Grilled Green Tomatoes, An Accidental Dish

It’s always an accident. At some point during my garden duties of tying up the tomato vines on the trellis, I inevitably bump a healthy green tomato and watch it fall to the ground. Darn it. There’s nothing more frustrating than to watch a beautiful heirloom tomato grow to it’s perfect shape and never see it to it’s full ripened stage. My clumsy hands somehow manage to break tender vines that are laden with tomato flowers and accidentally bump green tomatoes off the plants. It’s for reasons like these that Todd and I find the excuse to grow about twenty heirloom tomatoes because not only are we “slightly” obsessed, but also to balance out all the green tomatoes that fall to the ground.

I’ve pickled many-a-green tomatoes and Todd has churned out several batches of fried green tomatoes. But this afternoon, after staring at two beautiful green heirlooms that bumped to the ground, I decided to do something different. My motto for lunch was : Grill-it-Green.

The grill was heating up for a Vietnamese pork lunch and with some leftover marinade, I decided to to just lather the slices of green tomato in the sauce and throw it on the grill. What did I have to lose? If I didn’t like the taste of it, at least I tried to make use of fallen green fruit. My marinade was simple and garlicky and if it was good enough for pork, I felt that it would be good enough for two humble and plump green tomatoes.

Oh my. Why didn’t I grill green tomatoes before? Why oh why did this just come into my life now?

Every bite was a delicious surprise. I wasn’t really expecting much out of this last minute dish. Because I’m so partial to pickled green tomatoes, I didn’t think any other green tomato variation was better. Boy, was I wrong and Todd and I ate every single slice on our plates. The combination of a savory marinade combined with the char of the bbq equals perfection on a green tomato.

Grilled green tomatoes are a wonderful Summer dish to add to burgers, salads or even just as a side dish. I’m excited to just try a slice of grilled green tomatoes on my next burger. Now that, is a dish that’s on my next party menu.

Grilled green tomato salad with feta cheese and herbs? Grilled green tomato grilled cheese sandwiches? Grilled green tomato chutney? Grilled green tomato caprese?

My mind is already churning like mad for all the possibilities for green tomatoes. And you know what that means? Having to “bump” a few more green tomatoes off their vines. Ooooops. Darn it.

hugs,

diane

Yield: Serves 3-4

Total Time: 30 min

Cook the tomatoes to the texture that you like. I don't like them too soft. I usually grill them to where they still hold their shape and not falling apart. How thick you cut your tomatoes will determine how long they will cook

About 2 pounds of green tomatoes1/3 cup cooking oil, such as grape seed oil or olive oil3 cloves garlic, minced1 teaspoon brown sugar1 1/2 Tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce or Worcestershire saucefresh cracked black pepper to tasteHeat grill and slice green tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick.In medium bowl, combine oil, garlic, brown sugar, black pepper and fish sauce (or soy sauce or Worcestershire)Add green tomatoes slices to bowl and evenly coat all the slices with the marinade.Grill each side of the tomato till your desired texture (about 2-4 minutes on each side). How thick you slice your tomato will determine how long it cooks.Serve as a side dish, on burgers or chopped in a salad

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In Transition Meal: Tomatoes, Figs & Salute to Summer

I’m not going to allow September to leave me so quickly. August slipped through my hands like a silent kiss in the night and before I knew it, everyone was bidding Summer adieu.

Admist our hectic August calendar and new studio build out, my wandering brain didn’t fully register that we touched into September. Waking up over the last few mornings I sensed a change at dawn’s rising. The air greeted me with a slightly cooler breath. I grabbed a sweater. The stone garden pathways were chilly against my toes. I slipped on my garden sneakers.

garden black zebra heirloom tomatoes & strawberry figs

At that moment, the realization that September had arrived finally hit me. I stood underneath our pomegranate tree, staring at the dangling red globes of fruit and sensed that Fall was in sneaking quietly behind me, making me un-aware that Summer never really said it’s formal goodbyes.

But I’m not feeling lost that Summer is over. I refuse to let Summer leave me completely.

This is a transition period now and that’s what I’ll refer to this moment as. I’m not fully ready to embrace Fall’s arrival, nor am I going to succomb to packing up my Summer tank tops and white shoes. Although regardless of the season, I’m guilty of fashion faux pas by wearing white shoes year round. I believe in white shoes.

Our garden is equally in transition right now. The last of the sweet heirloom tomatoes remain sweetened on the vines. Nectar sweet strawberry figs are dropping like honey bombs for the birds to feast on. And finally, Fall’s pomegranates are becoming more beautiful by the day with their deep red hues reminiscent of Autumn colors.

This meal is our transition meal and embraces everything amazing at the end of one warm glorious season to the beginning of a new, rich Autumn. Thick slices of sweet heirloom tomatoes, sticky sweet figs, thin slices of fatty charcuterie and a few snowfalls of sea salt make a wonderful transition meal. It’s a meal full of flavors, textures and meaning.

Often times when we look at our platter, there’s plenty of stories that can be told with each ingredient. What we eat should nourish us with a bit of history, emotion and story. For us, this transition meal is one of them.

Hope you all had a wonderful Summer.

I’m still embracing Summer for a bit while longer while reaching out to welcome Fall.

- Diane

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Pan fried Salmon Fillets with tomatoes and sage butter sauce

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Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

Well, to begin with, thank you, dear readers, for being very patient with me on this blog. I really can’t believe it’s been over three weeks since I’ve last posted. Or the fact that it’s almost April. Or that I didn’t even take the subway or go into Manhattan for two weeks, which, as a New Yorker, seems very strange.

What I did do was spend an sizeable portion of the month in my apartment, working on the manuscript for my cookbook for an upcoming deadline. As luck would have it, I also caught the flu from goodness knows where. It was a pretty bad one, which even DayQuil and juice and attempts at R&R couldn’t do much to alleviate. So that also put a damper on any blogging plans or extra cooking.

But enough with the excuses. The good news that I’m turning in a hefty chunk of the book this week…yay for milestones! There’s still some last minute editing to be done, and much more recipe-testing and writing in the coming months. But I’m considering baking a cake once I email this baby off, just because. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing recipes for more desserts on this blog in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’ve been perusing my cookbooks for ideas for easy side dishes to get me in the mood for warmer weather. Ideally, I could also snack on them when recipe-testing stir-fries, which I have been doing a lot of lately. Yesterday, while looking through Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking, I hit jackpot on one of the last few pages. It was a recipe for sweet and sour tomatoes, an incredibly easy salad-like side dish that also seemed chock-full of flavor. The ingredients? Tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, fish sauce. That’s it. As far as I can tell, fish sauce is a fine ingredient that doesn’t get used enough in salads outside Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

I made a few big changes to the book’s recipe, such as significantly reducing the amount of liquid, which seemed overwhelming for the number of tomatoes. I also substituted shallots for onions because of the slightly sweeter natural flavor, and used cider vinegar instead of malt vinegar for a fruitier flavor to the sauce. There was no mint in the original recipe, but it just seemed to fit. And wow, these tomatoes turned out so well, with such a great mellow balance of sweet and sour flavors, that wedge by wedge, they slowly disappeared before my chicken stir-fry was done. 

I can’t even wait to try it with the candy-like heirloom tomatoes that show up everywhere late summer. It’ll be like an appetizer and dessert in one, and a perfect snack if I happen to be holed up in the apartment again, cooking and typing away.       

________________________________

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

Serves 3 or 4 as an appetizer or side dish, or 1 tomato enthusiast as an afternoon snack

1 shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 medium tomatoes
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped mint

1. In a small bowl, toss the sliced shallots with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and a pinch of the salt. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Slice the tomatoes into wedges, removing the hard cores. 

3. In another small bowl, mix together the cider vingar and fish sauce with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar and the remaining salt. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the cider vinegar mixture and wilted shallots. Sprinkle the chopped mint on top and serve.

________________________________ 

More vegetarian appetizers and sides:

Pumpkin Hummus

Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Tomato Egg Drop Soup 

Eggplant, Cumin, and Black Bean Salad

Shandong-Style Asparagus 

Sichuan Cucumber Salad

Baked Eggs with Saffron and Cumin

Tagged as: Appetizers, Chinese, Recipes, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

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Stuffed Tomatoes w/ Quinoa, Soft Tofu inspired by 101 Cookbooks “Super Natural Every Day”

The sun has been very kind to us over the last week. We had two fabulously warm days to dry out all the dampness that late Winter left behind. Indeed, we’re very lucky to be living in warm Southern California weather where our garden basil is looking fantastic and we are getting some early season tomatoes at the market.  And somehow, we got our hands on Heidi Swanson’s new Super Natural Everyday cookbook.

Honestly, today’s post isn’t meant to make anyone envious. We just kinda won the weather, produce & cookbook lottery!

We’ve been nurturing some tender baby basil plants and even this early in the season, it’s never too early to pick a few leaves and indulge in what Summer will soon offer.

It must be from all the vitamin E we’ve been getting from the sun because when ever the warmth arrives,  we’re craving tomatoes, basil and whole grains. How perfectly planned was it to have Heidi’s book with a stuffed tomato recipe waiting with our name on it? It’s stuffed tomato karma, that’s what it is.

Heidi’s latest kitchen labor of love is certainly felt in Super Natural Every Day. It’s a gorgeous book that feels so honest and real for her love of natural foods.

Without a doubt, every recipe is sure to be a winner. Each page is filled with her amazing images and nourishing recipes. You don’t even miss the meat when you look at her graceful textures of ingredients and grains.  The focus on fresh produce and perfectly spiced flavors sings from every page. Besides, we all should get back to eating more whole grains and vegetables every day. We’ll all feel super natural together!

In Super Natural Every Day Heidi developed a terrific stuffed tomato recipe with couscous. It was hard not for us to not immediately dive into making it. Without looking to see if had all the ingredients available, we started picking some basil from the garden and began the recipe. But shame on us for not checking the list because we didn’t have most of the main ingredients in the recipe.

So instead, we improvised with what we had in our pantry. Heidi’s original list calls for couscous, yogurt and harissa. We didn’t have any of those, so instead we replaced them with quinoa, soft tofu and homemade hot sauce.

The stuffed tomatoes turned out perfectly! The recipe was quite easy to adapt to what ingredients we had on hand and we were so pleased with the results. The tofu added extra protein, and the quinoa gave a satisfying bite, not to mention the great crunch of the top layer of quinoa.

Like we mentioned, we’re not wanting all you cold weather friends to be jealous because we’re certainly envious of all your great snow. But hopefully this recipe will give you something to celebrate in a month or so when your weather brings warmer sunshine, tomatoes and basil.

Enjoy,

Diane

super duper natural ingredients

wonderful meal!

 Print This Recipe

Stuffed Tomatoes with Quinoa, Soft Tofu, basil, shallots
adapted from 101 cookbooks, Super Natural Every Day

We substituted the original whole wheat couscous in the recipe with quinoa, which still turned out great. The quinoa on the top layer of the tomatoes became a nice crunchy texture. **The size of the tomatoes will greatly vary the cooking times and how long it will take the quinoa to be fully cooked in the center of the tomatoes. Continue checking the middle of the tomtoes to ensure that the quinoa is cooked.

We also substituted soft tofu instead of yogurt and hot sauce instead of harissa from the original recipe.

Ingredients:

6 medium-large, ripe red Tomatoes. Each tomato should average about 5 ounces each.1/2 cup of silky soft Tofu1 tablespoon of  Hot Sauce, to your preferred taste1 tablespoons of extra virgin Olive Oil, plus a little to drizzleabout 12 fresh Basil leaves, chopped2 shallots, minced1 teaspoon Soy Sauce1 Garlic Clove, finely minced1/2 cup of Couscous or Quinoasea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 350º F and place rack in middle of oven. Butter or oil a medium baking dish or of the size where the tomatoes will fill and just lightly be touching each other in the pan.

2. Carefully, using a serrated knife, cut the tops of each tomato, allowing enough room for you to spoon in the mixture. Work over a large bowl, scoop out the flesh of each tomato. If needed, break up any large chunks of the tomato flesh. Arrange the hollowed out tomato shells in the greased baking dish. Lightly brush the outside of the tomatoes with a bit of olive oil.

3. For the filling, combine 2/3 cup of the tomato flesh & juice, tofu, hot sauce, olive oil, most of the basil, shallots, soy sauce, salt, black pepper and garlic in a bowl. Add the quinoa and stir until all ingredients are combined. Adjust the filling to your acquired taste with salt and pepper. Using a spoon, fill the stuffing in the tomatoes till the tomatoes are almost full.

4. Bake the tomatoes for about 50-60 minutes, or until the quinoa is cooked. The tomatoes will start to wrinkle and brown. If this happens before the quinoa is fully cooked, then cover the tomatoes with aluminum foil and continue cooking the tomatoes until the filling is full cooked. The top layer of quinoa on the tomatoes will be slightly crunchy.

5. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and remainder of the basil. Serve warm. Serves about 6.

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Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

Well, to begin with, thank you, dear readers, for being very patient with me on this blog. I really can't believe it's been over three weeks since I've last posted. Or the fact that it's almost April. Or that I didn't even take the subway or go into Manhattan for two weeks, which, as a New Yorker, seems very strange.

What I did do was spend an sizeable portion of the month in my apartment, working on the manuscript for my cookbook for an upcoming deadline. As luck would have it, I also caught the flu from goodness knows where. It was a pretty bad one, which even DayQuil and juice and attempts at R&R couldn't do much to alleviate. So that also put a damper on any blogging plans or extra cooking.

But enough with the excuses. The good news that I'm turning in a hefty chunk of the book this week...yay for milestones! There's still some last minute editing to be done, and much more recipe-testing and writing in the coming months. But I'm considering baking a cake once I email this baby off, just because. Don't be surprised if you start seeing recipes for more desserts on this blog in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I've been perusing my cookbooks for ideas for easy side dishes to get me in the mood for warmer weather. Ideally, I could also snack on them when recipe-testing stir-fries, which I have been doing a lot of lately. Yesterday, while looking through Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, I hit jackpot on one of the last few pages. It was a recipe for sweet and sour tomatoes, an incredibly easy salad-like side dish that also seemed chocked full of flavor. The ingredients? Tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, fish sauce. That's it. As far as I can tell, fish sauce is a fine ingredient that doesn't get used enough in salads outside Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

I made a few big changes to the book's recipe, such as significantly reducing the amount of liquid, which seemed overwhelming for the number of tomatoes. I also substituted shallots for onions because of the slightly sweeter natural flavor, and used cider vinegar instead of malt vinegar for a fruitier flavor to the sauce. There was no mint in the original recipe, but it just seemed to fit. And wow, these tomatoes turned out so well, with such a great mellow balance of sweet and sour flavors, that wedge by wedge, they slowly disappeared before my chicken stir-fry was done. 

I can't even wait to try it with the candy-like heirloom tomatoes that show up everywhere late summer. It'll be like an appetizer and dessert in one, and a perfect snack if I happen to be holed up in the apartment again, cooking and typing away.       

________________________________

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

Serves 3 or 4 as an appetizer or side dish, or 1 tomato enthusiast as an afternoon snack

1 shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 medium tomatoes
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped mint

1. In a small bowl, toss the sliced shallots with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and a pinch of the salt. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Slice the tomatoes into wedges, removing the hard cores. 

3. In another small bowl, mix together the cider vingar and fish sauce with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar and the remaining salt. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the cider vinegar mixture and wilted shallots. Sprinkle the chopped mint on top and serve.

________________________________ 

More vegetarian appetizers and sides:

Pumpkin Hummus

Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Tomato Egg Drop Soup 

Eggplant, Cumin, and Black Bean Salad

Shandong-Style Asparagus 

Sichuan Cucumber Salad

Baked Eggs with Saffron and Cumin

View the original article here