Toasted Fregola and Tomatoes

Shortly before we left San Diego, I discovered the wonders of Little Italy. I knew it was there and had briefly strolled down India Street but, with two hooligan girls in tow, you don’t go in to shops. 

The farmers’ market on Saturday was incredible and, if we hadn’t had the Hillcrest Market around the corner, I would have made more trips to Little Italy on Saturdays. Sadly, Stephen is a less then avid market goer, and I can’t bring myself to cajole him into going on his all too short weekends.

Finally though, taunted by the sight of fresh pastas and cheeses and all the way from Italy dry goods, I started taking my bribed-into-good-behaviour girls into the little shops and our grocery bill took a little leap.

The Sardinians make a type of couscous called fregola. It is usually shaped like Israeli couscous but is toasted. Sometimes it is a little rougher in texture which, I think, is great as it holds any sauce better. It is available at any good Italian market and best of all, there are often recipes like this one on the back of the packet.

Like all good Italian cooking, this is about simplicity and excellent ingredients. It is a great step away from the spaghetti rut. The fact that it is toasted lends a little toasty nuttiness and depth but not so obvious that your children are going to turn their noses up.

I used tinned cherry tomatoes for this. I was lucky enough to find them. I would recommend using diced tinned tomatoes but try and use the best you can afford, and try for San Marzano if you can find them, you will be happy you did. If tomatoes are in season, you could use chopped fresh but you may need some extra stock. I would also suggest that you use a fairly large pan, otherwise you will stir and wind up with something like this.

Toasted Fregola with Tomatoes (adapted from the back of the packet)

1 large onion finely chopped

4 large cloves garlic minced

250 grams toasted fregola

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups stock (I used chicken, you can use vegetable)

1 large (28 ounce) tin tomatoes

Chopped fresh parsley

Basil pesto to serve (if desired)

Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onions and garlic with olive oil in a large pan. 

Add tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil.

Stir in fregola and return to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the desired tenderness is reached.

Stir in some chopped parsley and season to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of pesto or extra virgin olive oil or some shaved parmesan.

It's Getting a Whole Lot Meatier Around Here

We are back in the company of our husband/dad/carnivore figure, that would be for me/the girls/our borderline vegetarian tendencies in that order. That means there will be a couple of changes. The first is that I can reasonably expect someone else to share in the nappy changing duties. The second is that I will cook and eat more meat than I do in the absence of the aforementioned figure. I even start to think about meat I can cook and actively shop for it.

When I say actively shop for it, I should clarify. Now that I am in America, and away from home, I need to find new, safe and happy sources. I can’t rely on the usual market purveyors and our semi-annual trip to Windsor to stock the freezer. I need to ask questions and read labels and generally be less trustworthy than I am at home, in the familiar.

While that will, likely only temporarily, be a shopping hiccup, there are other things I don’t need to think of. I am in California. This is where lots of the unlocal produce that I am not supposed to buy at home comes from. I can buy avocados and tomatoes and broccoli and fresh fruit all year round. It grows here. Woot woot!

The little holiday complex we are staying in has a little courtyard full of barbecues, for those who want to use them. The idea of dragging the family down there and trying to quietly and civilly have supper is unthinkable, but the idea of getting it all ready and sending the husband/dad/carnivore down to cook his meat is entirely workable.

I found the meat, after a brief read of the butcher’s signs and only one question, at the very nice supermarket which is not nearly close to our little holiday flat, but it is around the corner from the more permanent neighbourhood we will be relocating to. The gorgeous heirloom tomato was, the sign told me, grown a mere five miles away. The onion just said local and I would expect nothing else, at this time of year, pretty much anywhere below the tree line.

The marinade was a little thrown together, with only one brief shopping trip worth of ingredients in the cupboard, but it worked really well. It provided a tiny bit of sweetness from the tomato sauce caramelizing which was nicely offset with a slight tang from the chipotle.

I kept the salsa mild, because of the children and all, but I would happily spice it up with some grilled hot pepper peeled and diced with the onions and tomatoes.

We cooked it to rare/medium rare and personally, I wouldn’t cook it much more. Once sliced, I could, and did, cut it with a spoon. And, I am not the one to rave about a bit of steak but this made me wonder why I don’t eat more.

Grilled Flank Steak with Grilled Onion and Heirloom Tomato Salsa

2lbs 4oz.(1.09kg) flank steak (let’s call it 2lbs or 1 kg)

Marinade

1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground oregano

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons tomato sauce 

1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salsa

1 medium onion thickly sliced into rings

1 heirloom tomato thickly sliced

1 teaspoon (or so) of olive oil

Juice of 1 lime 

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Handful of cilantro/fresh coriander

Maldon sea salt to serve

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and rub it into the flank steak. Leave, covered, in a non-reactive dish in the fridge for at least four hours. Remove from fridge 30 minutes before cooking.

Toss the onion rings and the tomato slices with the olive oil and some ground black pepper.

Preheat your barbecue to a high heat. Place the meat and the vegetables on the grill. The barbecue will likely need to be turned down. After a minute or so, check the vegetables and turn them. The tomatoes will get soft very quickly. Don’t worry if they are about to fall apart but try to get them off the grill before they completely melt in. The onions will take a little longer. The flank steak will need about five minutes on each side for rare/medium rare.

Remove the steak from the barbecue when it is cooked to desired doneness. Cover and let rest for ten minutes. Meanwhile, chop the onions and tomatoes and mix with the remaining salsa ingredients and season.

After resting, slice the flank steak very thinly and across the grain. Pile it on a serving plate, sprinkle with a little finger-ground Maldon sea salt and top with the salsa, or serve it beside. 

Ketchup - Moon Style

I had promised myself I was done pickling and preserving for this year. I don’t seem to be able to stop. I may be making up for last year when I had a week old baby and I was quite certain that the US Open would not have been able to proceed if Tilly and I weren’t  sitting in our chair watching. Perhaps, making pickles is my subconscious excuse to have the US Open on in the background this year because there is no way I can think of to justify sitting in the chair to watch, and Tilly won’t sit still anymore.

Regardless of the reason, I am very happy that, while I was watching the US Open last year, Stephen overbuilt our basement shelves, buckling as they are under the weight of dill pickles and carrots, pickled beets, beet and horseradish relish, bread and butter pickles, blueberry chutney and syrup, mustard relish and salsa not-quite-verde. The freezer lid barely closes, filled with Mason jars full of roasted tomato sauce, strawberry freezer jam, pestos and bags and bags of summer fruit. 

I have vowed to be done after today’s effort, just in time for the US Open finals, so it seems a fitting end.

***

As most children I know do, Poppy has an almost obscene love affair with ketchup. She asks, and is denied mostly, for it on everything. I think that ketchup smeared on everything is almost criminal. Don’t get me wrong, I think it has its place. No fried potato is fully dressed unless it has been plunged in a puddle of the stuff but, I just don’t think it belongs everywhere.

When Feisty Chef tweeted that she was making pickles in The Chronicle Herald earlier this week, I had to have a peak. One of the recipes was an East Indian Tomato Relish that looked like it might just change the face of ketchup as us Moons know it. 

I thought about it all week and, after some careful thought as to what needed to be done and the tweaks I would make, today was the day. Poppy, gowned in her paint splattered Hello Kitty apron and determined to make her own ketchup, pulled a chair up to the counter and watched while I blanched and refreshed 40 tomatoes. She then set about peeling all forty. She wanted to chop the onions but the tears allowed me some elbow room while she counted out the lids for the jars.

I left out the peppers that Feisty Chef uses and changed the quantities of vinegar and sugar. I also doubled the recipe and I am glad I did. It seems like a ridiculously huge amount of tomatoes and onions until it cooks for the better part of three hours and is reduced to about one-third of the original volume.

I added some spices as well but not too much because my intended consumer is four. I also decided to whizz it up with the immersion blender for a smoother texture. It is a lot of prep work and a long cooking time but, I think, the results were very delicious. It is a little more chutney-like than ketchup and next year, I will likely lose some of the sugar but I am really pleased. I would let Poppy dip her grilled cheese in it for sure.

When Poppy tasted it, with her food critic nose crinkle, she said, ‘it tastes good but it isn’t really real ketchup, is it?’

I replied, ‘Isn’t it?’ Under my breath, I was saying, ‘Get used to it toots, there is eleven pints to eat.’

Ketchup - Moon Style inspired by the Feisty Chef’s East Indian Tomato Relish

40 large field tomatoes

8 large onions - chopped

1 tablespoon mustard powder

2 teaspoons five spice powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons pickling salt

7 cups sugar

6 cups apple cider vinegar

Boil a large pot of water. Score the bottom of the tomatoes. Plunge them into the boiling water for fifteen seconds or so. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge them into a large bowl of ice water. You will have to do this in batches so you don’t over cook the tomatoes.

Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes. Put them into a 14-16 quart pot. Add the onions and bring to a boil. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the spices, sugar, salt and vinegar. Return to the boil and cook, lowering the heat gradually as the mixture thickens for about two hours. Stir as necessary. When it has cooked down to about six quarts, turn it off. Using an immersion blender, purée until smooth.

Pour or ladle into sterilized jars and seal. 

I then processed this for ten minutes in a water bath canner. You can use a big pot with a rack in the bottom and cover the jars with an inch of water.

This makes 11 pints.