Tablespoons, teaspoons, what's the difference, eh?

[theweaselking]

Reason #227b that John is no longer allowed in the kitchen unsupervised.

So! Two things I've been doing recently. First, an update on the Zucchini Boats , which I have experimented with several times, including Italian Sausage boats and a ton of others. I have come up with the platonic ideal of zucchini boats, ones that are basically perfect:

Halve the zucchini and scoop, like before. Brush with olive oil, add salt and pepper.

Put in minced onion, cover with chunky salsa from a jar (I like normal salsa, torrain strongly prefers the local farm's garlic salsa), bake 30 min.

Cover with cheddar cheese, broil.


Second thing: Fried Roma Tomatoes.

We got a ton of Roma tomatoes and had no idea what to do with them, so I pulled out a recipe for fried tomatoes and made that.

Reproducing with notes:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 tsp pepper
5 tsp olive oil
2 Roma tomatoes sliced lengthwise

First note: Those proportions look off to you? Yeah, they're off. WAAAAY off. The "paste" you're going to make with that is going to be a dry non-pasty mess, because I'm 99% certain those "tablespoons" should be "teaspoons". Especially since it makes a metric crapton of paste, way more than you could ever fit on two tomatoes. So what I actually did was add more oil, more salt and pepper, and use 5 tomatoes.

Instructions:

1. Mix together everything except the tomatoes, making a paste. Spread on the cut side of each tomato half.

2. Heat a couple of tbsp (for real, this time) of olive oil in a frying pan. Place tomatoes herb-side down in skillet, and cover. Simmer for 5 minutes; tomatoes should be hot but not stewed.

3. DEVOUR.

Verdict: Well, very tasty, but I scraped off most of the paste and threw it away because it was thick and really overpowering. Seriously, "Tablespoons" is completely wrong. torrain loved every bite of them but she is weird.

The second time I made them, I experimented with the spices and I used *way* less, and instead of frying them in olive oil we just use the same pan I'd just made bacon in. Verdict: The Thyme/Basil ones were still a crowd-pleaser, the hot bacon pan meant they cooked faster and I should have cut it off a minute earlier, and the garam masala tomatoes and the cumin tomatoes didn't really work, but my personal favourites were the salt/pepper/curry powder tomatoes. YUM.

So, yeah. I know what I'm doing with the next batch of romas. In fact, I'm tempted to try it with normal tomatoes, cutting thick slices, adding a little flour to the spice mix, and frying both sides.

Comments

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

2 tablespoons of THYME? Yeaaaaaah, I think you're right, no way is that right (nor the basil, but at least using basil in large quantities isn't unheard of - albeit not usually dried).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yup. I figured maybe the author knew something I didn't so I started putting it together as-written, but the error was obvious when I tried to make a "paste" and the obvious solution was "add enough of everything else to make the proportions right". So I did.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I'd almost think they meant fresh instead of dried. That might be more paste-like, too.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, the standard exchange of fresh->dried is 1tbsp fresh =1 tsp dried. So that also makes this a REALLY OBVIOUS error.

(Less paste-like, though, since both fresh basil and fresh thyme are solid and unpaste-like.)

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that using a mortar and pestle would make a pesto-like substance, which might be tasty.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I would be very interested in the results of your both-sides-fried experiment, too.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

For the record:

Regular tomatoes, sliced thick, coated with a light dusting of flour, thyme, basil, salt, pepper, and curry powder (mixed together and the tomato slices dredged through)? Fried for ~1.5min/side?

Quite tasty.

[cleodhna.livejournal.com]

Hmm... as printed that recipe looks like it would make a vaguely oily herb dust. Yeah, way off.

I've been making my own salsa since I found out how stupidly easy it is, especially if you have a food processor. Here's a vague recipe:
You need:

Some tomatoes, about half a pound or so. You can peel them and deseed them if you like, but meh. You could use tinned ones if you like. It's just as good. Chop up the tomatoes and reserve the juice.

About two medium sized onions. White, yellow, red, doesn't matter. Or one onion and a couple of shallots. Or a bunch of spring onions. Or a handful of chives and wild garlic leaves. Something oniony, about two handfuls full.

As much fresh chilli pepper as you like, whatever kind takes your fancy. About three of the regular ones works. Take the seeds out if you don;t want it too hot (yeah, right). You can use dry chilli too, or your favourite hot sauce.

Salt and pepper, to taste.

Tiny pinch of plain sugar (really brings out the flavour of the onions).

Juice of 1 lime. You can put the zest and the pulp in too if you're keen. It looks purty. You could use a lemon, but I prefer a lime. That's just me, though. I'm sure it would be fine if you used a grapefruit or a pomelo, but obviously you'd have to use a smaller part of it.

Garlic, crushed. As much as you like. As. Much. As. You. Like.

Coriander, if you like coriander (cilantro). Some people hate it. It's not their fault. It's a thing: some people have a genetic gizmawhacky that makes them unable to detect the absolute and utter niceness that is coriander. To them it tastes like soap. You can chop it up and leave it as an optional garnish, if in doubt, or just use parsley and/or basil instead. Or in addition to. I don't really get the thyme thing in a raw sauce. I could see it if you used only the small tender leaves of, say, lemon thyme, but surely it's too woody an herb. Surely. Maybe that's just me. I mean, sure, if you're going to cook it later, but... whatever.

A little water, a little olive oil (or the reserved juice if you used tinned tomatoes), just to make everything move around and sit together all nice.

Chop everything up small and mix it up or shove it all in the food processor and blitz. Serve right away, or leave it for about an hour if you like your flavours more melded.

Totally zippy.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I'm a "cilantro tastes like soap" mutant. Or you're a "doesn't taste like soap" mutant. One or the other.

But I'll have to try that.

[cleodhna.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure you're the mutant, on this score, anyway. Who am I to talk, though: my second and third toes on both feet are joined at the base. Pretty common, but still, mutant.

I hope you do make your own salsa! I'd be very interested to see what recipes you come up with.