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07 Oct Tomato Chutney…

Tomatoes are late this summer (okay, sure it’s officially fall, but I live in San Francisco, so summer just started) and, oh, happy day. My house has been swimming in marinara and all things tomatoey. One fine Saturday a couple of weeks ago, I can home from the farmers market with a backpack filled to the tippy top with heirloom, organic cherry tomatoes. I quickly got to work slicing them all in half – a fair amount getting laid out on trays for the dehydrator (have you had dehydrated cherry tomatoes? So sweet and goooood!!) and the rest tossed into a huge pot for making chutney.

I spliced together a bunch of chutney recipes. I didn’t want anything too sweet, but rather a nice combination of sweet and savory. The key to the final product below is the panch puran. As far as I can tell, it means “five spices” in Bengali. I found a few different versions of panch puran, each using a different mix of spices. The formula below reflects what was already in my cupboard (warning: the recipe measurements makes ~1/2C, but you only need a few tablespoons for this recipe, so either reduce the amounts to make just what you need, or be excited to find other ways to use the leftovers).

This is the perfect project for a day when you’re settled in at home, as the chutney takes a while to cook down. (You could potentially do this in a slow cooker, but the lid will make it harder for the liquid to evaporate and for the chutney to thicken up.)

What I especially love about this recipe:

Its adaptability. In other words, it’s completely to taste. Want it sweeter, increase the molasses or add some honey; want it spicier, add more chili pepper; etc.
Molasses. Blackstrap molasses is the darkest type of molasses. Whereas sugar – regular old white table sugar – is completely void of nutrients, molasses is the nutrient-dense liquid byproduct of the process of refining sugar cane into table sugar. Molasses is rich in manganese, copper, iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. In addition, it is a good source of vitamin B6 and selenium.
No additional sweeteners.
Simple. Six ingredients. Okay, more if you need to assemble your panch puran, but once that’s done and you have a stash of it, you’re all set.
Makes the house smell sweet and spicy (but not cloyingly sweet, the way curry can get).
Versatility. Pour over a log of goat cheese for an appetizer; use as a spread on a sandwich; use to dress up sauteed greens and whole grains; serve on pasta for a twist on “marinara”; use instead of salsa on a veggie quesadilla; etc.

Tomato Chutney

~12 C tomatoes, quartered (halved, if using cherry tomatoes)
~1 C raisins (I prefer golden raisins, but dark raisins work fine)
~1/4 C molasses, or more to taste
1 small chili, fresh or dried
2 generous pinches of sea salt, or more to taste
3 T panch puran (1/4 C fennel seeds, 1 T each crushed cardamon pods, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and corriander seeds)

1. In a large pot, toast dried chili (if using fresh, slice in half lengthwise and clean out seeds and membrane, unless you want the chutney hot-spicy) and panch puran for a few minutes, until the spices become aromatic.

2. Add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a simmer. Cover to expedite the initial break down.

3. Once the tomatoes have broken down – should be very, very juicy in there – add the molasses and raisins. Start conservatively with the molasses and add more as the chutney begins to cook down and thicken. Ditto for salt and panch puran (although, I don’t think you’ll need more of the latter).

4. Simmer with lid off and reduce tomatoes (and the juices) to at least half the current volume. This will take some time (e.g. my “quickest” batch reduced for 6 hours). You’ll have to decide how thick you want your chutney.

5. The skins of the tomatoes will shrivel off the flesh of the fruit as it cooks down. If you want a smoother chutney, use tongs to pull out the skins. It’s tedious work and I only do it until I get bored, largely because it’s tedious work that bores me and because I like the extra texture that the skins give to the chutney.

6. Makes around 6 half-pints worth of chutney. I canned them in sterilized jars and a water bath (clearly the pic below was taken for a much larger batch). I love canning! I love the process and then being able to revisit favorite sauces throughout the year. You can also freeze extras you don’t end up using right away.

20 Jul Holy Corn on the Cob!

I don’t know why I forget every year – until I sink my teeth into my first ear – how much I love fresh corn. It’s always, without fail, a total surprise. A brilliant, delightful surprise. I grew up with boiled corn. Often boiled forever. It was a revelation when my mom toned that down – a mere three minutes in the pot, then done. The corn tasted fresher and crisper. Love. Then my dad started grilling corn. Pre-soaking the ears in water and having to take care that the leaves wouldn’t catch on fire, took some of the grilling joy out of it for me. Tasty but too high maintenance and not really practical for those of us without a grill (or grilling weather – I’m looking at you June gloom).

Deb of the Smitten Kitchen is a inspiration in many, many ways. This summer she published a recipe for charred corn and zucchini tacos that you really should go make right now. Seriously, my ode to corn can wait, go make her tacos and come back.

Hi, again. So, where was I… oh, yes. It was while reading Smitten’s recipe that my brain blew open – you don’t need a grill to roast corn! You just need a flame. Like the one on a gas stove. Inside, in my kitchen. Whoa. So, this summer, instead of waiting for pots of water to boil, or shaking my wool gloved fist at San Francisco’s cold, gray, not-BBQ-weather-at-all skies, I’ve been having my own little grill-outs inside. Best part – besides the smokey flavor – is that I don’t have to wait for the ears to cool like I do with boiled corn. I can chomp and savor the roasted outside and fresh barely cooked inside immediately. (Note, if you’re entertaining for a crowd, this would not be terribly efficient – even if it is delicious. Best for one or two people, unless you let everyone roast their own, like marshmallows.)

Stove Grilled Corn on the Cob

1-2 ears of fresh corn

1. Clean corn; you can keep the leaves and stems on (peeled back to use as a handle of sorts is nice, especially if you don’t have tongs). I am not meticulous about stripping off every last strand of silk for two reasons: first, in general I don’t care if a few strands are left behind, and second, the gas flame will burn off the little bits and pieces anyway. If your corn is already cleaned entirely of leaves and stems, that’s fine, but you’ll just want to use tongs for sure.

2. Turn on gas burner to high. Using tongs or your leaf and stem handle to hold the bottom end of an ear, patiently hold ear of corn over flame, rotating every 30 seconds or so, much like a marshmallow. You can go ahead and set the corn on the burner (again, rotating every 30 seconds or so), but stay close and pay attention so that bit of the corn doesn’t completely burn.

3. When ear is evenly roasted, stop. Serve. Eat. Love.

10 Jul Oat Date Bars…

Another bbq, another quick inventory of my pantry, a glimmer of an idea and fingers crossed for luck. These were actually inspired by some date bars a friend brought camping a couple of weeks ago. I’ve tried to remember to email her for the recipe since then, but no luck. So, this was the perfect opportunity to give it a shot on my own.

When I originally made these, I thought they were pretty sweet, maybe because the flours are on the sweet side, so I’ve reduced the brown sugar a bit below to correct that. Don’t get me wrong, when I cut them too soon and mangled an entire row, I didn’t exactly have to choke down the botched bits. Speaking of sugar… I am sure these would be great with honey, maple syrup, agave or stevia (or a combination of these) as the sweetener, just be aware that the first three will be slightly sweeter to taste than brown sugar, and you should adjust the amount according to your taste buds. Also, the texture of the base and top is slightly crumbly (I increased the coconut oil a bit to help with that). Be sure you can actually press that base layer together and if it’s too crumbly to do that, add a little more melted coconut oil – maybe a tablespoon at a time as you don’t want it too wet either (using a liquid sweetener, instead of the brown sugar, maybe help with the crumble as well).

Gluten-Free Oat Date Bars

1 C dates, pitted
1/4 C warm water
1/4 t nutmeg
1 1/2 C oats (certified gluten-free, if you need to be safer than sorrier)
1/4 C brown sugar, packed tightly
1/2 C sorghum flour*
1/4 C brown rice flour*
1/4 C almond meal/flour*
1/4 C coconut flakes
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 C coconut oil, melted (melted butter will work, too)
1 flax “egg” (1 T ground flax + 3 T water, mixed and set aside for 5 mins to gel)*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8×8 baking dish with a quick spray of canola oil (or your baking spray of choice).

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flours, coconut, baking soda and salt, mix thoroughly with a spoon. Add coconut oil and flax, stirring well to avoid huge clumps. If it feels too dry, maybe add a wee bit more coconut oil – I will likely try 1/2 C next time. Next time, I’ll also try the food processor to pulse it all together and to mix in the wet ingredients more consistently.

3. Place dates in bowl of a food processor (if you use one for the dry ingredients, empty them into a bowl first). Add nutmeg and water. Process until well broken down, but not completely smooth. Scrap down sides at one point so it all gets processed. Take ~1 min total. Set aside.

4. Press half of the oat mixture into bottom of baking dish. Scoop date mixture on top – best to scatter it evenly over top of oats versus one huge clump in the middle (learn from my mistakes) and carefully spread dates (with hands or spatula) to cover oats (wetting your hands may help with stickiness factor). Add top layer of remaining oat mixture, pressing firmly enough to create a solid top, but lightly enough not to completely smash and dislodge other layers.

5. Bake for 20-25 mins – until top starts to golden up a little.

6. Cool completely before slicing into bars (again, my mistake is your fair warning).

Eat ‘em up!

*Two notes: (1) if you don’t care about the gluten-free bit, just use 1 C wheat-based flour instead of the sorghum, brown rice and almond. This may make the mixture less sweet and you may want to up the brown sugar to 1/3 C to compensate. (2) if you don’t have flax, try one egg-worth of Ener-G egg replacer (will keep this vegan) or 1 egg white, instead.