Multi-Purpose Tomatoes

Please welcome Jessica as a guest contributer!
-Alex
















Today I was tempted to get take-out for dinner, but instead I figured I ought to use what little was left in my pantry (canned tomatoes, corn, ricotta, whole wheat pasta and hot sauce). I picked up some cherry tomatoes from the farmers market, along with an onion and garlic. First, I made a pasta sauce from red pepper flakes, garlic, and crushed tomatoes. I had a fair amount of left over sauce, so I pureed it and added it to some of the corn I roasted with hot sauce-to become a sort of gazpacho (pictured below).

With the rest of the corn, I mixed red onion and the tomatoes I bought, tossed in balsamic and ricotta. Overall, this made enough for three meals worth of left-overs and only cost an additional $4 (aside from what was in the kitchen)-not bad! Not to mention, all tastes pretty great! I sometimes forget how much I love to cook. Since starting pastry school I've actually become more fond of it. For me, cooking is a break from baking and while I absolutely love baking, after 6 hours of it a day, cooking is quite cathartic. A goal of mine is to cook as gourmet of meals as I can while keeping a budget-a hard feat to achieve in New York! But, clearly, it can be done!

Quick pickled red onions and homemade tortillas (sorta)

I haven't had pork in awhile, which is why this dish was appealing to me. OK, that was a lie. I've probably consumed an entire pig in the last two weeks thanks to visiting Jess in NYC and Momofuku's Bo Saam meal. However, a carnitas style of pork sounded good to me and the pork butt was too cheap to pass up. I simmered in water with paprika, cumin, chile powder, and a cinnamon stick after being quickly seared. I've been serving the pork on some bhutamese rice, but I thought it'd be nice to mix up dinner a bit and go to Whole Foods to pick up some mini tortillas I spotted earlier this week to make tacos. While I was there I spotted a red onion and decided that a quick pickled onion would be a nice addition to the sweet tasting pork. Then I remembered seeing Maseca (instant tortilla mix) and thought that if I was already pickling something for the tacos I might as well make the tortillas, too (my train of thought doesn't always make sense). THEN, I saw the Hatch chiles were in season. I've never seen these in a store and they are apparently, according the native New Mexicans, amazing when roasted. So, of course, I had to buy some. Went to WF for tortillas and left with an onion, Maseca, and Hatch chiles (oh, and some kale)...I never seem to remember that WF is dangerous.



I usually use the quick pickled red onions for fish tacos, but them seem to work on most tacos with a sweet or fried component. They also work well on burgers. The recipe is simple enough and they can be pickled for as little as 5 minutes before serving.

1 onion - halved and sliced thinly
White vinegar (enough to cover onion container of choosing)
Sugar (optional)

I know this is vague, but how sweet these turn out is really up to you. I like them slightly sweet so I usually use about a tablespoon of sugar for one small onion. Just heat the vinegar and sugar (if using) to a boil, remove from heat, and pour over the onion. This can sit from 5 minutes to 6 hours to even overnight before serving.



Homemade tortillas are fantastic. But, fresh masa and lard is not always easy to come by. Maseca, an instant tortilla flour, is a great alternative and actually turns out very well. All it takes is the flour, water, and a little bit of salt. Oh, and a tortilla press of some sort. Given my love for all things tacos I do in fact have a tortilla press, but you could just as easily use the under side of a frying pan. These are very easy, take less than 10 minutes, and are fresh so I urge you to try it. Of course you could always mill your own corn to make masa from scratch (ha).

Kyoho Grapes

I went to the farmers market today to pick up some fresh herbs for a lamb skewer recipe I found on Tasting Table. While I was there, I decided to peruse the fruit stalls. I stumbled upon some Kyoho grapes, which I've never heard of before. So, I decided to taste some (the best part of a farmers market!). They basically taste like Concord grapes, but are bigger and fleshier. Sweet, yet tart at the same time. Sold me!

Now, I can not think of what to do with them besides eat them alone (no problem) or with some Humbolt Fog cheese I still have. Any ideas on a sauce or condiment...anything!?

Fresh Sweet Sriracha (Rooster sauce)

Typically sriracha (or as I called it rooster sauce) is a fermented sauce. But, you can still take the basic recipe and serve it fresh. It won't have the same taste as the fermented version, however it is still very good and can be enjoyed immediately!I made mine pretty sweet, which I think made it better as a sauce than a dip.

I got the base for this recipe from Viet World Kitchen blog.Think I might her fermented version soon.

3/4 lb fresno peppers split lengthwise and chopped (trim the top of the stem off)
4 cloves of garlic
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2.5 ounces brown sugar or Vietnamese palm sugar (less if you don't want it sweet)
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup water

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Cool down and blend. Push mixture through a strainer and store in the refrigerator.

Homemade Yogurt

Once you really think about it yogurt is kind of disgusting. Especially after working in a lab. Essentially you take bacteria from an already started yogurt culture (either store bought or from a previous homemade batch) and give it some food (milk) and let them go crazy, feed, and multiple. The result is delicious yogurt! But all I can think about is how I basically just made a homemade culture of bacteria is a makeshift incubator. Mmm.

To achieve the texture and taste of yogurt bacteria have to ferment lactose (a sugar found in milk) in the milk into a byproduct called lactic acid in order to produce energy for themselves. This byproduct of their metabolism in turn can interact with other milk proteins and actually curdle them (being that lactic acid is, well, an acid) giving yogurt it's delicious texture and taste.

Making homemade yogurt is easy and once you have a batch going you can continually renew it each week.

32 oz. fresh milk (not non-fat - I used 2%)
1/4-1/2 (one small container) of store bought or homemade yogurt
*Note: make sure if you're using store bought that it says "contains live cultures"

Heat the milk to 170 F (to kill anything nasty in it). Make sure it does not pass this point so use a thermometer and monitor it carefully. Once it reaches this temperature remove it from heat and cool it down to ~105-115 F. Mix in your yogurt starter. You must be sure to let the milk cool to this point otherwise you'll kill the bacteria you're carefully adding in. From here you can do a couple of things. One, you could fill a small ice chest with water no hotter than 115 F and place the yogurt in a separate container within the ice chest. Secondly, you could try the oven method of heating it to 175 F, turning it off, and placing the yogurt in a container inside the over. Either way, you want to let the yogurt sit for 4-8 hours depending on the consistency and sourness you like your yogurt at. The long you let it sit the more lactic acid will build up and the sourer your yogurt will be.

This is plain yogurt so you could mix in fresh fruit, sugar, agave nectar, honey, or my favorite: rhubarb strawberry compote.

Rhubarb strawberry compote

Tart and sweet this compote won't last long in your fridge. It can basically be put on anything from a scone to ice cream to just plain out of the jar! It's especially good with homemade yogurt.

5 stalks or 1 pound of rhubarb cute into 1/2" thick pieces
10-15 strawberries cored and roughly chopped
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how tart/sweet you like it)
Optional: splash of apple juice, orange juice, and orange zest

Combine all ingredients into a sauce pan over medium heat. Once at a boil lower heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft and beginning to break down. Store in the fridge. I wouldn't keep this over a week unlike jam since it has a relatively low sugar content, but it won't matter because it is too delicious to resist!

Ginger Ale

I recently talked about making ginger beer at home, which led to some confusion. A beer (including ginger beer) is going to be made using yeast to ferment the sugars you give it to produce alcohol (very little) and carbonation. The ginger beer is flavored by minced or juiced ginger that is mixed in at the beginning of the fermentation process. A ginger ale on the other hand is not going to use fermentation to create the carbonation (thus is completely non-alcoholic), but is carbonated by adding soda water or injecting CO2 into the liquid. The ale is typically flavored with a ginger simple syrup, which is mixed with the carbonated water (however you choose to carbonate it).

For this recipe I decided to mix my ginger simply syrup with soda water since I don't have a nifty carbonator. You can vary the amount of ginger depending on your tastes and how sweet you want your ginger ale to be (i.e. if you want a spicy end product and you use a relatively little amount of ginger in the simple syrup your drink will be quite sweet).

1 3-8" stalk of fresh ginger cut into 1/4" thick rounds (more = spicier and more ginger flavor)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
Soda water

Combine ginger, sugar, and water in a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Let the simple syrup simmer for 5-10 minutes. You can then combine the ginger simply syrup with the soda water to taste.

Feel free to experiment with flavors and add in other herbs to your ginger simple syrup. Lavender? Rosemary?