Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini

yet another smitten kitchen receipt that was fabulous. the tomatoes are so sweet and the flavors jump in your mouth. saltibocca! she was dead-on, it was very easy. i've been totally slovenly today. instead of hauling to jacksonville, we went out to dinner last night with tim and mary at sheehan's after bistro with karin and laurie.
this morning? leisure to the point of sloth, while david got up at five to work all morning at ft gordon. he called to say let's go to a late lunch, so i made this (english muffins worked fine)and since it's to be served right out of the oven, for the last ten minutes of cooking at 375, i put the oven on 175 till he got home.

served it with chicken salad I had made with roasted boneless chicken thighs that had been cooked with bleu cheese and breadcrumbs and rosemary and marinated in lemon/mustard. bound it with leftover sundried tomato dip elizabeth had made for a meeting at my house on thursday, to which was added chopped celery, apple, green onions and toasted pecans, thinned with lemon juice, and served it on arugula. easy. good.


Serves four as a small dish, two as a main

1 pound cipollini onions
1 pound small Roma or large cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Coarse salt
4 slices of country or ciabatta bread, one-inch thick
1 15-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans of your choice
Garlic clove (optional)
Few fresh basil leaves, slivered

Preheat oven to 375°F. Boil a small pot of water and blanche the cipollini for 10 seconds, then plunging them into cold water. Use a paring knife to make a small slit in each, and slide them out of their skins and outer layer.

Spread peeled onions and tomatoes in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and a few good pinches of coarse salt. Toss everything together until well-coated and roast in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, reaching in every 15 minutes with a spatula to roll the tomatoes and onions around to ensure all sides get blistered.

Just before you take the tomatoes and onions out, place your bread slices on the oven rack (or a tray, if you’re more refined than us) and let them toast lightly. You can rub the toasts with a halved garlic clove, if you like, while still hot. Use tongs to arrange toasts in one layer on a serving platter. Dump the white beans over the bread, and using a pot holder, scrape the entire contents of the tomato-and-onion roasting pan, still hot, over the white beans. Do not skimp on the juices that have collected, all of them — don’t leave any in the pan. They could make a religious person out of you.

Sprinkle the dish with the basil and eat at once.

Braised Romano Beans

Romano beans are flat, wide and long. Tougher than snap beans, they need longer cooking.

Adapted from Laura Sbrana via The NYTimes 08/12/08

Time: 1 1/2 hours

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup minced celery
1/2 cup minced carrot
1 cup minced red onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 cup peeled, crushed ripe tomatoes, preferably plum tomatoes, with their juices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds romano beans (flat green beans), ends trimmed (or fresh cranberry beans in their shells).

1. Heat oil in a deep skillet or a shallow three-quart saucepan. Add celery, carrot and onion and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables barely begin to brown, about 25 minutes. Add garlic and rosemary and cook until fragrant, a few minutes. Stir in tomato paste and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until mixture is well combined, about 5 minutes.

2. Add beans, setting them in pan all in one direction. Add 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer. Baste beans, season with salt, reduce heat to low. Cook gently, partly covered, turning beans in sauce from time to time, until beans are very tender, about 40 minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve hot or at room temperature.

Yield: 6 servings.

Peanut Butter Krispy Treats

from heidi's 101 cookbooks blog. she's on her way to paris. lucky duck.

Be sure to use crisp brown rice cereal and not puffed rice cereal.

3/4 cup unsalted peanut butter
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

2 1/2 teaspoons agar agar flakes (available at a health foods store)

4 cups unsweetened (or lightly sweetened) crisp brown rice cereal


3/4 cup pistachios, toasted and chopped

Line two muffin tins with about 18 muffin/cupcake wrappers, and set aside.

Combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, salt, and agar flakes in a large saucepan over low heat and stir constantly until smooth, hot, melted, and bubbling just a bit. Add the cereal and 1/2 cup of the pistachios and stir until well coated. Spoon two heaping tablespoons of the mixture into each muffin wrapper and press into place with the back of a spoon. Alternately, if you want krispy squares, you can transfer it to an 8 by 8-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining pistachios and refrigerate until completely cool (this also helps the agar set).

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen treats.

Huguenot Torte

1965 article in NYT ran this receipt from "Charleston Receipts," and someone tracked down the contributors in a nursing home in the 80's. Her name had been Mrs. Cornelius Hugenin. She made pastries for a restaurant in Charleston, had tasted and liked Ozark Pudding in Texas in the 30's, fiddled with the recipe and created this. It's not really Hugenot, but named after the restaurant.


By AMANDA HESSER
Published: September 9, 2009

This recipe from “The First Ladies Cook Book” appeared in The Times in an article by Craig Claiborne. The original recipe said that the torte could be served warm or chilled.I like it best warm and cut into squares. The torte has so much sticky sugar in it that when it’s cold you have to do battle to cut it. Either way, I suggest adding little or no sugar to the accompanying whipped cream.In fact, I’d fold in some crème fraîche.
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Food | Recipe Redux: Huguenot Torte, 1965 (September 13, 2009)

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup peeled and chopped tart cooking apples

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup whipped cream, barely sweetened and flavored with 1 teaspoon almond extract.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Beat the eggs and salt with a rotary beater until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar.

3. Fold in the apples and pecans with a whisk. Add the vanilla, flour and baking powder. Pour into a well-greased baking pan about 8-by-12 or 9-by-9 inches and at least 2 inches deep. Bake for 45 minutes, until sunken and crusty. Serve warm or chilled, with whipped cream. Serves 8.

silky chocolate pudding

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef

Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used good quality semisweet chocolate chips; use 70% bittersweet if you want more of a dark chocolate kick)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or skip this step if you’re a slacker like me who is absolutely certain that there is nary a lump her puddin’) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.

3. If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days (ahem, good luck with that).

granola bars

this is smitten kitchen, adapted from ina garner. she left out 1/4 c brown sugar and 3 T melted butter, so that c/b added back. every time i buy a bar, i think: i am going to make my own. i would add flax seeds. maybe pecans or pine nuts. here, heather. much cheaper than the boughten ones and i'll bet better!

Makes 12 to 16 granola bars

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed (I used unsweetened)
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cup dried fruit, or a mix of dried fruit (I used chopped apricots, cranberries and raisins)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter an 8×12-inch baking dish (lacking this, I used a 9×13-inch) and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

While the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press, press, press it in (wet fingers and/or a silicon spatula work great for this) until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares — your best serrated knife is great for this.

You can store these in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or two, as you would cookies, however, I prefer to store mine in the freezer. I find that they stay the most crisp this way as all granola tends to soften at room temperature after a day or more.