Tomato confit, fast and slow

Roasted cherry tomato confit

 One of my favorite things about summer is bringing in heaping handfuls of small little tomato jewels from the garden. In order to keep on top of them before the fruit flies set in, I turn out little pots of tomato confit to use on pizza, pasta and bruschetta. It freezes well, so I get to savor a bit of summer in the winter, too.

My go-to recipe for years has been a New York Times recipe published in the Star Tribune Taste section years ago, but I recently ran across a variation that could be made in a slow cooker. Given that one of my Pinterest boards is titled “Make that slow cooker do something,” this struck a chord. Plus, while it takes much more cooking time, it doesn’t mean turning on the oven when the August sauna descends.

Tomato confit

Adapted from “The Chef and the Slow Cooker,” by Hugh Acheson

Ingredients

16 plum tomatoes

1 tablespoon kosher salt

8 black peppercorns

4 bay leaves

3 sprigs fresh thyme (I used lemon thyme for a double-shot of lemon)

8 garlic cloves, smashed

2 fat strips of lemon zest (he recommends using a peeler)

2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

Method

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put tomatoes in boiling water three to four at a time and blanch until skin starts to separate, anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute depending on the size of your tomatoes. Remove tomatoes to an ice water bath with a slotted spoon. Peel and core tomatoes, placing them upright, core-side down in a slow cooker insert. Repeat until all tomatoes are peeled and cored and lined up like little tomato soldiers. (If you don't have tomato-canning hardened hands, you'll need to let them cool a bit until you're able to handle them.)

Season with the salt. Add peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, garlic, and lemon zest. Pour olive oil over the top.

Cover slow cooker with lid and cook on low for 4 hours. Transfer tomatoes and flavorants to large jars. Top with cooking oil. Cap the jars and let cool. Store in refrigerator.

Rating: This was just fine. It makes a perfectly fine sauce, although not finer than an average stove-top simmered sauce. The lemon flavor didn't seem to come through, which was a disappointment. Perhaps doubling the amount added would help. Again, there's nothing wrong with this sauce, and the oil could have lots of other uses, but it is time consuming and fussy compared to its comparative worth.

Ready for the oven: 1 whole wheat pizza crust, a schmear of cherry tomato confit, and dollops of ricotta mixed with lemon zest, garlic and thyme

Cherry tomato confit

Adapted from the New York Times, which had the audacity to suggest discarding the wonderful roasted garlic. Sacrilege.

Ingredients

2 pints cherry tomatoes (a mix of colors is nice)

8 to 10 garlic cloves, peeled and halved if large

3 springs fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

Kosher salt

Crushed red pepper flakes

¼ cup olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread tomatoes on a rimmed roasting sheet. Tuck garlic in between the tomatoes. Sprinkle with rosemary, salt and a generous pinch of red pepper flakes. Drizzle with the olive oil. Bake about 30 to 35 minutes, or until tomatoes are wilted and garlic and some of the tomatoes are just starting to get a touch of brown.

Remove from oven and smush gently with a spatula to spread the garlic a bit.

Rating: Truly one of the more wonderful substances. Roasting the cherry tomatoes makes them a spreadable sweet-savory treat, with just a touch of heat from the pepper flakes. Spread some goat cheese on toasted baguette slices, top with some of this and you've achieved perfection.

 

Obviously not all tomato confits are created equal. The cherry tomato confit is still hands down my favorite. It's much faster to make, both in terms of prep and cooking time, and the roasting really brings out the tomato flavors. It takes much less olive oil, so you're more likely to always have the pantry ingredients on hand. On the other hand, all that olive oil that goes into the slow cooker version gives you lots of flavorful olive oil in return that you can drizzle on pretty much anything, from risotto to roast chicken. And it does help out plum tomatoes, and makes a "just fine" sauce that doesn't require any stove top attention.

Blueberry ricotta orange scones

 

Fresh blueberries. Sunday morning. A tub of ricotta in the frig. The result was seemingly inevitable.

Blueberry ricotta scones

Adapted from bakerbynature.  She used lemon zest and iced them with a lemon juice-confectioner's sugar glaze. I didn't feel like lily gilding this morning, so I just opted for butter and I was in a mood for orange.

Ingredients

2½ cups flour

⅓ cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon orange zest

8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

½ cup ricotta cheese

3 tablespoons half and half, plus 1 teaspoon, divided

1 egg, beaten, plus more for brushing tops

1 cup fresh blueberries

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and orange zest. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until it looks like coarse crumbs.

Mix together ricotta, half and half and egg in a small bowl. Mix into flour-butter mixture with a fork. Fold in blueberries just to incorporate.

Turn out the rough dough onto a lightly floured board and shape into a circle about an inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg mixed with 1 teaspoon half and half. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a light golden brown.

Rating: Nice. Respectable delivery device for plump juicy blueberries.

Random, but lovely

Well hello, handsome. This gem finally burst on the garden scene after seemingly weeks in the bud stage, and long after I’d forgotten I’d even planted it.

When I saw two lily-ish things poking through by the garage this spring, I was puzzled and at first thought they were another example of my tiger lilies going rogue in a spot where their vivid orange would be most jarring. I’d forgotten that when I hit reset on that particular garden bed last year, I’d planted three of these lilies, only to have them felled by rascally rabbits in short order, long before they bloomed. 

The entire bed was a mass of good intentions gone awry, since the order of bare-root plants arrived at the worst possible moment and it kind of went downhill from there.  So this year, while pondering how to regroup minus the three astrantia plants that didn’t survive last year’s delayed planting, I was wondering what on earth those lilies were.

Now I know, and I wish there were more of them, and that it wasn’t the middle one of the threesome that died, naturally, leaving an odd gap. The rest of the bed is a hot mess, but at least now I know I’ve got something lovely to work with.

Asparagus tomato salad with chive blossom vinegar

The house came with an abundance of chives. Now it has a superabundance of chives because frankly otherwise there would be weeds in that spot and I can tolerate chives more than weeds so I let them spread until I'm tired of it.

Plus the pretty purple blooms add color to the back alley garden while they last. They're the purple flowers in the foreground before the purple phlox bullies take over the back. And they keep out the other purple thugs: harebells. What is it with the color purple and restless plants?

Asparagus, tomato and pickled chive blossom salad

Adapted from athoughtforfood.net

Ingredients

2 pounds asparagus

1 pint grape tomatoes

2 tablespoons chive blossom vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup crumbled goat cheese

Pickled chive blossoms for garnish

Method

Snap tough ends off asparagus and discard (or save for broth). Cut remainder into two-inch pieces. Steam asparagus until just this side of tender. Remove from heat and chill in ice water. (Or if you’re microwave-steaming in a bag, just toss the bag in the freezer briefly to halt the cooking process.)

When cooled down, put asparagus into a large bowl. Cut grape tomatoes in half, or in quarters if large. Toss with asparagus.

Combine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and whisk to emulsify. Toss with asparagus and tomatoes.

Divide asparagus mixture among 4 plates. Crumble goat cheese over salads and garnish with chive blossoms. Serves 4.

 

Chive blossom vinegar

Adapted from cathybarrow.com

Place 1 cup chive blossoms in a jar. Top with 1½ cup white wine vinegar. Cover with lid and keep in a dark place for 2 weeks. You can remove the chive blossoms at this point if it’s strong enough or else let it go a few more weeks. Strain into a jar and keep in the refrigerator to help retain its color.

Rating: Obviously I should have been making this vinegar ever since I lived with all those chive blossoms. It's got just the right touch of chive tang without being overpowering. This is so going in every vinaigrette until it's gone. (Vinaigrettes, I've had a few. Why haven't I written that book?) It worked very nicely in the asparagus tomato salad, and the goat cheese was a dandy touch.

Green goddess chicken club salad

 

The recipe for a chicken club sandwich looked delicious. But with a four-foot-square raised bed of leafy greens, salads, not sandwiches are on the menu these days. Better we eat it instead of letting the slugs feast on it. Besides, there's something very satisfying about weekly bringing in a big bowl of lettuce that you know would have cost you $10 at the store and would wilt to mush in next to no time.

But I had a leftover chicken breast  that we'd grilled after it marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, white wine and garlic chives. That also shouldn't go to waste. So I inverted the sandwich recipe a bit, using the dressing called for and using croutons in place of the bread.

Green goddess chicken club salad

Adapted from the sandwich version in “Great Tastes: Cooking(and Eating) from Morning to Midnight” by sisters Danielle and Laura Kosann of The New Potato blog.

Ingredients

1 slice sturdy bread

Olive oil

½ teaspoon dried thyme

3 to 4 tablespoons green goddess dressing

6 to 8 cups mixed salad greens

1 cooked chicken breast, sliced

¼ cup cherry tomato halves

2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Freshly shaved Parmesan for garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread slice into 1-inch cubes. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, thyme and some salt and pepper. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes until crisp. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, place 3 tablespoons green goddess in a large mixing bowl. Toss with greens, adding more as needed to get the desired dressing-to-greens ratio.

Divide greens among two plates. Top each with half of the chicken, half the tomatoes, half the bacon and half the bread cubes. Top with a few more dollops of dressing. Garnish with shaved Parmesan. Serves 2.

Green goddess dressing

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

¼ cup basil leaves

1 tablespoon tarragon leaves

1 tablespoon chopped chives

1 teaspoon anchovy paste

Combine all dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. This makes a fairly sturdy dressing. There will be leftovers. This is not a problem.

Rating: Tasty. That dressing could pinch hit for a dip. And, well, there's bacon.

Lemon rhubarb scones with streusel topping

 

It's still peak rhubarb season here, so I thought I'd try yet another new rhubarb scone recipe to enjoy the largesse. And then I'll go back to my favorite rhubarb scones.

Lemon rhubarb streusel scones

Adapted from Anna at hiddenponies.com via tastykitchen.com

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, melted

¼ cup quick cooking oats

½ cup brown sugar, divided

1½ cup flour, plus 1 tablespoon, divided

½ cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup cold butter

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup chopped rhubarb (about 3 goodish-size stalks)

1 whole egg yolk, beaten

1 cup sour cream

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

2 teaspoons milk or cream

Method

Preheat oven to 425. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a smallish microwave-safe bowl, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Stir in oats, ¼ cup of packed brown sugar and 1 tablespoon flour. Mix well and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1½ cup flour, whole wheat flour, ¼ cup brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add rhubarb and lemon zest and toss to coat. Stir together egg yolk and sour cream. Mix into dry ingredients.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently about a dozen times. Pat dough into a 9-inch circle in the middle of the parchment-lined sheet. Sprinkle with reserved streusel mixture. Cut dough into 8 to 12 wedges. (I opted for 8 because I thought my odds of successfully cutting them into 8 were better, since the dough is a tad tacky.) Don’t separate the wedges.

 

Bake 18 to 24 minutes until light brown and cooked through. Reslice into wedges along the cut marks. Let cool slightly before drizzling with a glaze made of the powdered sugar, extract and milk.

Rating: By the time these came out of the oven, I'd developed a bad attitude about this recipe. While not difficult, the recipe is a little more time-consuming and dishes-producing than your standard scones, entering into the this-better-be-worth-it category. And I thought so even after being able to cheat by already having some leftover almond-flavored glaze so I didn't have to whip that up too. Plus, they looked like they'd taste like hockey puck scones -- something about the oats and that touch of whole wheat. But they weren't bad at all. They're very moist inside, more cake-like than scone-like since they're highly leavened and lack that scone crumb. The lemon flavor doesn't really stand out much, but as I say, they're not bad. 

But these are still far and away a better rhubarb scone.