Tomato Tart for Cesar Chavez

March 31st marks the recognition of Cesar Chavez an American Mexican farm worker and labor activist who founded the National Farmer Worker Association, which later became the United Farmer Workers. Chavez was said to have improved working conditions for many migrant farmers.
As a tribute to Chavez, I made a tomato tart. Without getting into the whole debate if tomatoes are a vegetable or fruit, I relish that they are available to us year round in California.

A tomato's beauty is in their color and scent. Tomatoes just have a tomato scent to them. You know a tomato will be tasty, just by their color and firmness. There are a number of varieties of tomatoes, cherry, heirloom, roma and purple to name a few. Roma tomatoes seem to be the best for roasting, heirloom tomatoes are great in a salad.

Apparently though tomatoes should not be kept in the fridge until they are too ripe to be left out on the counter. Who knew?
To honor Cesar Chavez and Californian grown tomatoes here is "the tomato tart ". What makes tarts so pleasurable , is anything with a pastry crust reminds me of dessert, however this is a savory dessert.

Your house will smell delicious as this is baking. Be careful not to eat the tart hot out of the oven, you will be tempted. The only thing that will improve this tart would be to use tomatoes from your garden, however you will probably want to enjoy them fresh.

For anyone who loves cold pizza for breakfast...my husband is the only person I know that does not see the joy of this. This tart is amazing cold the next day. The flavors have had a chance to melt together. I enjoyed this recipe hot and cold.


TOMATO TATIN from CHOCOLATE AND ZUCCHINI

INGREDIENTS
puff pastry
2 pounds Roma or plum tomatoes (you can substitute another variety as long as they are firm and not too juicy)
Herbs de Provence (or a mix of dried rosemary, basil, oregano and thyme)
1/4 cup olive tapenade (store bought or homemade)
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil

I cheated and used a store bought puff pastry. (prepare the pastry according to the directions). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a 10 inch ceramic quiche pan with i teaspoon olive oil.

Halve the tomatoes lenght wise and core them. Arrange them in the pan ski side down in a circular pattern. Season with salt, pepper and herbs and a good drizzle of oil oil, Bake for 30 minutes.

Spread the tapenade on the dough.

Cut the cheese in 1/3 inch slices and arrange over the tomatoes in the pan. Lay the dough, tapenade side down, on the cheese and tuck in the overhanging flaps of dough. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden.

Let cool for a few minutes on a rack. Run a knife around the crust to loosen. Put on your best oven mitts, cover the pan with an overturned serving plate and flip the tart onto the plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Just before serving, tear the basil leaves and sprinkle over the tart.

Soup for Spring

Meg at Puget Sound Cookery recently had a giveaway with these beautiful Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa soup notecards. What makes these so much fun, is that it seems that the art of writing has been lost with the advent of the internet. Growing up with relatives living on the other side of the Atlantic I looked forward to the surprises the mailman would drop off in the post. Sometimes it was letters with the latest adventures from my cousins, other times there were boxes full of treats and chocolates. As a child I had plenty of pen pals from around the world. I would love collecting the bright colorful stamps that arrived on the envelopes.

What makes these notecards special, is that each card has a recipe for soup. So whoever the fortunate recipient of your notecard is, will receive a note in the mail and a delicious soup recipe. There are four different recipes, Butternut Squash, Fennel Gratin, Chicken Chili and Matzo Ball. I have yet to try any, but know that I will be making them soon.

Given that spring has finally arrived I am going to give you a soup recipe from one of my favorite spring vegetables, asparagus. The tips of asparagus remind me of crocuses. The first sight of the crocus popping thru the snow was a sure sign that winter was soon coming to an end. In Southern California we are fortunate to have great beautiful bright green asparagus year round. I like choosing slim stalk asparagus for their tenderness. Something about asparagus tells me that spring is here. The recipe below is so simple I am not sure that it qualifies to be called a recipe.

ASPARAGUS SOUP

5 cups chicken stock
2 bunches asparagus, with the ends cup off
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese


Steam asparagus for 5 minutes, while asparagus is steaming bring chicken stock to a boil. Asparagus should be tender but not overcooked, they should still be bright green. Place chicken stock and asparagus in blender and blend in batches. Return to stovetop and simmer for couple minutes. Pour soup into bowls and add Parmesan cheese to taste.

My Life with B.

Little Kitty came into my life about 18 months ago. I still remember what I was doing when I first saw her. I was having surgery two days later and for some reason felt compelled to wash my car, before parking it in the garage. Little did I know it would be over a month before I could drive again. I was on the phone talking to a friend when she strolled down my driveway. She was a friendly kitty and hopped into my trunk to see what was happening. That night we were having salmon-and I put some out for her. Little did I know that once you feed a cat she is yours.

Well sure enough she was there in the morning. I asked my neighbors if they knew where she came from. No-one did, however one of my neighbors gave me some cat food for her. My husband warned me that we were not keeping her.

Surgery came and went, and little kitty was in my backyard. My recovery was more than my husband expected. That was great news for kitty, he did not have time to take her anywhere. I called around to see if there were any notices for a lost kitty. Nothing. I asked around the neighborhood. No-one knew her. But I came home with more cat food.

It took little kitty a number of weeks before she would start venturing into the house. When she did come in, she would look around and then want to leave. I loved it, I would open the blinds to the backyard each morning and she would be sitting there looking at me.

October 21st was the turning point. It was the day of the wildfires. Leaves were being blown around the backyard and the air was horrible. I brought kitty into the house and set up a bed for her. She never slept outside again.




After this day, little kitty realized that the house was much more comfortable than outside. She had a bedroom all to herself. Slowly she was becoming our pet.

Much to her dislike, she went for a ride in the car to get her shots. She was a good girl, but that was not a fun trip. She hated the car.

The little one loved playing. She would play each evening with her feather. After dinner she would wait patiently for the games to begin. She never snuggled on the couch with us, but would sometimes slip upstairs to bed before us.

When my husband was not home, we always crawled into bed together. I loved the feel of her snuggled up against me. She had us wrapped.

When my husband would come home after work, she would run upstairs and lay down at the entrance of the bedroom waiting for her back to be rubbed.

She knew which chair was mine at the dinner table. She would always hop up and sit behind wanting to be rubbed. In the mornings she would sit on my chair and watch me make breakfast.

Whenever I would go to the neighbors, she would always wait for me outside. She loved the outside. Five days ago was the last time I put her outside. She wanted out and I obliged.

I would open the door and whistle for her or call her name, I would hear her bell chiming on her collar. This night she did not come. I did not think anything of it. I let it be for about 15 minutes. I then asked my husband to go look for her.

Poor kitty wandered onto the street. I had never seen her anywhere near the street before.

I miss her so much. Little one, I wish you were home with me. Thank you for your love.

Love and Quinoa

Love and Quinoa, those are two items that probably do not seem like they go together. However as the QUEEN of segue there is a connection. For Valentines Day, my dear friend C. bought me two books. C. knows that I love Paris and everything French. After Paris and all the pastries and fine shopping it has to offer, my other loves are reading and chocolate. My husband had the chocolate covered for V. Day, so instead of chocolate C. had hand delivered to my front door, Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris and a Paris Journal. This was just fantastic!!! Cooking and reading. I was already familiar with Clotilde's cookbook, Chocolate and Zucchini. Now that I had her Edible Adventures I needed to get the cookbook so I would have both on my bookshelf.

My bookshelf could not survive without it. Never mind all the other cookbooks I purchased along with it. I love gifts that keep on giving, But that story is for another day. Let's just say I am mad for cookbooks. For the past few nights since I have received Chocolate and Zucchini, I have been reading the recipes in bed, dreaming of what I will make from it. I almost feel like a child who has received a new toy and cannot bear to be a moment without it.

Clotilde had a recipe for Gateau de Quinoa, Champignons & Bacon, Quinoa Cake with mushrooms and bacon. How delicious does that sound?



I first discovered quinoa, last summer. For the past few years, my husband has taken me to Solano Beach for my birthday. There is a little breakfast place that we discovered that we return to each year on our first morning. Last summer my omelet was served with quinoa. I had never heard of it before and decided to add it to my diet after reading up about it.

Turns out that quinoa was an essential part of the Andean civilizations diet. For vegetarians it is a great source of protein, given that it's protein content is 12-18 percent. Other dietary advantages of quinoa are that it is gluten free. You can cook quinoa, the same way you cook rice, 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa. Bring the water to a boil and then add the quinoa, simmering it. I usually add chicken stock to it, to give it some additional flavor. The beauty of quinoa is that almost anything can be added to it for flavor, depending on what you are serving it with. You can add cranberries and nuts to it, and serve it like you would a couscous.

Once I discovered the recipe for a quinoa cake I was ecstatic to try it out. Quinoa cake was an amazing hit in the house. You can see in the photo that the cake has been cut. We are also having roasted chicken for dinner, which was slow in cooking, so my husband decided to bite into the cake while he waited for the chicken to roast.

Calling this a gateau is really quite french. Being raised in North America I always think sweet when I think cake. The blending of the mushroom with bacon and onion mixed in with the quinoa is quite sensational.

















Quinoa, Bacon and Mushroom Cake
(from Chocolate & Zucchini)

2 cups uncooked quinoa
6 thick slices bacon
1 yellow onion chopped
1 pound cremini mushrooms
1 tsp oil for greasing pan
3 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream

Cook the quinoa in stock according to package instructions. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium high heat, until brown and crispy. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels and crumble when cooled off.

Pour out the excess fat from the skillet and lower the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook for 8 minutes, until softened, stirring regularly. Add the sliced mushroom, cover and cook for 5 minutes until browned. Remove the lid and cook for 2 minutes until the most of the juice has evaporated.

Preheat over to 400 degrees F and grease a 10 inch springform cake pan.

Whisk the eggs and cream in a large mixing bowl. Add the quinoa and mushroom mixture and stir until blended. Fold in the bacon. Pour into the pan and bake for 35 minutes, until the top is golden and crusty.

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen and unloosen the sides of the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.