Baked Tomato Sauce Recipe

August 7, 2015February 21, 20165 Comments

My Baked Tomato Sauce is so EASY to make! The magic is in the fresh ingredients. No more stirring and simmering over a hot stove.

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INGREDIENTS
2 lbs or 1 kg tomatoes
1 small tin anchovies (drained and diced)
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 tsp.(2ml) freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp.(2ml) hot red chili flakes (optional)
1/4 tsp. (1ml) salt (optional)
1/4 cup (50 ml.) extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (50ml.) chopped fresh basil or parsley
add 6 thyme sprigs (optional / recommended) and/or sliced onions before baking.

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350F(160C)
2) Slice tomatoes into 1/2″ (1 cm.) slices and layer in a casserole dish with the chili flakes, anchovies, garlic and pepper. Optionally add salt as well. Pour olive oil on top.

3) Roast in the oven for 1 hour or until the tomatoes are soft and caramelized.

4) Keep warm and cook your pasta.
5) Toss pasta with sauce and sprinkle with the basil or parsley.

IN DEPTH:
Read more….
Interesting back story
Please click “HERE“.

The CLASSIC PASTA DISH (Home made)

DID YOU KNOW? HEIRLOOM Tomatoes are increasing in popularity by the organic veggie consumers because they are a more natural and flavourful fruit. TOMATOES are armed with healthy Lycopene fighting free radical and the UV tomato skin battles cancer cells – every time you eat a tomato. The amount of bioavailable lycopene increases by cooking the tomato compared to eating them raw. When you add a bit of healthy fat like olive oil, your body absorbs the lycopene more readily – four times more in fact. That’s how you maximize the body readiness of carotenoids from a tomato.This popular nightshade fruit is more powerful than an apple. Like carrots, the tomato is also good for your eyes.

Green Goddess Dressing

July 16, 2015April 7, 20202 Comments

The “Palm Room” – Palace Hotel. San Francisco, CA. Est. 1875 – Reinvented 2015

A CLASSIC DRESSING: The perfect way to use your homemade mayonnaise is by making – The Green Goddess Dressing. This year (2015), we celebrate the newly renovated Palace Hotel, where an inspiring chef developed his famous ‘Green Goddess’ dressing. This classic dressing was invented in the 20s by Chef Philip Roemer at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, to commemorate the popular play “The Green Goddess”.

The play was a hit, so was the dressing!

Philip Roemer’s dressing is a variation of a dressing that originated in France by a chef to Louis XIII who made his sauce au vert (green sauce) which was traditionally served with “green eel” …from Larousse Gastronomique Page 1272

The Palace Hotel has preserved the original architecture while adding modern accents. Today, we pay homage to the dressing’s inventor and add our modern accent to the Green Goddess Salad Dressing!

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Original Recipe (1923) – makes 6 servings
Ingredients
2 cups mayonnaise
4 anchovy fillets, minced
1 green onion, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar*
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
Directions
In a large bowl mix together mayonnaise, anchovy, green onion, parsley, chives, vinegar and tarragon.
Refrigerate at least an hour before using for all the flavours to blend together.
Pour over salad greens, fish or artichokes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Green Goddess Dip

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My Green Goddess Dressing – reinvented (2015)
RECIPE
Ingredients
1/2 -1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of mayonnaise (homemade)
2 teaspoons anchovy paste (or 1 teaspoon coarse salt)
2 tablespoons mild vinegar, such as white-wine vinegar or tarragon vinegar*
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 – 1 clove of garlic -finely minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives
1-2 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt (to taste – taste the mayo before adding)
Directions
Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate dressing up to 7 days.
VARIATION: Add chopped spinach and/or minced garlic.
FOOD TIP: Use this versatile dressing as a dip. Instead of tartar sauce try the Green Goddess dressing on your fish. Let the mayo sit for half an hour to blend the flavours. Taste and see if it needs salt. *To make tarragon vinegar, place sprigs of tarragon in your white vinegar – for best results age your vinegar for 2-3 weeks. Green goddess dressing and tarragon vinegar’s popularity resurfaced in the 80’s. If you don’t have tarragon for this dressing, you have enough greens to create the green “goddess” colour.
SUGGESTED DRESSINGS using homemade mayonnaise
Russian dressing: consists of the mixture of mayonnaise, pimientos, chives, ketchup, and spices. History: The name comes from the earliest versions that included a distinctly Russian ingredient, caviar.
Thousand Island dressing: It is made from bits of green olives, peppers, pickles, onions, hard-boiled eggs and other finely chopped ingredients. It was arguably developed by a chef when he was in service for Henry Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel who built Boldt Castle on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands. The pink colour of the dressing represented the blush colour of the sky at sunset and the numerous pieces of green pickle represented the islands. Variations can include orange juice, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, cream, garlic, chives, chili sauce, tomato purée, ketchup, or Tabasco sauce. It also can contains chopped nuts (such as walnuts or chestnuts)

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

April 10, 2015February 21, 2016Leave a comment

HEALTHY ‘TASTY’ DIP
Now that you have made your decorated goat cheese, you can make a tasty and healthy dip to serve with it. The dip is very versatile.This dip is great with crudités or crackers, on sandwiches, or with cold meats. It can be made a day or two in advance and served at your chalet, lake house, sailboat or right at home. People always enjoy this combination goat cheese /sun dried tomato spread. This pairing pops with flavour and is a big hit with my friends. I am often asked where I bought it! Instead of crackers or I prefer sourdough baguette slices. Crisp and tasty. Although crackers have evolved to gluten free and no preservatives which you can buy at your local supermarket. I find that most of these healthy crackers are very flavourful and will change the taste of my goat cheese / sun dried tomato dip. Over my years of reading about healthy foods, I would always come across the information that with respect to bread, we should eat rye bread or sour dough. I was puzzled by the sour dough as it was white bread after all. Then one day I came across some information that explained it.

RECIPE
Ingredients
1 package (3 1/2 oz) sun dried tomatoes
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar substitute (optional)
1 green onion coarsely chopped including green tops

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Use the pulse feature until everything is chopped to a coarse consistency not liquid. Refrigerate until needed. The flavour is even better the next day. Serve at room temperature over goat cheese with toasts or crackers.

This is a tasty dip and will keep in your fridge for 7 to 10 days, limited only by the freshness of the herbs. You can then make this in advance or use up the left overs as a salad dressing, to toss your vegetables and some more olive before roasting or add to a soup for more flavour. The addition of mayonnaise or buttermilk will transform any leftover dips into sauces or salad dressings.

EVENING OUT: I just brought the sun dried dip to a birthday party last night. I paired it with a goat cheese log rolled in herbs. There were herb crackers and whole wheat sourdough croutes. This was a big hit! People kept going back again and again for more. They were addictive. This was more popular than the smoked salmon platter!

FOOD FACT: The acid in the sourdough slows down the absorption of the bread. That is how the San Francisco gold miners were able to sustain themselves all day long with just a loaf of sourdough bread. Hence the San Francisco sour dough loafs. The flour/simple carbohydrate is broken down into sugar which starts even in the mouth with salivary amylase and eating a slice of white bread is not so different than having a piece of pound cake as far as your body is concerned.