Tomato Soup

The reason this soup isn't "tomato red", is because it has some hidden veggies of carrots and onions inside.  It may change the color, but it does not make the soup taste like carrots at all.  In fact, carrots sweeten up the soup without having to put sugar in it.  

Serves 4
Ingredients  


 1 Tbs Butter
2 Large Carrots chopped
1 Small Onion diced
1 Tbs of Garlic minced
2C Chicken Stock 
3lbs of roughly chopped tomatoes (about 8 tomatoes)
3 Basil Leaf Stems
5 Fresh Basil Leaves Chopped
2 Tbs plain Greek Yogurt 
1/4C Parmesan Reggiano
Salt to Taste

1.  In a dutch oven or stock pot, melt the butter on medium heat until it browns 
2. Cook onion and carrots in the butter until softened (about 15 minutes) 
3. Add garlic until fragrant 
3. Add the chicken stock then the tomatoes and the basil leave stems to the pot
4. Bring to a vigorous boil
5. Lower heat and let simmer for approx an hour and a half.  Until liquid is reduced in the pot.
6. Blend using a hand blender, or placing the mixture into a blender in batches.
7. Stir in basil, Greek yogurt, and Parmesan Reggiano.  
8. Salt to taste

Enjoy!

Healthy Eggplant Rolatini

  

My garden is currently overflowing with beautiful tomatoes, particularly of the cherry variety.  I also had one gorgeous eggplant come into perfect ripeness over the weekend so I decided it was necessary to showcase my garden's harvest.  

Healthy Eggplant Rolatini with Homemade Cherry Tomato Sauce

Serves Approx. 3

Ingredients for Homemade Cherry Tomato Sauce  
About 1 Pint of Cherry Tomatoes 
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Tbs Dried Basil OR 4 leaves of fresh basil
4 Cloves of Garlic

Ingredients for Eggplant Rolatini
1 Whole Eggplant
1 C Low Fat Ricotta
1/2 Cup Low Fat Shredded Mozzarella
½ Cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 Tbsp Low Fat Milk
1 Tbs Cream Cheese
1 Tbs Dried Basil
Olive Oil for painting

Directions for Homemade Cherry Tomato Sauce

1.  Preheat oven to 400 Degrees

2. Cut all cherry tomatoes in half

3. Season liberally with oil, salt, and pepper.

Tip: Before you put the tomatoes into the oven begin steps 1-3 of the eggplant rolatini and place tomatoes and eggplant in the oven at the same time.  

4. Place seasoned tomatoes cut side down, onto baking sheet and broil under high heat for about 20-30 minutes until slightly browned. 

Tip: Wrap in tinfoil and roast garlic on the same pan for about 4 minutes, set aside.

5. Take tomatoes out of the oven and allow to cool.

6. Once cooled place into a blender with roasted garlic, basil, and if needed a pinch of salt.  

7. Blend on medium speed, for a chunky tomato sauce.

8. Optional: place through a fine mesh strainer to remove tomato seeds.  I do not mind the crunch of the seeds. 

Directions for Eggplant Rolatini

1.       Slice eggplant into ¼ inch slices, I used a mandolin to achieve this.

2.      Paint with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and Pepper

3.      Roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes until lightly browned, then flip over and finish roasting on the other side.

4.      Let eggplant cool enough to touch it.

5.      Combine gently ricotta, basil, cream cheese, milk, parmesan and ¼ Cup of shredded mozzarella together in a small bowl. 

6.      Take a baking dish and spread tomato sauce onto the bottom about ¼ of an inch thick.

7.      Take the cooled eggplant and scoop 1-2 Tbp of the cheese mixture onto the first 1/4^th of a slice of roasted eggplant.

8.     From the same side you placed the cheese mixture on roll the eggplant up to encase the cheese mixture.   It should only overlap about a ½ inch on the bottom if the right amount of cheese was used.  

9.      Repeat this process with the rest of the eggplant.

10.  Sprinkle with remaining half a cup of Shredded cheese.

11.   Place back in the oven and let back for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Blackened Fish Tacos with Salsa Verde and Pickled Red Onions

This is an ode to healthy fish inside of the warm corn tortilla.
I've recently been experimenting with my gas-stove's broiler.  Probably because its the summer, so I've been grilling over an open flame and now that it has been raining relentlessly I need to satisfy the urge to use direct fire elsewhere.

So, instead of pan frying the fish as per my usual blackening methods I used the broiler.  However, I found the results disappointingly similar, so please feel free to interchange them.

I have a general seasoning that I season all of my taco fillings with and this uses that seasoning plus a little extra.  The seasoning for me is a dash of this and a scoop of that so I tried to quantify here: Taco Tuesday Seasoning


Blackened Fish Tacos with Salsa Verde and Pickled Red Onions

Serves 4-5

Ingredients for Fish

2 lbs of Strong White Fish (basa, cod, tilapia, etc)
1 Tbsp Whole Toasted and Ground Cumin
1 tsp Whole Toasted and Ground Coriander
Taco Tuesday Seasoning-replace the cumin with the above hand toasted and ground cumin
2 Tbsp Sofritto
1 whole canned in adobo chipotle pepper

Ingredients for Quick Pickled Onions

1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Cup of White Vinegar
2 Tbsp of White Sugar
1 tps Salt

Ingredients for Salsa Verde

2 Tomatillos
1 Small Jalapeño
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Cilantro
2 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Oil
Pinch of Salt


Ingredients for Toppings (optional)

2 Thinly Sliced Radishes
Shredded Cheese (I blended sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and pepper jack)
Chopped Cilantro
Seared Green Peppers

Directions: 

Pickled Onions
1. Slice onion into lengthwise slices
2. Briefly cook onions in a pan until translucent
3. Transfer onions into a bowl
4. Put white vinegar, sugar, and salt into the pan and bring to a boil
5. Pour over onions or put onions back into the pan so that the liquid fully covers the onions

Salsa Verde

1. Peel and wash the stickiness off of thr tomatillos with soap and water
2. Roast tomatillos and garlic in a pan over medium heat until slightly browned
3. Place tomatillos, jalapeño, cilantro, and salt into a blender and combine. 
4. Slowly add in oil.  The mixture may be slightly too thick.  
5. Add water to create a salsa consistency, not a paste.

Blackened Fish

1. Toast the cumin and coriander in a pan for about 30 seconds until they become aromatic.
2. Grind cumin and coriander into as fine of a powder as possible and mix into Taco Seasoning mixture.
3 . Season fish with salt and pepper then liberally rub the spices all over both sides of the fish.
4.  Combine sofritto and chiptole peppers in blender.
5. Paint sauce onto fish over seasoning
6. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil over high heat until very hot, but not smoking and place fish into sizzling oil.
Tip: Cook fish until you can see the color halfway up the fish (about 3 minutes depending on the type of fish you bought) flip fish and continue cooking until cooked through.
7. Finish with coarse sea salt.

Putting it all together! Dealers choice because it all gets shoved deliciously into you mouth in a bite or two.

But, my personal favorite methodology to construct the perfect taco is:
Taco shell, base of 1 Tbsp salsa verde, fish, top with pickled onion, sprinkle cheese, a few red radishes or green peppers for good crunch, a dash of cilantro to finish it off.
PS for the featured picture below this was late in the night because I was too hungry to take a picture sooner, so there were no more pickled onions or cilantro left.

Enjoy!