Cooking along

Pear Tart

I love fruit tarts, and so does my family. One rainy day last week I wanted to prepare something sweet and easy, I found this recipe and it came out great. Perfect with vanilla bean ice cream. Enjoy!

Filling

5 Bosch pears, ripe but not mushy, cut in pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Store brought dough

Preheat oven to 375°. Place the dough in a removable bottom tart pan, make some little holes with a fork and refrigerate covered with plastic until ready to bake. Mix the filling ingredients and place in top of the chilled dough. Bake for 50 min to 1 hour, until the pears are tender and the crust is golden brown. Let it cool, remove from the tart pan and serve room temperature with ice cream. Yum!!

 

Roasted Tomato Soup

I absolutely love tomatoes in the summer. This is a great and easy recipe to do when your friend Betsy gives you a bag full of beautiful ripe tomatoes from her garden :-) but mostly for anytime you have tomatoes, in case you don't have Betsy as your friend (well, everybody should have a "Betsy" friend!!). Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 small yellow onion, quartered
2 whole peeled garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings (optional, choose as few or as many as you like):

avocado
sour cream
corn chips
fresh cheese
cilantro leaves
dash of hot sauce or salsa

Preheat oven to 350°. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Place in a cooking tray and bake for 30 minutes, until soft and juicy. Be very careful to save all the juices. Place the cooked vegetables with the juices in a blender and blend well (this time I didn't add any extra liquid, but you can add some vegetable stock or water if the tomatoes are not juicy enough to get a soup consistency). Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot in a bowl, and place the toppings you like on top. In the picture I have: corn chips, avocado, sour cream and cilantro.
It was delicious!!!

Grilled Eggplant Salad

This is a very easy and delicious salad, it can even work as a light lunch or dinner!. You can add some roasted red peppers for extra flavor, but this time I didn't use them. I hope you like it!

Ingredients:
2 Eggplants
Salt
Olive oil for brushing

Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup fresh cheese (queso fresco) or ricotta cheese, cut in small squares
1/4 bunch fresh basil, cut in small strips
fresh cracked black pepper

Cut the eggplants in 1/2 inch slices, place them in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Wait 30 minutes and you will see all the bitter juices coming out of the eggplants. Pat them dry with a paper towel, removing the excess salt. Brush the eggplants slices with olive oil. Place them on a grill (I have one that goes in the stove top) and cook them evenly. Prepare the vinaigrette: mix the vinegar with the mustard, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil little by little until you have a nice consistency. Adjust seasonings (sometimes I add a little honey if its too acidic).
To serve, arrange the eggplant slices in a platter, drizzle with the vinaigrette and top with the cheese, basil and black pepper. Enjoy.