Potato, Fennel, Tomato and Olive and Gratin

inspired by old Green's recipe i used to make and what was in the fridge.

1. In one pan heat too much olive oil and start browning thin slices of red potatoes.  (tonight i had lots of little ones from the market). Drain and continue until you have enough.

2. In another oven proof pan (i have an all clad that i love), heat too much olive olive and start sauteing thinly sliced 1/4 moon shaped red onion.

3. Slice up a big heirloom tomato from Tutti Frutti

4. Pit some dried cured black olives from the Paradise Cafe in Ventura

5. Thinly slice some of B.D.s Fennel.

6. Preheat Oven to about 400 degrees.

7. When the onions are halfway done, add some crushed fennel seed, thyme, red pepper flakes,and pepper.  When onions are about 2 minutes from being done, add a clove of minced garlic. Turn off heat when as brown as you like them and start to pile on the tomatoes, potatoes and fennel and scattering the olives.  Tonight, I did not make enuf of everything to make attractive "layers" so it all just got kind of piled in there.  Dot with generous pinches of goat cheese and pour the leftover olive oil from frying up the potatoes on top.  Put in oven with lid on and set for about 20 minutes.

8. After 20 minutes, remove pan from oven, turn on broiler.  Grate fresh Parmesan cheese all over the top and pour on a little extra olive oil.  Put on broiler for about 2 minutes or more until brown and crispy.  

9. To serve scoop into shallow bowls, mince lemon basil from B.D and scatter on top, and sprinkle with good salt.

Note: potatoes could have been prepped by slicing and boiling, but e likes his potatoes crispier.

Baked Olives with Garlic Herb Paste

Thanks to Deborah Madison for this recipe. Taken from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (This time we had the oven at 350 cuz that was a more appropriate temperature for our baked ricotta and baked feta. Seemed to work out fine).

2. Rinse 2 cups Kalamata olives if too salty.

3. Place in Pyrex or other baking dish so all one level.

4. In dish, add 1/2 cup of red or white wine, sliced garlic clove, a bay leaf and 1.5 tbl. of olive oil. (I used white wine this time. I have used red wine in the past and think I prefer it).

5. Cover and bake until olives are "fragrant and swollen," about 45 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, mince and mash garlic with 1 tsp. of dried oregano (I used Mexican), 1 tbl. minced parsley, fresh black pepper, some red pepper flakes and about 1.5 tbl olive oil.

7. When olives are done, use a fork to pierce holes in them. Mix with garlic herb paste, drain and serve.

Red Potato and Heirloom Tomato Gratin, Thursday, April 19th

I have been trying to hit this for a while. I started making a version of it from Deborah Madison's Green's Cookbook when I first started cooking. I was drawn to it cuz she said that she had gotten it from a Cookbook by Picasso and it had all of Eric's favorite ingredients in it.

We stopped by FnC on our way home after a hike on Willis Canyon and got the goods. We also picked up 2 delicious cappuccinos at Coffee Connection. We only had a Credit Card and Taylor trusted us to come back the next day. We put Steve and Olivia down as references.

So I am writing this as I cook, cuz these the first step of browning the potatoes takes time.

Get your OVEN ready. Preheat to 400 degrees/BAKE.
You will need an Oven Proof Pyrex-like Dish and A High Sided, Flat Bottomed Wide Skillet.

The POTATOES
1. Slice Potatoes as Thin as you can without hurting yourself.(Thank you, Edna).
2. Heat too much Olive Oil in the high sided flat skillet.
3. Brown the Potato Slices. You will need to work in batches. As they are browning, sprinkle fresh chopped ROSEMARY, good quality SALT and fresh ground mixed PEPPERCORNS on them. I seem to brown one side more than the other, guessing that this allows it to be both crispy and soft. I think I could have made them more like potato chips as they soften in the oven. Once browned remove to a plate. (If you want a drier dish, drain the chips on a towel. I ususally use paper, but I would love to learn how to use cloth. Maybe cheese cloth could work.)


THE ONIONS
4. While the potatoes are frying, slice up a large RED ONION. I chose to slice it in rings, cuz I thought it would look the prettiest.
5. Once the potatoes are all browned up, start browning the all onions in the same pan.

THE GARLIC
6. While the Potatoes are Browning or while the Onions are softening, Mince the GARLIC.

THE TOMATOES
7. While the Potatoes are Browning or the Onions are browning, core and slice the heirloom tomatoes.

THE OLIVES
8. While the Onions are browning, chop the BLACK OLIVES to a consistency of "chunky". I had a combination of herb cured and kalamata.

Once onions are browned, add the garlic, olives, DRIED THYME, a hint of RED PEPPER FLAKES, more salt, more ground pepper. Saute another 2 minutes or so, or until you first smell the garlic.

THE OVEN DISH
9. Poor a little olive oil into your PYREX-LIKE dish. Tonight I used this pretty Blue Crueset Oven Dish I have.

10. Spread Onions over the Bottom.

11. Layer first layer of potatoes on top of the onions.

12. Layer the slices of heirloom tomato. I had a combination of dark red and orange and I spread them out to create some contrast.

13. Layer the top layer of potatoes on. (I saved the most attractive (to me) potatoes for the top layer.)

14. Put in Oven. Set for 20 minutes

15. During this time, make the SAUCE and prep the SALAD.

16. At 20 minutes, check. Turn the pan 180 degrees to even out oven heat's effect on the dish. And set for 10 to 15 more minutes.

17. When done, remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so to cool to a reasonable temperature. As a cook who tastes all the time, you build up a tolerance for heat. People that are not used to tasting HOT food, need more cooling time than you think.

18. THE SAUCE
By hand, mix mostly sour creme, some meyer lemon juice , a smidge of grain mustard and some dry (fresh would be better) dill together.


19. TO SERVE
Use a serrated spatula (I love my Cutco one) to cut the Gratin into a serving portion. Tonight's gratin did not hold and was loose and "Country Style" in the shallow bowl. I kind of like this aesthetic, but it you want a tighter hold, you will use less oil, maybe add a binder, like egg or milk, and allow to cool a little more.

20. Serve the Sauce on the side.

Roasted Golden and Red Beets with Feta, Olives and Arugula

We cooked way too many beets. They were so beautiful, we just had to use them all. If I did it again, I would estimate no more than a medium beet a person.

1. Oven at 400 degrees.
2. Cut off stems and scrub beets.
3. You will want to roast Golden and Red beets on two separate baking sheets. Put tinfoil down on bottom unless you love to scrub pans.
4. Roast until you can easily stick a fork into the beet. The time ranges depending on the size. Most of them were done in 45 minutes, the bigger ones took an hour. I did this first thing in the morning.

5. Once cool, Alana used a knife to cut away the skin. You can also peel them, but I like the look of the smooth cut beet skin. Again, keep the golden and red beets separate as you do this.
6. Cut them in half and then slice into "sun ray wedges".
7. Store in Fridge until ready to use.

8. Wash Arugula.
9. I recommend buying pitted olives and using them whole. We could only find ones with pits the other day and Alana had to carve them. (A huge pain).
10. Make a light dressing of minced shallots, lemon and Ojai Olive oil.
11. Cut Feta into small slices

Again, you could assemble this many different ways. If it was a small dinner party, I would probably compose individual salad plates. I started the platter and Uschi came in and fixed it aesthetically.

When ready to assemble, toss the arugula with the dressing. On a large platter spread out the arugula. Arrange the beets and Feta as you like. Scatter with the Olives.

I meant to make a balsamic vinegar dressing to pour over the arrangement. I forgot, but no one seemed to notice.