Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherry. Show all posts
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Fresh Cherry Tomato Relish – A Reduction Production
Photo Note: All the decent photos of this recipe were lost in a tragic beer-related editing mishap. The thumbnail you see to the left is the only survivor, and not the best quality. I considered “borrowing” a photo from some unsuspecting online source, but then realized that would not be ethical (and coincidentally didn’t see any I liked) and so I decided to use the one I had. OK, on to the recipe.Here’s the idea; we take the liquid that’s produced by marinating fresh cherry tomatoes in salt, pepper and vinegar, and strain it into a pan. We then take this already delicious juice, and make it even more so by reducing it over heat thereby evaporating most of the water. This intensified liquid is poured back into the tomatoes and we have a great fresh tomato relish, or tomato vinaigrette (if you want to be all fancy) that we can top some grilled meat, chicken, or fish.
This is an extremely common culinary technique that Chefs have used since the beginning of time to improve the flavor of all kinds of things. A “Reduction” is one of those Chef secrets that most home cooks don’t bother with, or maybe don’t even know about. Most of you have made a basic tomato salad or relish and simply eaten it as is, or topped whatever. That’s fine, and it tasted great, I’m sure. But, by reducing the water content from sauces and dressings, you can produce even more impressive results.
By the way, I suggest ALWAYS using cherry tomatoes for this recipe. Large ripe tomatoes are just too hard to find, even in the summer (unless you have some in your garden of course), and most markets have an almost year-long supply of decent cherry tomatoes available. Look for “Sweet 100’s,” “Red Grape,” and “Sun Gold” varieties, which all are pretty consistently sweet.
handful of cherry tomatoes
clove of garlic
splash of olive oil
splash of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Friday, February 21, 2014
Pasta with Baked Cherry Tomatoes
Heres another great recipe from one of my favorite Chefs, Lidia Bastianich. This one comes from her newest cookbook, Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy and can be found here on her website. I was lucky enough to catch her making this one on tv and I made it the next day. It seems like the temperature and cooking time needed to be a little higher and longer than the recipe states. I wanted my tomatoes to have a nice brown color on the breadcrumbs. It may just have been my oven but after about 15-20 minutes I raised the temperature to 400 and baked until they were golden. Lidia suggests topping the pasta with ricotta salata or ricotta. I think the ricotta salata would be great but I didnt have any. The dish was still fantastic and I think a firm cheese like the ricotta salata would be even better.
Pasta with Baked Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 6
Ingredients:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
⅓ cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot
¼ teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste
1 pound spaghetti, gemelli, or penne
10 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 cup fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
½ cup pecorino, freshly grated, plus more for passing
4 ounces ricotta, or ricotta salata
Directions:
Arrange a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 350 degrees.
Toss the cherry-tomato halves in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sprinkle over tomatoes the bread crumbs, salt, and peperoncino; toss well to coat the tomatoes evenly. Pour the tomatoes onto the parchment-lined sheet, and spread them apart in a single layer. Bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and lightly caramelized (but not dried out), about 25 minutes in all.
Meanwhile, fill the large pot with salted water, and heat to a rolling boil. When the tomatoes are nearly done, drop the pasta into the pot, stir, and return the water to a boil.
As soon as the pasta is cooking, pour the remaining olive oil into the big skillet, set it over medium- high heat, and scatter in the sliced garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until it is sizzling and lightly colored, then ladle in about 2 cups of the pasta cooking water, and bring to a vigorous boil, stirring up the garlic. Let half the water evaporate, then lower the heat, stir in the chopped parsley, and keep the sauce barely simmering.
As soon as the tomatoes are done, remove them from the oven.
When the pasta is al dente, lift it from the water, drain for a moment, and drop it into the skillet, still over low heat. Toss pasta quickly with the garlic-and- parsley sauce in the pan, then slide the baked tomatoes on top of the pasta. Scatter the basil shreds all over, and toss everything together well, until the pasta is evenly dressed and the tomatoes are distributed throughout. Turn off the heat, sprinkle on the grated cheese, and toss once more.
Mound the pasta in a warmed serving bowl. Shred the ricotta all over the top of the pasta, and serve immediately.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Black Pepper Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Black Cherry Reduction
This succulent dish has all the things I love in a recipe; an easy piece of meat to work with, a super simple sauce that tastes like something that took hours, and the classic flavor combination of hot/tangy with sweet/fruity.
1 pork tenderloin (not loin)
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup black cherry preserves
salt to taste
lots of cracked black pepper
2 tbl butter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)