Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin

Savory, sweet, late summer delicious. I have yet to find a Melissa Clark recipe that I didn’t love, so when I saw this in NYT Cooking, I had to make it. I still hold that anyone who tells you that you can caramelize onions in 15-20 minutes has a sadistic streak. I went with a few more olives, a few more tomatoes and a little more thyme in my version. Easy, delicious, weeknight way to wind down the summer.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 14-ounce package all-butter puff pastry
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 red onions, halved and thinly sliced
• ¼ cup plus a pinch of sugar
• ½ teaspoon sherry vinegar
• ¼ cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 ½ pints (about 1 pound) cherry or grape tomatoes; a mix of colors is nice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
•  Kosher salt, to taste
•  Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unfold puff pastry sheet and cut into a 10-inch round; chill, covered, until ready to use.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of sugar and cook, stirring, until onions are golden and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water and let cook off, scraping brown bits from bottom of pan. Transfer onions to a bowl.
3. In a clean, ovenproof 9-inch skillet, combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat, swirling pan gently (do not stir) until sugar melts and turns amber, 5 to 10 minutes. Add vinegar and swirl gently.
4. Sprinkle olives over caramel. Scatter tomatoes over olives, then sprinkle onions on. Season with thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Top with puff pastry round, tucking edges into pan. Cut several long vents in top of pastry.
5. Bake tart until crust is puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around pastry to loosen it from pan, and flip tart out onto a serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Pescado a la Veracruzana

If I see this dish on a menu, I have to order it, that’s just how it is. Fortunately, it’s really easy to make at home. This particular version came with the added benefit of a huge supply of newly roasted, hot, hatch chiles. The hot ones are no joke this year — get ready to sweat a little — but they add the perfect heat to this sauce. We served it with elotes and cilantro-lime rice.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 6oz tilapia or other white fish fillets, seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides
• Salt and pepper
• 1 yellow onion
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes (Mexican seasoned work really well)
• 1 hot Hatch chile, roasted (sub Anaheim chile if can’t find Hatch)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• ⅔ cup pitted olives, halved (pimento-stuffed Spanish olives work well)
• ⅓ cup capers, drained

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer. Sauté the fish until it’s opaque and just cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish. Transfer to a glass baking dish where they fit snugly.
3. In the same pan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, Hatch Chile, bay leaf, oregano, olives and capers and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes until the flavors combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour the sauce over the fish in the baking dish and bake in the oven until fish is heated through, about 5 minutes.
5. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Adapted from Marcela Valladolid’s recipe on The Food Network

Lamb and Spinach Stuffed Onions

Lamb and Spinach Stuffed Onions

True confessions: I have become completely and utterly addicted to food porn.  My magazine of choice: Food & Wine.  It’s my dirty little secret.  I wait with baited breath at the mailbox for the arrival of the newest issue and then spend hours oohing and ahh-ing and trying to keep my salivary glands in check.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s all about the articles, really, it is, but when they published this recipe for Lamb and Spinach Stuffed Onions, I felt that I had glimpsed our future dinner table.  I was right.

I’ll be honest, this was not the easiest recipe I’ve ever made, but, that said, it is also, hands down, one of the best.  If you even have a passing interest in lamb, MAKE THIS RECIPE!  Word to the wise: choose sweet onions that are taller.  The squatty ones will fill your kitchen with profanity as you try to get them apart.

We served them with sautéed carrots with thyme and repurposed our leftover fava beans into a paste with garlic and olive oil and spread that on fresh soughdough bread from Arizmendi.  Monica brought some amazing Folie a Deux Dry Creek Zinfandel as suggested by F&W, and there was much joy and happiness in our Sunday afternoon.

Check back soon for amazing appetizer suggestions …

STUFFED ONIONS

• 

  Lamb and Spinach Stuffed Onions

  Two unpeeled 1 1/2-pound sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla, root ends trimmed

• Oil, for rubbing
• 5 ounces curly-leaf spinach, washed but not dried
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

TOPPING

• 3/4 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ancho chile powder
• 1/4 cup shredded Gruyère cheese

1. PREPARE THE ONIONS Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the onions in a small baking dish, root ends down, and rub with oil. Add 1/2 inch of water to the dish. Cover with foil and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, until tender. Let cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet. Add the spinach in batches, tossing until wilted. Transfer to a colander and squeeze out the water. Coarsely chop the spinach.
3. In the same skillet, cook the lamb over moderately high heat, breaking it up, until no pink remains, 3 minutes. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat and add the ancho chile powder and cinnamon. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the spinach. Transfer the lamb filling to a large bowl. Stir in the bread crumbs, Gruyère, 1/4 cup of the beef broth and 1/2 cup of the crushed tomatoes.
4. Cut 1/2 inch off the top and bottom of the baked onions. Separate the layers, trying not to break them. You will need 10 onion cups: some large, some medium and 2 small. Finely chop enough of the onion scraps to make 1/2 cup; fold into the lamb filling and season with salt and pepper.
5. Stand the onion cups in a buttered medium baking dish. Season the insides with salt and fill with the lamb.
6. In a large skillet, combine the cream with the remaining 3/4 cup of beef broth and 1/2 cup of tomatoes and bring to a boil. Pour the sauce over and around the onions.
7. MAKE THE TOPPING In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Mound the topping on the onions. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes, until hot. Uncover and increase the oven temperature to 425°. Bake for 5 minutes, until the topping is crisp. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Sautéed Carrots

• 10 large carrots, peeled and chopped into discs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• Sourdough loaf, cut into crostini-sized pieces and lightly toasted

1. Heat olive oil in non-stick skillet until shimmering
2. Add carrots and thyme and sauté until carrots are tender (15-20 minutes)
3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Spread on crostini

Fava Bean Spread

• 2 cups of prepared fava beans
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 lemon juiced
• kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper

1. Puree fava beans, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice in a food processor.
2. Add water to desired consistency as needed
3. If garlic is too strong, transfer to a small sauce pan and cook over medium-high heat with additional water until garlic has mellowed (about 5 minutes)

Do yourself a favor and have the Dry Creek Zin with this meal.  It’s truly a perfect pairing.