Tomato Jam

Today, I'm pleased to present a recipe from Ariel, which serves as a follow up to her strawberry jam from 2012. As I mentioned earlier, our cherry tomato plants have been quite prolific lately. Tomato jam is a great way to use them up while also putting them into something that won't go bad as quickly. The tomatoes for this recipe came from one day of picking. Although I'm generally not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes, this was an interesting and enjoyable application. It was very nice on a warm pita with a little goat cheese.

Ariel used yellow sunburst tomatoes, which resulted in a deep orange-colored jam. Other colors of tomatoes could be mixed for different colored jams. The main discussion we had afterward was about the sugar content. I didn't mind it, but Ariel thought it was much too sweet. I suppose the sugar does obscure the tomato flavor a bit. I tried the jam by itself on toast, as well with goat cheese as shown above. The goat cheese does balance out the sweetness. Dropping the sugar down as low as 1/2 cup could be a good experiment for the future. 

Guacamole

I love guacamole (who doesn't, really?), and we've made it occasionally over the years, mostly using Alton Brown's recipe. I had been mostly satisfied with that and grocery store offerings, but a video by Kenji Lopez-Alt recently put me onto using a mortar and pestle to make guacamole the traditional Mexican way. Kenji is a big proponent of the mortar and pestle, and explains that it can extract more flavor from the aromatics by crushing them. Ariel got me one for our anniversary, so guacamole was a natural first experiment. There was part of me that wondered how much of a difference it would make, but when I tasted this guacamole, I was blown away by how delicious it was. 

In preparation, I did some research on what should go into a guacamole. Rick Bayless has a good discussion of how he makes it in his restaurant. Douglas Cullen's article on Mexican Food Journal was also helpful. The traditional Mexican style is quite simple, with just onion, hot peppers (serranos seem to be the classic choice), cilantro, and lime being the common additions to the avocado. As far as I can tell, the other typical additions made their way into guacamole north of the border.

My version here is definitely not traditional, but it's still very tasty. I didn't have any cilantro or hot peppers, so I used parsley (from the garden) and garlic instead. This would also be a good route for people who don't like it as spicy or are averse to cilantro. I also added in some diced tomato, which is definitely optional. Tomato adds some texture and color contrast, but doesn't make or break the guacamole. We used the guacamole as an accompaniment to mahi-mahi tacos. 

Tzatziki

We've recently been eating gyros with some frequency. Decent quality frozen gyro meat can be found at both Sam's Club and Costco, and make for an easy dinner. We upgrade the meal with homemade pitas and tzatziki. Tzatziki is not hard to make, and works very nicely both as a topping for gyros and as a dip for chips or crackers. Although our garden failed to produce cucumbers this year, making tzatziki was a good way to use them up last summer. 

My tzatziki is based on one from Wanderlust Kitchen, but I've made a few adjustments. The main thing is that they recommend allowing the grated cucumber to drain overnight, which I find simply does not work. Instead, I recommend pressing the water out by hand. I happen to be out of white vinegar, but had plenty of fresh lemons for cocktails. This works completely fine. Basically, use whatever means available to get some acidity in there. Adding some chopped herbs at the end is nice, if they are available. I used spearmint from the garden this time. Mint and lamb are a classic combination, so this makes sense if using for gyro sandwiches. 

We made our gyro sandwiches with sliced white onion, tomato, and chopped romaine lettuce. For the pitas, we've been using Molly Yeh's recipe. We're still experimenting with how to perfect them and get them to puff up. In any case, they are a lot better than store bought once, which aren't the easiest thing to get around here.

Seder Staples: Maror and Charoset

This year was the first time we made our own horseradish and charoset for Passover. These are both essential parts of the traditional seder plate. The seder plate contains several items symbolic of elements of the Passover story. Horseradish, known as maror (bitter herb), represents the bitterness of slavery. Charoset, a fruit and nut mixture, represents the mortar used in bricklaying. As part of the seder, maror and charoset are eaten as a sandwich with matzo. 

The horseradish recipe is a simple mixture of chopped horseradish root and vinegar. Usually, distilled white vinegar is used, but I started wondering if this would really be kosher for Passover. A little internet research revealed white vinegar is usually derived from some kind of grain alcohol, so is not kosher for Passover. As such, we used apple cider vinegar instead. Fresh horseradish is pretty strong stuff, but seems to mellow a bit in the refrigerator. It's a nice condiment to have with gefilte fish and brisket. Many variants of charoset exist all over the world, with different locally available ingredients. Ours is a classic Ashkenazi style. It's also left fairly chunky compared to some pictures I've seen of a more paste-like consistency. The toasted walnuts add a nice textural contrast.