Farmers Market Rainbow Marinara

This marinara was completely thought up on an inspired whim. The inspiration was from a friend of mine, a Southerner trying to find parts of NYC to love, who loves getting heirloom tomatoes and just eating them with olive oil and salt. After trying some of them and acknowledging their varied tastes, acidities, and textures, I was inspired to see how these fresh ‘matoes would do in a marinara. So I went to the Union Sq Farmers market and picked up a group of tomatoes and bell peppers that were as varied as I could find. I went with a lot of variety so that I could taste each tomato and bell pepper before adding it to get a feeling for how the various heirloom tomatoes and crazy colored bell peppers taste. I went with the philosophy of having the sweet bell peppers compliment the (at least I feel) higher acidity of heirloom tomatoes. I also included red onion in the mixture as once had a chicken parmigiana soup that was made great by the addition of red onion, which adds a small kick to the flavor. Note, that the way that I made this marinara required a food processor. See the Comments section for making the sauce without one.


Farmers Market Rainbow Marinara
Servings: ~ 6 cups of sauce
Prep Time: 15min
Cooking Time: 35min or more (see Comments section)

Ingredients: (see the farmers market products picture for an idea of how certain quantities)
• A bunch of heirloom tomatoes of your choice
• A few sweet bell peppers
• Some red onion
• 5 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• 15oz can of tomato sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 3 basil leaves

Directions:
Clean all ingredients that need cleaning (the tomatoes, peppers, onion). Coarsely cut up the tomatoes, bell peppers, and red onion making sure to throw out the stem areas of the tomatoes and bell peppers, the seed of the bell peppers, and the skin of the onion. Put the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, and garlic into the food processor and… process them until they are of a chunky paste/sauce consistency similar to crushed tomatoes. Add the paste/sauce to a large sauce pan and add the olive oil, canned tomato sauce, basil, and bay leaves. Stir the sauce, taste it, and then add salt and pepper to your liking. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the flame and simmer the sauce for half an hour while stirring occasionally. After half an hour turn the stove off and remove the bay leaves.


Comments
At the end of the recipe provided you can enjoy the sauce then OR ideally let it sit for another 30-60 minutes OR refrigerate for future enjoyment. If you do not have a food processor, you can cut the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, and garlic to more of a diced size and then add them to the sauce pan; you may also need to add some crushed tomatoes (no more than 15oz) to fill out the sauce. Also, note that getting a different sampling of tomatoes should change the taste of the sauce. I liked this sauce best on top of a fresh tasting ravioli and for dipping grilled cheese sandwiches into (which I HIGHLY recommend).


Enjoy!


Picture 1: Farmers market goods.


Picture 2: Sauce in the pan.


Picture 3: Final product.

Will you mari(nara) me?

From dipping mozzarella sticks, to making a simple pasta and sauce, to a fresh and tasty shrimp parmigiana, a good marinara sauce is always delightful, adds some juiciness to your food, and it makes you want to grab some bread and mop your plate clean. Marinaras are really simple things to make. Basic ones include tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and usually some basil. Your tomatoes provide the substance of marinaras and you can begin with fresh tomatoes, canned peeled tomatoes (usually plum tomatoes), canned diced tomatoes, or canned crushed tomatoes. For marinaras I would suggest keeping your ingredients pretty fresh as that freshness can really come through with so few ingredients and make a real difference (definitely having fresh basil in there is preferred). If you like more of the fresh acidic taste to your marinara then don’t add sugar, but if you want it to have a less intense acidic tomato flavor and be sweeter then add a little sugar. Different people and different recipes also include different amounts of olive oil depending on whether or not you just want it to sauté your garlic or if you want to have more of the olive oil taste in your marinara. Some possible things to add to the marinara include garlic powder, parsley, onions, and red pepper flakes.

Chiles Rellenos

As mentioned previously, having a food processor opens up new culinary doors like enhanced salsa making. The thought to do the following recipe was inspired by a One Small House trip that I did last winter, where a group of individuals including a decent number of medical students went to rural Tijuana to build homes for a few families in need of them. While we were out there, we were fed by the couple that cooked for the local orphanage that we stayed in… and they were great cooks! I thought that I was taste-bud happy (TBH) when I had the best carne asada taco of my life at a local taco stand or when the orphanage cooks made homemade tostadas. But no, true TBH came when they unveiled their chiles rellenos. Not only were they delicious with a nice kick but it was a dish that I could agree with the vegetarians on the trip that meat would not improve the flavor. Now fast forward to the present where my tiny food processor at the time allowed me to make a TBH version of my own.


Chiles Rellenos
Servings: ~ 4
Prep Time: ~35min
Cooking Time: 50min

Ingredients:
For the Peppers
• 4 poblano peppers
• 6-8 ounces of cheese (shredded or cubed) (I used Monterey Jack because I wanted them to be spicy, but you can use regular Jack or maybe even Coby cheese if you want less heat)
• 4 eggs, separated
• ½ cup of flour
• 1-1½ cup of vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
For the Salsa
• Either 4 large ripe tomatoes (peeled and chopped) OR 8 ripe plum tomatoes (peeled and chopped)
• ½ medium white onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• ¾ cup canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a food processor combine the tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Puree until smooth. In a saucepan heat 2 tbsp of the oil, add in the puree, and cook for 3min while stirring. Add the cinnamon, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, broth, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and simmer while occasionally stirring until the salsa is thickened and the onion is cooked (15min). While the salsa is cooking, preheat your broiler. Remove the bay leaves once the salsa is cooked. You can either let the salsa cool and put it in the fridge or you can just set it aside.

Place the peppers on a baking sheet and broil them close to the flame for about 5min each side (you want the outer skin to blacken and start to separate from the pepper flesh). Then place the peppers in a container or bag (I used a paper bag) and let them steam for about 15min. Peel off the blackened skin and rinse the peppers in cold water. With a small sharp knife, slit each pepper the long way on one side while keeping the stem on the pepper (I would actually not cut along the whole length but would leave about an inch of uncut space at the top and bottom of the cut). Carefully cut out the seed pod, remove it, and rinse the inside of the pepper with cold water to get any remaining seeds out. Pat the peppers dry inside (carefully) and out.

Stuff the peppers with 1.5-2 ounces of cheese each. Reshape the peppers so that they close while retaining the general shape of an intact pepper. Secure the open cut in the pepper with your toothpicks.

In a mixing bowl beat your egg whites with ¼ tsp of salt until it is frothy. Beat in egg yolks 1 at a time. Then beat in 1 tbsp of flour. Use the remaining flour to dust the peppers with. Preheat your oven to 200oF. In a medium skillet heat the 1 cup of vegetable oil until it is very hot. Gently place a pepper in the oil and cook on each side until golden brown (~2min each side). Remove the pepper with a slotted utensil and place on top of a paper towel to drain. Place the pepper in the oven to keep it warm while you are frying the others (use the remaining ½ cup of oil if needed). Once you have fried all of the peppers, (optional to heat up the salsa), take out the toothpicks (not so optional), place the peppers on your dishes, place the salsa on the peppers, place a piece of Chiles Rellenos in your mouth, and then place a smile on your face.


Commentary:
This recipe is adapted from 365 Easy Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore. I will tend to post more original, family, or less specialized cookbook recipes on the blog but this one was very very good, I tweaked it a bit, and I’m plugging the book. I look forward to trying more recipes in this book when I can.
The salsa in this is really nice as it tastes very fresh and complements the spicy heat from the pepper (and Monterey Jack if you used that). I prefer having the salsa cold or room temperature to even further contrast the spicy and temperature-hot pepper, but you can alternatively heat it up before placing it on the peppers.

Enjoy!


Picture 1: Salsa making with the little food processor that could


Picture 2: Cubed Monterey Jack


Picture 3: Charred peppers


Picture 4: Homemade steaming apparatus


Picture 5: Frying the peppers


Picture 6: ¡El producto final!

TechnoKitchen: Food Processors

One big recommendation that I will make for anyone trying to take their beginner-intermediate (that’s rookie-pro for the madden players out there) cooking game to the next level is to get a food processor. I feel confident saying that my life has changed because of my processor. Not only can it save time on big chopping tasks, but it opens up new doors into homemade sauces, salsas, cooking pastes, and more. It doesn’t even have to be a big processor, you can get a small one speed for like $15-25. Now personally, I got a small one, fell in love, and then ditched it for a bigger, newer, shiny model and fell in love again (the original is still appreciated and used). If you are a little worried about space in your cabinet (like me) I would recommend getting a combined blender/food processor, preferably one with separate blender and food processor attachments. However, I would remind you that if you want pieces bigger than “finely chopped” that you will probably have to do that still on your own, but being proficient with knives is a good thing to be. In the following post, Chiles Rellenos, I get to show off my little processor that could.

Picture 1: My combo blender/food processor