I "Heart" Tomatoes
A great appetizer or starter
As the summer months finally wind down here in Sydney, admittedly a little earlier than normal, I seek to take advantage of the last of the summer fruits and vegetables at the markets. The figs I cooked the other day were fantastic and very tasty. On that same day I noticed a stall selling a variety of tomatoes in all shapes and sizes. This guy had it all. Cherry, "teardrop", heirloom, amoroso...all were there. My eye spotted the "grape" variety. Shaped liked grapes, I was informed that these were juicy and packed a lot of flavour. Great, time to get experimenting. I like playing with food so I wanted to use these a little differently. I mean I could have used them in a salad with some red onion and a simple dressing but I thought it would be fun to change the elements a little. So I skewered them! I basically made them into vegetarian "souvlaki". LOL! I paired them up with some bocconcini, drizzled some extra virgin olive oil over them and some basil pesto. They were fun to eat and very fresh. One bite had creamy, soft mozzarella and the next bite was a juicy grape tomato. A perfect appetizer or starter for your guests.
A simple pasta dish with roasted "grape" tomatoes.
For my next "experiment" I simply roasted the leftover grape tomatoes. I placed them in an oven dish, drizzled them with some olive oil, a god splash of balsamic and seasoned them with some salt and pepper. My oven was smokin hot (about 200 deg C) and I let them roast for about half an hour. The tomato skins will be blistered but they will be plumper and full of extra juiciness. Once they had cooled I tossed them with some spaghetti (my favourite!), a little extra virgin olive oil and grated some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese over them. Simplicity and taste in its purest form. Nothing is better. I love playing with food...
Spinach Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette
Simple ingredients for the blueberry vinaigrette
There's only so many desserts your body can take. After the panacotta and the tart I was looking for something healthy that would rev my body back from slugishness. Scanning the food channel late at night I was watching one of those cooking shows where the father, whose a chef, proceeds to cook a 14 course dinner for his whole family in half an hour. Hmmm...never mind that we never saw any of his assistants during that segment. One of the things he made was a vinaigrette for his salad using blueberries. "Interesting" I thought. I had a whole punnet lying in the fridge waiting for a porridge or a batter for muffins. So I decided to experiment using his technique of mixing the blueberries with some olive oil and vinegar.
Apart from a stained kitchen benchtop (those blueberries are like paint when they're blended) it turned out beautifully. I found some baby spinach leaves that were nearing their hibernation cycle in the refrigerator and I used them as my base salad ingredients. I didn't want to bulk the salad too much. Just a light simple dish full of goodness and antioxidants. The dressing was slightly tart but very tangy as well. Give it a try for something different..
Blueberry Vinaigrette
RECIPE FOR BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE
Blueberries. Depending on how thick or thin you want your dressing. More blueberries yields a chunkier dressing. I used about half a punnet which equates to about 100 grams.
Olive oil or grapeseed oil. The recipe I saw used a neutral flavoured oil, which makes sense as you don't want the strong flavours of the extra virgin olive oil dominating. But I only had olive oil and it worked out fine.
Vinegar. Preferably red wine. Oops! I had run out and substituted balsamic. That's fine as well. We're having fun in the kitchen...not signing peace treaties!
*When making vinaigrettes I always follow the 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar rule. So for e.g. for this small spinach salad I used half cup of oil to a few "splashes" of balsamic*
Healthy salad