Blistered Tomatoes

The summer after 4th grade my parents took my sister and I on our first international trip.  We went to England, and of course being the type of person who thinks of each day based on what I ate, I remember the food we had pretty clearly. In particular the breakfasts, it was pretty similar at every B&B we stayed in, eggs, buttery toast, sausage, beans and warm tomatoes and mushrooms. I was always a pretty adventurous eater, but for some reason warm tomatoes seemed weird to me at the time and I didn't want to eat them. I didn't really connect them with tomato sauce - what do you want from me I was 10. 

But eventually I did try them, and they were amazing. Comforting and refreshing at the same time. Since then I've had a softness in my heart for slightly warmed tomatoes and when ever I eat them I am reminded of that trip to England -  not the boring walking tours, bus tours, museums, and history lessons (all of which I thoroughly enjoyed when I returned to the UK as an adult) but of the same satisfying breakfast we at every morning in B&B's around the country.

This week I decided to make warmed blistered grape tomatoes, not for breakfast but as a side for dinner.  They take about 3 minutes to make and are deliciously fresh tasting when made with the awesome tomatoes available right now.

Warm tomatoes . . . mmm.  Behind them you can see some lemon butter chicken peaking out.  I wasn't planning on sharing the chicken recipe with you when I made it, but it was so tasty and decadent that I feel I have to. Come back tomorrow and I'll have it posted.

Ingredients
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or other fat of your choice)
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
salt and pepper to taste

1) Heat olive oil over medium high heat until it starts to shimmer, about 1 minute
2) Add garlic cloves to oil and cook for about 30 seconds
3) Throw tomatoes into pan, step back - it might sputter. Now don't touch at all for about 1 minute - you want the skins to get nice and blistered.
4) Toss tomatoes around in pan and then let cook for another minute - this should allow your tomatoes to warm threw a bit without popping and becoming a saucy mess
5) Season with salt and pepper and serve imminently*

*i was writing "immediately", but spell check changed it to "imminently" which sounded foreboding and stupid in a way that I really liked, so I kept it :)  

Zucchini Fries

I'm away at a wedding this weekend and the temptation to go off the reservation has been high since we got in the car last night. I almost suggested stopping at Popeyes for dinner. Luckily I had made some salmon cakes (working on a good recipe, these were fine but nothing special) that were able to get me through the ride. Well see what happens the rest of the weekend. The thought of the delicious food I made myself this week will hopefully be enough to get me through a weekend with lots of yummy looking bad food and very few good food options. Like these zucchini fries I made a couple days ago. They look and kinda taste like junk food but definitely are not.

Ingredients
1 zucchini, cut into fry sized strips
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup almond meal
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste


1) preheat oven to 400
2) beat eggs in shallow bowl
3) in a second bowl mix almond meal garlic powder salt and pepper
4)toss zucchini strips into egg bowl and mix coating each evenly
5) remove zucchini from egg one at at time. Shake off excess egg and roll in alomd mixture coating evenly
6) place zucchini on large baking sheet ensuring there is at least 1/8 inch of space around each
7) spray with olive oil mister, or drizzle with I've oil if you font have a mister
8) bake in oven for 15-20 minutes flipping half way through until golden brown.
9) remove from oven and salt. Eat and know these are way bettter for you then regular fries or even (especially)thoes deep fried bread coated things they sell at bars.

P.s. All my friends are headed to Chick-a-fil here's hoping I can resist!

Chimichurri!

I love condiments. Really really love. Some have even called me the condiment queen. My fridge use to be bursting with jelly, jam, chutney, ailoli, 15 different types of mustard, tons of hot sauce varieties, steak sauces, and on and on. When I finally got around to removing all non-paleo items from my house I was shocked at how empty my shelves and fridge became. I wasn't tossing chips and cookies, more like 3 varieties of teriyaki sauce and more than one jar of curd. I was shocked by how many of the things I thought were harmless actually contained sugar or canola oil.  It was pretty sad.

But there is one condiment that has not forsaken me. Chimichuri. This condiment, Argentinian  in origin, is traditionally made with parsley, garlic, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. This traditional version is fabulous herbaceous with a sharp bite from the raw garlic. You can also make other versions, mint, lemon, and coconut oil is delish.  As is cilantro, jalepeno, olive oil, and lime.  This week I made a traditional chimichuri with the addition of garlic scapes. And it showed up on everything I ate.  Steak, eggs, even a as a dressing for my salad yesterday.

Ingredients

1 bunch parsley, stems removed, leave roughly chopped
3 garlic scapes, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 lime, zest and juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil


1) Place everything but olive oil in food processor. Process for about 1 minute until everything is in little tiny pieces.
2) With processor still going stream in olive oil, process for 1 minute until everything comes together as a sauce. This will keep for about a week covered in your fridge. Eat on everything.

Thai Coconut Mussels

We spent our 4th of July weekend relaxing with friends in New Hampshire. It was really amazing, we hiked, swam, and slept in. We were also able to grill the whole weekend which meant eating right was pretty easy. Yes, I had to watch people sit around eating delicious looking ice cream one day, but mostly they were eating crap that I just am not interested in.

Anyways, we got back last night and although the trip was relaxing I was beat when we got home - a 5.5 hour drive in a car without air conditioning will do that to a girl. In the past that mood would have resulted in ordering Thai takeout. The typical order was Pad Thai with wide noodles and the best freaking Tom Kha (coconut milk soup) that has ever been made in the history of the world. While its possible that the soup has no yucky ingredients in it I wouldn't bet my life on it. Basically takeout was not an option, and since Mike has only mastered egg cookery, I was headed to the kitchen.

I wanted to make something reminiscent of the usual Thai takeout and that wouldn't take me much longer than calling in my order would. I decided on mussels in a coconut curry broth. As I sat down after only 10 minutes in the kitchen I dug into my bowl of mussels and was totally satisfied. The broth was light and slightly creamy with a kick from the ginger, but nothing was overpowering and the mussels were definitely the star of the show.

Thai Coconut Mussels.

Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 white onion, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 red pepper, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, cut into thin strips (I used a piece the size of a giants thumb because I love ginger)
6 cloves crushed garlic
3 dashes fish sauce
1 tablespoon green curry paste (this stuff is pretty mild, you could substitute a thai chili pepper if you wanted some kick)
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 can full fat coconut milk
2 lbs mussels, cleaned and debearded (most places around me sell mussels ready for cooking, ask your fishmonger to be sure)
garnish: lime, scallions

1) Heat coconut oil on medium heat in pot with a tight fitting lid deep enough to hold all your mussels.
2) Add onions and pepper to pot and cook for about 3 minutes, until onions are translucent
3) Add ginger, garlic, curry paste, fish sauce, and lime zest and juice - cook for another 1-2 minutes
4) Add coconut milk to pot and stir. Heat through, about 3 minutes
5) While your coconut milk is heating go through your mussels and discard any that have already opened.
6) Throw mussels in the pot, give a good stir, and then cover. Cook, covered, for 5-7 minutes until mussels have opened.
7) Pour into to bowls and top with a squeeze on lime and some chopped scallions. Enjoy while patting yourself on the back for not giving into the takeout demon!

Mango Curry Soup

So, I'm sitting here on my lunch break eating a bowl of soup that I made at 6 o'clock yesterday morning. I'm not normally one to wake up early during the week to cook, but these were special circumstances. Warning - this is a serious case of white people problems! If that sort of thing bothers you feel free to skip on down the recipe :)

This Sunday I made enough food so that Mike (husband along for this paleo ride) and I could take our lunch to work everyday this week. At the last minute on Tuesday (via email at 9 pm) my boss offered me free tickets to the opera last night (which was super weird), neither of us had ever been before so we decided to go. That meant that we needed to bring both our lunch and dinner with us to work to avoid eating out in the dreaded Midtown Lunch region of tasty but horrible for you food. I also wasn't going to have have time to cook new lunches for today after we got home from being classy at the opera. And didn't want to skip the gym this morning to make it today. If it was just me I probably would have just had a big breakfast and skipped lunch, but Mike who has never tried to control his diet before (and, maddeningly, has always been thin) probably would have fallen face first into a burrito.

All this means that at 6 am yesterday I got up and made this Mango Curry soup with ingredients I had on hand. It's creamy, smooth, a little spicy, and a little sweet. I originally planned on this being a cold soup, and that's pretty good but hot is definitely the way to go. It's not necessarily the most balanced lunch - lacking in protein and veggies - but it is so freaking delicious.

This is a bowl I poured yesterday morning for picture taking purposes
I definitely didn't scarf half of it down while pouring it into Tupperware
P.S. I totally did that
P.P.S It was awesome

I'm not the only one who liked it either. I just got this message from my husband on gchat:













Ingredients
2 teaspoons coconut oil
1 medium sweet onion (I used vidalia, but anything would work)
3 cup mango chunks (I used organic frozen from Trader Joe's, fresh would probably be better)
1 - 2 tablespoons thai red curry paste (I used the Thai Kitchen version which has no yucky things added to it. It's a little spicy, which I like, but if you don't use less and then add more to taste. They also make a green curry paste which is milder if you're into that sort of thing)
1 can full fat coconut milk (Again I used Thai Kitchen, I know there's better out there but this is what the place closest to me carries. Just don't use light!)
salt to taste

optional garnishes: lime, cilantro, whipped coconut milk I didn't use any of these but if you were serving this to people you wanted to impress all three of these would make it look prettier/taste better.

1) Heat coconut oil over medium heat in dutch oven, or other soup pot
2) Dice onion and sautee in coconut oil - the evenness of your dice doesn't really matter here, its all getting blended up later
3) Once onions are softened (turned translucent) season lightly with salt and add curry paste, and cook for 30 sec - 1 min
4) Add mango chucks - if you are using frozen cook for about 5 minutes until fruit defrosts and softens a bit. If you are using fresh, I would say you probably only need a minute or two on this step.
6) Add coconut milk and simmer for 3-4 minutes until mixture looks like this:
7) Turn off heat and blend soup with an immersion blender until all the chucks of mango and onion are gone. If you don't have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender, but its way more annoying, harder to clean up, ad more likely to spill, so I think you should probably just get an immersion blender - they are pretty cheap and I use mine all the time.
8) Now you could either eat the soup as it or if you wanted to get all fancy you could run the soup through a fine mesh strainer to make it even smoother and then garnish it with some of the optional garnishes above. Whatever you decide you are in for a tasty bowl of soup. Enjoy!