Monthly Archives: August 2012

  • Simple Garden Recipes: Maricela’s Oven-Roasted Tomato Salsa

    August 28, 2012

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    Maricela’s Oven-Roasted Tomato Salsa

    As we often mention in our blog, the garden dictates much of what we cook this time of year. And since we have sweet tomatoes and spicy Serrano peppers, it’s time to make salsa. But not just any salsa. We asked our friend and awesome Mexican cook (see her Posole recipe here) Maricela join us to share one of her salsa recipes. And while Maricela has a number of tasty salsas, with our tomatoes so ripe and sweet, she chose this version of oven-roasted tomato salsa.

    Just a few ingredients. Quality and technique matter.

    Roast your tomatoes, peppers and garlic.

    The salsa itself has only 6 ingredients; tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion, salt and a dash of water. But the right in-season ingredients, matched with a few key techniques and a little time, makes for a lovely sweet, bright and slightly hot salsa that you can use on just about any dish (probably not ice cream, but you get the idea). The only “special” equipment you need is a blender or food processor. And as this salsa is briefly cooked, it keeps for a while too.

    Remove the peppers and garlic halfway through the roast.

    Fully-roasted tomatoes. Note the syrup and caramelized bits- they need to go into the salsa.

    Making the salsa is easy, but as we mentioned earlier, a few techniques matter. Firstly, you clean and core your tomatoes and roast in a very hot oven with the garlic and peppers (your kitchen will smell amazing). But a key is to remove the peppers and garlic halfway through the roast so they don’t burn and crate acrid flavors. Also, when the tomatoes are done, remove one tomato and put it in the blender with the peppers and garlic (add a splash of water if too dry)to create a very fine purée before adding the other tomatoes. This ensures that you don’t get rough chunks of garlic or peppers and their flavor is evenly distributed in the salsa. Then you add and purée all the tomatoes, but be sure to scrape all the caramelized liquid and brown bits from the baking sheet into the blender- this is where the extra sweetness comes from. And this extra sweetness is the perfect balance for the heat of the peppers. Finally, add your finely diced onion (see the photos and notes for Maricela’s technique) for extra bright and fresh flavors after you briefly reduce and cool the tomato mixture. None of these steps takes much extra time, but the attention to detail makes a world of difference.

    For a fine dice, make multiple top-town cuts in the onion….

    …then shave the fine dice from the onion for maximum flavor. Continue reading →

  • Gravenstein Apple Harvest(s)

    August 27, 2012

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    Ripe Gravenstein apple.

    Ripe Gravensteins in the tree.

    Amidst our flurry of activity in the garden from the tomatoes, eggplant, beans, peppers and melons, we suddenly noticed that our Gravenstein apples were ready for harvest. And while we say “ready for harvest” for the Gravensteins, that is a relative term, as the Gravenstein is a “variable harvest” apple. This means, basically, that the apples ripen unevenly, usually over a 2-8 week span. This is good for home use, as we get apples over a month or so, but this is both a blessing and a curse for this excellent variety of apple.

    Apple picker, in action.

    The apple picker, these are very useful tools.

    And the Gravenstein is a very tasty apple, more on the tart side, but certainly sweet enough to eat out of hand, the Gravenstein is an excellent apple for applesauce, cider and pies. In our house we eat them out of hand and primarily make applesauce, the kids (and even the adults) love it. But we will make a few desserts and cocktails with the apples, as well. And none of the apples go to waste, the overripe apples go over the fence to the deer and the any others we don’t use to a nearby horse barn for treats. The horses, apple aficionados that they are, are big fans of the Gravensteins.

    Note the variation in color and ripeness. Good for home use, bad for commercial farming.

    The Gravenstein apple is a native of Denmark (it’s the “national apple”), but is most associated with Sonoma County in northern California. In the 20th century Sonoma teemed with Gravenstein apple trees, and many American soldiers ate applesauce from those trees. But the delicate (they don’t travel well) and variable nature of the Gravenstein led farmers to move to other varieties of apple, and even more so, grapes. Now the Gravenstein is more of a local symbol than a viable crop and many fear it will disappear from commercial production . There is a great New York Times article on the subject here.

    But what makes for a poor commercial crop often makes for good home use, and in a small setting the Gravenstein is an excellent apple. While there are a few days where we will harvest a majority of the apples, many remain on the tree for weeks, ready for picking and eating. In some ways the Gravenstein stores its fruit for you on the tree. And there are few better ways to slow your pulse than to walk up to an apple tree, pick an apple and just take a bite. So while there are limited commercial opportunities for the Gravenstein, we think it will thrive in back yards for as long as people like apples.

    Colors that look like they are painted on to the apple.

    Continue reading →