Tomato Jam (Doce de Tomate)

It’s rich and complex, not your average tomato jam. The cinnamon and cloves spice it up, but the ruby port makes all the difference between an average jam and a memorable jam. It’s good by itself on toast, crackers, or baguette slices, and even better with sheep or goat cheese.

The recipe comes from the newly released The New Portuguese Table (review) by award-winning author David Leite, a book combining culinary tradition with modern flavors. In his version, Leite reduced the sugar considerably, leaving plenty of room for the flavor of the tomatoes to shine. We used our homegrown Cherokee Purple tomatoes, a rich rose-purple colored heirloom. We had several of them ripen at once, giving us the perfect opportunity to try them in this jam. The tomatoes have a sweet, rich flavor that works perfectly with the spices and port. Read more

The Daring Cooks Make Creamy Rice with Mushrooms, Artichokes, and Shrimp

When I saw this month’s Daring Cooks challenge announcement, my pulse quickened and I envisioned a moist, colorful, flavorful Spanish rice. The sofregit seemed perfect for the season, with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and garlic, and this was a perfect opportunity to test out the paella pan (paellera) Michael gave me for Christmas. That I still had not used. Time to get cracking.

We used our homegrown tomatoes and garlic in the dish, loving the fresh flavor of the tomatoes and the intensity of our garlic. As I studied the instructions, I realized the recipe only used a small amount of the sofregit, but we enjoyed the flavor so much we added more along with a dollop of the allioli to each serving of rice. Each taste was like a game of roulette, not knowing when we would find the sharp bite of the allioli. Read more

Zucchini and Tomato Gratin

We’ve reached that magical point in the summer where the tomatoes are starting to ripen. For a couple days we brought in only a handful of sweet cherry, grape, sun gold, or yellow pear tomatoes, but in the last few days we’ve brought in almost nine pounds of tomatoes and have more on the way. As long as something devastating doesn’t happen (knock on wood) we’re set to have a good crop of tomatoes. Right now we are harvesting Early Girl, Brandywine, Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, and Roma, and we have some other varieties that aren’t ready yet but should be soon. Read more

Roasted Garlic Hummus

This is our first year for growing garlic and now we are slapping ourselves for not trying it years ago because it was so easy. We planted the garlic cloves back in October and then just let them do their thing, no difficult maintenance required. They sprouted before winter set in, then the real growth came in spring when the temperatures warmed up.

We planted softneck silverskin garlic, the most common type of garlic you’ll find in markets or stores. It doesn’t have scapes like hardneck garlic, but it keeps longer after harvest than the hardneck type. Softneck garlic is good for braiding, something I really should practice but I’m all thumbs when it comes to fine motor skills.

As always, we learned a few things with our experiment. First, choose a type of garlic that will thrive in your area. In general, hardneck varieties do well in cold climates and softneck varieties do well in hot climates. Plant only the biggest cloves because they yield the biggest bulbs with the most cloves, and save the little cloves for the kitchen. Plant cloves in October to November in a sunny spot about two to three inches (five to eight centimeters) below the surface. Keep it watered in the spring and when the weather turns hot. Once the green tops start to brown and lay over, stop watering for at least one week before harvesting.

Harvesting is not difficult, just carefully dig around the bulb without touching it to loosen the roots then lift it out. Tap the garlic a little to get most of the dirt off, but don’t worry about removing all the dirt because you want to leave the papery skin on for storage. If you harvest on a dry day you’ll have an easier time tapping off the dirt.

You can use the newly harvested garlic right away, but for long-term storage it needs to cure (dry), so put it in a place out of direct sunlight (not the refrigerator) for about two weeks. We hung it from the rafters in our basement root cellar. After the garlic has cured, you can braid it. Softneck varieties will keep for up to eight months and hardneck varieties will keep for up to two months.

And of course, save some of the big cloves for planting again.

When ready to use, just cut away any dangling roots and use a clean dry toothbrush to gently rub away the outer skin and remaining dirt.

Roasted garlic is one of my favorite foods. It tastes delicious smeared on good artisan bread and adds another dimension of flavor to tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, hummus, and many other dishes. Serve the hummus with raw vegetables, pita slices or pita chips, or baguette slices. It’s also delicious on bagel or pita sandwiches with avocado slices and alfalfa sprouts.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. Amy of Playing House is our host for this round, so be sure to visit her blog for more information about submitting your post. The deadline is July 30. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page.

References

Leslie Land – How to Grow Garlic

ROASTED GARLIC HUMMUS

Makes about 2 cups.

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce/425 g) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (or 1/2 cup dry beans, soaked overnight, then drained and rinsed)
3 tablespoons sesame tahini (I prefer Ziyad brand, but any will do.)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 whole bulb roasted garlic (or 2 if you really want some garlic flavor)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 to 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin. In the bowl of the food processor, add the beans, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, and garlic. Process for a few seconds to get the mixture started. While the processor runs, begin drizzling in the olive oil, starting with 2 tablespoons, adding more as necessary to create a smooth consistency.

Other Easy Appetizers

More Recipes With Roasted Garlic From Around the Blogs

Baking Bites – Roasted Garlic Grilled Flatbread

Wild Yeast – Roasted Garlic Bread

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Garlic-Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds

Ezra Pound Cake – Roasted Garlic, Poblano, and Red Pepper Guacamole

Grilled Adobo Chicken (Pollo Adobado)

I recently acquired a copy of Rosa’s New Mexican Table (review) and having heard of the restaurant and the book’s James Beard Award nomination in 2008 I was eager to try out some of the dishes from Chef Roberto Santibañez. One of the first dishes that caught my eye was the adobo marinated chicken with spicy guajillo chiles and chiles de arbol. An adobo sauce is bright red from the chiles and the meat is either simmered in the sauce or marinated and grilled. Common chiles for adobo include ancho, guajillo, and chipotle, though in this recipe chiles de arbol are added for extra heat. In the DC area you can find dried chiles at Hispanic grocery stores, some of the larger international grocery stores such as Grand Mart, Shoppers Food Warehouse, and some other grocery chains. Read more

Herbed Goat Cheese

Delicious food does not have to be difficult to prepare or require hours slaving away in the kitchen. Some of my favorite foods are simple with just a few good ingredients that shine together. The classic goat cheese rolled in herbs is one of those simple appetizers that is hard to resist with slice baguette and seasonal roasted tomatoes. You can make the full recipe to serve four or more or halve the recipe to make a delicious appetizer for two.

I just walk out to the herb garden and snip off whatever is in season to make this, and this time I had fresh parsley, chives, and lemon thyme to chop and coat the soft tangy cheese. Fresh cilantro, basil, lemon basil, and marjoram are also good choices. Rolling the cheese in some good olive oil helps the herbs to stick. Read more

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