What to cook with your tomato harvest 1: Shakshuka

Shakshuka, the traditional Israeli breakfast dish, is an easy and fantastic way to use the glut of tomatoes that home gardeners get in late August and early September. When I was a kid my father occasionally made (or more likely asked my mother to make) heuvos con tomate, a traditional sephardi Jewish dish. It was always very special because it was a very unusual treat. This shakshuka recipe is pretty much the same thing and probably why I like it so much. And as a bonus, it is pretty low calorie and low fat!

At this time of year, I’m eating at least one tomato meal a day. Yesterday was a three-tomato-meal day. I choose to plant heirloom tomatoes in my garden, so generally I do not cook with them but when you’re bringing in armfuls of the beauties each day, you have to do something with them.

For the most part, the tomatoes I have also vary in colour from yellow, to orange, to green, purple, and red so the sauces made with them don’t tend to be the traditional deep red you expect but more often a lighter orange. Don’t be fooled by the colour, the taste is pure essence of tomato! So use whatever tomatoes you have around but freshly picked ones will definitely give you the best flavour.

Yield: 2 generous servings

Ingredients:

2 large or 4 medium tomatoes of any type
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 roasted red pepper, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 fresh chile (serano, thai, jalapeno, or cayenne), seeded and chopped (optional)
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs: oregano, parsley, thyme, and/or basil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp kosher salt
pinch of sugar (optional)
Pepper to taste
4 eggs

Boil some water and blanche the tomatoes so you can easily remove the skins. Once you remove the skin, dice the tomatoes. You can remove the seeds if you want, but that is not time in my life that I like to spend, so mine has seeds!

Chop the onion, garlic, and chile pepper. Heat the oil over med-high heat in a medium-sized frying pan (I prefer cast iron for this dish). Saute the onions for 5 minutes or so until they start turning golden brown. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.

Add the tomatoes, roasted red pepper, herbs, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper to the pan. The chile is optional but the heat adds a nice dimension to the dish. This amount won’t make it too spicy but if you’re not too keen on the heat, you can use half a chile instead. Check the flavour and if it’s very tangy, you can add the pinch of sugar.

Simmer over med-low heat for at least 10 minutes, you don’t want the sauce to be too watery. Often with garden tomatoes there is quite a bit more liquid than store bought so you should simmer until most of the liquid is evaporated, up to 18 minutes or so. Check your seasoning and add more salt and pepper if you need it.

Once the sauce is a good consistency, gently crack the eggs over the sauce and delicately place them in the pan. Cover and steam until the eggs are done to your liking. I prefer runny yolks, which usually takes about 5-6 minutes. If you prefer the white and/or yolk harder, just cook for a couple more minutes.

To serve: using a large serving spoon, gently take one spoonful of egg and the shakshuka at a time and spoon into a flat, wide bowl. Sprinkle with the chopped fresh parsley and serve piping hot with some crispy toast on the side.

© Gail J Cohen 2016

Salsa verde: once you go green there's no going back

Salsa verde can mean a lot of different things from a totally fresh sauce to one much more complex. This version of Mexican salsa verde is tomtaillo-based and has become one of my favourites.  Of course, it was the very first dish that was prepared for me when I arrived in Oaxaca last year. So simple and so mind blowing. Enjoy it, over and over again.

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 lb tomatillos husked and washed
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves with skin still on
½ white onion sliced
1 fresh jalapeno or serrano chile
Juice of ½ a lime
2 tsp of oil

Dry roast the tomatillos, garlic, chiles, and onions on a comal or in a large non-stick frying pan. Once the garlic is blackend, take it off the comal and cool it, then peel and put it in a blender.

You can definitely use canned tomatillos for this. It doesn't have quite the same fresh flavour but it works and you don't need to roast them, just toss in the blender and keep going.

Add all the other ingredients to the blender and blend it all until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. If it’s very thick, add a bit of water to thin but don’t make it too thin.

Heat the oil in a pot and once it’s very hot, pour the tomatillo mixture into the pot so it sizzles. Stir and boil for a couple of minutes and then it’s ready to use in any variety of delicious ways.

Good tasting isn't always good looking when it comes to food!

The most simple dish involves dry frying a couple of corn tortillas, daubing some salsa on a plate, then layering salsa and tortillas, and toppping with some queso fresco and sliced avocado or guacamole . Makes a great breakfast. Add a soft fried egg and now you’ve some perfection. We probably eat this for a light dinner even more often than breakfast.

For a bit more of a substantial meal, you can poach or grill some chicken and serve it with rice, avocado and a bit of salad.

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

5-pepper and cheese tamales

When I was in Oaxaca, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the kitchen with my host family making tamales. They are impossible to reproduce at home due to the lack of fresh, soft masa and lard (which I wouldn’t use anyway but it sure does make for a rich and light tamal dough). So this recipe was inspired by that cooking adventure as Eunice uses swiss chard to wrap the tamales, rather than the traditional banana leaf or corn husk. I really enjoy the flavour the greens infuse into the tamale. And this version is 100% vegetarian.

These take a while to make, so be prepared to spend some quality time in the kitchen on a weekend. Your guests will be impressed.

These unique tamales are wrapped in swiss chard, which you also eat, rather banana leaves or corn husks that get tossed.

Yield: 10-14 tamales

Ingredients:

For the tamal dough:

(This will make double the amount of dough you need, so you can double the rest of the ingredients and make lots or you can use the remaining masa to make another kind of tamal. I made some amarillo mole with chicken tamales wrapped in corn husks with the remainder). 

280 g vegetable shortening, at room temperature 
Salt
1½ tsp baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¾-3 cups hot water
1 to 1½ cups vegetable stock

For the tamales:

·        2 big bunches of swiss chard

·        1 jalapeno

·        2 serrano chiles

·        1 red pepper

·        1 anaheim or banana pepper

·        1 poblano pepper

·        200 g of mushrooms

·        2 large or 3 smaller roma tomatoes

·        ½ onion

·        100-120g of monterey jack cheese with pepper in it (or really any melty cheese you want)

·        Salt

·        1 tsp Mexican oregano

·        Juice of half a lime

·        2 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:

·        Queso fresco or fresh ricotta

·        Salsa of your choosing, but freshly made is always best

·        Sour cream

Wash the swiss chard and let it dry. Then remove the stems so you are left only with soft leaves. I added probably about ¼ cup of finely sliced stems to the filling mixture, so cut and save that while you’re cleaning the leaves.

Tamal dough:

Mix the water and dried masa harina together until you have a soft dough. If it doesn’t hold together or is still a bit crumbly, add a bit more water until you can get a good ball of it. Sometimes if your masa harina has been around a while, it can get really dry so needs more water to reconstitute. Use hot but not boiling water for this as boiling water is really hard on the old hands when mixing it all together (obviously a lesson learned the hard way).

You can make the rest of the dough by hand, but it is much easier with a stand mixer so those are the instructions I’ll provide.

With your mixer on medium-high speed, beat the shortening, 2 teaspoons salt, and the baking powder for a minute or two. Continue beating as you add the masa in small handfuls.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of stock. You should be able to roll the masa into a ball without it either breaking apart or being so soft it sticks to your hands so add more stock if you need to but be careful not to add too much. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½ teaspoon of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Taste the batter and season with more salt if you think it needs some. You can, if you have time, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more stock or water if you need to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before. This can make your dough a bit lighter.

Filling:

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam while you chop up the other ingredients so it will be easy to peel. Then remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off. Then cut into 2” slivers.

Stem and deseed all the peppers and chiles. (You might want to wear gloves for this part). Then cut them into fine slivers about 2” long. Finely slice the onion and the mushrooms. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan and add the peppers, chiles, onions, mushrooms, oregano, and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft, then remove and put in a mixing bowl. Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes, along with the lime juice, until they’re soft. You may have to add a bit of water and squash them in the pan to make it all saucy. Pour the saucy tomatoes into the vegetable mixture.

Cut the cheese into 2” long slivers.

Making the tamales

To steam the tamales you will need a really big pot with a wire rack or vegetable steamer on the bottom. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it is just below the rack. Lay a couple of swiss chard leaves or parchement paper (with a few holes poked in it) across the rack so you won’t have the steam directly hitting the tamales.

Take enough masa dough to roll into a walnut-sized ball.  Starting with pushing your thumb into the middle of the ball, proceed to flatten the ball on the palm of your hand. Add a tablespoon or so of filling as well as two or three strips of cheese onto the flattened ball. Then bring the edges up and make a bit of a dough packet.

Wrap each ball in a leaf of the swiss chard. Try to make sure that there is no dough peeking out but the wrapping doesn’t have to be super neat because once it’s steamed, you won’t be able to tell. Place the wrapped tamales into the steaming pot making sure you leave a space in the middle of the pot for the steam to travel through. If you don’t have a huge pot, you may have to steam in a couple of batches.

Once you have all of the tamales wrapped and placed in the pot, turn it on and get the water boiling. Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down to a very low simmer, cover and let the tamales steam for about 1½  hours.

Once they’re ready, gently remove them from the pot (it’s a bit tricky because the steamed chard is so soft and you don’t want to tear it) and place them on individual plates. Garnish with a bit of salsa, crumbled cheese, and sour cream on top.

You can have these as a whole meal accompanied with rice and a bit of salad or by themselves as an appetizer or snack.

(10 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving)

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen