Perpetual What Are You Cooking Thread

[Kumbaya]

This is easily the most beautiful thing I've ever cooked.  (This is the stock photo, not mine--I think mine looked even prettier!):


http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/08/tomato-tart-from-the-beekman-1802-heirloom-vegetable-cookbook.html

The flavors were fantastic but I didn't let it cook long enough--probably needed another 5-10 minutes on the lower rack.  It was a great way to use an abundance of CSA tomatoes.  Very easy and quick to make, too.

That looks awesome!

[cgraz]

That tomato tart really does look amazing!

Barry, I'd have posted a recipe link, but I don't really use one...it's definitely forgiving and I've tweaked various recipes depending on what I had on hand, so now I just make it without following anything in particular. I have to say, it's one of my favorite things, and I don't even like the pepper part that much - I just love the filling and eat that by the bowlful too! So hopefully A will enjoy.  And yay for peppers that you picked!

Speaking of peppers...today's nod to Labor Day and all things grilling will be grilled chicken sausage with onions & peppers, and some salad and baked beans for sides. My own personal cookout.

[caribougrrl]

I bought a cast iron griddle a few weeks ago.  I'm still figuring out the most effective way to heat and maintain heat on it (my original low and slow heatings were tooooo slow and never hot enough...).  Nonetheless, I made tortillas last night and was able to cook 4-5 at a time rather than just 1 in my cast iron skillet.  We ate them with roasted beet and black bean taco filling.

[merigayle]

Refrained beans and corn tortillas. I almost overfilled the pressure cooker while cooking the dry beans. I make large batches and freeze the extras.

[rocketgirl]

This is easily the most beautiful thing I've ever cooked.  (This is the stock photo, not mine--I think mine looked even prettier!):


http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/08/tomato-tart-from-the-beekman-1802-heirloom-vegetable-cookbook.html

The flavors were fantastic but I didn't let it cook long enough--probably needed another 5-10 minutes on the lower rack.  It was a great way to use an abundance of CSA tomatoes.  Very easy and quick to make, too.

Yum!  I missed this.  I made a tomato tart (pie) Sunday with tomatoes and basil from my garden.



Well, we were going to make this one http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fresh-tomato-tart-recipe.html, except that we couldn't find tart pans.  So then we were going to make this one http://allrecipes.com/recipe/summer-tomato-pie/ because we'd at least know how much "stuff" to put in a 9 inch pie shell, except that we didn't have garlic cloves (or a jar of minced garlic) or mayonnaise and were feeling more like mozarella than cheddar.  So, what we ACTUALLY did was:
 
Put premade pie crust dough in a pie plate and did this per the 2nd recipe:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Press pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan; prick bottom and sides with fork.
Bake crust in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.  (We were impatient.  We used a floor fan to "help".)
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Here's where we deviated.  We did not thinly slice 3 tomatoes of indeterminant size.  We sliced a bunch of cherry and grape tomatoes in half. Because that's what was growing in my garden. Maybe a cup and a half worth, but I'm guessing.   We didn't have 3 cloves of garlic (or even the minced garlic in a jar), so we used 2 teaspoons of garlic powder.  I didn't think that we quite had 1/4 cup of basil (fresh from my garden) after I cut it up with scissors.  So we threw in some random amount of dried basil.  And mayo, not happening.  3 eggs and a tablespoon of olive oil sounded better.  And a cup of mozzarella, instead of half cup mozz and half cup cheddar.  So...
 
5. Place tomatoes in a colander; sprinkle with salt. Let sit for about 10 minutes to release moisture. Blot excess moisture with a paper towel.
6. Beat eggs in bowl.  Add olive oil, garlic, basil, and tomatoes.  Let sit for a bit to absorb all the flavors.
7. Put half the mixture in the bottom of the shell and spread the tomatoes around evenly.  Add half the mozzarella as a layer over that.  Then layer the rest of the egg/tomato/etc mixture, followed by a layer of the rest of the cheese.
8. Bake in the pre-heated oven until done.  That was somewhere in the 40 minute range with our modifications.
 
Let cool and eat.  It was delicious and this WILL be made again!  (Probably with more fresh basil and minced garlic from a jar vs. dry powder).

[rocketgirl]

We also made bread pudding from this recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-best-bread-pudding-recipe.html

Except that we used banana bread (mostly - it wasn't quite enough, so we put in some Italian bread too).  And we used Kahlua instead of brandy.  And we used an extra egg because the eggs looks small - but that might have it a little too custardy (but I like custard so I am happy).

[rocketgirl]

And yesterday morning the guy made an Italian sausage and purple bell pepper quiche:



Quiche with a wee bit of cheddar in the bottom crust, hot Italian sausage marinated overnight in Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Italian seasoning, and a dash of cream; 2 eggs; 1/4 cup sour cream; 2 purple bell peppers; and ~ 8-10 oz of mozzarella. Top is garnished with a bit more of the purple peppers and some basil.

Next project is going to be an onion tart.  Probably next weekend.  I was looking at recipes and I'm going to mash a few to get what I want.

[Dagstag v 2.0]

Yesterday I made a stew because I panicked after taking some lamb stew meat out to thaw and then realizing that I had to cook it.

I put some olive oil in a dutch oven and browned the meat chunks with a little sear.  Then I dumped in 1 tbsp of curry powder, maybe 1/2 tbsp cumin, and 1/2 tbsp dried minced garlic and stirred it around for a few minutes.

Then I dumped in a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes and 1 1/2 cans of water.  I put in one chopped sweet potato and a handful of quartered dried figs, brought to a boil, and then let simmer covered for 45 minutes.

At the 45 minute mark, I put in about 6 lacinato kale leaves that had been de-stalked and torn into small pieces, and cooked for another 45 minutes.

Then seasoned with S & P.

I find out tonight how it is 

[caribougrrl]

salad nicoise tonight

[Kumbaya]

Beet salad and leftover baked potato from Sunday.

[witchypoo]

You made this last night and yet still no recipe for us?

1 large male eggplant, peeled, sliced into rounds 1/8" thick (the thinner, the better)
flour
salt and pepper
grated parmesan cheese
plain bread crumbs (not panko)
eggs
butter
olive oil
2 jars of your favorite marinara

-salt and sweat the sliced eggplant.  rinse and pat dry.
-get out three bowls.  in one bowl, crack 3 or 4 eggs and give them a good whisk.  in another bowl, mix 1c flour with a hefty amount of cracked black pepper.  in the third bowl, mix 1c bread crumbs with 1/3c grated parmesan cheese.
-in a chef's pan, heat 2T butter with 1/4c olive oil over medium high heat.  when the fat is hot...
-dip your eggplant slices in egg, then flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and slide into the oil.  don't crowd the slices in the pan (cook them in batches).  cook until toasty brown, flip, cook.  remove from the oil and drain on paper towel or bags. 

oven at 350°.

pour a bit of marinara into the bottom of a baking dish.  layer eggplant all over the bottom of the pan.  top with marinara.  layer more eggplant.  then sauce, etc. until all of the eggplant is used.  top with more marinara and dust with grated parmesan.  bake for 25 minutes.                       

[diablita]

yum!  sounds delicious.  how do you tell the sex of an eggplant???

[seattlegirl]

yum!  sounds delicious.  how do you tell the sex of an eggplant???

It will be obvious.

[witchypoo]

LOL.

a male eggplant's "belly button" is round.
not so a female's.

[Ice Cream]

LOL.

a male eggplant's "belly button" is round.
not so a female's.

are the males and the females together in the grocery store?

[caribougrrl]

eggplant are fruit, the distended and matured ovaries of flowers... if they have seeds, they've been fertilized... so if they're seedless, they could be called female if you stretch the definition of female liberally, but if they have seeds they are not really either male or female

MTA: on second thought, presence of seeds would not conceptually affect the gender of the eggplant, it's a vessel for the seeds...

I have heard that the presence of an innie or outie (or round vs oval mark) on an eggplant means more or fewer seeds (though I can't recall which is which)... so I am willing to believe that witchy's use of one sort of eggplant over the other may have some culinary founding.  The biologist in me, though, can't accept male and female as names...

[caribougrrl]

lunch: thai rice vermicelli salad w/ shrimp and green beans from the garden

[witchypoo]

"male" eggplants have fewer seeds and are therefore far less bitter than the "female" eggplants.

[Run Amok]

This is easily the most beautiful thing I've ever cooked.  (This is the stock photo, not mine--I think mine looked even prettier!):


http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/08/tomato-tart-from-the-beekman-1802-heirloom-vegetable-cookbook.html

The flavors were fantastic but I didn't let it cook long enough--probably needed another 5-10 minutes on the lower rack.  It was a great way to use an abundance of CSA tomatoes.  Very easy and quick to make, too.

could you make this without the crust? I just remembered one of my dinner guests is GF.

[merigayle]

"male" eggplants have fewer seeds and are therefore far less bitter than the "female" eggplants.

I buy Japanese eggplants which are generally seedless.