Posts tagged red bell pepper
Old soups are back – Roasted vegetable soup and oregano with tofu croutons…and 300th post!
Jun 10th
Les anciennes soupes sont de retour – Soupe de légumes grillés et croutons de tofu…et 300 ème post!
Yes time flies and I just realized that this is my 300th post! I completely forgot the 100th and 200th…
I knew when I ordered a new washing machine and dryer that something was going to happen and something did happen…today’s delivery has been canceled because they were in back order. So I have to keep running the dryer six cycles to have the clothes dry. I bet PG&E are thrilled and my mom to lift me up, told me “you don’t need a dryer, it ruins all the clothes”. Very few people have a dryer in Europe, so for most Europeans it’s an unnecessary item…let’s not put all Europeans in the same basket, let’s just say for my mom…but I don’t know anyone who has a dryer among my friends and family.
I was somehow disappointed and bummed, and not in the mood for cooking long and complicated meals…and since I had all the ingredients without rushing to my Greek grocery store, there was no question, I was going to make this soup. I used to make it quite often, then for whatever unexplained reason, it stopped appearing on my table…let’s go back to old recipes, sometimes you forget how great they are. This soup is filled with vegetables and is absolutely a, and 100% vegan. The tofu croutons do add this chewy/crunchy texture that blends beautifully with a spoonful of fragrant creamy soup. You can serve this with a tapenade tartine, so the leftover tapenade from yesterday came in handy. The olives complement the flavors of the soup to perfection. For the broth quantities, you will have to adjust it to your tastes, some people like their soup thicker, some people prefer it thinner, so you will have to play around with it.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 eggplant, sliced crosswise
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 zucchini, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and sliced
- 4 tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbs oregano
- 1 tbs olive oil
- vegetable broth
- extra firm tofu
- flour
- fleur de sel
- pepper
Preparation
Grill bell pepper under broiler until the skin get charred. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in slices.
Place all the remaining vegetables in a tray, sprinkle with fleur de sel, pepper and olive oil and broil under broiler. Turn the vegetables both sides to grill them.
Mix bell peppers with the rest of the vegetables, add broth garlic, oregano and using a hand blender, mix to obtain a smooth purée.
For the tofu croutons, cut tofu in small cubes, coat them with flour, remove excess flour. Heat olive oil in a pan saute tofu at high temperature until both sides turn golden brown. Serve in bowls, add tofu croutons in the middle and drizzle with olive oil and extra oregano.
This soup can be eaten lukewarm or hot. If you like it hot, just heat it up on the stove for a few minutes before adding tofu.
Do you know how to play the guitar? – Farro Spaghetti “alla chitarra” with vegetable ragù and ricotta
May 24th
Sai suonare la chitarra? – Spaghetti di farro alla chitarra con salsa all’ortolana e ricotta
I am going back to my roots with this dish. Once in a while, it feels good to go back to old and traditional ways of cooking even if it it can be time consuming. Cooking being therapeutic for me (like for most people who love cooking), when I am stressed, I cook, and the longer, the better. Sundays are perfect for these rituals.
I am in love with my new pasta cutting tool called chitarra. Eventhough it produces a different kind of music, it’s just wonderful lyrics to my ears. Due to its shape and strings it has the same name as the musical instrument guitar (chitarra in Italian means guitar) due it its strings. Spaghetti alla chitarra is my favorite pasta, anytime I am in Italy I buy it and eat them during a whole week. Those are a specialty from Abruzzi and the neighboring regions further South. Basically the strings of the chitarra are the cutting tool. You can either use the rolling pin or your hands to press the pasta sheet on the strings. The two particularities of this pasta is first, you need to have a pasta thickness, similar to the width of the guitar strings, second it’s an egg based pasta.
When using a chitarra, the texture of the pasta is really different, more rugged and thicker since the width of spaghetti is supposed to be the same size as the depth, basically you get square spaghetti.
Chitarra is available in the US at Sur La Table, so for those who are passionate about pasta and want to experiment old ways of making and cutting it, I suggest you try it out.
The dough has 80% farro (or spelt) that’s why you get a darker and golden color and the sauce is vegetarian. The traditional spaghetti alla chitarra from Abruzzi region is made out of a lamb ragù. Of course, you can use your creativity and taste as far as the sauce is concerned. I am still on some vegetarian funk lately, so this worked beautifully for me.
Ingredients for 4
For the pasta dough
- 100 g white flour
- 200 g farro flour
- 3 eggs
- water
For the sauce
- 6 medium size tomatoes on the vine, well ripe, peeled, seedless and chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
- 2 zucchini, diced
- 1 small eggplant, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 small yellow onion
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tbs olive oil
- hot chili pepper (peperoncino)
- basil or oregano
- 4 tbs ricotta
- 1 tbs chopped olives (optional)
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pasta
In a working surface mix flours together, add eggs, and gradually incorporate flour. Add a little water if necessary (if dough is too hard) and knead for about 15-20 min to obtain a round and smooth ball. Wrap in a plastic film and let it rest for about 30 min.
In a flat surface (preferably wood, such as a spianatoia, the Italian flat wooden board to roll the pasta dough), using a large and not tapered rolling pin, roll dough to obtain a thin sheet. You can use a pasta machine if you have not mastered the art of rolling dough. The sheet should be thin but not overly thin, something like 2 mm thick.
When the sheet is ready, take chitarra to cut strings. Place sheet on top of strings and using the rolling pin, roll it from top to bottom of the pasta sheet. The spaghetti will fall into the chitarra, and you just have to remove them. Proceed until you have finished with the sheets.
For the sauce
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add onions and brown them. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper. Cover with lid and let cook until tender but still firm.
In another pot, heat olive oil. Add garlic and stir to get flavors out. Add oregano (or basil) and tomatoes, and cook until the tomatoes are starting to form a thick sauce (about 10-15 minutes). Add chili peppers, salt and pepper.
When the vegetables are cooked, add to the tomato sauce and mix well. If you decide to add olives, add at this point. Add extra olive oil.
Bring a pot of salted boiling water to a boil, add spaghetti. Cook for a few minutes, or until spaghetti come at the surface. Remove from stove and drain.
Place spaghetti in a large pasta dish, pour sauce on top. Serve in dishes with ricotta on top and sprinkle with either oregano or basil. Serve hot.
Chèvre the other way – Breaded goat cheese on a roasted red pepper, honey and balsamic vinegar salsa
Mar 9th
Chèvre, l’autre facon – Chèvre pané et sauce aux poivrons grillés, miel et balsamique
Have you ever felt like a goat cheese appetizer but not on a salad or on toasts? This warm goat cheese appetizer has been one of my favorites, and makes such an elegant small dish with simple and down to earth flavors.
It’s one of those appetizers, that you make regularly because it’s so good and so quick to prepare, you can prepare the red pepper salsa in advance which can be appreciable when you have guests and many courses, then you don’t have to stay in the kitchen while your guest are having a good time in the living room. Since I love to have everything ready when guest arrive and not drink my glass of wine by myself with my vegetables, I had to find recipes that would allow me to do that.
For a long time, goat cheese was not one of my favorites, I thought it was too strong and smelled like a real goat (the same smell you can encounter at the gym, when people don’t use deodorant and have been working out in dirty clothes). I got to appreciate it more while living in Paris, sometimes during the weekend, all you want to do is get out of the crowded city and explore the countryside, see some greenery and breathe fresh air.
During our weekend getaways, we discovered a few goat farms where they raised goats to produce cheeses. Yes, when you enter the farm the goat smell is hard on your nostrils, much worse than cows or horses, and when you leave, you smell like a goat too, but c’est la nature!!..little by little, I somehow got to appreciate the diversity of goat cheeses and their flavors, and now it’s an ingredient I adore.
Ingredients for 4
- 8 slices of goat cheese (1.5 cm thick)
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1.5 tsp honey
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs parsley, chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs sunflower oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup plain bread crumbs
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut the cheese in 1/2 inch thick slices. Whisk egg and dip cheese slices in it, then coat with bread crumbs. Set aside.
Broil red pepper under broiler on all sides until the skin grills and turns dark. Remove from the oven, let it cool and remove the skin and the seeds. Cut in small strips, then in small dices. Set aside.
In a pan, heat olive oil and add shallots, brown the shallots, then add garlic. Cook for another few minutes to get the flavors out. Add honey, cook for a few minutes, then add balsamic vinegar, let it reduce. Add red peppers, stir well and coat peppers with mixture. Add parsley. Remove from heat.
In a pan, heat sunflower oil, brown the breaded goat cheese slices on both sides. When golden brown, remove from heat.
Place 2 slices of goat cheese in a plate and divide the red pepper salsa around them.
Grilled pepper tuna steak with parsley-lemon pesto and medley of vegetables
Jul 24th
Steak de thon grillé au poivre avec pesto de persil et citron – mélange de légumes et pois chiches
I don’t know about you, but I cannot get tired of eating fish and seafood. Ideally, I would like to become a complete vegetarian and stop contributing to the pollution of our planet by consuming animal based food, but I think I have not quite reached that level of dedication, maybe one day, hopefully soon. In the meantime, I will keep playing with fish and seafood and try to come up with wonderful ways to cook it.
Even if Ahi tuna tends to be more popular in restaurants, sometimes, I like the white flesh and lighter flavor of the albacore tuna. Ahi is fattier than albacore and is mainly used for sushis.
As you know, pesto can be made with all kinds of ingredients, this particular kind is parsley-lemon based, the lemon zest flavors the mixture wonderfully and you get this zesty-citrusy taste that goes perfectly well with the fish. You can use leftover pesto to serve with grilled chicken as well, or any white meat such as pork.
Ingredients for 2
For the tuna
- 2 albacore tuna steaks
- 1 tbs coarse black pepper, grinded
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the parsley-lemon pesto
- 1 bunch flat parsley
- 2 garlic cloves
- zest of one lemon
- 3 tbs pine nuts
- olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt and pepper
For the vegetable medley
- 1 fennel head, finely sliced
- 2 zucchini, sliced
- 1/2 can chick peas or 4 tbs of overnight soaked chick peas
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- garlic powder
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pesto, mix all ingredients together in a mixer, and add enough oil to get a smooth consistency. You can keep it in a air-tight container for a couple of days.
Char broiled the red bell pepper in the oven, close to the broiler, and when the skin is dark and grilled, remove from the oven and let cool. Remove peel, and seeds, then cut in strips.
In a grill pan, grill all other vegetables, and place in a container, add chick peas, and red pepper strips. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Grind black pepper and coat the tuna steaks in it. Add salt and balsamic vinegar, then broil under broiler for a few minutes until the tuna is cooked but do not overcook or it will get dry.
Serve with a tbs of pesto on top of tuna and vegetables on the side.
