Mozzarella with Tomato Jam

Mozzarella, tomato, and basil is a classic Italian flavor combination. In this version, the tomato is in the form of a jam, which concentrates the natural sweetness of the tomato.

Mozzarella with tomato jam on basil leaf

Here’s a recipe for the tomato jam

2 pints cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup simple syrup (1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar brought to boil)
1 tbsp juniper berries, ground in spice grinder or mortar & pestle
pinch salt
a couple basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 ounce vegetable stock or water

In a small pot, mix the ingredients and bring to a fast simmer (don’t boil). Simmer until the mixture reduces down to a jam-like consistency.

To serve: slice a ball of fresh mozzarella into three or four slices and shingle on left half of plate. On right half of plate, lay down one whole basil leaf. Spoon some tomato jam on top of the leaf. Sprinkle a little sea salt and black pepper over the mozzarella, and serve.

The Weekend That Was

I made a decent enough Sunday roast today. We don’t usually have them in my family, or at least not as people from the UK or the US would expect. For some time now I’ve wanted to try myself at this, and today was the day. A chicken was put in the oven, together with a trayful of vegetables, and all were left to their own devices for the next two hours.

It turned out nicely, if I do say so myself. One minor snag, though, was that the time given in the recipe wasn’t long enough even though I bought a smaller chicken–(not funny, Jamie Oliver!) –I had to pop it back in for another half-hour. After that, it was finally done, and everything tasted fantabulous.

In other news, I started a new short story yesterday, which Steve will be happy to hear, since this is one that we plan to submit for an anthology. The due date for subs is January 15, so we can’t afford to wait much longer if we want to give it our best shot. Anyway, what I want to record for posterity is my realisation that I need to write my way into a story. I’ve never given it much thought before, but it sort of hit me today: the first 500 or so words only serve to home in on the characters and their threads. Knowing this, cutting the beginning will be much easier, since I no longer believe everything is essential.

This story is another example of the way Steve and I work best together: taking a story that’s easily separable into two threads, so that we can write simultaneously. It’s no accident that this applies to all our published stories so far.

And now you’ll have to excuse me. I want to get back to reading the magnificent An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears.

Classic Steak Side Dish: Twice Baked Potatoes

We had these delicious twice baked potatoes with our first steak from White Flower Farm.

The recipe, as written, takes a while but I took a few shortcuts to save time.  I cooked the potatoes in the microwave.  Perhaps the potato skin would have been a tad crisper but I didn’t have an hour to just bake the potatoes.  I also bought a bag of broccoli florets.  Instead of blanching them, I steamed them in the microwave for a minute less than the bag called for.  Lastly, I forgot to buy sour cream so I just added some milk to the potato filling.

The smoked gouda adds a delicious flavor to the potato filling.  You may want to consider it as an addition to your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.  A nice twist on a classic side!

I’ll definitely be making these again!

Neelys Twice Smashed Baked Potatoes
Pat & Gina Neely

• 4 large russet potatoes, each about 3/4 pound each, well scrubbed
• 1/2 pound broccoli florets, blanched
• 4 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar, plus extra for topping
• 1/2 cup shredded smoked Gouda, plus extra for topping
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Butter, for serving, optional

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Pierce potatoes with fork. Place on center rack of oven and cook for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Using a paring knife, cut a canoe-like top out of the potatoes. Scoop the flesh into a large mixing bowl, leaving a 1/2-inch thick wall around the skin.

Add the blanched broccoli to the potatoes. Stir in the butter, sour cream, Cheddar, Gouda, and salt and pepper; and mash until creamy.

Using a small spoon, scoop the filling back into the potatoes. It will be a nice mounded pile of filling. Sprinkle with more of both cheeses on top of the potatoes.

Set the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until heated through and cheese in melted and gooey. Serve with butter, if desired.

Spiced Apple Cake & Baking Tips

This is the first cake recipe I ever tried when I started baking. Spiced Apple Cake is easy to make and super delish! It’s perf to make during the holiday season, or any season, really. As you can see, I’m no cake decorator, but it sure tastes good! I tweaked the recipe by adding a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and vanilla extract. I also used plain cream cheese frosting instead of the one included in the recipe. Here’s the recipe for the cake and the recipe for frosting (use 8 oz. of cream cheese instead of just 4, it’ll be more creamy and less cloying).

Here are my fave baking tips.

1. If a baking recipe (like this one) calls for vegetable oil, use unsweetened apple sauce instead. It cuts out a ton of fat without changing the flavor and still makes the cake, or whatever else you bake, moist.
2. Have a diabetic in the family or just want to cut out sugar? Splenda works great as a substitute, BUT use only half the amount the recipe calls for. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup of white sugar, use only 1/2 cup of Splenda. If you use the same amount of Splenda, whatever you bake will be so sweet that it will be inedible. Trust me on this one.

If you try this recipe, I’d love to know how it turns out. You can even send me pics!

Ready, Steady, Bake

You are only allowed to use ingredients that you already have …. and you haven’t done a proper weekly shop for months…

if you can bear to use some of your cheese ration you can make …

CHEESE STRAWS

but you need to ensure that they don’t all get eaten while they are cooling

there’s an old tin of cocoa here – what can I do with that?

you could substitute it for some of the flour in fairy cakes.

ooh ooh! – I’ve found some flaked almonds

well bung those in as well

chocolate and almonds – nothing weird about that

18 chocolate almond fairy cakes

that’s 9 each

shall we have one now to see if they are OK?

maybe we need another notice?

papas

this is a dish i make variations of pretty frequently. the last time i made it was the morning after my birthday party, when three of us were still there and had gotten heineken and wild turkey and needed some food to balance those out. it got rave reviews

papas

i start by cutting raw, washed potatoes in half lengthwise, then slicing the halves pretty thin (this is important or it will take a while to cook them). iput them in a frying pan with olive oil (in my case, the only thing i have large enough is a wok). i sprinkle on some garlic powder, ground cumin, and black pepper, then i cook them over medium high heat, stirring pretty frequently but not constantly, until the potatoes are starting to look a little more translucent. then i add in some chopped onions and continue stirring occasionally until both the potatoes and onions are pretty well cooked. if the potatoes are still a little too raw, you can cover the pan for a little while to steam them.

then, i turn off the heat and quickly stir in some salsa and salt right at the end. while the potatoes are still hot, grate some cheese on top, and garnish with whatever. today i used sour cream and a fried egg (the egg looks retarded because i didnt’ dry the pan before cooking it so it stuck more than usual…)

Hidden blessings

Yesterday I picked all the tomatoes that were still on my dying tomato plants. I had 5lb of tomatoes – and the vast majority of those were green. I’ve had very few ripe tomatoes this year, considering that I grew twenty plants – there just hasn’t been enough sun.

So I took the 4 1/2 lb of green tomatoes and made green tomato chutney. It’s one of my favourites – great with cheese and cooked meat and all the usual things that chutney is good with. I also like it with lentil dhal and rice.

Here’s the recipe – because I had more tomatoes I made half as much again – this makes about 3lb.

1lb cooking apples
2 onions, peeled and grated
3lb green tomatoes, thinly sliced
8 oz sultanas
8 oz demerara sugar
2 tsps salt
3/4 pint malt vinegar
4 small pieces dried root ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or a fresh chilli, deseeded and finely chopped, if you like it spicy)
1tsp mustard powder

Peel, quarter and core apples and grate finely.
Put into large pan with all ingredients.
Bring slowly to boil stirring occasionally to make sure sugar dissolves.
Simmer for about 2 hours until reduced and no excess liquid remains
Discard ginger
Spoon into warmed sterilised jars. Once cooled, cover, with vinegar proof tops.

Because I had cherry tomatoes, I left some of the smaller ones whole – this gives a lovely texture to the chutney. I also didn’t realise that I had almost run out of sultanas, so I had to use mixed dried fruit that I’d bought for my Christmas cake. I picked out the cherries and dried pineapple, and it seems to be OK. I was worried about the peel, but it’s not detectable.

So, from lack of sunshine I get lots of lovely chutney. Truly a silver lining to the many clouds we’ve had this year.