Roasted Tomato and Basil Sauce -- step by step not

Have I told you that the parents have gone back home where they can drink their tea in peace while listening to Robindrosangeet leaving behind
(a) Tomatoes growing in abundance
(b) Two cranky kids missing their grandparents
(c) and an acute shortage of time for me

Have I told you I am so messed up right now that the one day I mange to reach the gym I arrive there in my flip-flops ?

Have I told you that no one thinks I am a super mom, not my mom, not the husband's mom, not the kid's mom, not the husband's mom...ok I repeat.

If I have how did you ever expect that you will see step-by-step pics of food getting cooked here.

Don't you think your expectations are lofty, your aspirations are sky high and you might actually do good if you write the GMAT than browse through my page ?

So the bottom line is there is no Step-by Step pic, there are few steps, all others are missing.

And really this is a very simple recipe, not even a recipe actually, tomatoes thrown together to be blended and roasted before they are thrown together and sun-dried tomatoes and basil added before they are blended and red ripe juicy tomatoes picked from my very own tiny veggie patch before they are roasted. You get the drift ? Now go ahead and make it.

This is a beautiful sauce that you can toss your pasta in. My girls adore it and that is something. I make the pasta like this, you do your own way. And please do remember I use my small toaster oven for such things in small quantity, so my temp settings might be different, be careful about your own oven settings.

Soak about 1 cup of coarsely chopped sun dried tomatoes in hot water for 30 minutes or more till it softens

Chop & Roast two plump juicy red tomatoes and 5 cloves of garlic drizzled liberally with olive oil and generously dusted with garlic pepper powder and salt till the tomatoes are well roasted. Be careful, do not burn them. In my toaster oven, I had the temp at 400F and it took me about 30-35 minutes.

Cool and in a blender add
roasted tomatoes with garlic, oil and everything,
sun dried tomatoes that are now softened
Blend to make a paste

Add some fresh basil. Blend with above to make a fragrant Tomato Basil Paste.

If the tomatoes are not sweet, and you think the paste is a bit tart for your paste, add a little sugar when you are using it.

Cool and store in the refrigerator. Till date I have kept such pate for 7-10 days. While tossing Pasta make the sauce more liquid by adding pasta water like here or add some olive oil.

Infused Olive Oil -- Basil & Sun Dried Tomato

Remember This ? The Basil in my Herb Pot.

Well every year I throw together herbs in a pot and grow them. I grow them because I love the thought of growing my own herbs. But do I do anything with them ? Ummm, ummm...gulp, gulp. Well... I use all of the coriander and the garlic chives which are very scraggy in my pot and are not much but the rest is left to flourish and grow and look green and pretty.

No one will believe me when I say this, I think it is blasphemous to even utter this, but I never really cared to use the pretty, fragrant basil or oregano(yes someone said it is oregano) the last two years. But all that changed yesterday and I started plucking basil like crazy.

This basil had a very lemony scent to it and this is NOT lemon basil. I am growing lemon basil from a friend in a separate pot but this one was supposed to be the regular basil. But it was not the lemony scent that inspired me. It was the book, "Under the Tuscan Sun" which I have just started reading. The book is so very charming that it will make you do things like that.

Once plucked I wanted to make an infused Olive Oil. The husband said that my attempt might kill everyone with "botulism".

I did not listen. I listened to Martha Stewart.

I blanched a few basil leaves,
patted them dry,
coarsely pounded them with a mortal-pestle
and then I remembered Happy Cook putting sun dried tomatoes in olive oil.

So I took a washed and dried jar. This one is the Bru Coffee jar if you are curious.

Put some Sun dried tomatoes, put the pounded basil, poured in the extra virgin olive oil and am keeping it in the refrigerator for a week.

At room temperature or more than a week is not advisable.

We will see how I use it. For now I will just spread it on slices of baguette and take a bite with my tea.

********************

By now everyone I know must have read Joel Stein's article in The Times. Maybe his intention was humor, but the piece seemed to me much more rude than funny, kind of in bad taste. It also mattered that he was not saying it to a closed audience in his living room but on a media with a far more outreach.
It is these incidents which spark a fire of hatred somewhere, puts doubt in young minds and makes them justify their action. It is such hatred that leads them towards bigger crime. My condolences to Dr. Divyendu Sinha's family who lost his life in a tragic incident last week.

I am sorry but I have not been able to reply to comments or visit and comment on your blogs. I am hoping I will be up to it in a week

Off to the Garden

"Two years ago, I was saying as I planted seeds in the garden, "I must believe in these seeds, that they fall into the earth and grow into flowers and radishes and beans." It is a miracle to me because I do not understand it. The very fact that they use glib technical phrases does not make it any less a miracle, and a miracle we all accept. Then why not accept God's miracles?"

-Dorothy Day (1897-1980), From Union Square to Rome, 1938

This has been a very difficult week for us. A tragic incident close to home shook our belief in mankind, in humanity, in mortals.

I do not know how to vent my anger, my frustration. I do not know how to reinstate my faith. I do not understand why people do not understand parenting is a serious task and if a parent does not do his/her job well, they can raise humans who destroy society.

The greens in my garden consoles me. And though this year I can take no credit for them, I look to them to believe God is still there to work out miracles.

My Dad did everything for the garden this year from planting to taking care. He planted tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and beans. The tomatoes are growing happily. Zucchini flowers are in plenty. The bunnies ate the beans. The carrots are still growing.

He also planted hot peppers and I threw together all kinds of herbs in a herb pot.

Growing Mint is easy. I did not know that. My neighbors have loads of mint plants. On their suggestion I dug one stem of mint into the soil and it flourished.

The herb pot with herbs I can't even recognize

What are those ? Any idea ?

The Hot Peppers

Zucchini, all flowers and leaves. No fruit yet.

Tomatoes

D's Squash Blossoms and Designer Fulkopi Bhaja

It was only last week that I was cursing the guy for starting his seeds late and now see what he has. His squash plants have blossomed and there are pretty yellow flowers all around. Didn't I say he was D best. Ok I never did, so what !!!



A couple of years back we used to have a tiny pumpkin patch which never gave us any fruit but we were only too happy with the blossoms and the leaves and stems(kumro da(n)ta). The stems and leaves were put to best use if either set of parents were here. I usually don't have too much patience to chop the stems and leaves and make a da(n)ta charchari so this time there is no pumpkin but the two lone squash plants have made us happy.

However we didn't get the timing right to harvest the blossoms. One day all happy with the blooms, I clicked pics and by next day the bloom had closed.

"Harvesting squash blossoms requires careful timing. You want them before they bloom, though sometimes it’s tough to distinguish between a bloom that opened and closed, and one that has yet to open."

Squash have male and female blossoms on the same plant (monoecious). The blossoms of both sexes are open and fertile only during the morning hours of one day. During this time pollen must be transferred by bees or by a person. The male blossom may open a second day, but the pollen will no longer be fertile and the blossom will close, wilt and drop from the plant that day or the next. See what ego these male blossoms have ? The females are no less, they make those guys wait like anything . There may be 3 to 4 male blossoms opening for several days to a week before the first female blossoms open.

Plants are such a miracle of nature and there are so many things you wouldn't know unless you see them happening right there in your backyard. Like the other day I saw my methi plants close their leaves and go to sleep at night. They opened up once again at dawn. Has anyone noticed that or can I just say I "discovered" the phenomenon.

So anyway we had only closed blooms to fry and that too only four(the male flowers) of them. Once you have those blossoms, remember to gingerly pull out the stamen before you cook, since the stamen makes it bitter. D made the squash blossom fries and since he does NOT measure, this is how it goes.

To make a squash blossom fry, make a batter with chickpea flour(besan), little rice flour, salt and red chili powder. The batter would have the same consistency of a pakoda batter. Dip and nicely coat the blossoms in the batter. Deep fry in hot oil till brown and crispy

Last weekend after a long time, read really long time we were at Whole Foods. So of course we had to eat at their salad bar and there I had something which was exactly like our very own Bengali Fulkopi Bhaja but with some more Indian spices.

Back home I had one medium cauliflower chopped in medium sized florets and put away neatly packed in the veggie drawer. I wanted to make a Fulkopi Bhaja but with some spices and so this was the Designer Cauliflower Fry or Fulkopi Bhaja. Instead of frying it on stove top I finished it in the oven

Heat Olive Oil in a Frying Pan. Add some chopped red onion and fry till light brown in color. Add some ground corriander powder, fennel powder, very little garam masala powder, paprika and a little red chili powder. Fry the masala with a sprinkle of water. Add the cauliflower florets. Add salt to taste and mix well with the masala. After frying the cauliflower for a couple of minutes transfer the entire content to an oven safe bowl or tray and bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. The cauliflower will be done and lightly crisped at the end of the process.
Sprinkle a generous helping of sumac on the beautifully roasted florets and enjoy.

I am sending the Squash Blossoms off to WHB #191 hosted by Cheryl from Gluten Free Goodness. This event was started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and now has a new home at Cook Almost Anything at Least Once

More blossom goodness from Ahaar and Grow, Cook, Eat

What delight did you grow to eat today ?

Strange Stories, Amazing Facts

Amazing Fact

Fact 1: I did not, repeat DID NOT plant any cherry tomatoes this year. I did plant regular sized tomatoes

Fact 2: I GOT a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes from my tomato plants this year. I DID NOT get any regual sized tomatoes this year

Strange Story

I did plant a lot of cherry tomatoes in 2005, and a row of them in 2006, NONE in 2007

Note: Since my little daughter has been under the weather, blogging has been disruptinve. She is doing fine now and normal programming will resume soon. Normal might not mean frequent though.

Summer in my Garden and a PlayDate

Since I pestered all of you last week with my play date scheming tactics for my daughter I though it only fitting that I let you all know that I had finally called the mom of the little Asian girl my daughter had befriended. We got our message across and this Saturday morning a play date was set up. The little girl came and the two little ones had a fun time. They did puzzles, played with beads, Dora cards and stuff I don’t even know. Without even being asked both S and her friend J cleaned up the stuff they played with it. That I think was very commendable.

Then they went out and blew bubbles. Since J was not staying for lunch and her Mom insisted that she had a full breakfast, the two girls were served ice cream, melon balls, a small piece of cake and then lemonade. I did ask her Mom before she left if it was ok to give J snacks. You see I had read this

All in all S was happy and I guess little J was happy too and I was happy to see them happy…

Only D had his doubts, first he didn’t like the word “playdate”. Why “date” he kept on saying, a protective Daddy I say

Next he said it was much more fun to just holler out for friends and just play with them till your Mom hollers out for you again than arrange scheduled activities like “Play” ...ahem “date”.

Now my daughter does holler out for my neighbour’s daughter and that’s how they play but I see no other way than “PlayDates” to arrange play with school friends. So hoping to more such play days…

Sharing with you here are some pictures from my garden. I love Summer and love all the greenery that it brings along. I also have a penchant for untended wild gardens, I just love gardens like that much more than the prim gardens with manicured hedges. But wild gardens with an overgrowth need a considerable amount of land, maybe one day I will have something like that, with climbing bushes, and huge trees with creepers covering the trunk and a brook with clear water running through it.

For now this is all I have...

... the rose still safe from Japanese Beetles

...the Geraniums

...this is what we call "Nayan Tara" in Bengali, can't recall the English name

... the blooming bud

... the Nasturtium started from seeds finally got a foothold

... the bean plants started from seeds too

... the spinach, planted plenty of seeds but only few showed signs of life as these

We also have many tomato plants growing happily and they are proud to be part of Summer GBP. Maybe I should have screamed GBP at the spinach too or maybe they are just hard of hearing.

My "Corriander" seeds refuse to germinate. I sowed them directly in a pot. Any clues ?