Cooking along

Pear Tart

TelarIdeas — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:23:02 -0800

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

TelarIdeas — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:45:40 -0700

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

TelarIdeas — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:05:13 -0700

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.