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Home » summer vegetables

summer vegetables

Summer tomato quiche + Why yes, I really did say summer

June 23, 2014 by Edlyn

Main picture

Hey there, first Monday of summer on the imaginary calendar. It’s official. It’s you time! For two short months, we’re going to pretend that you’ll last forever and then maybe, you will?

I won’t lie. It is my favourite season. I can take intense humidity and warmth over bitter cold and rain because cooling off is much easier for me. Summer days in Goa mean lots and lots of fresh fruit, ice-cream and dips in the pools of random hotels (and more recently, our own). Summer days in Washington mean weather that makes everybody talk about the weather, strawberries of the sweetest kind, and tomatoes that taste sweet and then savoury. I really don’t know what to do with myself.

The little potted plant garden that is sitting on our balcony also looks overjoyed every time the afternoon sun makes its way to them. To me, they are alive and I still can’t believe they were just seeds in a little envelope a few months ago (Whoa now ovaries!). A lot of people’s apartments in this area have tomato plants that are twice as big as mine. The urge was never stronger to go knock on some doors and beg for answers. However, I know people here don’t do that so I resist. I will be better next year and I’ll probably get a heat lamp. This is not a competition (thankfully) but I saw how perfect a couple of stunted cucumbers, tiny overcrowded circle carrots (many stolen by our bunny dog), two-and-a-half cherry tomatoes and some salad greens were and I want it all for myself!!!

Yesterday I traded my lunch for a pint of strawberries and another pint of sweet cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market. The strawberries lasted a total of two hours and most of the tomatoes successfully made it into this quiche.

I don’t know why people complain about Mondays.  They always seem to be good to me.

(If you’d like to check out some of my older summer-crazed recipes you can try this or this.)

Summer tomato quiche

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For the roasted tomatoes

Turning on an oven might not seem ideal during the summer but wouldn’t you do it for the roasted tomatoes in this quiche? They can be made a day earlier so throw them in the oven when the sun goes down and ready them to star in this beautiful thing.

Ingredients

  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 whole sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 2 big cloves of garlic, peel on
  • A hearty pinch of sea salt

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Preheat the oven to a temperature of 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and make a snug pocket in the centre for the tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients to the tomatoes and cover them up. Put the baking sheet with the foil pouch into the oven for an hour and a half. At the 45-minute mark, open up the foil pouch to expose the tomatoes directly to the heat and place them back in the oven. At the 1-hour mark, turn over the tomatoes without squishing them if you can. They will be very soft so some might resist. If they can’t be turned, leave them as is. Put the baking sheet back into the oven and turn down the heat to 375 degrees F. Let them roast for 30 minutes more, until some of the liquid reduces. The tomatoes are done when their skin looks dry but they are still soft on the inside. Leave them aside to cool before using. If making a day earlier, store in a container with the remaining liquid and the garlic + rosemary stalks.

For the cornmeal crust

This crust recipe was made using one 9-inch cake tin. I’ve used a tart tin and a cheesecake tin to make quiche before but both those were huge disasters for me. I figured that if any liquid should escape, at least it will all stay with the quiche instead of leaking onto a baking sheet. If you feel more comfortable using traditional baking equipment, please do.

Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 145 gms (3/4 cup) cornmeal (I used a medium-grind, like I did for last week’s polenta cake)
  •  1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped fine
  • 1 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

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Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Add the milk, water and salt to a large saucepan and bring them to a boil on medium heat. Once the liquid starts to bubble, add the cornmeal, a little at a time, stirring constantly as you go. Once the cornmeal absorbs the liquid it will start to get thicker. Lower the heat slightly. In about 10-12 minutes, it should reach a very uniform consistency, where it becomes slightly difficult to stir. At this point, take it off the heat and add the Parmesan and stir it well into the cornmeal. Break the egg and stir quickly into the mixture until well combined. Lastly add the rosemary and pepper. Set the cornmeal aside to cool for a few minutes.

Grease a cake tin with butter or cooking spray. Spoon out the cornmeal mixture and place it into the cake tin, patting it down, all along the bottom and at least an inch and a half-high along the sides. Make sure it’s evenly spread along the cake tin. Poke some holes on the base with a fork. Put the cake tin into the oven for 20 minutes. During this time, you can prepare the quiche filling.

For the filling

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil or butter
  • 1/2 cup chopped leeks (only the white and light green parts)
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp fresh black pepper
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme
  • Soft roasted garlic and dried rosemary leaves (both from the cherry tomato roast. If the garlic is too hard, don’t use it. Some of what I used was still soft and delicious enough to use.)
  • 1 pint roasted cherry tomatoes (see above)

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Put a skillet with olive oil on medium heat and add the chopped leeks to it. Saute the leeks for 5 minutes or until they have turned soft but still have their colour. Take them off the stove and set aside.

Break the eggs in a medium-sized bowl and beat them with the milk, salt, pepper, thyme, roasted garlic and the dried roasted rosemary leaves. Add the cooked leeks to this mixture.

By this time, if it’s past 20 minutes, you are ready to assemble the quiche.

To assemble

Pull out the cornmeal crust from the oven and place the roasted cherry tomatoes on the base, in any random pattern. Pour the filling mixture into the crust until its full. You should be able to use up all of the egg mixture but if you notice the crust is getting too full or overflowing, just save the rest of the egg mix for an omelette.

Place the cake tin back into the oven for 20 minutes or until the centre of the quiche is set.

Once out of the oven, let the quiche cool slightly before serving it up.

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Filed Under: savoury Tagged With: cornmeal crust quiche, roasted tomato quiche, summer vegetables, vegetarian

Stacked and baked summer squash and eggplant + Winner say whaaaat?!

September 5, 2013 by Edlyn

I thought I had the worst day ever on Wednesday. Thankfully it was the day before my 2-day mid-week “weekend” so it wasn’t so bad, I told myself. I didn’t wake up very late but it took me an hour to get to the place I catch my second bus when it usually takes 30 minutes. This is going to be a bit of a “I did this at this time and this went wrong at that time”, so bear with me. I might come to some conclusion and it might be a good one. One hour. I was not impressed. In fact, I was scared. Scared of being late to this work thing I’ve been doing for a month now. Tardiness makes me hate myself and I know it’s not right to be that harsh on yourself when you (I) so totally rock but it’s what I do. Sitting in that bus made me want to stop…sitting in that bus. With all that stress and the last un-read chapter in The Yellow Birds, I made it to work, five minutes late and ready to shrink into a corner. If only…

I cut chicken and two seconds later, my thumb. “What were you thinking about?” I don’t know, I thought. I was thinking about a lot but right now I don’t know. “Put pressure on it. In another two days, you won’t even think about it.” Sitting here in my time machine, I agree with her. She’s wise in the injury department and of all the things I like about my life, I like having an injury expert. Not a person that will squirm at the sight of charred flesh but one that will have a mini party because you’re alive and that’s how things should be. He walks into the kitchen and asks how you’ve been and you say, I cut my thumb. Badge of honour-like. “How did it happen?” Chicken. “It’s always the chicken isn’t it? Always the chicken.” Yeah, I say, like I know. If only I did.

This was an hour into my day and I still had to make things up until shift ended. Try working with one thumb and you’ll see how silly I felt. I must’ve told myself 18 times that I had to suck it up and reminded myself 18 times more that nobody is going to kiss my boo-boo. I knew that but sometimes you wish the opposite were true and some magical boo-boo kisser walked out from a cloud of smoke and said: “Hello, are you hurt? Let me see that.” But the irony is that 2 huge steel bowls fall over your head and on the floor making a lot of noise, serving as the perfect wake-up call for this idea you just came up with. That is irony, right?a

I came home and had a major epic meltdown, blood still slightly dripping across the floor. You know, the way they tell you grown-up life is supposed to be.

I did not like that Wednesday. It wasn’t very nice but it’s the only Wednesday on August 28, 2013 I’ll ever see again. I don’t know if I ever finished brooding on that day. It wasn’t raining but it might as well have. It wasn’t raining so I got ice-cream.

It wasn’t the worst day ever. That’s a bit over-dramatic. I was alive. I had ice-cream. I win the day.

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Ingredients

  • 400 gms (14.1 oz) squash or zucchini
  • 400 gms eggplant/brinjal/aubergine…whatever you call it
  • 320 gms (11.2 oz) tomato, cut in rounds and then halved
  • 1/2 cup red onion, diced fine
  • 3/4 cup parmesan
  • 1/3 cup dried bread crumbs (this is a good way to use stale bread) or panko crumbs
  • 7-8 basil leaves, torn
  • Olive oil
  • Salt to taste

You’ll also need a 9 x 1.5 inch deep circular cake tin (22.9 x 3.81 cm) or a deep baking dish in a similar size

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F which takes 2 years to do in this house. I have 3 months to go. Come again later!

Slice the eggplant and zucchini to 1/4 inch thick slices and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with olive oil. Just on one side is enough. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Pull it out, let it cool (only because we don’t want burnt fingers) and then separate the squash and eggplant in two different bowls. Prepare the rest of your ingredients before going to the baking dish assembly…thing.

BUT FIRST.

Heat a tablespoon of cooking olive oil and add the diced onions to it. Once they soften, in about 2-3 minutes, add the tomato. Let it cook until it turns soft and sweet, for about 4 more minutes. Season with salt to cut through the sweetness and add this crazy simple taste that makes me want to eat the whole thing. But I didn’t.  Take it off the heat and let it cool.

Next, grease the baking dish with butter or simply use the same brush to coat it with olive oil. Let the layering begin. Place the squash on the bottom of the baking dish. It’s okay if it overlaps slightly. You will need about a 1/2 of the eggplant for this first step. Layer it on the bottom of the dish and add about a 1/3 of the tomatoes on top of it. Spread it around. Next put half the parmesan and the torn basil leaves on the top. The squash comes next. Layer half of it, with more of the tomato, basil and the rest of the eggplant and squash. Finally add the last of the tomato and cheese, topping it with bread crumbs at the very end. You can mix the bread crumbs with a teaspoon of olive oil before adding it. Bake the summer fiesta for 20 minutes until the top layer of bread crumbs have browned and the cheese is bubbly.

Let it cool for 5 minutes and eat immediately! That’s an order…sort of. Leftovers stay well covered in the fridge for up to three days, but it’s best to eat it immediately.

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Filed Under: savoury Tagged With: squash, summer vegetables, vegetarian

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