Easy Mexican Tomato Sauce—Salsa de Jitomate

The traditional Mexican preparation of this fresh sauce is in a molcajete, but I am pretty sure you’ll want to keep the operative word here–easy. I’ve already added an extra step by heating up the grill instead of opening a can of tomatoes. If you want super quick and easy salsa, use those canned tomatoes.

Most Mexican kitchens these days have a liquidora (blender), though a food processor is a better option for keeping this salsa chunky. If you use the blender, be careful—do not over blend.

With a food processor, pulse the ingredients, beginning with the garlic, dropping it into the dry work bowl with the motor running, blade spinning.

I like my salsa not too picante (spicy hot). So I remove the seeds, a no-no in Mexico. My husband would just as soon feel the heat. He likes it hot and knows that both flavor and spice is hiding in a chile’s seeds and veins. Bottom line is that fresh chiles are essential to this salsa, whether you keep the seeds in or scrape them away, or use one or two serrano chiles.

 Tomato and Cilantro Salsa

3 fresh juicy tomatoes or 1 pound cherry tomatoes, char-grilled, or 1(1-15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 or 2 serrano chiles, seeds removed if desired, char-grilled if possible, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup white or yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon Real Salt

1/3 cup cilantro leaves

With the motor of the food processor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Process until it is very fine. Add the chile(s), onion, salt and cilantro. Pulse on and off for about 10 seconds total.

Serve fresh.

Makes 1 ½ to 2 cups salsa.

• This simple red sauce is best eaten the same day it is made. Turn any leftover into cooked salsa: Heat a bit of oil in a skillet, add the salsa and cook over fairly high heat a few minutes.

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Purple Majesty Potato Salad with Blue Cheese and Toasted Hazelnuts

Purple Majesty–patriotic purple potatoes. Very American, developed in Colorado by traditional plant cross-breeding, not by genetic modification, and quite young, available commercially only since 2005, Purple Majesty potatoes have skin that is practically black in color, like the outside of a plum. Cut them in half and the inside is a lighter purple.  When cooked and peeled, they become more indigo; sprinkle them with lemon juice and another pretty shade of violet appears. It is a fact that purple potatoes are super-food, loaded with antioxidants, or polyphenols, the cancer and disease preventing nutrients in red wine, blueberries and grapes.

You can find them in farmer’s markets but rarely in grocery stores. I love it that John G. plants interesting spuds at/in Ranui Gardens.

Purple Majesty Potato Salad with Blue Cheese and Toasted Hazelnuts

1 ½ pounds purple majesty or other purple potatoes

2 tablespoons mustard, preferably whole grain

2 tablespoons lemon juice

¼ teaspoon Real Salt

2 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 to 3 leeks, depending on size

½ cucumber

½ cup hazelnuts, toasted, peeled and coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

2 ounces good-quality blue cheese, smashed

Scrub the potatoes well. Cut them in pieces a little bigger than the tip of your thumb, from the thumbnail up. You want them all to be about the same size so they cook evenly. Place them in a pot and cover with cold water, adding quite a bit of salt, about 1 teaspoon per quart. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are just tender, 10 minutes or so. Drain.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the dressing. Whisk the mustard, lemon juice and salt in a bowl. Slowly drizzle in the first 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the black pepper.

When the potatoes are still warm, but cool enough to handle, peel them to reveal the indigo hue. As they are peeled, put them right away into the dressing, tossing to coat. The potatoes can marinate in the dressing while your prepare everything else.

Clean the leeks and trim them. Slice the white and light green end into thin rounds, less than 1/16-inch thick.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Over medium flame, cook and stir the leeks until they are a little crispy and golden on the edges.

Peel the cucumber. With a spoon, gently scrape out the seeds. Slice 1/8 to ¼-inch thick.

Stir the cooked leeks, cucumbers, hazelnuts, parsley and blue cheese into the potatoes, mixing well so the blue cheese coats everything. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if you think it needs more flavor.

Serve warm or chill for a few hours first.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

• I used Deer Valley’s Fireside Fig Grain Mustard—a slightly sweet whole grain mustard.
• Rub warm toasted hazelnuts in a kitchen towel to rub away the skins.
• Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese is delicious, creamy and coats the potatoes nicely.

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Mess O’ Greens Stir Fry

In the Southern United States, mess o’ greens describes a mixture of bitter, sweet, and strong greens like kale, chard, beet greens, mustard greens and collards, a bunch of yummy greens, sometimes cooked to death with a ham hock or some bacon.

This mess o’ greens is vegetarian, in fact vegan, glazed with a Chinese-style sauce.

You can dress up pretty much any combination of vegetables—feel free to come up with your own blend. This week we found mess o’ greens in our Ranui Gardens CSA box so…

Have all of the ingredients ready before you begin to cook, arranged near the stove in the order they go into the pan. I like to use my wok, though a heavy fry pan is just fine. To serve, ladle the greens and sauce over rice or noodles or Parsley Quinoa and Brown Rice Pilaf.

At least one pound mess o’ greens or other greens

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted until liquid

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and grated

¾ to 1 cup vegetable stock

1 to 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce

1 tablespoon mirin (rice wine)

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

1 tablespoon arrowroot

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoons lightly toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Trim and discard the stems from the greens. Coarsely chop the greens into strips, about one inch wide.

In a small bowl, add the garlic and ginger to the coconut oil.

In another bowl, combine the vegetable stock, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil and red pepper flakes, if using.

Dissolve the arrowroot in the water. Keep a spoon handy so you can stir it again just before adding to the vegetables.

Heat the wok on high heat. Add the oil-garlic-ginger mixture, then immediately add the greens. Stir and fry, tossing with wooden spoons, for just a minute.

Add the liquid mixture and bring to a boil, tossing everything continuously. When the greens are wilted but still bright in color, add the arrowroot mixture. Stir about a minute or so, until the sauce thickens.

Pour into a serving dish. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds, if using.

Makes 3 to 4 servings, depending on how much mess o’ greens you had to begin.

• You can substitute cornstarch for the arrowroot. Know that arrowroot, from a tropical tuber, is high in minerals while cornstarch has little nutritional value.

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Parsley Quinoa and Brown Rice Pilaf

Parsley is much more than a decorative plate garnish, though it is such a common herb that we forget its many qualities. Parsley sprigs are part of stock or soup’s bouquet garni: at the French Culinary Institute we wrapped parsley, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf into a neat bundle made of lightly blanched leek. Finely chopped parsley is essential in tabouleh, the mid-eastern bulgur wheat salad. If I owned that juicer on my wish list, I’d be adding parsley to my green drinks, for its blood cleansing benefit.

I have to tell you that whenever I think of parsley, just the word gets me hankering to listen to one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel ballad from the 1960s, with the refrain parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Each of these herbs carries ancient love and health connotations, parsley the one thought to lessen the bitterness of love lost.

I am in love with the gorgeous bunches of bright green Italian or flat-leaf parsley in our Ranui Gardens CSA boxes of late–I’ve been adding it to most everything I cook. This quinoa and rice pilaf, tossed with plenty of finely chopped parsley is my favorite usage, at least this week.

Parsley Quinoa and Brown Rice Pilaf

1 tablespoon grapeseed oil

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup long-grain brown rice

1 cup tri-color quinoa, rinsed

3 ½ cups vegetable stock

¾ cup very finely chopped parsley

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the oil. Add the onion and cook and stir until the onion is translucent. Stir in the brown rice and cook so the rice gets a bit brown and begins to crackle. Stir in the rinsed quinoa and the vegetable stock. Cover the pan. Allow the grains to come to a boil, and then lower the heat to the lowest setting possible. Cook without stirring, 35 to 45 minutes. (To check if the liquid has been absorbed or not, tilt the pan to the side.) Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley, lemon zest and juice, mixing with a fork so the additions are well distributed.

Makes about 8 servings.

• I use 2: 1 ratio, liquid to rice. Quinoa doesn’t need as much water—1 ½: 1. When rice and quinoa are steamed together, reduce the vegetable stock so the rice doesn’t absorb extra liquid and become sticky.
• Quinoa grows with a natural pesticide coating called saponin. Saponin doesn’t harm humans; it just makes the quinoa bitter if not rinsed well.

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Grilled Zucchini and Basil Tart with Whole Wheat Crust

What a delight to reach in the cupboard and find a new piece of kitchen equipment! I was reaching for my trusty round 9-inch tart pan with fluted sides and removable bottom, when lo and behold, I found a square version—the one I purchased this last May when the local cookware store went out of business. I had completely forgotten about my bargain buy.

Admittedly, since summer’s heat hit town there hasn’t been a lot of baking in my kitchen. Now that it is (slightly) cooler I am happy to feature my new pan in a summery vegetable tart.

A lot of white flour flows through my hands at work as a pastry chef. In my home kitchen I aim for whole grains and less white sugar–I think you will enjoy the nutty flavor and healthier aspect too. Because it is made from oil, not butter, expect fragile dough that easily falls apart when raw. Know that it always bakes into a sturdy, nut-brown crust.

Crust:

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

¾ teaspoon Real Salt

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons cold water

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Stir the flour and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk the oil and water until it is thick and creamy. Pour over the flour, all at once. Mix with your fingers until blended, and then form into a flattened ball.

Lightly oil a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to about 1/8-inch thick. Gently remove the top paper. Carefully invert the pastry and the bottom paper over the pan, then gently and carefully remove the paper. Press the broken parts into the pan, pressing up the sides and evenly into the fluted edge.

Line the dough with a sheet of parchment paper and fill it with dried beans or rice. Bake the crust for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Remove the paper with the beans.

Filling:

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Real Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 medium onions, chopped in ½-inch dice.

¼ cup finely chopped basil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

5 ounces feta cheese

7 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

2 eggs

4 ounces half and half cream or evaporated skim milk

Preheat the grill to hot. Scrub the squash and slice lengthwise about 3/8 inch thick. Brush the strips with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Grill both sides of the squash until the have golden char color. Cut into cubes about 3/8-inch square. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a skillet on medium flame. Add about a tablespoon of the oil. When the oil begins to heat, add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion are golden and soft. Add the onions to the bowl of grilled squash. Stir in the chopped basil and parsley.

Place the pre-baked tart shell on a baking sheet. Cover the crust evenly with the squash and onions. Sprinkle the feta, distributing as evenly as possible. Arrange the tomato halves randomly on top.

Whisk the eggs and milk or cream with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese and vegetables; pouring near the edges also, making sure the mixture flows everywhere.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until the custard has set and the top of the tart turns golden brown.

Cool about 10 minutes.

Place the tart over a jar wide enough to support the pan bottom but narrow enough to let the removable ring fall off. Gently nudge the ring to release it from the tart.

Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

• Start to roll the dough out between sheets of waxed paper, though count on pressing broken parts into the pan.
• Rectangle tart pans are fun too.
• Use any combination of squash. Try to use a zucchini that is light green, likely found at the Farmer’s Market. They are less watery and have more flavor than the “supermarket” zucchini.
• Prepare the vegetables while the tart shell is baking.
• I don’t keep half and half cream in the fridge. But in the pantry there is always a can or two of evaporated skim milk–in case I want a milk that is thicker and less sweet than almond milk. Feel free to use soy milk if that is what you have on hand.

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How to pick a ripe honeydew—be picky.

Today as I left the gym after aerobics class, a gentleman stood chatting at the counter holding a beautiful cantaloupe. From 6 feet away, just from the orange peeking out from under its webbed skin, I could tell it was a good one. I asked him where he got it. He replied—Green River. Ahhh. That made sense. We grow very fine cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon here in Utah. Fragrant and luscious as can be, they come north from Green River, a truck and train stop town on the way to Canyonlands National Park near Moab, or Hurricane, a town in Southern Utah near Zion National Park.

I didn’t have a Green River melon for this recipe but I sure wanted one. Exactly 2 ½ weeks ago, I was gifted a honeydew. It never got ripe. I kinda knew that it wouldn’t. Subject honeydew was super hard, did not weigh heavily in my hand or give off any sort of fragrance and the skin was white-green–all the characteristics of a melon picked when immature. It didn’t have a hope for ripeness. But I let it sit on the counter all that time, until I came across this interesting recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen.

I have to say it was the best possible use of a melon unripe without a future because this soup was a winner. I can’t wait to try this recipe again. I am going to start by being picky. I will only buy another honeydew if it has the potential to be delectable—a strong melon smell, a bit of give on the vine end when I touch it, a warmer yellow green and a heft that speaks juicy and yummy. I can already taste the improvement.

Melon-Basil Soup with Cucumber

1 honeydew melon, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped (about 4 cups)

1 cucumber, peeled and seeds removed

1 cup fresh basil leaves

¼ cup ripe avocado

6 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice (I used key limes)

½ teaspoon Real Salt

Extra virgin olive oil

Smoked paprika

Place the chopped melon in a blender jar. Reserve a ¼ of the cucumber; roughly chop the remainder and add it to the blender along with the basil, lime juice and salt. Puree until completely smooth. Chill or serve immediately.

Cut the remaining cucumber in ¼-inch dice. Divide the soup into bowls. Garnish with some diced cucumber, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of the smoked paprika and if desired, a few grains of high quality salt.

Makes 4 servings.

• Tasting Table adds a couple of ice cubes to the blender for insured coolness.

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Fennel, Orange and Pickled Onion Salad

We don’t often cook with fennel in our kitchen; Robbie says he doesn’t care for what he describes as the licorice flavor. Thanks to John for growing fennel for our Ranui Gardens CSA boxes because I am having fun playing and spicing up Robbie’s palate. This fennel has a broad bulbous base. I prefer to slice it very thinly and serve it raw. Spice it with these pickled red onions to get anyone to say, “What is this—it’s good?”

I was browsing my borrowed copy of “The Conscious Cook” and got the idea for pairing fennel with the onions. This is an adaptation of author Tal Ronnen’s recipe.

Fennel, Orange and Pickled Onion Salad

Pickled onions:

1 red onion

1 cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup sugar or honey

1 bay leaf

1 (1-inch) knob fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

4 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)

Salad assembly:

1 fennel bulb, trimmed

1 orange

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon Real Salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

Lettuce greens, torn into bite-size pieces, as needed

To pickle the onions:

Cut the onion in half. Slice thinly, about 1/8-inch thick. Place in a bowl and pour boiling water to cover. Let sit 2 minutes; then drain off the water.

In a saucepan, put the white wine vinegar, sugar, bay leaf, sliced ginger, red pepper flakes, mustard seeds and thyme, if using. Heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the drained onion in a stainless steel or glass bowl. Cover and refrigerate, at least one hour.

To make and serve the salad:

Slice the fennel so it is about as thin as possible, using a mandolin if you have one. Peel the orange. Holding over a bowl, remove the segments. Add the orange segments to the fennel, saving the juice. Whisk together the orange juice, the vinegar, olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper to make a vinaigrette.

Sample the pickled onions and add as many as you wish to the fennel and orange—all or a portion, to your taste. Dress the fennel, orange and onions with the vinaigrette. Arrange the lettuce on plates. Divide the fennel mixture between the plates and drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

• Peel ginger by scraping with the back of a spoon—a spoon gets into the crevices between the branching knobs much easier than a paring knife.
• Pickled red onions make a great condiment with Mexican food.

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Outstanding Kale Salad with Sunflower Seed Pesto and Apricots

Kale likes a good massage. It wants a rubdown from your fingers to turn into a happy salad. There is nothing like a couple minutes of friction to transform kale from rough and bitter-strong to pliant and downright addictive. Try it, you’ll agree. Not too long ago, I ordered a kale salad at a restaurant in California and I swear it took me an hour to eat it. The best parts were the croutons, the avocado and the pine nuts. The large pieces of curly kale were practically inedible. If the chef had just finely chopped the kale and massaged it with some of the “Caesar” dressing, it could have been a winner.

At Outstanding in the Field last month I devoured an outstanding kale salad, the inspiration for this recipe. That chef, from Clyde Common in Portland Oregon, knows how to treat his kale. Finely chopped, massaged in lemon juice and sunflower seed pesto, every morsel, not just the bites of apricot, tickled with tender flavor.

Outstanding in the Field is a culinary road trip—the organizers and servers do the travel part. They arrange the local chef and libations, and (usually) outdoor venue. Following the mission of “re-connecting diners with the land and origins of their food,” tables are set in a field, garden, orchard or vineyard.  Their goal is to “honor the farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.”

On the meandering Sandy River near Portland, on organic Stargazer Farm, with Big Table wines and Clyde Common cooking served family style, we wined and dined. It was one of those warm magical evenings, with just the right amount of puffy clouds and whispering breeze to make it perfectly pleasant. After gorging on some really fine appetizers (buttermilk ricotta and wild mushroom toasts) and savoring 3 portions of kale salad, it’s a wonder I found room for anything else. I did. I picked around the pork belly for the tarragon-dressed frisee and silken cranberry beans, ate more than my share of butter braised red potatoes and fennel bedding the grilled strip loin and I went bonkers for the chocolate ‘salami’ and salt and pepper shortbread that was dessert. No holds barred. I confess to sampling each of the meats, just because I could. I will be making my version of that chocolate salami one day, but it’s this unfibrous kale salad that will be the repeater in my kitchen. Be prepared to get your hands in the emerald mix—you are the outstanding kale masseuse/masseur.

 Outstanding Kale Salad with Sunflower Seed Pesto and Apricots

1/3 cup dried apricots, diced

2 tablespoons white wine

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

1 clove garlic

¼ cup plus ¼ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

½ cup tightly packed fresh basil leaves

2 tablespoons plus ¼ cup lightly toasted sunflower seeds

Pinch Real Salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large bunch kale, stems removed

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Sprinkle the diced apricots with the white wine and sherry vinegar and set aside to macerate while you prepare the pesto and kale.

Make the pesto: In a food processor with the motor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Add the first ¼ cup of cheese, the basil, the first 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds and the salt. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping to move things around if they get hung up. With the machine running, pour oil through the feed tube in a thin stream, processing until everything is well blended.

Chop the kale into ribbons about ¼-inch wide and put in a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and about ¼ cup of the pesto. Massage the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes and then set aside for about 15 minutes to give the kale time to tenderize and marinate.

To serve, toss with the apricots, the remaining cheese and sunflower seeds.

Makes about 4 servings.

• Clyde Common’s kale salad incorporated both apricots and golden raisins, grated baked ricotta salata cheese and a bit of diced Stargazer Farms summer squash
• I used lacinato or dinosaur kale but red or green curly kale is just as good. Use what you have.
• Make a larger batch of pesto, use 3 to 4 tablespoons to dress the kale and save the remaining pesto for another use. Beets with sunflower pesto vinaigrette anyone?

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