What do you do with leftover tomato paste?

Recipes call for just a bit .. a serving, according to the little can, is two tablespoons full - and yet the can holds five servings. I can't speak for you, but I remember times when the remains of a can has sat in my refrigerator for .. well, too long, but let's not get graphic. I could pitch the can up front instead. I don't like waste. That seems just wrong.

This morning I considered what breakfast might be: now an essential part of my present regimen, but never an easy task early in the morning. Eggs? I'm tired of eggs .. and besides, there were none in the fridge. Oatmeal? I had that yesterday. Bagel? No cream cheese. Thought and invention being called for, I asked myself, "What can I spread on bread instead of butter?" Satori: use the rest of that can of tomato paste that has been around for .. two .. days. Everything else fell in line.

Ingredients:
1 slice of bread
1T tomato paste
1 oz cheese (today it was dill havarti)
a little of the mix I use for bagels: chopped scallion, tomato and a few capers
oregano
salt and pepper to taste


Method:
Turn on the broiler
Spread the tomato paste on the bread instead of butter
Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper
Put the cheese on top of that
Top with the garden mix
Broil for 2 minutes, 30 seconds (or so).


As I took it out of the oven, it crossed my mind: "I've just invented the breakfast pizza. Cool!"

To round out the meal I added a half solo papaya with a squirt of lime juice .. something so good as to deserve a separate post on this blog, but so simple as to make the idea seem crazy.


One serving:
cal: 300
carb: 41 grams


Let me ask my initial question another way:
What do YOU do with leftover tomato paste?

Comment, please?

Sheryl wrote

"I have been known to spread tomato paste on rye toast and add a slice of onion."

Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan

I was introduced to Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan in New Orleans during a road trip by the Aulacord Duo around 1978. We were looking for business playing for college campus activity centers. The Association all the colleges belonged to held their convention there that year. After a long day on the road I spent the first night with the car and the trailer in a $10 trucker's motel while the new guitarist spent the night comfortably at his in-laws up near Lake Pontchartrain. They were out of town and I was Not Allowed. This was because of some incident involving my former guitarist. He had misbehaved himself in a big way in a similar situation some years before. I was Tainted With The Same Stripe because I knew him. I never knew the details. The next day things were cleared up and I rejoined the fold. We made this for breakfast. I did the dishes in gratitude for belonging once again to the Human Race...



There were other culinary highlights to the trip, but I'll never be able to make beignets and why would I want to? Like malasadas from Leonards Bakery (in Honolulu), they melt in the mouth .. but honey, I just don't need them in my kitchen. "A minute on the lips" is the word to the wise. If I want beignets, I should go to New Orleans and get them at the Café Du Monde (or, more to my taste, at the Morning Call in Metaire). If I want beignets I should  w a l k  to New Orleans (towing the car behind me). I also recall a steakhouse whose owner had been to McDonald's University and got you served and out the door in twenty minutes (this is not a recommendation), and one amazing dinner at an historic restaurant in the Quarter. But I digress: this is an blog entry about Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan.


That first time, the result just didn't measure up to the name. I know people who love the smell and the idea of coffee, but who can't stand the taste. This was the same way. The name and the idea far surpassed the reality. One issue was the cheese, which we shook out of a cardboard canister, a cream-colored powder like cheap coffee creamer. It tasted about the same. The other was .. the parsley. A new bunch with freshly snipped leaves, and simply not tastable. I tried several times over the next thirty years. The simple truth was this: If I used enough parsley to get any flavor, the eggs turned green and would barely hold together.


I finally had the idea that brought this dish around. I knew long ago that, to get the flavor from parsley, you cook the minced stems and save the leaves for garnish. I had always used the fresh leaves with the eggs. Problem solved.

Ingredients:
4 eggs, scrambled
a handful of freshly grated (not pre-pulverized) parmesan cheese
a small onion, diced
A small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
A quarter lemon
a small pat of butter
Fresh-ground coarse pepper
Salt (to taste)

Method:
Saute the onion, the parsley and the pepper in the butter
Squeeze the lemon into the pan
Stir in the eggs and the parmesan
Serve when it is cooked - not too long, though.

===
The lemon juice is part of the secret too.
You may like the result if you stir an ounce of cream into the eggs...


Parmesan photograph from the Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Spa.
Parsley drawing from the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Serves two, each:
calories: 240
carboydrates: 7 grams

Pan fried breast of duck with onions and mushrooms

On the way home from looking at a car for my stepdaughter in Chicago I stopped at the Kroger at 5 Mile Road and Beechmont. I was there for two things, but came away with four.

I don't usually buy from the meat counter. I find perfectly elegant cuts of meat in the 'day old' section at a fraction of yesterday's pricing, and can usually find three things to do with them. Life is good.

However .. as you may know (and if you didn't before, you do now) I am truly fond of duck, in all forms. Barbequed from Montgomery Inn, roasted, stir fried, pressed from Beijing - if it is on a menu I will probably order it. Then there was a time in New Orleans when I stumbled into a restaurant that was having a duck festival AND a garlic festival .. and they overlapped...

I saved the very last duck breast in the case from its fate (in this situation, probably the fate of being taken home and cooked by someone else instead of undergoing this present apotheosis). Half a pound, and only $4.50. A bargain! Then the eternal question: how to prepare it so it fits within the rule and we stay within 2000 calories for the day.

Well, onions and mushrooms and red wine always go together. In this case they did remarkable things. I looked, and did find a recipe calling for duck breasts sauteed in olive oil with shallots and wild mushrooms but didn't go there. To my way of thinking there's no significant difference between shallots and onions (a slightly different flavor but a similar form factor). In a sauce with wine, salt and pepper most mushrooms will taste similar - I won't say the same. And .. excuse me .. putting EVOO (i.e. 'Extra Virgin Olive Oil') in a dish with a duck is gilding the lily. The duck itself has oil enough, and a strong flavor that tends to overpower the olive oil.

So the recipe came down to pretty much what I had on hand already, plus the duck. OK .. I bought a box of baby 'bellas at the store because I was there and I could, though white mushrooms would have done just fine. While I actually had a couple of shallots in the cupboard I chose not to use them.

I prepared the dish like this:

Ingredients:
8 oz skinless boneless duck breast
1C sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion, sliced
1/4C dry red wine
olive Pam
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley for garnish

Method:
heat the oven to 300° and spray a nonstick skillet with the olive pam
cut the duck breast in half, pat dry and season lightly with salt and pepper
saute for 12 minutes, turning frequently, using more Pam if dry
remove to a plate to catch drippings and place in the oven to warm
add the mushrooms and onions to the pan dripping (use more Pam if needed)
season lightly with salt and pepper
when the mixture has cooked down, add the wine and simmer 10 minutes
add the dripping thrown off by the duck breast to the pan
remove the mushrooms and onions with a slotted spoon
turn the heat to high and reduce the sauce


Serving:
arrange the melange on the serving plate
top with a half duck breast
pour the reduced sauce over both
garnish with chopped parsley.

While the duck was cooking I sliced and grilled a yellow squash and two small zucchini. I arranged them on the plate, and served them with leftover Romesca sauce. A glass of red wine from our private collection completed the dinner. Nobody was hungry later.

Who has leftover Romesca sauce? And what is it, anyway?
===
It took 30 minutes to make the whole dinner .. the time it takes Nancy to drive home from work.


Serves two, each:
calories: 231
carboydrates: 20 grams

===
for comparison, see:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sauteed-Duck-Breasts-with-Wild-Mushrooms-232881

The Herb Garden

Everywhere I've lived I have kept some sort of herb garden. Nothing compares with the scent and taste of fresh-picked tarragon, rosemary or basil. It is amazing how productive even a small plot can be. I'm not much for regular gardening, but would find it difficult to do without the herbs.

We are fortunate in having a right-sized bed close to the walk down to the house from the drive. The builders of this house had a few perennials and shrubs, and it was a year or so before we started to change the space. We started with lavender - not a major herb, but I've always liked having it around. The next year we cleared a little more and set out some rosemary and oregano. 

Our favorite produce stand closed that year, where we had been buying corn, tomatoes and especially fresh basil. We haven't yet found a replacement for Aichholz's Farm Market. The next spring Nancy said "What about planting basil?" so we cleared a little more space and put two plants in. They were prolific, but not nearly enough, so the next year we planted four, plus sage, chives and thyme.

Each year in the early spring we review what has survived (the rosemary should last but never has, and there's never a prayer for the basil) and plan what the garden should have in it to help us through the fall.

This year our garden features a display of parsley, tarragon, mint (a mistake, though there are far more uses for it than I suspected), and cilantro (it grows too fast so we now have a lovely collection of coriander seeds). The dill has been useful. We found more uses for the basil, since it is not easy to make a pesto that is both satisfying and low-fat. And I'm waiting for some saffron bulbs to arrive .. not that I think I'll ever get enough to make it worthwhile, but they are nice. We've never harvested the shallots against the wall, but it is satisfying to know they are there. I'd like a bit of lovage, because it smells so nice.

the herb garden in May .. it doesn't look like this in August

So, when a recipe calls for an herb or so, or a salad wants a bit of flavor, we just step outside our front door and cull what we need from the freshest of sources...

-Rick

Kidonato

I'm infatuated with quince - I can't call it love yet, since I've only known about this fruit for a week. Aside from the name (which is nice), the fruit - inedible in its natural state - cooks down to a wonderfully textured confection. The most seductive feature? When cooked, the bright yellow skin and paler flesh turn a delightful pink-to-rose color. I think it works out that the higher the cooking temperature the deeper the color, but I'll have to experiment more to test this.

This recipe, from ancient Greece, tastes similar to a tagine .. the meat and fruit with honey and cinnamon remind me of dishes prepared on the other side of the Mediterranean. Others have compared it to Persian dishes. I served it to rave reviews, sitting around our glass-topped table before a game of Scrabble.



Ingredients:


8 oz lamb leg
1 onion, diced
1 quince
1/2t ground cinnamon
1T honey
1C water
salt and pepper to taste



Method:


Heat crock pot
Bone lamb leg
core quince and cut in 6 pieces
Add ingredients to crock


Taste, then season with salt and pepper


Cook a long time (4 hrs)

Remove kidonato to serving dish
Reduce cooking liquid
pour over and serve

this is a quince...

2 portions, each with:
310 calories
9.5 grams carbohydrate


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Modified from:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/lamb-braised-with-quince-kidonato/Detail.aspx

The Best Salad Dressing In The World

It just seems right that my first post in this venture is the best salad dressing I've come across. It does get some good reviews.

I started making this house vinaigrette about a year ago and haven't seen a reason to change from it. The past three years we've kept an herb garden, so most of what I use in the dressing is fresh culled. It does such nice things to salads that, when I started to crack down on my diet, I changed the quantity I use, though not the recipe for the dressing itself.

BASE:


2C Olive oil
2/3C vinegar (wine or balsamic)
in a blender

add
1 shallot*
-or-
1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
-and-
1/2 scallion

Blend until smooth.


Divide into portions.**

ADD-INS:
Fresh or dried herbs:***
Oregano
Lavender flowers
Thyme
Marjoram
Tarragon
Finely ground pepper (or peppercorns)
mustard powder (or mustard seeds)

* both the shallot and the garlic together make for too much of a good thing
** I use the little glass jars spices come in - each is enough for 2 salads, or one large one
*** I do think fresh is better