The Daring Kitchen: Roasted Tomatoes for the Freezer

This month's cooking challenge dealt with food preservation. You had your option of doing a canning method or a freezing method. Given that I got rid of my canning equipment years ago when I lived in my small condo, I went with the freezing method. So I chose to do roasted tomatoes for the freezer.

First I took 13 fresh tomatoes and washed them with vegetable cleaner, and put them on a paper towel to dry.

Then I removed their cores...
Slice 4 basil leaves into thin strips...

Mix the basil in a small bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic.

Slice the tomatoes into halves and lay them cut side down on cookie sheets lined with aluminum foil. Distribute the garlic-basil mixture evenly over the tomatoes.

Sprinkle with sea salt and a pinch or two of ground cloves.

Place cookie sheets in 325 degree oven. Roast them for 1-2 hours, until they are beginning to get golden brown.
Their skins will get really papery. I needed to roast mine closer to 2 hours. Small plum tomatoes may have taken closer to an hour.

I found I was able to peel off the skins pretty easily. Then when I would use a spatula to lift up the tomato, I could easily remove the seeds and pulp, and was left with a lovely medallion of roasted tomato.

The tomatoes layered nicely in a small tupperware dish. 13 tomatoes amounted to about 1 1/2-2 cups of roasted tomatoes.

I haven't had a chance to use the tomatoes yet, but I am sure that they will be delicious! I hope to try them out this week or weekend, perhaps with a little pasta and garlic bread. Thanks for the challenge!

The Daring Kitchen: Stacked Green Chile Enchiladas

Well, it's time for The Daring Kitchen monthly challenge. The challenge this month was Stacked Green Chile Enchiladas. Well, the challenge was actually for chicken enchiladas, but given my new pescatarian status, that was out of the question. So I did veggie Stacked Green Chile Enchiladas.

I've never knowingly eaten tomatillos before, so I was interested in giving them a try. I was pressed for time, as I worked all day and had to throw this together beginning around 8 PM at night. I decided to keep the filling simple: black beans, onions and red pepper.

For the green chile sauce, I decided to stick pretty closely to the challenge's recipe, but I substituted a poblano pepper for one of the anaheim. And I pureed some of the roasted peppers instead of chopping all of them. Here's how it went:

Ingredients for green chile sauce:

5-6 Fresh Anaheim chiles (about 6 to 8 inch chiles) - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium) - peel, remove stems
4 cups Chicken or Vegetable broth (2 cans)
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)

Filling Ingredients:

3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
2 cans black beans - rinsed and drained
1 yellow onion - chopped
1 red pepper - chopped


Other Ingredients:

12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)
6 ounces grated mexican cheese(other cheeses like cheddar, pepper jack, or Monterey Jack cheeses can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)

Directions:

• Heat broiler on "high". Line a broiler pan with foil for easy clean up. Brush peppers with oil and place on broiler pan.
  
  
• Broil peppers until well-charred. Turn them to even blacken. They may finish at different times. So remove peppers as they are finished, and place them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to cool.
  

• Peel papery husks off tomatillos and remove stems.
  

• Boil tomatillos until tender (about 5-7 minutes). Drain and set aside.

• Once peppers are cool, remove the skins and stems and seeds. Coarsely chop.
  

• While preparing peppers, saute up the red pepper and onion in a pan. Once tender, mix in drained black beans.
  

• Season the bean mixture. I mixed in about 1 tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of salt, a dash of black pepper, and a dash of chipotle pepper.

• Put cooked tomatillos in food processor. Add minced onion and garlic (I used Roasted Garlic from a jar).
  

• Then I put a couple of the roasted anaheims in the food processor, and pureed the mixture.
  

• On the stove, I put the vegetable broth, oregano, sea salt and black pepper.
  

• Then I mixed in the pepper and tomatillo puree, and the chopped peppers.
  

• Bring this to a boil, and then simmer about 10 minutes. Then I slowly mixed in the cornstarch/water mixture, and let the sauce simmer another 10 minutes.
• When the sauce is ready, spoon a ladle or two of it into the bottom of a casserole pan. Lay down tortillas (I could only fit 2 into my pan). I then spooned a ladle of sauce over those tortillas and laid another tortilla on top of each. Then I spooned half of the bean mixture on top of the tortilla and top with 1/3 of the cheese.
  

• Pour a ladle of sauce over each tortilla. Cover with another tortilla. Repeat with the other half of the bean mixture and 1/3 cheese and sauce. Then top with final tortilla and rest of cheese and ladle rest of sauce over the top.
• Bake enchiladas until cheese melts, for about 20 minutes.
  

So what's the verdict? Delicious! We loved it! There are a few changes I might make. For one, I might not puree the peppers with the tomatillo. I think it created too much sauce, and didn't thicken enough. I also might replace the red bell pepper in the bean mixture with roasted poblano peppers and maybe a diced jalapeno. I had also planned on sauteing up fresh corn with the bean mixture, but forgot to pick up corn at the store. And it might be better to let the sauce cook even longer, to thicken a little more.


This was definitely a keeper! I also wanted a little dessert, but there was no time to make anything. But Target had frozen creme brulee on sale. So I baked up a couple after dinner. Yum!

This was a challenge that I really enjoyed!

The Daring Kitchen (March 2010): Risotto

Well, this challenge was sort of a fail, in the respect that I failed to accomplish one of the requirements. However the meal itself turned out pretty good. So in that respect it was pretty good!

This month's challenge was risotto. One of the only requirements was that you had to make your own stock. Unfortunately this wasn't possible for me, due to time constraints. And what a shame, since I've had bags of vegetable scraps in my freezer just waiting for me to make some stock.

So I went instead with Mushroom Risotto with Peas courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, which uses canned stock. However I did have to go searching for a place that sells dried porcini mushrooms, which I finally found at a high-end market down south, at the price of $10/oz.

Ingredients:

• 8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups finely chopped onions
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or short-grain white rice
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional

Direction:

Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan.

Add the porcini mushrooms. Set aside until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 8 minutes.

Add the white mushrooms and garlic.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the porcini mushrooms to a cutting board. Finely chop the mushrooms and add to the saucepan.

Saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the rice and let it toast for a few minutes. Add the wine; cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes.

Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 3 minutes.

Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes (the rice will absorb 6 to 8 cups of broth). Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

The risotto turned out creamy, and most of it was cooked "just right". Every now and then I would get a grain that was a little underdone (probably the grains that would stick to the spoon or the side of the pan, and therefore absorbed less moisture). I think it could have used a tad more salt though.

While I was in the gourmet market getting the dried porcini, I picked up some edible flowers for the spring salad.

And we finished off the meal with a nice and crusty strip steak!



So the meal turned out pretty good. The flowers were okay. The nasturtiums and dianthus or pinks were fine, but the one fat and curvy pink flower was a little floral tasting.

Good! Too bad that I couldn't meet all of the requirements and make my stock from scratch. So mark this one up as a "pass/fail", because it did both!

The Daring Kitchen (February 2010: Mezze)

(Note: I am late getting this post up. It was due on the 14th, but it has been a busy weekend and I didn't even finish cooking the food until about 10:30 PM on the 14th.)

This month's challenge had a little Middle Eastern flavor. The challenge was a Mezze, which is essentially "appetizers". The only requirement was that you had to make pita bread and hummus from scratch. Other than that, you could add on any veggies or meat that you wished, trying to keep with the theme.

So I decided that in addition to the pita bread and hummus, I was gonna make a little salad and chicken:

Pita Bread

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

Hummus

1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 clove garlic, halved
3/4 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 pinch paprika
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh parsley


Fattoush
(Toasted Bread and Salad)

2 or 3 tomatoes, cubed
1 small cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and chopped
1 medium green pepper, seeded, deribbed, and diced
5 scallions, chopped
1/2 small lettuce, shredded
2 Tbs. finely chopped parsley
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh mint or 1 tsp. dried mint
1 pita bread (or 2-3 slices of bread), toasted and cut into cubes
A dressing made from equal amounts of olive oil and lemon juice and seasoned with salt and black pepper. (Make plenty of dressing and store whatever you do not use in the fridge.)


Farareej Mashwi
(Broiled Chicken with Oil, Lemon and Garlic Sauce)

1 small chicken, quartered
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 T. fruity olive oil
1 T. chopped parsley


So first I needed to get my bread rising. I've never really made bread before, and haven't worked with yeast. I mean, I've made beer bread (no yeast involved), and at Christmas I made dog biscuits (which actually may have included yeast). Otherwise I've never made bread.

So the first thing that I did was activate the yeast (I used Active Dry yeast instead of Rapid Rise. That may be one of my problems. I may have not "activated" it properly).

So I added the yeast to warm water, and then a little sugar and let it sit and get foamy and "grow"...

Meanwhile I mixed together the dry ingredients and the olive oil.


Once the yeast was ready, I poured it into the dry ingredients (having reduced the amount of water by the amount added to the yeast), and mixed everything together.


The ingredients began to glom together and make a sticky ball.


The problem was, it seemed too sticky. I couldn't really knead it, as it would stick to my hands and to my butcher block. So I wound up adding flour. And more flour. And more flour. And as I added flour, I thought to myself, "Watch. All this flour will wind up making it too dense and it won't become light and airy and create the air pockets like it's supposed to." But I couldn't work with it when it was as sticky as it was. Perhaps it was a dab more oil that it needed?

So I kneaded it and it formed a ball. I rubbed a little olive oil around in a large bowl, added the dough ball, and rolled it around in the oil to cover it.


Then I covered the bowl with a damp towel and let it sit for about 1 1/2 hours to rise...


While the dough sat, I started on the salad. I chopped all of the veggies, and I minced up the parsley.

I found how great my herb chopper works. Very nice! So I mixed all of that together...


Then I made the dressing of equal parts fresh lemon juice and olive oil...



Then cut up some toasted pita bread and put that on top of the salad (yes, I bought pita bread, even though I was making pita. What can I say. I needed pita for my salad!), and then drizzled all of it with the seasoned dressing. I put that into the frig to sit.

Then I mixed together the lemon, olive oil, chopped parsley and garlic for the chicken marinade in a ziploc bag and added the seasoned chicken to the bag and let it marinate in the frig.

After an hour and a half, it was time to work with the dough again. As I feared, it hadn't risen as much as I expected, but I couldn't wait any longer. It was getting late, and it had already set for 1 1/2 hours. So I cut the dough into 8 pieces and formed dough balls. Man this reminded me of my teenage years working at Little Caesars! It all came right back to me!

The dough balls were left to sit for about 20 minutes with a damp towel over them while the oven heated to 400 degrees.

Once ready, each dough ball was rolled out onto a floured surface and then put on a cookie sheet.


They were baked for about 5-7 minutes, but they just wouldn't brown at all, and wouldn't get crispy. Only a couple of them even puffed to any degree. But I digress.

Then I set the oven to broil, and put the chicken on a broiler pan and broiled it for about 12 minutes or so. I had the oven set to low broil for most of the time, and basted the chicken every 3 minutes with the reserved marinade. Then after about 10 minutes I cranked the heat to high on the broiler and finished off the chicken under high heat.

While the chicken was cooking, I put all of the hummus ingredients into the food processor. The problem is, I couldn't find any tahini at the store. So I did a Google search and found that peanut butter was considered a solid substitute for tahini. This seemed strange to me, given all of the sugar and such added to peanut butter. But I figured if everyone deemed it so, I'd give it a shot. I blended up the hummus, drizzled it with olive oil, and sprinkled over minced parsley and paprika.

When all was said and done, this was the dinner we were left with...


So the verdict...

As I figured, the pita bread came out "doughy". I have to suspect I should have used more oil instead of more flour to resolve the "sticky" issue, but since I've never worked with dough before, I just can't be certain.


The hummus was really visually appealing. However I did not like the substitute of peanut butter for tahini! The smell of peanut butter kept bothering me, and the taste was just "off" from the other flavors of lemon and garlic in the meal.


The salad was really flavorful and colorful. The first bite could make you pucker a little, as the lemon flavor is pretty strong. And the bread was soggy after having marinated so long. But the pita is what had the best flavor in the salad. So I don't know whether I would change the step of marinating the bread in the salad the whole time or not. It's a trade off. soggy bread = flavor!

The chicken was really delicious! Lots of flavor in it! Next time I might cook it under high heat longer, to make it browner. But I wanted to be cautious, as I couldn't find the chicken I wanted with skin on. So I worried about it getting dried out under a broiler.


So that was my middle eastern cooking experience.



The chicken is a definite keeper. I would do the hummus again when I can find tahini for it. The salad is a nice combination with the hummus and the chicken. However I think I probably won't do the pita bread again. Too much effort with too little pay off!

I always enjoy my cooking challenges! They give me an opportunity to try things that I wouldn't try otherwise. Thanks Daring Kitchen!