Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes for lunch ...

 
So many delicious tomatoes, so quick to turn into sensational dishes.
Tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes for lunch ...
Hidey hi,
Anyone who knows me knows I am an unashamed tomato addict. If I haven’t eaten them today, I’ll surely eat them tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. I love them for their taste, and their versatility, and I love them for their beauty. No, I’m not doing a Leonard Cohen take-off, and nor am I talking about those even shaped, even coloured globes on supermarket shelves, I mean real tomatoes, sweet or tangy, red, green, orange or yellow, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Mike Dunleavy of Low Flying Ducks Onetangi (021 1854112) grows some fabulous tomatoes here on Waiheke Island at
Te Motu Vineyard. His garden is currently a riot of colour with tomatoes of every hue. I’ve featured 7 this week, but there are plenty more. Once I started chopping, slicing and tasting I got on a roll and only stopped when I ran out of tomatoes. There’s no recipes – just grab a bunch of great tomatoes, add a bit of this and a bit of that and make them the star of the plate. Go for a contrast of colour or texture, ramp up the sweetness or add tangy bursts, or just make them big and bad, rich and oily, and strike an occasional jaw-dropping combo …Whaaaa? Green tomatoes, nectarines and kaffir lime leaves? Yup.

Aunt Ruby’s German Green – shock your auntie with a smattering of jalapeno and white nectarine on a bed of sliced green tomatoesBig Rainbow – Bring on the blackboy peaches … this salad is looking nice and gay!Thessanoliki – Greek style eggplant and tomatoes – you just need breadSicilian ­– nicely stacked with feta and basilJaune Flamme – Oh-la-la Frenchified corn and olives
Tigerella – tame the stripes and stick these ones on tomato sourdough
Black Krim – match these beauties with black garlic

Enjoy the summer – or if you are in northern climes, make the most of Shared Kitchen’s expanding recipe repertoire by reversing the seasons to suit you by delving into the archives on the right-hand side of the
Home Page under what would be your summer months, June/July/August, to find wintery dishes to warm you up.Info for Cooking Classes here. And a pic of my home-grown Waiheke Island Black Krim tomatoes. They're my fave!
Catch you next week!
Julie

Roasted Kale Sprouts


DavidLebovitz

Roasted Kale Sprouts
David, 27 Feb 

Delicious kale sprouts, roasted in the oven, is an easy recipe that makes these fresh little sprouts take on a wonderful flavor with a crisp nutty texture.

For the longest time, we didn’t get kale in Paris. As the crinkly greens with the tough stems zoomed in popularity in the U.S., those of us used to, and craving, the rugged flavor of these branchés (plugged-in, or trendy) bunches, were out of luck. I remember chancing across some curly kale in a natural foods store over in the 5th arrondissement, and sweeping the whole shelf of it into a bag, stuffing it all inside, and bringing it to the register. The cashier looked at the bag, then looked at me, and said, “Vous êtes…américain, monsieur?”
Indeed I was. But now, Paris has firmly gotten on the chou kale bandwagon and although it’s mostly green curly kale you come across, you can sometimes find red kale and even Tuscan (lacinato) kale at outdoor markets, and even in some supermarkets as well as the frozen food chain, Picard. And, being Paris, where trends are often taken to the extreme, there’s even a Miss Kale café.


Much of it is due to Kristen Beddard, who made it her mission to get growers to plant kale, as she chronicled in her engaging and delightful memoir, Bonjour Kale. But I was surprised last week at my local market when I saw these tiny bunches of what looked like mini cabbages, or over-developed sprouts, and brought a bag home. I’d asked the vendor what they were called and he didn’t know. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, “les pousses”, an all-encompassing name for “sprouts.”
Continue Reading Roasted Kale Sprouts...
   

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Thursday, February 23, 2017

Finest fig desserts, salads and more


 
February 24, 2017
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Gourmet Traveller
 
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Celebrate the height of fig season: top an iced honey mascarpone cake with honey-drizzled figs, toss them through a prosciutto and pear salad or switch up your next cocktail with the lush fruit.
 
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