The Dinner Files

I like my dairy. If I’m remembering an article I read many years ago correctly, the ability to digest milk is the result of a mutant gene. Well, a mutated gene that is less common – by a lot – than the regular human system which prefers not to ingest non-human milk. I’m pretty sure my genes are configured in a way that doesn’t just make me able to process dairy successfully, but that actually renders me weak if I don’t get a hefty daily dose of the stuff.

Hot weather brings about a marked difference in my dairy consumption. I move from lots of cheese to putting buttermilk and yogurt in anything I can think of. Sometimes I even use them at the same time, as in this salad dressing. I could just drink a glass of this elixir, but I exercise a modicum of self-control and use it on salads. And as a dip for veggies. And a spoonful once in awhile. Just a spoonful. I swear.

Yogurt buttermilk salad dressing

Shake it up, stick it in the fridge, and wonder why you ever bought a bottle of pre-made dressing. You can add a minced small garlic clove, if you like (although it will get quite garlicky if you leave it in the fridge) or a teaspoon or two of honey if you like things sweet.

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons plain yogurt (I’ve used lowfat, I’ve used Greek, I’ve used sheep milk – it all works; just know that the more fat and/or strained the yogurt, the more thickening power it will have)

1 tablespoon lemon juice or cider vinegar

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put buttermilk, yogurt, lemon juice, and salt in a small jar. Seal with the lid and shake until well combined. (You can also whisk it all together in a small bowl.) Add pepper to taste. I add a lot.

This dressing is lovely in general, but extra yummy with butter lettuce or romaine. Add sliced radishes, scallions or garlic scapes, cucumber, and/or sweet snap peas for more crunch.

I’m addicted. I cannot stop making and eating little layered concoctions with a base of ricotta. Ricotta with jam. Ricotta with honey. Nuts or crumbled wafer cookies or cacao nibs sprinkled in there somewhere. My favorite combination so far is to top the ricotta with the honeyed kumquats I made a few weeks ago – I’m running out fast and find myself wishing I had made a lot more of them – and some toasted walnuts.

I’ve been constructing them in simple glasses for dessert, as above, but also slathering them into cereal bowls for breakfast. Here’s the one I’m eating as I write:

Yogurt, of course, works, too. Note: my dashing husband vastly prefers them when made with thick Greek yogurt. He finds the ricotta “grainy.” Um, yeah, I think, that’s the whole point – the oddly dry-yet-still-moist, sort of chewy but still mainly smooth texture of ricotta is its entire appeal to me. But, if, like him, you like things more obvious and creamy, then by all means, use some yogurt. The nice thing with a parfait is that they are individual. So I make mine with ricotta and everyone else’s with Greek yogurt. It makes me feel quite kind and generous and thoughtful as I force yet more layered dairy product, sweet fruity element, and crunchy bits on my family.

It ends up that yes, you can freeze tomatoes. Not tomato sauce, not tomato paste, not tomato puree (although all those things freeze just fine, too), but actual tomatoes.

I learned this indirectly from my aunt. Indirectly because she was not talking to me, but rather had left instructions with my cousin (her son) while she was out of town to pick the tomatoes from their ample garden as they ripened and put them in the bag already started in the freezer that she kept for all the tomatoes they couldn’t keep up with.

It’s been a great tip – especially since my dashing husband overestimates even his impressive tomato-eating ability when tomatoes are ripe and plentiful and cheap at the market. Once frozen, the tomatoes won’t work as fresh tomatoes – you wouldn’t want to make caprese salad with these, for example – but if you’re going to cook them anyway, it’s perfect. If you were going to peel them in the process then freezing has the bonus prize of making the tomatoes extremely easy to peel without the usual step of blanching them first.

So when I found a bag of Early Girl tomatoes from last summer in the freezer the other day, I decided to pretend it was summer (I needed a distraction from these gray days we’ve been having on the West Coast), if just a little bit. I smeared petrale sole with a paste of ginger and mint (notice all the mint on my table lately? That’s because mint grows like an invasive weed in Northern California, especially when it rains) and baked them, cooked a pot of rice, and peeled a few frozen tomatoes and then gently heated them up in a spicy yogurt sauce. I know it sounds a bit weird, but it is an unbelievably delicious flavor combination. The delicate fish – rice – tomato in spicy yogurt sauce combo was sublime.

Tomatoes in spicy yogurt sauce

I developed this recipe when I was working at Sunset and can never get over how good it is, or how tasty that sauce is on rice. I can now add to its many wonders how delightfully it makes use of frozen tomatoes.

8 ripe but firm tomatoes

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 small hot green chiles, seeded and minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (low-fat or fat-free versions will curdle)

If you’re using fresh rather than frozen tomatoes, blanch tomatoes to make peeling them easier: bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare a large bowl of ice water, cut a small “x” in the bottom of each tomato, dip tomatoes in the boiling water for about 30 seconds and then use a slotted spoon to transfer the tomatoes to the ice water, drain tomatoes and pat them dry.

If you’re using frozen tomatoes, just take them out of the freezer. In any case, the next step is to use a paring knife to gently peel off the tomato skins and set tomatoes aside, whole or at least as whole as possible.
In a large frying pan, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add cumin seeds and mustard seeds and cover. The seeds will start popping within about a minute. Cook until the popping slows down, about 2 minutes total.
Remove the lid and add the butter. When the butter has melted, add turmeric and cayenne. Stir and cook until brightly fragrant, about 1 minute. Add garlic, chiles, and salt. Cook, stirring, for about a minute. Reduce heat to low and add yogurt. Stir to combine.
Add tomatoes to yogurt mixture, Gently stir to coat the tomatoes with the sauce. Cook over low heat until tomatoes are just warmed through, about 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Strange, cleaning-out-the-fridge dinner last night. I had a shockingly large portion of beet greens and yogurt. Okay, I’ll admit it, I ate all of it. The whole recipe. My dashing husband enjoyed an extra-large “health salad”–I used to make fun of this name he had for tomato, onion, sometimes cucumber and sometimes with greens/sometimes without concoction. Then we were in New York at some deli and there it was: health salad. So designated in the case. Last night he threw some roasted beet in it because, well, we found ourselves awash in roasted beets.

Ernie wanted to help, so I put him to work re-washing the lettuce. Why not? Sure, we end up picking a fair number of lettuce leaves off the floor. But those greens get clean. And dry! He spins them within an inch of their lives.

Plus, while he’s busy cleaning salad he’s much less likely to ask reflexively and obsessively and annoyingly “Is dinner ready?”

See how to clean your own greens like a pro here.

That big batch of Beef Baked with Turnips and Black Pepper (pictured below) beckoned. We had eaten all the turnip greens, so I quickly sauteed some baby spinach instead. There was no twirling involved, which surprised me because Ernie was high as a kite from some chocolate my cousin Katie bought him during their afternoon together and I would have thought he might have tried twirling the beef to say nothing of the spinach. (“I didn’t let him eat the whole thing!” she proclaimed when I expressed concern about late-in-the-day chocolate-bar-eating and its effect on Ernie’s ability to fall asleep at a decent hour. Of course, Ernie loves her and her girlfriend and they took him for the entire afternoon with glee, so I’m not complaining. Just observing. Observing that my son acted like a crazy person all evening. But then it might just as easily have been Katie-and-Nilka withdrawal. They let him pick out plants for their garden. They play Uno with him. They have a dog. They buy him chocolate bars. They are fun.)

So, yes, dinner. We also had a bit of plain yogurt alongside the beef in its yogurt-y sauce. Plus I inhaled some leftover beet and yogurt salad I made the other day while reheating the beef. Ernie found the shocking pick color off-putting and opted for plain yogurt instead. These were not the first yogurt forays for either us: between the two of us we ate about a quart of yogurt yesterday.

Instead of thinking we should find some other luscious snacks and condiments, I find myself considering “investing” in a home yogurt maker. Anyone have one? Love it? Anyone concerned about my mania and think maybe I should just buy yogurt at the store like a normal person?