Last night I stopped by the Clarendon Farmer's Market on my way home from work for a few mid-week replacement/supplemental ingredients.On the shopping list:
tomatoes,
red leaf lettuce & blackberries.
I pureed the 4 cored tomatoes and added the puree to two cloves of sliced garlic that I had cooked momentarily in about 1.5 T of olive oil, kosher salt and a solid sprinkling of red pepper flakes. After about 5 to 10 minutes I added a handful of chopped basil and let the sauce simmer until the rest of the meal was ready. I finished the sauce with a pat of unsalted butter to bring the sauce together at the end. TBC and I were happy with the outcome. I used the sauce to top some prepared Buitoni whole wheat ravioli. Not a fan. Whole wheat pasta can be a little chewy and I found that layers of it together are too dense. For such a simple sauce, I should have used a more delicate pasta. Angel hair would have been ideal.
I liked the tomato sauce, but I loved the salad.
I roasted the small orange beets individually wrapped in foil at about 375 degrees for a little over 30 minutes. After a few minutes to cool, the skins slipped off easily. I sliced the beets and drizzled them with a variation of my "house" dressing.My standard dressing is a combination of diced shallot, kosher salt, fresh pepper, a dab of honey, a touch of dijon mustard, white wine vinegar & olive oil. The vinegar to oil ratio is about 2:1. For this particular salad I also added a little bit of orange juice to the dressing. I often make a roasted red beet salad with orange segments, for both flavor and color. After tossing the tender greens and topping them with beets, I added toasted walnuts and soft goat cheese to the salad.
On the menu for tonight? Papa John's. Yee haw!
2 comments:
I could use a lesson on cooking beets. It's been a disaster the few times I've tried it myself. Same with eggplant. Can you help me?
Beets are easy- just trim the greens and wash off the dirt. Then wrap them individually in aluminum foil. How long you roast depends on the size. For average-sized beets, I roast them for an hour at 350 degrees. To make sure they're tender, I'll poke through one with a sharp knife. Then let them cool long enough to handle, and the skins will slip right off. If the skins stick in a couple places, just use a vegetable peeler and prepare to have purple fingers.
As for eggplant, I think the key is to slice, salt, press & drain. At least that's what I've read. I don't like the texture of the skins (they squeak on my teeth!), and so I pretty much only eat eggplant in baba ghanoush.
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