recipe: for my southern father

When I arrived home, there were several green tomatoes in the kitchen to greet me. My father had recently had a wonderful fried green tomato dish in Charleston and my mother wanted my help in recreating it. It had involved pimento cheese so we decided to make fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese from scratch to complement the sliders she was preparing.

For the fried green tomatoes, I used a recipe she had found on The Food Network website, courtesy of The Neelys, whoever they may be. It wasn't my first time making fried green tomatoes but the use of panko instead of cornmeal intrigued me. I followed the recipe, finding it easiest to set up workstation right next to the stove so I could dredge the tomato through each bowl quickly.

[workstation]

[fried green tomatoes]

The panko crust was light and airy, overall I think I'll continue to use panko as at least part of my coating in the future. They could have used more flavor, perhaps a heartier pinch of cayenne and more black pepper.

[Daddy's fried green tomato stack with pimento cheese and prosciutto]

For the pimento cheese, I found recipes right and left. I combined one I found in Bon Appétit from Parker and Otis in Durham with one found the day of the cooking in The Charlotte Observer. I'm having trouble finding the article online, but the Observer credited the recipe to "An Irresistible History of Southern Food" by Rick McDaniel.

Pimento Cheese Recipe
16 oz (roughly 4 cups grated) sharp yellow cheddar cheese
4 oz drained, chopped pimientos
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Grate cheese coarsely. Add rest of ingredients, stir to mix. Let sit to incorporate (in refridgerator) for about 30 minutes before serving. Great warm or cold.

[My slider with fried green tomato and pimento cheese]

recipe: vegan basil and roasted tomato pasta

Again, a recipe of sorts that isn't really a recipe. But a great summer dish, nonetheless. I made enough basil pesto for about 3 batches of pesto and froze some of it. I left it vegan because I've heard it freezes better that way.

To make pesto:
Toast 1/2 cup pine nuts. Take one batch of basil, washed and desteamed. Stuff the food processor full and glug some extra virgin olive oil around it. Toss in a few tablespoons of toasted pine nuts. Grind it all up. Add more basil/oil/pine nuts until you get the right consistency. Salt and pepper to taste, trust yourself on this one.

To make the pasta:
Set water on to boil. Slice yellow cherry tomatoes in half, mix with tablespoon of olive oil, lightly salt. Broil in oven for about 10 minutes, checking until slightly wilted. Boil pasta, strain. Toss pasta, tomatos and pesto together.

I don't think the tomato pesto combo needs cheese, but feel free to add some on top. Making the pesto took me about 15 minutes, start to finish. (Including dropping the first set of pine nuts on the floor. Avoid that, it's expensive.) The rest takes the amount of time to boil the pasta. So quick and easy!

seconds for sauce

Last post I wrote about the tomato seconds I bought for our roommate dinner. Here they are in all their glory! Mostly smaller tomatoes, some cracked, and a mix of types. I set a few aside to eat over the next few days but used most of these to make tomato sauce.

I used this 'recipe' from Saving the Season, which is really more intructions for canning than anything else. I didn't peel the tomatoes due to laziness and tossed in some basil about halfway through the reducing process. When I use it for pasta I'll probably toss in more seasoning- salt, pepper, basil or oregano, red pepper flakes. Instead of worrying about canning, I just put in bags and froze the sauce. I have about a gallon split between three bags, all from maybe $7 of tomatoes and a few hours of stirring tomatoes every 15 minutes.

[Look how beautiful they are inside!]

[In the process of boiling down]

southern fried-roommate dinner

This past weekend I bought 15 pounds of tomato "seconds" or the tomatoes that weren't quite good enough to sell individually at the farmers market (for .50 cents a pound!.) For many, it was just that they were smaller or occasionally funny-shaped, but in the mix of mostly-ripe tomatoes there were some small green ones. Upon returning home from the farmers market, my roommate and I decided to cook an elaborate Southern meal for roommate dinner that night. Using the tomatoes, I made Fried Green Tomatoes using this recipe from TheKitchn.





Our Southern-fried goodness didn't stop there. Using fresh corn cut off the cob that was left over from last weekend's cookout, I made Corn Cakes topped with bacon and avocado. Besides the toppings, the only change was that I didn't use any cheese in the mix. They aren't super flavorful but did taste of fresh, sweet corn. Cheese would have been good, but wasn't particularly needed.






And my roommate my venison sliders on baguette with brie. (The venison was supplied by her father, thanks Fred!)


Our meal- venison sliders, fried green tomatoes, salad and corn cakes. Local venison, tomatoes, salad greens, corn and onions.



Lastly, last night I watched Fried Green Tomatoes for the first time ever. Let's just say I'm sad I hadn't gotten around to it earlier.

blt salad with extra bacon

I usually don't use recipes to make salad, but when I saw the BLT Salad with Bacon Dressing from TheKitchn.com I knew I had to make it right. Of course, in the end my friend and I used a few substitutions. You can find the original recipe here. We used honey and white vinegar instead of brown sugar and cider vinegar and while it was delicious, try the original way. (We may have used twice as much bacon per person. This I do recommend.) Plus, the tomatoes, basil and lettuce were all from my CSA.

quick pic: my tomato plants

My tomato plants are starting to have tiny tomatoes!