Eggplant and Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

 While I miss having a CSA to rely on, I do visit the Farmers Market every chance I get.  This past weekend, I got the first of the eggplant for the season.  Unfortunately, there was only one small one!  So, last night, I decided to make a quiche out of it with some beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes.  It is important I decided to do this last night because as always, when you want to put fresh vegetables into a quiche, you must do what you can to reduce the extra liquid added to the dish.  Instead of only doiing 20 - 40 minutes with the salt, I decided to slice the eggplant last night, salt it and let it rest in the refrigerator over night, to get as much liquid out as I could.  I didn't, however, remove the liquid from the tomatoes, even though I roasted them until they burst, so I am fully expecting liquid around the quiche.  But it smells so good while it is cooking!!!

Roasted Eggplant & Heirloom Cherry Tomato Crustless Quiche

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 small eggplant*, sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch slices

2 cups mixed heirloom cherry tomatoes*

1 head garlic*

Cooking spray

6 large farm fresh eggs*

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 ½ Cups Milk (I used 1% organic milk)

1 oz crumbled goat cheese

1 up shredded Swiss & Gruyere cheese

Directions:

1.      Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Slice the eggplant and lay in a single layer on sheet.  Sprinkle with salt.  Allow to rest 1 – 8 hours (refrigerate if over 1 hour).  This will draw excess liquid from the eggplant.

2.      Preheat oven to 400F.  Pat the eggplant slices to absorb excess moisture.  Line a large cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Lay eggplant slices evenly over the cookie sheet.  Spread tomatoes between the slices.  Cut the top and bottom off garlic head and place head in middle of cookie sheet.  Spray all with cooking spray.  Roast for 20 minutes, turning pan halfway through cooking.  When done cooking, reduce oven to 375F.

3.      Remove garlic to cutting board to cool.  Place tomatoes in a colander to drain excess liquid.  Pat dry the eggplant.

4.      In a medium mixing bowl, crack eggs and season with salt and pepper.  Beat eggs until uniform in color.  Slowly add milk and beat until a light lemon yellow.

5.      To assemble: Spray baking dish with cooking spray.  Place one layer of eggplant in the bottom of the dish.  Add burst tomatoes.  Peel cloves of garlic and spread throughout the tomato layer.  Place a second layer of eggplant over tomatoes.  Sprinkle with goat cheese.  Slowly pour eggs over vegetables, then sprinkle Swiss/Gruyere over top.

6.      Bake at 375F for 40 minutes, or until toothpick, inserted into center, comes out clean.  Allow to sit for 5-7 minutes before serving. 

* Farmer's market items.

Stewing Time

I don't think I could tell you the last time I made a beef stew.  It has to have been over a year now.  So, my goal this week was to put together a beef stew in the crockpot.  Stew is such a great dish for using the vegetables that we get in the fall.  Especially root vegetables like carrots and turnips.  I found out today that we are getting rutabaga this week, so I guess I should have tried to put this off another couple days, but I didn't know that last night.  So, instead of adding rutabaga to this stew, I just used up the turnips that I had in my last bag.  I decided on this recipe because it sounded different and interesting.  And I will tell you that my apartment smelled wonderful this morning when I woke up (yes, I do choose recipes for the crockpot that I think will smell good).

Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Root Vegetables
Adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robin-miller/slow-cooker-beef-with-root-vegetables-recipe/index.html?nl=EATS_110409_12

• 1 onion*, chopped
• 4 small Yukon gold potatoes*, quartered
• 2 carrots*, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium turnips*, peeled and chopped
• 2-pounds chuck roast. cut in 1-inch pieces
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 jar Clark Pope's Tomato Sauce* (16-oz)
• 1 jar Clark Pope's Roasted Cherry Tomatoes*
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Arrange onion, potatoes, carrots, and turnips in bottom of slow cooker. Season beef all over with salt and black pepper. Rub flour all over beef. Place beef on top of vegetables in slow cooker.

Whisk together tomato sauce,roasted tomatoes, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Pour mixture over beef. Cover and cook on LOW for 12 hours or on HIGH for 8 hours.

*CSA ingredients

Heirloom Tomatoes

We have, over the last couple weeks, gotten some interesting and beautiful heirloom tomatoes in our share.  I have been contemplating what to do with them since I got the first batch, but really needed to use them before they started going bad.  Somewhere in my searching, I saw an article about roasting tomatoes.  In the past, I have always treated tomatoes similar to other vegetables at 400F.  This article, however, suggested that it might be better to roast them at 250F for about 7 hours.  I am not the type to leave my gas oven running (even at 250F) when I am not here, so I decided to roast them while I slept.  From these roasted tomatoes, I made marinara sauce, which has a very unique flavor.

Slow-roasted Heirloom Tomato Sauce

• 5 small to large heirloom tomatoes*
• Olive oil
• Italian herbs
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 large clove garlic*
• 3 cups water 

Preheat oven to 250F.  Cut tomatoes in half (quarters if very large) and place on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian herbs.  

Roast in slow oven for about 7 hours.

Once roasted, place tomatoes into blender along with about half of the crushed tomatoes and garlic.  Puree (adding more crushed tomatoes if necessary. Pour puree into large Dutch oven along with remaining crushed tomatoes and water.  Heat to boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes or until garlic is cooked.

Note: one of the things about cooking on the fly is that you learn lessons as you go.  Since a couple of my tomatoes were quite huge (5" diameter), I decided to cut the tomatoes into wedges.  I found out this morning that wasn't necessarily the best idea.  Some of the wedges were charred almost all the way through.  So, make sure your tomato pieces are fairly large and meaty if you are going to slow roast.  Also, if I had been thinking last night (this is what happens when you start cooking at midnight!), I would have taken 3-4 cloves of the garlic and added them to the tray.  Roasted garlic would have added a sweetness to the sauce.  Instead, I had to cook the sauce this morning to cook the garlic.  I will say, though, that the combination of heirloom tomatoes has given the sauce a unique flavor that will probably come out different every time I make this because of the combination of heirloom tomatoes.  I hope we get more in the next couple weeks!

*CSA ingredients

Late Season Eggplant!

We received a very nice eggplant this week in our shares. I wanted something quick to put together with the eggplant and we did not get tomatoes or summer squashes, so I was having trouble figuring out what to make.  As I was cooking the squash stew earlier, I ran across some fire roasted tomatoes and peppers that were I purchased a couple weeks ago when I picked up my share.  I remembered running across a recipe earlier in the day that had called for eggplant and cherry tomatoes.  As I looked at the jar of roasted tomatoes, I thought why not?  I bet this would make a delicious sauce!

Eggplant with Roasted Tomatoes and Peppers

• 1 large eggplant, diced into 1/2" pieces*
• salt
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, minced*
• 1 jar fire roasted cherry tomatoes*
• 1/2 cup fire roasted red peppers, diced*
• 3/4 cup water

Dice eggplant, sprinkle with salt and allow to drain in a collander for 30 minutes.  Squeeze excess liquid from eggplant.  Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet, add eggplant, garlic and oregano.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes, peppers and water, bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the eggplant is very soft.  Serve over pasta with shredded mozzarella.

*CSA ingredients