with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and black pepper. Broil until cooked and somewhat caramelized.

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burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches for a Napa Valley picnic

by Heguiberto on November 19, 2010

burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches

burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches

Since we live in San Francisco and adore wine, we often go on day-trips to Napa and Sonoma Counties for wine tasting. It takes about an hour and a half to get there so these wonderful visits turn into whole day affairs. When we first moved to Northern California we never really planned so we’d end up eating at any old roadside spot when we got hungry. Inevitably we were disappointed. Either the quality of the food wasn’t what we liked or it was too expensive (Napa is no bargain.) Unfortunately, sometimes it was both. Either way, it took a lot of time away from the main purpose of the visit: tasting wine and soaking up the spectacular views of Wine Country. So now we always pack a picnic lunch. That way, we’re never unhappy.

Last Saturday we visited two wineries in Napa: Trefethen and Rutherford Hill. You might recall that we’re members of RH. We had planned this trip for fun but also to pick up the fall club wine shipment. Trefethen we’d visited once before about six or seven years ago. We went there first. It is a beautiful winery well worth seeing. The only drawback is that they do not have a picnic area. In fact they have signs posted around that specifically discourage you from picnicking there. That’s not very friendly!

So we were in a real jam. We had this wonderful lunch to eat and we were starving but we had nowhere to go. Steven asked at Trefethen about nearby picnic areas. The harried guy recommended Monticello winery down the road.

Robert Sinskey, Napa Valley and the Mayacamas Range

Robert Sinskey, Napa Valley and the Mayacamas Range

That wasn’t on our way, so instead we drove further north on Silverado Trail to Robert Sinskey. They have large picnic grounds surrounded by lovely gardens and are super low-key, especially for Napa. We’d been before with my niece, Juliana. Now that the leaves are changing it is just magnificent. It was really magical seeing the vines with autumnal colors crisscrossing the Napa valley floor and the blue tones of the Maycamas Mountain range in the background. The temperature was balmy for this time of the year, too. It almost felt like early summer or late spring. Thanks for a perfect afternoon, Mother Nature!

Most of the ingredients for these incredibly satisfying sandwiches were store-bought. You could make your own foccacia and basil pesto. Probably, if you were very ambitious, you could even make your own burrata. I was more pressed for time. In the past, I’ve used the pesto that we make for pasta. I did make a quick sundried tomato pesto that I threw together as we walked out the door. (It is a simpler version of another one that I like.) Everything was assembled right at the winery. Yum!!!

These are sandwiches, so you can mix and match to your heart’s content. I made the first round using half of the bread and all the burrata. We were still hungry afterward so had the rest of the bread with the tomato slices, pestos and basil leaves.

burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches

for the sundried tomato pesto:

1 small jar sun dried tomatoes in oil
1 tsp tomato paste
salt
olive oil

Blend everything in a food processor.

for the sandwiches:

1 round asiago cheese covered foccacia bread, or similar soft bread, e.g. muffuletta
2 heirloom tomatoes (red and yellow), sliced
sundried tomato pesto above
basil pesto
1 container of burrata cheese (200gr) cut into thick slices
a few drops balsamic vinegar
a drizzle extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil leaves

Using a serrated knife, cut foccacia bread horizontally and then into sandwich sized portions. Spread basil pesto on one side of the opened bread and sundried tomato pesto on the other side. Line slices of burrata cheese on top of one side. Place basil leaves over cheese. Top with tomato slices, interchanging colors. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over tomato slices. Cover with the other piece of bread and voilá!

assembling burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches at the winery

assembling burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches at the winery

It would be logical to have this lunch with wine. You’re in Napa, after all. However, we’ve learned the hard way that we need to sober up over lunch so we can have more wine tasting later. We enjoyed our burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches with sparkling water from Germany. Go figure.

grasses swaying in the breeze at Robert Sinskey

grasses swaying in the breeze at Robert Sinskey


you can't beat Napa in Fall

you can't beat Napa in Fall

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warm radicchio salad with mozzarella, candied walnuts and avocado

by Heguiberto on September 7, 2010

warm radicchio salad with mozzarella, candied walnuts and avocado

warm radicchio salad with mozzarella, candied walnuts and avocado

Steven got me an issue of The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen by Chef Edward Espe Brown. It has more than 300 vegetarian recipes without a lot of color pictures. I’m still absorbing this book.

The same weekend that I started perusing Tassajara, we got a few beautiful organic radicchio heads. I adapted this salad from the book.

I love bitter flavors; Steven, not so much. He likes sweet more than me. This salad is a compromise after the Rainier cherry almond cake. Now we’re back in flavor-balance.

Much to my surprise, cooking the radicchio didn’t relieve the bitterness. If anything, it might have intensified it. It tasted good, but this is definitely a recipe for people who know what they’re getting into.

warm radicchio salad with mozzarella, candied walnuts and avocado

2 small heads radicchio, washed, cored and cut into 2 inch pieces
½ cup walnuts
1 tsp sugar
1 fresh mozzarella ball, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp mixed herbs (savory, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme)
1 fresh white onion, sliced thin
Stems of white onion, chopped fine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 ripe avocado, pit and shell removed, sliced
freshly ground black pepper
red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
5 cherry tomatoes, halved

Begin by toasting the walnuts in a nonstick pan for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle sugar and a bit of salt over them. The sugar will melt right away and glue to the walnuts. Set aside in a small bowl.

Marinate mozzarella slices in half of the oil along with red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

Place remaining olive oil in a pan. Add garlic and onion and sauté for approximately a minute. Add radicchio, salt, black pepper and balsamic vinegar and sauté until radicchio wilts. Transfer to a serving platter. Top with cheese, tomato, avocado and walnuts. This makes a very flavorful and colorful dish.

Happy Independence Day Brazil!


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roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

by Heguiberto on May 26, 2010

roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

I saw this purple asparagus at TJ’s the other day and I couldn’t resist. It’s so beautiful and fresh, and, well, so purple! I just baked them in the oven with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed a few quartered semi-dried Roma tomatoes I had made earlier. The flavors were amazing! Here’s the recipe:

roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

for the tomatoes:

6 large Roma tomatoes
1 tsp brown sugar
Kosher salt
Black pepper
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp minced fresh thyme
1 clove garlic mashed

fresh purple asparagus

for the asparagus:

1 bunch of purple asparagus, fibrous bases removed
1 clove garlic
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

to prepare tomatoes:

Wash tomatoes. Remove stem and top where fruit attaches to stem. Split each tomato into quarters. Toss with sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and one tbsp olive oil. Lay tomato quarters on a cooling rack within ½ inch from each other (the rack is to keep tomatoes suspended above the roasting pan so they will not sit in the juice). Bake in the oven at 310-315F for a couple of hours or until they have shriveled to about ½ of their size. Remove from oven. Toss with mashed garlic and remaining olive oil.

to prepare asparagus:

Pre heat the oven to 430F

Place asparagus in a baking tray. Add garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic and olive oil and toss to coat. Cover with tin foil and bake for 12 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Transfer to a serving dish and add the semi dried tomatoes.

{ 4 comments }

oven roasted tomatoes

by Heguiberto on October 23, 2009

oven roasted tomatoes

oven roasted tomatoes

To all you weirdcombos folks out there in Internet-land, news flash: good tasting tomatoes, as well as many other flavorful Summer crops, are beginning to disappear for the season. Time to get shopping! It is going to be a few months before good root veggies get to the farmers markets. Fortunately the tomatoes are still here while we wait.

With the changing of the seasons and the beginning of Fall, we closed all of our windows and doors as temperatures dropped into the 40’s. Steven said, “It does feel like Fall now.” And it does. The chill weather made these luscious oven roasted tomatoes with their invitingly warm smells of summertime wafting from the kitchen all the more marvelous.

I purchased lots of tomatoes that day at the Farmers Market. I used some for my roasted tomato navy bean soup, Steven made some into fresh tomato basil pasta and the rest became this simple and elegant side dish:

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients:

15 ripe tomatoes
Sprinkles of kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Fresh black pepper to taste

How to:

Wash tomatoes, remove tops and cut in halves. Place in a bowl. Toss in remaining ingredients. Place tomato halves on a shallow baking sheet, cut side up, and bake at 200/220F for 2 to 3 hours or till halves have shrunk to 2/3 to ½ of original size. Serve warm or at room temperature as a side dish, on sandwiches, salads or even as a snack by itself. Delicious!

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