Tomato Kumato

Indian food in Paris is hard to come by. Actually, scratch that. Indian food isn’t necessarily hard to come by; it’s good Indian–and good ethnic food in general–that seems to have completely evaded a people otherwise obsessed with the culinary arts.

I’d heard a lot of good things about the Passage Brady for Indian, and so when an English friend of Indian decent was in town, I was sure that I would be able to get curry that reminded me of what I got back home. We went and scoped it out, he picked the most authentic-looking place, and we sat down to the best curry I’ve had since I moved to France. It still doesn’t match my favorite Indian place from New York, but it’s a close second.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough. I’m used to being able to get good Indian, not to mention Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, whenever I want. It’s truly one of the only things that I miss about living in New York. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I got this recipe from Well Fed. The aforementioned friend told me it’s technically called Chana Gobi in Hindi (Chana Cobbage-Fool nu Shak in Gujarati, which is the language he speaks with his family), but I’m more than happy to retain the name Curried Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Tomatoes.

If you ever feel the need for a quick Indian fix without having to go out and buy a bunch of spices, this is where you need to go. I used canned tomatoes and chickpeas and frozen cauliflower, so it was one of the easiest recipes I’ve got. And I’m passing it on to you lucky folk. I’m too nice for my own good.
Curried Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 28-oz. can of tomatoes
3 cups frozen cauliflower
1 28-oz. can chickpeas, drained
Kosher salt
Fresh cilantro

For a simple yet delicious broccoli dish that is sure to get you over your cold, head over to Accidental Hedonist.

I don’t know why I’m always so amazed when something from Susan’s website turns out so well. I guess there’s some part of me that, no matter how great everything always turns out, still expects it all to taste like… well… health food.

None of that here. These meals are healthy and filling and tasty, and not once while I ate an entire four full servings of this stew over the past week did I feel like I was eating health food.

This recipe for Berberé Stew was so flavorful and delicious that I didn’t even bother pairing it with a starch like rice, as Susan suggested, or even my beloved injera, the traditional sour Ethiopian bread. I just spooned this stew up plain, and it was perfect.

I had to make a few changes: my spice cabinet is not as well-stocked as Susan’s. Of the spices she included, I used coriander, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. Because I was lacking a few, I added more of the ones I did use. I especially liked the flavor of the cinnamon, and I upped the amount by about double.

To make my life easier, I used canned lentils and whole tomatoes, which is what I had. I ran a knife through the tomatoes in their can before dumping them into the pot, and I actually liked the chunky texture they lent the stew.

All in all, this was a quick and easy meal that I can make from ingredients I always have on hand. It’s definitely a must-try for all of you out there who like Ethiopian food!

It seems like everyone out there in the food blogging world is trying to make the best of their last few tomatoes. Mine are no longer good for just eating with oil, salt and basil like I usually do, and to be frank, the weather doesn’t much make me want to do that anyway.

However, when I saw this recipe for Oven-Dried Tomatoes in oil via one of my favorite foodie blogs, I knew that that was where the last of my summer cherry tomatoes were going. The recipe calls for all sorts of tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes were what I had, so that’s what I used. I also didn’t cut them in half… the recipe didn’t seem too clear on that, so I made an executive decision.

The scent of the tomatoes cooking in the house was overwhelming… so overwhelming, in fact, that I didn’t remember until two hours later (yeah, I just kept mine in there. Might have to do with the not cutting thing.) that I don’t actually like sundried tomatoes. At all. What was I thinking? I stuck them in a bowl, unceremoniously poured some oil over them, and stuck them in the fridge.

I had no idea what I was planning on doing with them until, for some reason, the combination of broccoli, feta and sundried tomatoes came to mind. I’m sure I’ve seen it on a menu somewhere, I don’t remember where, but since I always have multiple kinds of cheese and a ton of frozen veggies hanging around, I threw this meal together for lunch.

It was incredible.

And this coming from someone who usually picks sundried tomatoes out of a dish. The combination of the tomato-infused oil, the feta melting over the hot pasta, and the bright green of the broccoli made this an outstanding and filling lunch. If you don’t have tomatoes to roast your own, I suppose you could use storebought sundried, but I’m heading out to buy the slightly less-than-perfect but still not orange winter tomatoes to make a whole jar of this stuff to eat during the winter.

Pasta with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Broccoli and Feta

 ½ cup uncooked macaroni
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
1 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (I used the bulb of a spring onion because I had it lying around, but a small yellow onion would be fine)
12-15 cherry tomatoes from the Oven-Dried Tomato in oil recipe
1 tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried basil

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the macaroni until al dente. Add the broccoli for the last two minutes of cooking. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat the oil over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté until translucent and sweet, 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the cherry tomatoes and 1-2 tsp. of the oil and stir to heat through.

Add the macaroni, broccoli, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Add about two tablespoons of the pasta cooking water if the macaroni seems dry. Add more if necessary.

Place the pasta on a plate and crumble the feta over the top while the pasta is still hot.

Ever find your way working through a recipe and then realize that you made a big mistake?

Oops! I was supposed to preheat the oven!

Oops! The flour was supposed to be added in batches!

Oops!… You get the picture.

Aside from learning to read a recipe from beginning to end, there are ways to save even recipes that seem ruined.

1. I was supposed to preheat the oven.

First of all, don’t just say “oh well,” and throw the thing into a cold oven. Depending on what you’re making, there are different ways to handle this.

If you’re dealing with meat other than poultry, don’t worry about it. Keep it covered outside the oven until the correct temperature is reached.

For poultry, cover the pan and put the entire thing back in the fridge until it’s ready to be cooked.

For baked goods, you should try to keep them outside the fridge to make sure the baking powder stays active. Just make sure you fluff up the batter a bit (not too much… you don’t want to activate too much gluten in the flour) with a whisk or wooden spoon before pouring into the baking dish and baking.)

2. The flour was supposed to be added in batches.

Flour is supposed to be added in batches with most baked goods so that it doesn’t clump and so that you don’t loose the integrity and texture of the final product by over-mixing your batter. If you accidentally dumped all of your flour into the bowl of batter, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal: using a wooden spoon, gently fold it in using large, sweeping movements. Stir as few times as you can… just until everything is combined. If you’re making something delicate, like a soufflé or angel food cake, I can’t guarantee that it will work perfectly, but for no-nonsense things like quickbread and muffins, you should be fine.

3. I was supposed to grease the pan first.

First, examine how much grease is in the actual recipe. If it’s got a lot of butter or oil, you’ll probably be fine. Also, are you using a nonstick pan? If so, you may not need double-duty grease. When in doubt, just use a rubber spatula to get as much batter back out of the pan as possible, rinse it and wipe it dry, and start from square one. It’s better than worrying for 40 minutes if your cake is going to come out of the oven.

4. The butter was supposed to be softened.

Softened butter and melted butter are not the same thing, and if you’ve forgotten to leave your butter out on the counter to soften for twenty minutes, try this trick.

Place the butter (still in its paper or foil wrapper) on the metal part of the stovetop above the preheating oven. Allow it to sit for two minutes before rotating it so that all four sides have a chance to sit on the stovetop. Then place it in the bowl and whip it a bit to ensure uniform heat throughout the butter.

Remember these?

Last night, they made me change my mind from a recipe for Hasselback Potatoes with Camembert (I’m still going to make it soon… no worries) in order to make one of my tried and true comfort foods, tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce was one of the first things I made on my own. When I first started cooking, I clung to my mother’s recipe like a security blanket, scared to stick my big toe in the water and make the leap to cooking my own things. But as I branched out, bit by bit, I left my old standby by the wayside: it wasn’t the same as my mom’s anyway, and I had bigger and better fish to fry. (Note: I will now stop using weird old expressions. I have no idea where this came from, but it’s weird, and it ends now.)

Tomato sauce is something I crave every once in awhile, but I tend to put my canned tomatoes into other dishes now, like a Lentil Curry I just tried (recipe to be posted soon) or into big pots of chili or minestrone. But there was something in the air last night as I walked home from my night class, and I knew that even melted cheese wasn’t going to cut it for dinner: it had to be tomato sauce.

Making pasta with tomato sauce, for me, is really just an excuse to eat an entire bowl of tomato sauce. The pasta is really for decoration. I made a half-cup (dry) of macaroni and absolutely smothered it in this sauce. It was a little embarassing. And then, as I was putting the rest in a Tupperware for later, I scraped the pot with a wooden spoon and ate it plain. It’s that good.

This particular version of tomato sauce is pretty far from what my mom used to make, but now it’s the real thing for me. It’s evolved over a lot of trial and error and reading other people’s tried and true family recipes. No more comparisons: this is how I like it. I think I finally have my own tried and true sauce.

Not Your Nonna’s Tomato Sauce

Note: When I said yesterday that Alex knows me with reference to the chili peppers, what I meant was, he is very aware of my taste for foods that “pique,” literally, stab. I like my food spicy, and tomato sauce is no exception. If you don’t want all the heat, then by all means, leave out the cayenne powder. The whole peppers bring an element all of their own, and I like the two, but not everyone completely coats their pizza with Tabasco sauce.

1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and cut in half
2 whole cayenne peppers, soaked in a tablespoon of boiling water for five minutes
salt and black pepper
½ tablespoon powdered cayenne pepper
4 tbsp. tomato puree (Note: this isn’t tomato paste, nor is it tomato sauce. It’s reduced cooked tomatoes and it’s pureed and comes in a glass jar. I don’t know what it’s called in English. If you can’t find it, use tomato paste. If you know what it’s called in English, please let me know so I can share the wealth.)
1 28-oz can whole, peeled tomatoes
½ tbsp. sugar
½ tbsp. dried basil

To serve: cook enough pasta in salted, boiling water to serve your party. Drain and move to a serving bowl. Add just a few tablespoons of sauce to the cooked pasta to coat it lightly and toss. Dump the rest of the sauce on top. Serve with cheese for sprinkling.

Believe it or not… tonight’s dinner was three days in the making… and it’s not even what I had on the menu for tonight! How is that, you ask? Well…

Saturday afternoon was Planet (school newspaper) layout day, and on layout day, we traditionally bring in bottles of beverages of the alcoholic variety to sip as we work. Which generally means that by 4:00 in the afternoon, we are a little happier than usual… something that can usually be cured by a quick afternoon nap. This Saturday, however, a little afternoon giddiness turned into a full evening of wine and Sangria, and before you know it, we were in Bastille sipping on piña coladas. Combine that with me deciding that Vélibing from Bonne Nouvelle to my home in the 7th would be a good idea, and that meant that on Sunday morning, instead of waking up bright and early to go to a car show like I was supposed to (again, for the Planet… my God, that paper really controls my life), I was lounging around in bed. Which meant that I was there to hear the phone ring and to answer it when Alex called inviting me to les Journées des Plantes in Courson.

After quickly thinking about whether I would rather go to Courson or write my Rhetoric and Persuasion midterm, I threw my camera and sunglasses into a bag and hopped on the RER C out to Breuillet.

The festival was gorgeous, and I went absolutely camera crazy. To see more pictures and read more about it, head over here. I, of course was distracted by the spices.

Oh, the spices.

This is black Hawaiian salt. I just sort of stood there in awe and looked at all of them, snapping pictures, when all of a sudden, Alex, in all his perfect gallantry, decided to buy me something. And he picked perfectly.

Whole cayenne peppers. My boy knows me. I used them to perk up one of my favorite comfort foods… tomato sauce. Which I will be posting the recipe for tomorrow, because today I’ve already taken up enough of your time.

Check it out here!

I’m always looking for ways to use up scallions (also known as green onions.) It’s always annoyed me that they come in such a huge bunch when I never need more than one or maybe two for a recipe. More often than not, I let them get old and shriveled in the veggie bin until I have to throw them out.

However, there’s something very nice about having an empty fridge: suddenly, the half-empty jar of tomato sauce, the scant amount of bagged shredded cheese, the two lonely sweet potatoes, and yes, even the “what the hell am I going to do with you?” bunch of scallions invite creation. In this case, corn and scallion pasta with feta.

I had been meaning to make a recipe my mom sometimes makes in the summer: corn, scallions, red peppers, tomatoes and fresh basil tossed in vinaigrette. But I kept forgetting and the weather kept getting colder, and before you know it, it just didn’t appeal to me anymore. But for some reason, this pasta dish came into my head, and this afternoon, I decided to invent it for real.

This doesn’t have to be made in the summer, contrary to its summery ingredients. I made it with canned corn and dried basil, so it’s an anytime meal that sends you right back to August and days of fresh corn. I love this light recipe for lunch, and I hope you all try it out the next time you need to use up scallions!

Corn and Scallion Pasta with Feta

1 tsp. olive oil
5 scallions, white and light green parts thinly sliced, dark green parts sliced separately
140 g canned corn
25 g feta, crumbled
½ cup dried short pasta (I used fusilli)
1 tsp. dried basil
salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the scallions and a bit of salt, and sauté until lightly browned. Add the corn and stir to combine. Turn off the heat.

Cook the pasta until al dente and drain. Add to the pan with the corn and scallions and turn the heat back to medium to heat the mixture back up. Season with black pepper and the dried basil.

Plate the pasta and crumble the feta over the top to serve. Serves 1.

One of the first difficulties I faced when I had just started cooking was what to do with leftovers. Menu planning is a skill that takes time to learn: only after knowing several recipes by heart, or at least knowing what flavors complement one another, does it become simple to buy only what you need and find simple ways to use up what is left without having to head to the store.

While I can’t necessarily teach this skill: it’s something you’ll have to do on your own, I can suggest a few tips for how to get rid of things that you have lying around.

When you buy excess of any one ingredient, first try to think of things that complement it. If it’s a vegetable, for example, think of another veggie, a spice or a cheese that it goes well with. An easy way to approach this is through knowledge of international cuisine: basil is a part of Italian and also Thai cuisine. Basil goes well with tomatoes and mozzarella, but also with noodles and peanut sauce.

Once you’ve come up with two or three complementing flavors, you need a vehicle for them. There are several go-to meal options that I always head for when I know that I need to use up ingredients but don’t want to go out to the store.

1. Quesadillas

Leftover ingredients, and even entire leftover meals, are great fillings for quesadillas. Leftover chicken or steak, no matter the seasoning, can be mixed with a mild-flavored cheese like mozzarella or provolone, spread over one side of a flour tortilla, topped with a second tortilla, and heated in a frying pan. Instant dinner!

2. Omelettes

Omelettes are a great way to use up leftover vegetables. Sauté anything you have lying around: portabello mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, onions, leeks… and pour a few beaten eggs mixed with some crème fraîche or sour cream over them. In France, omelettes are served slightly underdone on top, but feel free to do the entire omelette in an all-metal pan and stick it in the oven for the last few minutes. Now you’ve got a frittata!

3. Pasta

Pasta is possibly my most frequent go-to dinner option. I can toss pretty much any leftover meat into a can of tomatoes and add a few seasonings to have a great new tomato sauce. Otherwise, just toss some ingredients together in a frying pan, add the pasta (and a bit of the water the pasta was cooked in to thicken the sauce). Sprinkle some cheese atop the hot dish, and no one will know they’re eating leftovers!