Fried Green Miso Tomatoes

With my tomatoes not ripening fast enough I've had to pick them hoping they would ripen off the vine, but that didn't happen either so I went with fried green tomatoes.

Fried Green Miso Tomatoes:

4 green tomatoes

1/4 cup miso (red)

Water

1/2 cup flour

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Oil for frying.

Mix the miso with 1/2 cup of water until smooth. Slice the tomatoes and place in the miso. Add more water if needed. Let the tomatoes marinate overnight.

Mix the dry ingredients and coat each tomato slice until fully coated.

Fry on each side until golden brown about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Okra with Tomatoes

Last summer I cooked a lot with okra. making this okra dish over and over again because it is so simply fantastic!
Thanks Martha. But no thanks for the bacon. I used tofu broiled with Braggs. Yum!

Since I enjoy okra so much I decided to try growing it up here in the Northwest. The okra is a bit tough, but still slimy the way I like it.

Lately I have been a canning fool. Earlier this summer I made strawberry jam. Lately I've made peach jam, peach strawberry jam. Both from fruit I've picked. I've also been canning the back yard tomatoes because we have more than we can eat (even when the dogs get to them!) Yesterday I canned cucumbers and okra with spices. As the days are becoming shorter I do not think my green tomatoes will ripen much more, so I am looking for good green tomato recipes. I am thinking of pickling them or doing the fried green tomatoes thing. Let me know if you have a favorite green tomato dish.

Italian Teese Appetizers

In looking through Nana's recipes I was inspired this morning and thought of a great use for Teese. For once I found a use for vegan cheese that may be difficult to recreate with real cheese.
Italian Teese Appetizers:
1/2" round of the Teese tube
6-8 basil leaves
1/4 tomato sliced very thinly

Place the Teese round on parchment paper and melt in the microwave, or broiler, until completely melted and it is spread out. Make sure the Teese is spread evenly. Let it rest for 1-2, just enough for the Teese to firm up.
Cut square edges to the sheet of Teese.
Layer thinly slices tomatoes and basil leaves.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and carefully roll up, and poke with a toothpick about every inch.
Garnish with basil or oregano.
Chill before serving to ensure stability.

Pressure Cooker Cook-off

Mr. Bolsh wants to eat better food, but he just doesn't have the time to prepare meals so he ends up eating a lot of canned foods. Every once and awhile I teach him a new trick but it takes awhile to stick. For a Christmas present he wanted a pressure cooker so he could easily make his beans and rice. Not being able to turn down any desire Mr. Bolsh has to enhance his cooking skills, I bought him one.
I started off by cooking some lentils because the directions said the beans still needed to be soaked for 4 hours before their time in the pressue cooker.

Pressure Cooker Lentils:
1 cup lentils
2 cups liquid (from the canned tomatoes and water)
1 canned tomatoes
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic
1 cube of bullion

Put everything in the pressure cooker pot, mix and put the lid on.
Cook for 15-20 minutes.

It doesn't look that pretty but it tasted wonderful!

The next experience was Mr. Bolsh's:
Red Bean Medley Over Rice:
1 cup red beans
1 can tomatoes plus juice
2 cups water
1 bullion cube
2 medium potatoes (cubed)
1/2 onion (chopped)
2 large carrots

Throw the ingredients in a pot and cook in the pressure cooker for 20-30 minutes.

The problem with this dish is that not everything cooked at the same time. The beans were undercooked and the carrots melted in your mouth they were so soft. We need to figure out how best to add ingredients while it's cooking because we read you can.

So far we've had some hits and misses, it will just take awhile to understand how best to used it. I've also cooked potatoes make mashed potatoes. It was quick and easy.
Let me know how you like to use your pressure cooker if you have one.

Raw Dinner

As much as I love cooking, sometimes I like not cooking just as much.

This salad was inspired by SusanV, who, probably a year ago, posted about eating corn on the cob by rubbing it with lime and sprinkling with salt.

Spicy Corn Salad:
2 ears of corn
1/4 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) chili flakes
Couples of shakes of salt to taste

Cut the kernels off the cob, mix with the spices and serve cold with a side of lime and dill.

I was going with raw lasagna, inspired by Nutshell, but I was missing a few ingredients so this is:

Tomatoes and Garlic Cream:
1 heirloom tomato cut into thirds
3 sprigs oregano
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup soaked cashews
1/4 cup water or oil
Chives to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the cream sauce first by pureeing the soaked cashews and 1/2 the clove of garlic, add enough water or olive oil to make it a smooth, creamy consistency.
Make an oregano pesto with the oregano, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper

Layer: 1/3 tomato, 1/2 of the cream sauce, 1/3 tomato, oregano pesto, 1/3 tomato, remaining cream sauce. Garnish with chives and cracked pepper.

Simple Meals

This one wasn't as great as I wanted, but it was good enough to fill me up.
Green Bean Sandwich:
Steamed green beans tossed with a bit of garlic aioli. Placed on bread with a thick slice of tomato.


What to do with a bunch of broken chips?
Baked Tofu:
Tofu crusted with ground tortilla chips, flour and a bit of spices, then baked for 20 minutes.
Served with a side of salad.

Cheesy Soup

I went about this soup making a blended potato soup but it ended up tasting like a cheesy tomato soup. SO very delecious!


Cheesy Soup:
6 small red potatoes
1 leek
2 ribs of celery
1 large carrot
4 large cloves of garlic
vegetable broth
salt, pepper
dash of chili powder
1 large tomato

Chop and boil potatoes as normal, about 10-15 minutes.
Saute leek in a soup pot. Dice celery and carrot and saute until tender. 5 min?
Add garlic and saute for 1 min. Add enough potato water or vegetable broth to just barely cover the sauted veggies. Add powdered veggie broth if you potato water.
Peel, de-seed tomato and dice. Set aside.
Let simmer until potatoes are done.
Add potatoes to the veggies and fill with just enough vegetable broth or potato broth to cover.
Place in blender and blend until desired smoothness.
Return to pot, add tomatoes and more liquid as desired.
Let simmer for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Garnish with tomato and if you're feeling extra cheesy add a slice of tofutti chedder cheese. Sprinkle with a dash of chili powder or paprika just before serving.

Mac and Bleu Cheese

I bought this expensive cheese at Food Fight and have been using it so slowly. My choice of bleu cheese is because I was never able to eat it as a non-vegan because I am allergic to molds. Next I will try out the moz.
This is a wonderfully rich food. I was able to cut down the sharp flavor but still give a sense of it.

Mac and Bleu Cheese:
1 cup soy milk
1 cup shredded bleu cheese from Scheese.
1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1 Tbl. Nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

8 saltine crackers

8 lasagna noodle, broken (or other pasta that you need to use up.)

1 large tomato

1. Cook pasta as normal
2. Bring the first 4 ingredients to a boil in a medium sauce pan, then reduce until it is all melted. add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chop tomato into bits.
4. Drain pasta and rinse with cool water.
5. Mix pasta and scheese mixture until evenly coated. Add tomatoes and mix a bit more.
6. Press into 9x9 pan and sprinkle with crushed crackers.
7. Bake for 30 min 350F
8. Let cool, serve and enjoy!

Raw Lasanga

1/2 zucchini cut into very thin rounds
Less than 1/4 onion cut into very thin slices
1 clove garlic
2 roma tomatoes
1/3 cup finely chopped spinach.
1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp. thyme
3 Tbl. chopped basil
3 Tbl. raw tahinni
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. dehydrated onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. As thinly as possible, slice the zucchini. Chop the garlic clove in half and gently rub on both sides of each piece of zucchini. Set aside.
2. Dice the tomatoes, a tiny bit of garlic, spinach, rosemary, and thyme. Mix together and add salt and pepper to taste
3. In a seperate bowl mix the tahinni, lemon juice and onion powder. Add 1/2 tsp. at a time until the mixture is light in color and isn't pastey or runny.

To assemble:
1. Lay zucchini down so they slightly overlap one another.
2. Layer the thinly sliced onion.
3. Spread half of the tomato mixture over this and 1/3 of the tahinni mixture.
4. Repeat the zuchinni layer.
5. Lay another around of onions or thinly sliced garlic pieces.
6. Repeat the remaining steps until you're left with the last third of the tahinni mixture. Pour this over thetop zucchini layer.
7. Cut and serve.

Taste:
oh man. I never expected this to taste as good as it did. The best part about it was the lingering taste it left after it was done. I thought the tahinni was going to be too much but the way it mixed with the fresh tomatoes and the garlic flavor was so wonderful.
Brian doesn't normally say how it tastes until after I ask him. But with this, after the first bite he started talking about how good it was. He asked if I wrote the recipe down to make sure I know how to make it again. I can't wait to serve this to other people to see what they say.

Notes:
Sharp knife is required for this recipe. When I say thin slices I mean less than 1/16". with the onion and garlic it becomes almost just the juices.
The zucchini might start to warp. They can be stored in a bowl with cold water and 1 clove of crushed garlic.