Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried green tomatoes are delicious and they taste a hundred times better than uncooked unripened green tomatoes. They're also extremely easy to cook.

Ingredients
unripened green tomatoes
flour
corn meal
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
olive oil
1-2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1. Cut the green tomatoes into 1cm thick slices
2. Mix the eggs with some milk in a small bowl
3. Mix the flour and cornmeal with the salt and pepper in another bowl





4. dip a green tomato slice in the flour cornmeal mixture
5. then dip it in the egg milk mixture and then a second time in the flour cornmeal mixture so that the slice is evenly coated.
6. Place aside on plate and repeat this process for the amount of slices that can fit in your pan.




7. Heat up enough olive oil to completely cover the bottom of the frying pan and make sure the oil is hot before adding the slices.
8. Add the slices and let them cook till they turn a dark golden brown on their bottoms.
9. Flip them over and repeat so that they are golden brown on both sides.
10. Repeat the entire process till all the green tomato slices are cooked. Remember that olive oil burns easily and so if you are making a large batch of this, make sure to change the oil. Burnt olive oil is not healthy.



ps. There is a story behind this. The Landlord came over last week to do a house inspection and afterwards I went outside to show her the compost bins I had recently built. We started talking about the tomato plants in the garden and I asked her if the green tomatoes would turn red. She said that by now they probably wont, but I can make fried green tomatoes from them. She then asked if I had seen the movie. So... here are the fried green tomatoes from our garden and by the way, the movie 'Fried Green tomatoes' is actually quite good.

Mexican Scrambled Eggs

I usually eat this for dinner. You can serve it with tortillas if you'd like.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small white onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 serrano or jalapeño chiles, minced (more to taste, seeded if desired)
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 pound tomatoes, cut into small dice, or 3/4 can (14 oz.), drained
3 to 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
6 to 8 large eggs

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the onion. Cook, stirring, for about three minutes until just tender. Turn the heat to medium-high, and add the chiles, garlic, tomatoes and half the cilantro. The mixture should sear in the pan. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down and the mixture is lightly browned, five to eight minutes. Season to taste with salt, and turn the heat down to medium. The tomatoes should not be watery.

2. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, and add salt to taste and the remaining cilantro. Add to the pan and cook, stirring every few seconds to create large curds, until the eggs are scrambled. Taste, adjust seasoning and serve.

Yield: Serves four.

Vegetable Soup

It's getting cold. Soup is easy and will keep you warm and healthy. Supermarkets sometimes sell chopped vegetables that are mixed together already. This way, you won't have left over vegetables sitting in the fridge for months.

Ingredients
1-2 carrots (chopped)
1-2 parsnip (chopped)
1/2 sour apple (diced)
1/4 cabbage (thickly chopped)
handful parsley (chopped)
two bullion cubes (veggi or meat)
1 Sweet corn (two pieces)
1 Zuchini (chopped)
1.5 L of water
salt to taste

1. put all ingredients in pot
2. heat till it boils and reduce to simmer (cover pot with lid)
3. add salt
4. cook till all the components are soft and soup is flavorful






Enjoy!


Note: If the soup turns out too thick, add water! It can always be reduced again. Alternately, if you are storing the excess for the rest of the week, keep it thick and then add water before rewarming the soup for a meal. This is what i did. It also compacts storage space :) I enjoyed the fact that the pieces of each vegetable were kept thick. It means that each meal will taste slightly different as long as everything isn't overcooked.

Corn Bread

This one is simple and well known but requires products you wouldn't normally find at home, namely, buttermilk and corn meal. I wouldn't call it 'healthy' either, but its a tasty snack that will have everyone wanting more.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
recipe found here

Preheat oven to 375

Heat up the butter in a sauce pan or pot, remove from heat and add the sugar. Thoroughly mix in two eggs. (image to left).

Then add buttermilk with baking soda and salt mixed in.



Mix in the flour and corn meal till mixture is smooth.









Bake till golden brown on top. Knife should come out clean from sample.

Mediterranean Farro (or Quinoa) Salad

This is a dish I very much enjoy and is good for lunch or dinner. Farro, an ancient grain, is available in Italian groceries, health-food stores, and most well-stocked grocery stores. If you cannot find farro, or if you prefer, you may use quinoa instead. If using quinoa, cook according to package directions. This recipe serves four people.

I was not able to upload the photo I have for this recipe. My apologies.

Ingredients
1 cup farro
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 tsp. salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
8 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 English (hothouse) cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
6 oz. baby spinach
5 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:
1. In a saucepan over high heat, combine the farro and 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the grains are plump and tender to the bite, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, uncover and let cool slightly. (The farro can be prepared up to 1 day in advance and stored in the refrigerator.)

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, salt and a pinch of pepper. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until smooth.

3. Add the radishes, cucumber, mint and farro to the vinaigrette and toss to coat evenly. Gently toss in the spinach and feta and serve.

Zucchini with Rice

This recipe is loosely based off of a dish that my dad invented. It's a hearty vegetarian meal that doesn't take long to make and tastes great served hot or cold with some cheese or bread on the side.

Ingredients
5 squash (any type) (thinly sliced)
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 - 1 tomato
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/2 Tbsp Chana Masala mix spices (optional)
3/4 cup of short grain rice
2 eggs

First chop up the garlic and onion and add them to a pot with some olive oil. Let them cook until slightly soft. Take this opportunity to start cutting the squash.

Cut the ends of the squash and clean their skin thoroughly. It is NOT necessary to peal them. Then cut them into thin slices.


Add the squash and tomato to the pot and cover the pot so that the water in the squash does not escape. Add the salt, pepper, dill weed, and or any other spices you think would make this dish taste good. I suggest something a little spicy. In this case, I also added some Chana Masala mix spices.





After about 5-10 minutes check to see if liquid has accumulated at the bottom of the pot. If so, add the rice so that it covers the squash. Mix everything together. Keep the pot covered and let the juices from the squash cook the rice until soft. This process takes about 15 minutes. Feel free to add a little bit of water if necessary.




The contents of the pot should reduce. Mix everything together. Taste to see if any additional spice should be added. At this point you could stop and enjoy the meal. To add a bit of protein and change the taste slightly I added two eggs. Add the eggs and mix them into the vegetables and rice.




Vola! I really enjoyed this meal. It serves about 5-6 people. I put the food in plastic containers to use for lunch during the week. You can also add some chopped red pepper with the other vegetables. It tastes good but mainly it gives the dish a nice red color. Another possibility is to replace the rice with Quinoa.

Asian Noodles with Vegetables and Egg

This recipe is based off of a recipe first created by Linda Cai. We were in New York and she cooked me some food because I was hungry. I liked it so much I decided to try it a few more times with alternate vegetable choices depending on what was available. The most basic recipe calls for tomato, scallions, and garlic.

Ingredients
1 egg
1 tomato (diced)
2 scallions (chopped)
1 garlic clove (minced)
Bok Choy (optional)
handful of asian noodles
1/2 - 3/4 cup of water
Salt and pepper to taste

This recipe is particularly easy. Start by cutting up some choice vegetables. In this case I used Bok Choy, scallions, garlic, and tomato. Broccoli or mushrooms would probably work well also (replacing the Bok Choy). Cut them up into small pieces and add them to a hot pan and add half a cup of water so that the vegetables can steam. I've found that there is no need to add oil but if you would like, add salt to taste.




When you see that the dish has begun to bubble and the liquid has turned slightly red from the tomatoes, it is time to add some asian noodles. Asian noodles are particularly nice because they only take 2-5 minutes to cook and become soft. In this case I have used Beijing Noodles but anything you prefer will work. Let the noodles sit in the vegetables and if there seems to be a lack of water, add some so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. Slowly stir the noodles into the vegetables as they soften in the boiling liquid.



After the noodles have successfully integrated into the vegetables, add an egg and mix it into the entire dish. The egg will cook very quickly and the heat can be shut off at this time. When using an electric stove top, the heat can be turned off before adding the egg since the stove stop will remain hot. Add some cheese if you want... this is a noodly omelet-like dish after all.



Simple, bon appetit!