Fall In Love Tomato Soup
TOMATO SOUP FOR THE SOUL :
The ease of this recipe beguiles the flavor of the dish; it’s beauty lies in the elegant simplicity of a long roast!
The weather has decidedly turned cooler and I am loving it. Fall is my favorite season. I picked my last harvest last week and I was struck by how the tomatoes were still lush on the vines even as the plants themselves are coming to the end of their lives. As the colors on the trees turn hues of yellows, oranges and reds, I find myself walking between shriveling vines and ripening squashes and vegetables that stand out in clarity. It is a poignant vision.
And I Came Home...
Just over a year ago, I decided I needed a hiatus. A change. A chance. Something new. Utterly different. Something to slap me in the face and wake me up. A few months ago, an opportunity landed on my lap; it sounded too good to be true. And, it was! Too Good and Too True! :)
The long and short of it, is that I spent 9 months living outside US, for the most part based in Italy, traveling Europe, Asia and collecting information about cultures, peoples' values, real life experiences, what food means to people in different spaces in life and the world,.... and, yet how similar we all are.
Roast Sugar Plum and Ricotta Ice Yogurt
In class recently, we discussed "Flavor" as an objective tool and how to measure it as a function of certain parameters. Our professor, Peter Klosse, a restauranteur and academician, argued that if you can separate Flavor the object from Flavor the experience then we can create a language of understanding that can unite and bring together people! What a wonderfully fascinating idea??!! I was really taken by that concept of using science to find a way to connect and hope to explore it more...
Anyway, ice cream was one of the examples that we choose to look into....
Apple and Pear Loaf {Gluten Free}
This wonderfully light and moist Fall/Winter fruit loaf is one of those delights I have been making with simple alternate baking flours. Here I use my everyday staple mix of oat and almond flours for a nutty, robust and flavorful finish. Mixing cooked and grated fresh fruit makes for a moist cake that holds its flavor and suppleness for more days despite the use of naturally drier (compared to wheat) flours. The good thing about this recipe is that it does not need any binding agent other than egg and butter. So, no added gums or starches, which, for me is one of its elegant highlights.
Apple Pie Brandy Pudding
So! I am betting that this Apple Pie Pudding will go down in the anals of food history as an accident that was simply waiting to happen! And, when it did, brought greater joy than either pie or pudding could have in of themselves.
Here is what happened. I have been experimenting with different flours. Recently, I decided to test what wheat I am intolerant to. And, I have reading about how heritage strains of grain may not trigger the same issues as the mass produced, yield enhancing GMO versions. Einkorn has been one of those much talked about ancient wheat varietals that supposedly is less trigger happy than regular all purpose flour. The only problem is that it is more dense and less glutenous. Therefore, it because markedly unlike regular flour. Think, low rise and less flaky.
So, when I decided to make apple pie, using the regular pie recipe....