Farmers' Market Tomato Sauce, canned

Spring Valley Farm was selling a 25 pound box of tomatoes for $15, a bargain, especially since these ones were nearly blemish free. We made 10 Quart canning jars of sauce in a 1950's vintage pressure cooker I got long ago. This one is meat-free to give us the most flexibility later. Amounts are approximate and you can adjust the veggies and herbs.

25 pounds Tomatoes, fresh, trimmed of blemishes

 2        Onions, chopped
 2        Carrots, chopped
 2        Celery stalks, sliced

          Olive Oil

          Tomato Paste
          Red Wine
          Chili pepper flakes
 1   head Garlic, peeled, chopped 

 2        Bay Leaves, whole
          Parsley or its stems
          Basil, fresh

Freeze the tomatoes in a single layer, then remove. They develop a beautiful white frozen coating from the humidity.

To peel the skin, soak each tomato in a bowl of water a couple minutes, nick the skin with an X in the bottom, and it should easily peel and slip off; if it resists, give it another minute in the bath to thaw the skin.

Peeled and still quite firm

It's convenient to cut them while they're still a bit firm from the freezer, I cut them in 8 pieces each.

Saute the Onions, Carrots, Celery, Garlic in a generous glug of Oil until soft in a pot large enough to hold everything; we split ours between an 8 and 10 quart stock pot.

Add the Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, a healthy dose Wine, veggies, and herbs, then bring to a strong simmer.
Continue cooking until it's a little thickened.

Blend smooth so you don't have to worry about fishing out the herbs (our VitaPrep does a good job), then strain through a course sieve to remove the seeds.
Return to heat, bring to simmer, cook a bit more if it needs thickening, and finally adjust the Salt.

Fill 10 quart canning jars, add lids and seal. (did you know the Ball Aerospace Company is the same company that made Ball Jars?).
Add 2 quarts water to the pressure cooker, add the bottom rack, then the sealed jars.
Pressure cook at 5 PSI for 10 minutes (per the Mirro Matic instruction booklet), and let cool naturally. I had to run two batches in my 12 quart vessel.

Zucchini Carpaccio

A refreshing and rather fancy-looking light appetizer for two. This recipe is unusual in that it provides different textures with the grilled slices versus the raw ones. The quantities here make a light side dish, but can be scaled to 3 Zucchini for a full meal for two people.

1         Zucchini (we used green)
1 tsp     Salt, Kosher

          Lemon Zest from 1/2 Lemon
          Lemon Juice from 1/2 Lemon
2 Tbs     Olive Oil, excellent quality (we once used smoked EVOO)
2 Tbs     Pine Nuts

1 Tbs     Mint leaves, torn

1 Tbs     Basil leaves, torn

6 pieces  Parmesan Cheese, shaved

On a mandolin, slice 3 slices from each side of the Zucchini, about 2mm thick; these will be seared so they need a bit more substance than the rest, and searing will make the skin more interesting. Slice the rest thinner on the mandolin. If you don't have a mandolin, you can cut the thick slices with a knife, and the thin ones with a vegetable peeler.

Using separate bowls or storage containers to simplify assembly, toss the thick and thin zucchini with Salt in bowls, and let sit for 30 minutes or so to draw off excess moisture. Drain then dry on kitchen towels.

In each of the separate bowls, whisk half of the Lemon Juice and Olive Oil, and return the thick and thin Zucchini. Combine gently and let marinate in the fridge for an hour or longer -- overnight is fine.

Pull out the 6 thickest pieces of Zucchini and sear until you've got some appealing black spots and it's heated through.

Meanwhile, toast the Pine Nuts and tear the Mint and Basil into strips.

Arrange the seared Zucchini on plate as a base.
Gently mix the Mint and Basil with the remaining uncooked Zucchini strips to combine.
Top the seared strips with a loose mound of the remaining, seasoned Zucchini.
Garnish with Pine Nuts, Lemon Zest, and shavings of Parmesan.

Sous Vide Polenta

Making polenta in a sous vide bag is easy, it just requires a bit of time and the occasional massaging of the mixture. It's a forgiving recipe: it won't overcook, it won't burn, and you don't have to hover over it with your Italian grandmother's wooden spoon.

While we've made polenta many times on the stove top, we've found it convenient to make a large batch using sous vide. You can use almost any liquid -- water, milk, stock; we used skim milk here because we wanted some flavor but not too much richness. The butter and rosemary are optional but tasty.

We made it recently with 900 g Milk, and it was a bit more dense than we'd like: it would set up well if cooled to make a slab to fry, but we wanted it a bit more loose as a base for wild mushrooms; we've increased the liquid here.

This makes enough for 12 as a side dish. It's also easy to transport in the bag: wrapped in a towel in a cooler it will retain the heat for a couple hours.

 200 g Corn meal, coarse
1000 g Milk, skim (or whole, or stock, or water)
  50 g Butter
  20 g Salt
   3 g Fresh Rosemary, minced fine

Combine everything in a sous vide bag and seal. Cook for 2 hours at 85C.  Once it starts setting up, massage the bag to break up lumps every 10-15 minutes; wrap in a towel -- it's hot.

Give it a final massage before serving to ensure it's smooth. Snip off a corner of the bag and squirt onto a serving platter.

Horenso Goma-ae: Spinach with Sesame

We had this steamed spinach with sesame dressing at Sushi Taro in DC: it's cool and refreshing. I found various recipes on the web which are similar to the one in _A First Book of Japanese Cooking_ by Masako Yamaoka.

The book does this with green beans and I've done it with steamed broccoli; I bet it would be dynamite on some crunchy Wakame seaweed. I've also substituted sake or rice wine when I didn't have the Dashi.

10 ounce Spinach, stemmed
2 Tbs Sesame Seeds, toasted
1/2 Tbs Dashi (3/4 C water and 1/4 tsp granules)
1 1/2 tsp Miso, white
1 Tbs Soy
1 Tbs Sugar

Blanch the spinach briefly in boiling salted water -- a minute max -- and shock in ice water.  Fish out leaves and lay on kitchen towels to dry; this is a bit of a nuisance but you don't want them to get tangled up in a mass or it will be too dense.

Toast the Sesame Seeds in a dry skillet, then grind the Sesame Seeds with a mortar and pestle until it becomes a crumbly paste.

Dissolve the Sugar in the Soy so it doesn't have a gritty texture when you eat it; it may help to heat the Soy.
Combine all ingredients except the Spinach and adjust liquid until it has the consistency of a thick pancake batter.

Put Spinach into a bowl and stir in sauce to combine.
Serve.