Shiny Tomato

Tomatoes and eggs make a perfect match in Chinese cooking …good colors, texture, taste, etc.

One of the most authentic homemade Chinese dishes is called tomatoes with scrambled egges [西红柿炒鸡蛋]. Likewise, they both often appear in dinner soups like this one I will show you today… ah, pictures first, hehe

Beautiful & Delicious!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago…well, been a bit busy lately. So I was in a mood for some soup at the end of the dinner and this came to mind as the most convenient choice. In no time, it was on the table - and I was heavenly satisfied

What you need:

• 1 fresh tomato (best to use cluster tomato, not rome tomato for better taste), diced
• 1 egg stirred
• cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 1 can of Swanson vegetable broth
• a few slices of fresh ginger root
• maybe 2 tablespoons of corn starch mixed with cold water, well stirred

How to make the soup:

1. In a sauce pan, drop a drizzle of oil
2. When the pan gets hot, put in the ginger slices, stir - then tomatoes
3. Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to be softened, and the juice is out - pour half a can of vegetable broth, cover and bring to a boil
4. Stir the mixture of corn starch and water very well before adding to the soup base
5. Than add the stirred egg using one of the two ways: (1) drop the egg mixture into the pot through a chopstick; or (2) drop the egg mixture directly into the pot, but quickly stir the soup to create the “egg flowers”
6. Let it soup simmer for a minute and turn the heat off before dropping in the chopped cilantros
7. Yummy - enjoy! The taste of the soup comes from the ingredients, you may add salt/pepper to your own taste if it is too light for you…

Breakfast is an important meal, as anyone who thinks they know lots will tell you. On holiday, though, breakfasts seem to get a little lost… you stay up half the night and sleep half the day, you arise like a zombie when the sun gets too bright to sleep through, and pretty soon you realise you are very hungry. So you toddle off to the kitchen for… breakfast? Lunch? Brunch? Something else entirely? Who knows. For me, the meal is a blend of all of those… it isn’t breakfast because it’s too late, it’s too early for lunch but whatever I eat will probably replace lunch because I’ll still be full well past lunch time, and who cares about dinner because it’s too far away to think about. But whatever the name, the “holiday breakfast” is a beautiful thing. You have plenty of time - no rushing off to school, work or university/college. You have the inclination - you’re not doing anything else all day! You usually have plenty of ingredients because you have all the time in the world to shop and want plenty of awesome foods on hand while you sit and be lazy. So with time, inclination and ingredients, the world is your (vegan) oyster.* Holiday breakfasts are awesome! Here are a couple I recently experimented with:

Tofu Scramble (Spinach, Avocado, Cheese)

Spinachy avocadoey tomatoey tofu goodness

Me being me, I made some changes to this recipe.
I added some tomato and garlic, replaced the soy cheese with wholegrain mustard, and sprinkled savoury yeast over the top.

Definitely the best tofu scramble I have made so far!

EEE-ZEE-CHEE-ZEE Grilled Cheeze

Healthier than your average grilled cheese sandwich...except for the frying bit

I used the recipe above for the cheezy sauce, but a plain grilled cheeze sandwich is so boring!
I added tomato, shallots, avocado and mustard - heavenly!

That’s it for pictures for now. As my holiday continues, prepare for more kitchen carnage and holiday breakfasts!

* I’m sure they exist somewhere. They have vegan everything else. Turkey, duck, bacon, etc… I never actually saw much point in fake meat. But then I never saw the point of meat full stop, so fake meat seems even odder. Except for vegetarian sausages. No offense to vegetarians and vegans who like fake meat a lot, that’s cool, I just think other stuff tastes better. But if I ever find a vegan oyster I will be sure to try it. Just so that I can say I did it

More reddening tomatoes

That was quick. It’s only a week since my tomato harvest started to color up, and now lots of tomatoes are getting red. Last year’s batch took a lot longer; I had tomatoes slowly, slowly blushing pink until January.

You may notice that I’m carefully not saying “ripening.” While the color is nice, I have to admit they don’t taste like much. But they sure are pretty.

Divino is a little piece of hidden heaven tucked away in a corner of Brentwood.  And I’m so glad I found it!

Now, I don’t usually give restaurant reviews unless the dessert is fantastic, or there’s something really interesting, but this place was so fantastic, I have to share with everyone  (for those of you who don’t live near LA, I’m sorry, you’re just going to have to salivate over my photos)!

This restaurant is not the easiest to find unless you know where it is or are specifically looking for it.  Its hidden inside a little alcove inside another alcove in a corner of Sunset and Barrington in Brentwood, Los Angeles.  Its in a festively cozy dining area surrounded by other little known delicious eats; it almost looks like a piece of Europe in the middle of Brentwood.  Divino is located next to a bright, futuristic-looking Pinkberry, which looks ridiculously out of place among the other nostalgic homey eateries in the plaza.  The restaurant is cozily fancy,  atmospheric-ly candlelit, and reminded me of Diane Lane’s “Under the Tuscan Sun” (I’ve never been to Europe, so I always have to compare to movies!).

Divino specializes in Italian cuisine, and is as authentic as it gets (according to my European international student friends).  The owners are an impeccably dressed, gorgeous couple from Italy.  They are the nicest and so charming!   I wish I had taken a picture with them, because they look like they just stepped out of a James Bond film.  My Croatian friend and I had a fabulous, lazy, European-style-drawn-out, delicious, satisfying (a little too satisfying) dinner there.  Every dish was incredibly fresh and perfectly portioned.

One of my favorite parts about Divino (other than the food, the charming owners, and everything else, hahaha) is the menu.  There is a dinner menu, but we barely touched ours.  Like in Europe, Divino has a person who walks around to every table and announces the (numerous) specials of the night; basically, a live menu.  The owners also walk around with recommendations from the menu and the specials.  Everything we had that night were specials or recommendations.

We started off with a cheese-based salad.  The salad was made up of spring greens and roasted bell peppers on top of a bed of young cheese (similar to goat cheese) with a generous slice of proscuitto.  The salad was dressed up with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Look how gorgeous it is!!!

proscuitto salad

For appetizers, we had a chutneyish tomato and young cheese soup.  I really liked this!  It went really well with the foccacia bread they bring you.

tomato tip

 Our first entree of the night was spinach rigatoni with chicken and porcini mushrooms.   The flavorful spinach pasta sauce was absolutely delicious, and the most beautiful forest green color.  

spinach pasta with chicken and porcini mushrooms

After the delicious pasta, we were still salivating over the menu and specials, so we ordered another entree.  For our second entree, we had salmon and capers with a side of greens and tomatos  (the salmon that comes with your order is usually twice the size of my  salmon pictured; I specifically asked for half a salmon fillet because I wanted to save room for dessert!).  The salmon was perfection, and I really wish I  had ordered an entire fillet.

salmon with capers

 And then dessert!  My favorite  part!!  We had the tiramisu and the apple tart (pictured above) with vanilla caramel sauce.  I was in LOVE with that vanilla caramel sauce.  It was the perfect combination of the caramel and vanilla flavors; neither one overpowered the other.  I  could drown in that sauce.   And the tiramisu was fantastic, too.  The mascarpone filling was the lightest and fluffiest ever.  The tiramisu just melted in my mouth.

tiramisu

 This place really is divine.

Divino
11714 Barrington Ct.
Brentwood, CA 90049
(310) 472-0886

Tips for diners:  Even though this is a neighborhood restaurant, the place is always packed!  Divino’s has many loyal regulars, as the prices are low for the quality you get.  I would definitely recommend making reservations.

My neighbor, Nate, and I ate this the other night while watching The Birds. I requested it so often growing up that my family started calling it “my pasta” (or “your pasta”). I have never seen this exact combination in a pasta anywhere else. It is pretty much my favorite thing to eat and Nate was very impressed.

Caroline’s Pasta
8oz fresh mozzarella, chopped
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 3oz jar capers
fresh basil, chiffonade
3 cups pasta (penne and farfalle are good for this)
olive oil (enough to coat the ingredients)
salt and pepper, to taste
grated parmesan
 
Mix the fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, capers (with brine), fresh basil, and olive oil in a bowl. Ideally you should let it sit and marinate for a couple hours. Cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions. Drain and combine with the other ignredients in the bowl. Season and sprinkle with grated parmesan. It can be served warm or at room temperature. Makes 6 servings.

I just learned that if you microwave a tomato, it explodes!  I don’t recommend doing it at work.

I invented this salad a few days ago, and I think I am addicted. Seriously. I adore the different shades of green and white, the unmistakably Japanese flavours combined with fresh spring vegetables, the way it’s cool and spicy all at the same time - it’s my new favourite lunchtime treat. So here I present: pictures for you food voyeurs and a recipe for those of you who like to look AND touch. And, of course, eat. Because it’s yum.

Japanese Fresh Spring Salad

Crunchy, cool, spicy and fresh - perfect!

Salad:
2 leaves crisp cos lettuce
1 sheet nori (the seaweed you use to wrap sushi)
A handful of diced cucumber
1/2 tomato, diced
2 small button mushrooms, diced
1/4 avocado, diced
1 new potato, cut into relatively small pieces
3 florets broccoli
3 spears asparagus

Dressing:
3 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil*
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon wasabi (to own taste)

Steam the potato until nearly cooked, then add the broccoli and asparagus and continue to steam until bright green and tender.

Rinse the nori in cold water to make it supple. Cut the lettuce and nori into strips roughly the same width and combine in a bowl or on a plate. Add the cucumber, tomato, avocado, and mushrooms and toss or arrange salad.

Cut the broccoli and asparagus into smaller pieces if desired, and add to the salad.

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together. Be careful with the wasabi - I like a lot, make sure you don’t add too much for your taste!

Serve the salad with the potatoes on the side and sprinkle the dressing over everything.

Enjoy!

*Can be left out for a lower fat version.

Ingredients:

Moong daal 1 cup

Rice 2 cups

Spinach leaves 8-10

Cumin seeds 1 tbl spn

Huldi /turmeric -1 tbl spoon

Hing/asafoetida ½ tbl spn

Salt

Potato 1 coarsely chopped

1 tomato coarsely chopped

Onion 1 coarsely chopped

Butter or ghee-2 tbl spoon

Red chilly powder -1 tbl spoon (optional)

Ginger, garlic, green chilly paste 1 tbl spn,

Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:-

wash spinach leaves and keep in salted water for few min.

wash moong daal and rice and keep soaking for 10 min.

chop spicach leaves coarsely .chop onion and potato.

Heat butter in  pot and add cumin seeds and ginger, garlic ,green chilly paste.

Stir for min and add coarsely chopped onion, potato and red chilly powder  fry for 3-4 min. Add spinach.

Remove water from rice and daal and add in pot.

Pour 6-7 cups of water and cook for about 20 min.

Garnish with chopped coriander. serve hot with clarified butter and lemon wedge.

I wish I had the biggest tomato in the world,

If only I had the biggest tomato in the world,

Life would be far better if I had that tomato

I would be happier If I was that lucky to have that giant tomato

I could be all smile and laughter if only I had that tomato

All the worries and problems of past and coming days would disappear ,

all the excruciating pains  would ease

all the negative thoughts would be challenged

and I am quite sure that I would be prettier and healthier with that magic tomato

Oh, how much  I wish I had the biggest tomato in the world

Mozzarella-tomato pipettes ($8.00)

From KevinEats.com:

With micro basil. Interesting presentation here. You first taste the tomato with a hint of basil, then get hit by the mozzarella a second later, resulting in a quasi-insalata caprese experience. Quite a pleasing effect overall. 

Check out this dish and the other 48 (yes, I said “48″) dishes Kevin ordered on his blog posting.

Throughout the past two years of living on my own, I’ve really been able to work on some of my cooking skills. But stuff like brownies? Yeah, still can’t do it. I burnt the crap outta the last batch I did…But if it’s something that’s made on the stove top, I’ve gotten pretty good at it. So as an experiment, this is my first ever attempt at making chili. My methodology of cooking isn’t really about exactness, just gut feelings and hunches. Let’s hope that my gut was in the right place:

First, the ingredients.

We got some beans (3 types), stewed tomatoes, green chili pepper, tomato sauce, dried malagueta peppers, beef, chili mix, and some onion. Good stuff.

First thing I did was sautee the onion and green chili in my huge frying pan. It took a little longer than I wanted to since there was too much surface area, but I got the right result in the end.

Before being cooked

Being cooked

After that sauteed, I did some cooking of le beef.

Before being cooked (see a trend?)

Being cooked

After that fully cooked, I added back the onion and pepper and threw in all the beans as well as the stewed tomatoes.

Look at all those colors...my mommy would be proud :)

After that all cooked/heated up, I added the chili mix and the malaguetas that I crushed up.

My favorite picture...seriously, it's gorgeous

Another nice picture with some whole peppers

Chili mix/crushed peppers on top

After mixing that all in, I added the sauce.

Everything mixed together

And as easy as it sounds (since it really was that easy) I was done! Serve and eat!

Pepperjack and aji garnish :)

Not spicy enough for me...ahh Jerk sauce

This totally compensated for my horrible brownies. Friggin’ amazing! I liked documenting this though, so expect to see some of these kind of posts once in a while.

A nice big fish is something I will eternally associate with Summer chez moi.  I have brilliant, sparkly memories as a child of going on summer holiday to the ocean and over dosing on good sea food.  South Africa has, if you ask me, some of the best sea food in the world and I look forward with glee to a trip back to my birth country and a seat over looking a pounding surf with a plate of fresh fish and chips.

One of my favourite fish to cook at home is a snapper, preferably whole.  Now, bear in mind that this is a bony little sucker, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommended it as a first date type affair. There’ll be plenty of sucking and plucking and chucking with this on the plate.  But a whole fish is still a great way to go for a barbecue, or in the oven, as convenience allows.

Getting your fish from a fish monger is the beat way to go, if you can.  You can pick the best fish and have it cleaned and descaled while you wait.  Fish doesn’t last, even in the fridge, so either freeze the sucker or eat it same day.

Preheat the oven to 400˚F

Start by rinsing the fish, inside and out, and pat dry with a paper towel.  Rub a little olive oil on the skin and season with a bit of salt.

Lay a piece of parchment paper large enough to completely wrap the fish in on the counter.

Slice up a large onion and place half of it on the middle of the parchment.

Chop up 5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes and throw these on top of the onions.

Now grab a handful of fresh herbs, what ever you have.  I used a big bunch of parsley, some basil and tarragon.  Mince a big clove of garlic, chop the herbs up, mix the two and put half of this on the onion tomato base.

Put the snapper on top of this mix and repeat the layer: onion, tomato and herbs. Drizzle the whole shebang with olive oil.

Wrap the fish up in the parchment, securing with some string, and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until the flesh is just flaky.  Let the fish sit for a couple of minutes before serving with a good garden salad.

You ever wonder why the majority of those seemingly flawless fruits and veggies that come from the supermarket have absolutely no taste at all? We’ve all had those moments when biting into that plasticized apple brought back memories of eating paint chips as a child….come on, you know what I’m talking about.

The majority of fruits and veggies you get at the supermarket are  produced and cultivated because these particular varieties can withstand trips from long distances and remain seemingly fresh for weeks before showing signs of age. The taste however, is usually closer to cardboard than a fruit or vegetable.

We begin to ask ourselves, where did all the real fruits and veggies go? The ones that our grandparents told us about when they were kids? These sweet, succulent, fresh, and delicious fruit and vegetable varieties, or heirlooms, can be readily found at local natural foods stores and farmers markets. This is where the consumer goes when he is fed up with the fake stuff.

Heirloom, or antique, is a word that is used for a fruit/veggie variety that has been cultivated for many generations. These varieties were cultivated much more at the beginning of human agricultural history than they are now on a large-scale.  Heirloom seeds have a long history, constantly adapting and changing to thrive properly within their respective environments, making them resistant to local pests and diseases.  Because these heirloom varieties have a pedigree,  they come in interesting shapes and colors, such as white tomatos, purple carrots, and striped beets.

The flavors of these products speak for themselves. Because they are only grown during their respective growing seasons, when purchased, these fruits and veggies are at the peak of freshness, and usually come from a relatively local farm.

So you may be asking, “If these Heirloom things are such a big deal, then why wouldn’t supermarkets carry them?” Well, unfortunately heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables are not as profitable as your generic mass produced varieties. They usually perish more quickly and can therefore not sit for long on shelves or keep well for cross-country/international shipments. Also, the varieties bred for the supermarket usually all look the same both in size and color, and ripen at the same time, allow for a more convenient/reliable product.

The commercial grower’s hybrid bred varieties are a sacrifice not only to taste, but to the rich culture and history of American agriculture. For example, before the mass production of commercialized hybrid produce varieties, nearly 7,000 varieties of apples existed in the country in the early 1900s, now unfortunately less than 1,000 exists and the number is constantly diminishing. This reality exists for a large array of our fruits and vegetables, including potatos, lettuce, carrots, and tomatos.

Home gardeners and small farms continue to cultivate heirloom varieties to maintain the richness of our agricultural past. It is something of a tribute to a memory of the centuries old fruit and vegetable lineage that is slowly dying out for more capitalistic motivations. This is the biodiversity that is being lost to the industrialization of agriculture, and what a shame. We are being denied the fundamental right to gastronomical pleasure, just so the commercial growers can make an extra buck!

To gain some perspective. Lets do some photo comparisons.

Apples:

The Grapple

Is that a cheese puff?

Its been a month since I sowed tomatoes, chillies and egg plants. I check their progress daily and they are on a growing spree. They are now waiting to be transplanted into bigger pots. Hmm.. thats where the catch is. How big is bigger.

Many websites and university extensions mention that a 5 gallon bucket is the best for tomatoes.Also they dont recommend indeterminate variety in containers( which is what I exactly did ;). So I went ahead and purchased old paint buckets of 20 Litre capacity from a painter.

Each of them needs a whopping 10Kg bag of potting soil. I have a limited supply of soil with me, but I definitely didnt think I will have 100% germination rate for tomatoes, requiring lots of soil. So this weekend I am planning to get potting soil ( basically compost+cocopeat+red/loamy soil).

Here is a 1 month old tomato seedling

And this is the whole bush. They are little leaning on the sides due to phototropism.

And I have harvested the two batches of spinach.

And the next batch of spinach is on its way.

I am growing spinach in my balcony and it is responding very well to the limited sunlight that they get. Anyone who wants to try out veggie gardening should start with spinach.

My next post is on Potatoes….

GG

Hola! 

I was sitting here at work and realized I never gave you all an update on the Thanksgiving Challengeafter my weekend shopping trip!  I went to Aldi’s on Sunday and spent about 34.00 (I don’t have the receipt with me!) but I know I calculated my total - which puts our total to date at $86.73

So with 9 days left - we have $39.27 left!

That needs to feed me and Mike for those days, AND includes the dishes I need to bring to my in-laws Thanksgiving, and my family’s Thanksgiving!  I thought we would blow this challenge out of the water, but it looks like we will be cutting things WAY closer than I thought! It will be interesting!   :shock:

Another cool thing I wanted to update you on - Tina gave me the opportunity to be a featured guest blogger - check it out! 

Last night - I decided to try and empty out the pantry by making dinner with some stuff that had been sitting there for a while.  I decided on Hamburger Helper - which made Mike all too happy!

1. I buy the BIG package - that comes with 2 actually dinners - for several reasons.  I add veggies to everything, sometimes Mike doesn’t mind, other times he does.  Hamburger Helper is one of the times he cares - so his is just all meat and cheese, mine is barely any meat, and tons of veggies
2. Going back to the “meat” thing - I HATE how much meat the HH calls for, so I always “half” the recipe.  I know Mike will eat a ton of it, so rather than just only use half the meat and put the other half away for another day, I make all the meat, and split it between two boxes - that way - there is extra food easily ready for Mike when he wants!

Here’s my bowl:

I added kidney beans, peppers, onions, and tomatoes - it was QUITE good and I have some leftovers for lunch today!

This morning - I had a repeat of my pineapple oatmeal from yesterday!

Out of all the fruit I’ve ever added to oatmeal - I think pineapple my be my favorite!  Actually - it’s definitely my favorite!  Blackberries would be a close second!  That’s it for now!  Hope you are staying warm!

Kidney Beans cooked in onion tomato gravy with spices.

My snack today, surprise surprise, was a pb cookie Larabar. I know it’s repetitive, but bars are the easiest snacks for me to take to work.

When I got home I made a turkey sandwich for dinner which included Vegenaise, soy cheese, and tomato.

See you tomorrow…

This recipe came from my mom a few years ago, when she lived in Lake Forest. She made me dinner one night when I was feeling down. It was so delicious. I knew our night involved drinking wine. So it could have been possible that I was too drunk to really taste it. So, the next day I treated my taste buds to the leftovers in the refrigerator. : ) Yup! It was very delicious. When I asked her what seasonings she put in the rice she pointed to her spice rack and told me she just grabbed whatever smells good at the time and throws it in. That doesn’t help me when I decide to make this myself. Not to mention the chaos I felt when I realized there’s no structure to her recipe. Then it occurred to me… When did my mom learn to cook? Who taught her? Did she always know how to cook but wanted to torture me as a child? Because all she ever cooked for me was Shake-n-Bake chicken, sausage and beans, and Mac-n-Cheese. She was holding out on me, all this time. Who is this woman and what did she do with my mom? I felt so betrayed. Then I realized when I opened the refrigerator again, there was a bottle of red wine in there. #%#^%^! Yeah, she puts red wine in the refrigerator. So, I guess she’s still the same mom and she cooks. SWEET!

After I went home I started messing around with her recipe and I came up with this one. This is a big hit at my house. I hope it is at yours too. Happy cooking!

Sausage Peppers Rice. Oh my! Photo by April Cadran

 Sausage, Peppers, and Rice. Oh my!

Ingredients 

1 cup uncooked Mahatma Rice

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried crushed red peppers

1 tsp dried cilantro

1 tsp dried thyme

¼ ground ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 Chicken and apple smoked sausages, cut into pieces.

1 red pepper, cut into sticks

1 yellow pepper, cut into sticks

1 red onion, cut into sticks

2 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 avocado, cut thin

Directions

1. Cook rice as directed on package, adding oregano, crushed red peppers, cilantro, thyme, ginger, and minced garlic. Cook until done.

2. Heat a large skillet on medium heat, brown sausage. Add red peppers. yellow peppers, and red onions. Cover and cook 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat.

3. Spoon rice onto plates, adding sausage, peppers, and onion on top of rice. Top off with tomatoes and avocado.

Bento content
-Red cabbage okara veggie burger
-Celery stacks and leaves, orange pepper flowers
-Potato scones
-Californian maki with cheese
-Home-made tomato sauce with red beans
-Roasted pumpkin seeds

As I told you, I make my own soya milk, soya yoghurt, silken tofu..Therefore I’m left with okara: the residue of the grounded soya seeds.
What could I probably do with it? Veggie burgers definitively!
I made a vegan recipe by replacing one egg by 2 tsp of potato starch and 1/4 cup of water.

the mini tomato plant

very 1st Bird of Paradise flower -

from am aldi plant we bought - suddenly popped out during the storm.

rain through the shade cloth

our own rice paddy - kind of

take care