Recipie Swap Thread for us hungry folks! :-)

piffka - can I use old tomatoes?

Here is a good vegan BBQ paste of mine that works well on anything grilled, veggies, fish, poultry and meat:

1/4 cup red miso
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. medium soy sauce
2 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tbsp dry white wine or 1 tbsp. vermouth
1 small clove garlic, finely minced
1 tsp. chili paste, or to taste
2 tbsp. veg. oil

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl and keep refrigerated. Yes, it's that easy. If it seems a bit thick, add a touch of water. It multiplies easily, and can also be used as a marinade. If desired, green onion or shallot could be added.

Old tomatoes can give you, er, the runs. If they get wrinkled or the skins become so clear that you can see the seeds, throw 'em out. You really shouldn't use them.

For turkey, I'm assuming it's cooked (?). Anyway, I don't want to tell you the wrong thing, so I found this site: http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/b906-w.html

Also, did you say the tomatoes were refrigerated? Yaaack.

Best to buy street market tomatoes and keep the picked ones on counter til they ripen. Then I suppose they could go in fridge. Or, best of course, grow your own, pick when ripe. I, the tomato snob, prefer good canned tomatoes to the cardboard things in most grocery stores. I know this sounds huffy!

You're right ossobuco. Good Italian canned tomatoes with basil leaf are often better than fresh if you can't get good ones, or can't grow your own.

I should rephrase, that's good canned tomatoes from Italy with basil leaf, not some over-the-shore brand that just says 'canned Italian tomatoes.'

Agreed. But the basil leaf isn't essential. Fresh basil is wonderful!

msolga, yes, I agree. It's just that adding that fresh basil to canned tomatoes with basil is reinforcing the flavour. The basil in the can is 'low grade' flavour, but it's there in the background. Let's consider that a bass note. Then you add the terrifically aromatic fresh basil in addition, you add the chorus. Ahh....

Yes, cav! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Heaven!

You listen, I learn you to cook, not by recipe, by feeling!

Like music..

Damn straight.

For vegans, this original recipe is also really good, as a dip or spread, with toasted multigrain pita, flatbreads, tortilla chips of all varieties:

2 medium butternut squash, roasted at 400 degrees until very soft, cooled, seeds removed and flesh reserved
1 head roasted garlic
3 tbsp. tahini
squeeze lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
pinch cayenne, or to taste

Puree in a food processor and serve with a variety of breads and fresh vegetables.

murmuring the name, San Marzano. Though I don't know so much about that, I have bought various cans and sadly the most expensive brand was the best, so far.

Plus, since I have been paying attention to this, San Marzano had, what, expanded. Other places nearby have good tomatoes, and I suppose the same stuff may happen there as has happened re the name of Napa...

still, a can in an italian deli with tomatoes in it is probably ok.

Sorry, didn't mean to drop the thread, but I've been out. Jespah answered. No weird discolorations, please! As long as they're still red but just getting soft, I think they'd be fine. Why not try 'em, it will just cost you a little salt & sugar.

The tomatoes for my batch yesterday had been sitting out for ten days, but they were the vine-ripened kind and still attached to their stems. I did throw out a couple with soft spots even though they were still red, but if I'd really been hungry, maybe I wouldn't have. They'd never been in the refrigerator.

I can't believe you three are waxing ecstatic about canned tomatoes, though I agree a bad tomato is worse than none at all.

I had some good crab cakes today made with fresh Dungeness crab. Does anybody have a recipe for crab cakes?

No, listening if you have, but canned San Marzanos from the Naples region are really good canned tomatoes usually. This is perhaps changing as others learn to use the san marzano name.

As to S. Marzano being better than california, etc, romas, I don't know. I only know from my own romas that I grew in LA by the coast, not the prime growing zone.

The flavor of these canned is pretty good, pif, surely better than safeway produce department, etc. I won't get behind one can versus one field for cargo tomato, in an individual circumstance, but the ones grown for flavor are way diff from those grown to be distributed in big hauling trucks.




Edited to make more sense...

I believe they are good, very, very good -- you and Cav are highly regarded foodies in my book. I just thought it was funny. <heehee>

I don't buy canned tomatoes very often, but I will look for these next time I need some.

Thanks Jespah - they are definitely wrinkled, but the skin isn't transparent and there are no real soft spots. My new housemate used some this morning for breakfast and she didn't get sick, so maybe they're still ok.....

i found some decent canned tomatoes. In the winter they're a life-saver.