Cooking tips, tricks, and advice from professional kitchens
My New Favourite Thing
Slow Roast Tomatoes
May 20th
Ripe BC Hothouse Cherry Tomatoes
At work we cure tomatoes overnight to take out some of the moisture and concentrate the flavour, but for that you need a rack that fits in a cookie sheet to allow air to circulate, and well, a whole night, and I’m not that usually thinking that far ahead.
A similar affect can be achieved without thinking ahead by using your oven to speed up the process. I usually buy cherry or grape tomatoes because I like them more than regular ones if I’m not making a sauce, and because they are like candy. For regular tomatoes, I recommend romas as they have a lot of flavour and a good yield on the flesh. Peel them if you feel like it, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
Halve mini tomatoes (no need to peel these), or quarter or eighth regular ones, then toss with a tbsp or two of evoo (god damn you Rachel Ray), a large pinch or two of salt, and about the same of granulated sugar. I like to add microplaned garlic for a little more flavour, and you can also add fresh or dried herbs to taste. Toss these well to make sure every surface is coated.
Cherry Tomatoes and Garlic
Pour the contents on a foil lined baking sheet, turn them all cut-side up, and place in a 200F-300F oven (hotter is quicker, but will cause the flesh of the tomato to break down more) until the tomatoes are done as you’d like them. You can remove them when they are slightly puffed and soft to the touch and use them in a pasta, or keep going until they are almost leathery (watch they don’t burn) for your own almost-sun-dried-tomatoes.
Tomatoes ready for the oven
Finished roast tomatoes
I love these slow roast tomatoes in pastas, on pizzas, and anywhere tomatoes are nice (everywhere!). You can also dry them overnight in a super low oven (as low as your oven will go) 150F works well, with a wooden spoon in the door to help air circulate. This will dry them more. Once quite dry, they can be chopped and used as a topping for fish. This is also a great way to extend the life if tomatoes are about to expire.
My New Favourite Thing: Super Quick Fresh Pizzas
Dec 6th
Fresh home-made pizza is one of the best things ever. But who can be bothered to make a dough, let it proof, punch it, let it proof again only to still have to make everything you want on the thing?!
The solution I’ve found, (sad that it took me so long to implement even though we’ve been doing this at work since long before I started a year ago) is to make all the components separately and freeze them in individual portions.
For the base, simply make the dough as you would regularly, make enough for however many pizzas you want, and after rolling, freeze.
A sub-tip here is to freeze them all on a baking sheet with a piece of wax paper in between and once frozen, wrap individually in saran wrap to prevent freezer burn.
For the sauce and the toppings, make as per the recipes you like, and freeze in small zip lock baggies. I’ve found this works brilliantly for garlic mushrooms, caramelized onions and sauce so far, and from work I know this also works with sausages (cut to size first).
When you want a pizza, simply pull one bag each of whatever you want on it from the freezer, let them defrost in the fridge (or in the microwave) and there you are home-made from scratch pizza any time you like.
My New Favourite Thing: Peeled Garlic Cloves
Dec 5th
Recently I discovered that my favorite veg store in town sells garlic in the way we get it at work; in whole peeled cloves. These are well priced and seem to, for some reason, keep better than all the other garlic I’ve ever bought before. In some shops, garlic cloves can be purchased IQF (individually quick frozen), but freezing isn’t necessary. The garlic will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. If you’re worried about the odor, don’t be. Since the garlic still has the thin outer membrane intact, there is absolutely no smell at all.
While you’ve saved the time it takes to peel a clove, which is significant, you still have to chop it. For minced garlic, simply grate the cloves on a Microplane Grater/Zester.
The whole cloves are also perfect for tossing in oil and salt and roasting.