It is the 9th of August. The garden is over. It has been so hot and it was so dry that the garden finished early this year. We did get a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and flowers this year. We just didn’t get enough rain at the right time.
Anyway, B has been eating a lot of tomatoes with just salt and I have been enjoying a bunch of cucumbers. I managed to salvage a couple of tomatoes for the Tomato Tart from Dorie’s Baking with Dorie (page 322)
I made one small tart for B. I am not a fan of tomatoes cooked or raw. Sauce, yes. Sundried, yes. Cooked or raw. Nope!
It is very simple to put together. Gruyere and cheddar cheese. Basil. Parsley. Honey and mustards. Super simple.
For April the Good Friends Good Food chose to cook dishes from the Middle East. The Middle east consists of Egypt, Israel, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Kuwait, etc. It is difficult to separate one country’s cuisine from another as they are all so similar.
Zucchini with Tomatoes
This is a very simple dish. Slice and saute garlic and coriander in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, peeled and chopped, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Simple. I have made zucchini and tomatoes many times but never with coriander. Completely different flavor. And I would have added more coriander.
Fish in Hot Sauce
Fish and other seafood are quite popular in the countries along the Arabian Gulf as well as the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Sea of Galilee.
Serves 4: 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 1/2 teaspoonsground coriander 4 thick fillets whitefish , about 3/4 lb each (I used catfish) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice salt and white pepper lemon slices , to garnish Sauce 1/2 stick butter 1/2 small sweet red pepper, diced 4 medium tomatoes , skinned and chopped 1 large onion, diced 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2teaspoorigroundginger a pinch of salt and pepper 1 tablespoon tomato paste mixed with a little water
Pound the garlic and coriander together in a pestle and mortar. Rub this into the fish fillets and chill in a covered bowl for 2 hours. Heat the oven to 375°F. Remove the fish from the bowl and rub with a mixture of the oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Lay the fillets in a flat, oiled baking dish, cover tightly with foil and bake for about 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.
Melt the butter in a skillet and saute the pepper, tomato and onion until soft. Add the seasonings and the tomato paste and mix well. Simmer for 10-15 minutes on a low heat. Serve the fish in the baking dish, garnished with the hot sauce and lemon slices.
This was delicious. Definitely a keeper. BTW both of thse are KETO friendly.
As it turns out I am the only one who did the Middle Eastern recipes this month. I still have one or two I want to try: Prawns in Tomato Sauce (cinnamon). And Maamoul which is a stuffed pastry. I have the mold I just haven’t made the pastry…YET!!
Many (MANY) years ago there was a movie titled “If its Tuesday it must be Belgium”. It was a simple romcom about a group of people (Suzanne Pleshette, John Cassavetes, Ian McShane, etc.) on a European tour. Well I’m going to use that title and change it up a bit. If its Thursday it must be Eating with Ellie Day!
This is a super easy dish to make. It is basically Chick Parm with veggies added. It was very tasty. Eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper were the veggies in the dish. And lots of Parm and Mozz cheese.
And it is KETO friendly. 16 g fat. 10g carb. 3 g fiber
The recipe is from Ellie’s you have it made. page 211
I am always looking for a good KETO friendly side. Ellie provided that with her recipe for RATATOUILLE. In case you don’t know what that is Ellie calls it a classic, French-country vegetable stew. She also says it is very versatile, ” serve it with a fried egg on top, as a side…, as a topper for crostini, stuff it into an omelet or top it with some mozzarella for a French pizza.” Basically it can be used for just about anything. I simply chose to use it as a side with some roasted chicken.
My
This stew contains eggplant, onion, bell pepper, squash, and garlic. I had a few ‘shrooms in the fridge so I threw them in as well.
VERY tasty. Definitely a repeat.
The recipe is from Ellie Krieger’s you have it made. (page 314)
Check in with Kayte and Gaye for their Ellie Dishes.
I love making Ellie’s recipes. they are healthy and infinitely adaptable. this recipe called for Sea Bass but I didnt have any. Couldn’t find any. But I did have some Trout. So I made Trout with Tomato, Olives, and Capers. And enjoyed it immensely.
It was a little sweet and a little salty. I still have some tomatoes from the garden. No kalamata olives, however, so sliced black olives were subbed. Definitely a keeper and a repeat. Definitely KETO friendly. Maybe with catfish from our pond?
The recipe is from Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave. (pg 228) You can also find the recipe here.
Kayte and Gaye are also cooking with Ellie.
If you want to cook along with us just let one of us know. We’d love to have you join us.
A whole new year as begun. 2022. Fingers crossed it is a good year for everyone.
And it is time to start eating healthy again. I have been neglectful since Thanksgiving. Too long to neglect my health. I am going back to KETO which has been my friend off and on for the last year to so. It is easy to stick to and the food is often delicious. Especially since it is all made at home with fresh ingredients and NO sugar. No processed food. No starch, etc.
So, this week I decided to start the year off right with Ellie’s Autumn Vegetable Curry. Delicious!!
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1 1/2-inch length fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 head cauliflower, broken into 1½-inch-wide florets (about 3 cups)
2 cups broccoli florets
1 pound medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch rounds
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
Grated zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 15-ounce can no-salt-added chickpeas, drained and rinsed
5 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
3 cups cooked brown rice, for serving, optional
Directions
Place the onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, and cayenne pepper in a food processor and process to combine. Add the oil and process until a smooth puree is formed. Transfer the curry puree to a large pot and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to darken, about 5 minutes more.
Add the vegetable broth, coconut milk, cinnamon stick and ¼ teaspoon black pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower, sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick. Stir in the lime zest and juice, chickpeas, and spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with up to ¾ teaspoon salt.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.
Cook time is about 30 minutes.
You can see that I left out some ingredients. Some of them simply because they aren’t keto friendly. I did leave in the sweet potato but decreased the amount. A little of it was needed for the taste of the stew. I also increased the amount of broth to use it more as a soup rather than a stew. It was just spicy enough to warm you up on a winters day.
The recipe is HERE if you want to see it in the original form and in Ellie’s comfort food fix (page 208).
Check with
Kayte, Peggy, and Gaye or their first Eating with Ellie post for 2022.
If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.
Today is Thursday. That means it is time for another episode of Eating with Ellie. Recipes from Ellie Krieger.
Kayte, Peggy, Gaye and I have revived this weekly cooking group. We have always loved Ellie’s recipes and missed cooking with them.
This week I chose to make Chicken Romesco.
Grilled chicken topped with a tasty tomato pepper sauce. The pepper is roasted red pepper. I didn’t have any so I used yellow instead. I don’t think it affected the taste. Red and yellow peppers are equally sweet. I would, if you don’t like really spicy, cut the paprika down a smidgeon.
I did enjoy this sauce. I only used about 1/3 of it on a single breast. I get to enjoy two more meals from this recipe. The recipe is on page 153 of Ellie’s weeknight wonders
This week Good Friends Good Food is cooking with tomatoes. I have to let you know I don’t like raw tomatoes but I love them cooked – roasted, boiled, stewed, in stew, in green beans etc etc. But raw – no thanks.
When I ran across this soup from The Frog Commissary it just started calling out to me. After looking at the ingredients it looked delicious. And since it has/had turned cool when I found it I knew it would make a nice warm comforting meal.
I had plenty of canned tomatoes from this summer’s garden and an Eggplant from my Misfit Market.
Tomato, Sausage, and Eggplant Soup
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 1/2 cups cubed unpeeled eggplant (1/2″ cubes)
A splash or two of water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped fennel (or celery if you can’t find)
2 Tbsp. minced garlic (I use less)
2 tsp. ground or crushed fennel seed
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (I use more)
4 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried basil
1 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 lb. sweet (or hot if you like) Italian sausage with casing removed
1 1/2 cups chicken stock1 28-oz. can tomato puree (I use crushed tomatoes in puree usually)
1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (save juice!)
Heat the 1/3 cup olive oil in a 4-5 qt. saucepan. Add the eggplant, a splash or two of water to help get it softening, and 1/2 tsp. of the salt. Saute over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 4-5 minutes or until just tender. Transfer the eggplant to a bowl. In the same pan, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Add the onions, fennel, garlic, fennel seed, pepper, bay leaves, the remaining 1 tsp. salt, basil and thyme. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes. Add the sausage and saute 5-6 minutes, breaking up the meat into small pieces with a spoon. Add the chicken stock, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes with their juice, and the eggplant. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
If the soup seems too thick, add more chicken stock (Which I did. It was very thick). Remove the bay leaves and serve.
And did I mention it is KETO friendly?
(Taken from The Frog Commissary Cookbook) You can also find the recipe HERE.
What else can you do with tomatoes? Check out posts from
Howdy, Y’all. Long time no see. I’m dusting off the blog which has not been used for almost a year. No reason, just couldn’t get it together. But thanks to Kayte I am up and running again.
Why am I thanking Kayte? Last October I did my first Whole30. It wasn’t the first time I was aware of it. It was the first time I realized I really needed to do it. My Triglycerides were over the roof, my weight was not where I wanted it and I was, simply, running out of clothes. I also want to live long and see my grandchildren grow up. All very positive motivations. Somehow I managed to convince Kayte to do it with me and then Leslie jointed in and we encouraged each other ant kept us all going. You have to know that Kayte lives in Indiana and Leslie lives in California so our communication was nightly texts of how we felt and what we ate and “You Rock!” types of texts. The three of us managed to finish the W30 and were quite proud of ourselves. Since that time I have done it one more time and Kayte, as well. So there is the story.
Now, Kayte and I are cooking through Whole30 Fast and Easy together. Bothe of us have already made some of the recipes. Spanish Chicken and Cauliflower Skillet (YUM), Indian Beef and Bell Pepper Stir-Fry (good), Skillet Butter Chicken (needed more garam masala), Red Curry Shrimp Skillet (tasty), Veggie Hash with Eggs ( I used sweet potatoes rather than parsnips), Sheet Pan Shrimp with Sesame Broccoli (ok), Thai Chicken Sweet-Potato-Noodle Bowls (meh), Chicken Tikka Masala (meh), Creamy Curried Butternut Squash-Shrimp Soup (WHOA!!), and Sweet and Spicy Vegetable-Pork Stew (meh).
But for this first Whole Thirty 30 Thursday we made the Spicy Red Pepper Chicken Skillet which as delicious.
Chicken thighs sauteed in a mix of garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers and onion. Delicious! I only made 2 servings but I wish I had made 4. The next time I make it I will use boneless thighs. It will be easier to cook and easier to eat.
You can visit Kayte’s post and see how she liked it. (Spoiler alert: She did!)
While we will not be posting the actual recipes from the book (we encourage you to honor the author and to buy the book so that you can own the recipes yourselves), we will share our photos and ingredients and comments on each. If you would like to join in, just leave the link to your post so we can come and read all about it. Even if you aren’t eating Whole 30ish, the recipes and food are wonderful and fit into any meal plan.
This week Kayte wants us to be SAUCY!! Cook anything with a sauce. Easy enough.
I went with Ellie’s salmon in aromatic tomato sauce with swiss chard spinach. I am not a fan of chard so subbing spinach was easy.
And totally delicious. A nice sauce made with diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, roasted red peppers, and whole red chili peppers. I don’t like REALLY hot food. Spicy, yes, but not tongue burning so I left out the chili peppers. But since I did that I used Ro-tel diced tomatoes with green peppers. Plenty hot and plenty spicy. And lots of flavor with the coriander and cumin.
Ellie suggested eating this over couscous but since I am trying to stay pretty compliant with Whole30 program. It was perfect just by itself.
The recipe is from Ellie’s So Easy (page 195}. You can also find it HERE if you want to try it.
We don’t publish the recipes. Please buy Ellie’s books and cook along with us. The weekly themes are on the right of Eating with Ellie. We publish every Thursday.
Tea and Scones 