Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens by Jennifer Schaertl Read Free Book Online

15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown. Line your platter or serving tray with the romaine spears (you can cut through the middle rib to make them lay flat on your tray), and arrange your stuffed tomatoes over the top. Serve immediately.

Bloody Good Tomatoes
    Serves 10
    Don’t just save these marinated tomatoes for appetizers. This recipe holds up well to pasta and tastes great tossed with squares of toasted day-old bread for a salad. You can also heat it up and pour it over a juicy steak. Try making it a day ahead of serving, so the delicious flavors have a chance to blend.
    3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
    1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
    Â¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
    1 pint red grape tomatoes
    1 pint yellow pear tomatoes
    1 small red onion, diced
    8 garlic cloves, crushed
    1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
    Sea salt, to taste
    Pepper, to taste
    Celery sticks, thin cut, about 2 inches long, for garnish
    1 Pour balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce into a medium bowl. While whisking vigorously, slowly drizzle in the olive oil, making a light dressing. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and red pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover tightly and allow it to sit in the refrigerator overnight.
    2 Bring the bowl out an hour before serving to allow tomatoes to come to room temperature. Arrange shot glasses on your serving tray and fill them ¾ cup of the way up with the marinated tomatoes. Add celery stick to use as a utensil. No forks needed!

Fried Green Tomatoes
    Serves 8
    Reserve one hand for dipping the tomato slices in the dry ingredients and one hand for the wet ingredients, which will keep one hand free of the messy bread-crumb coating. Putting your sheet tray on the stove next to the pan of oil will save on much-needed counter space when tackling this recipe!
    1 cup olive oil blend, (part olive oil and part canola or vegetable oil to increase smoke point)
    4 green tomatoes, largest available
    Sea salt, to taste
    Black pepper, to taste
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    2 tablespoons ground cumin
    1 tablespoon turmeric
    1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika, plus more for garnish
    1 tablespoon garlic powder
    2 cups buttermilk
    3 eggs
    2 cups panko, Japanese bread crumbs
    2 ounces Manchego cheese
    1 Put your 12-inch sauté pan on the stove at medium high heat. Add the oil and allow it to heat for at least 8 minutes before testing it. Set a sheet tray lined with paper towels on the two (unlit) burners next to the sauté pan.
    2 Slice your tomatoes into ¼-inch disks (you should get about four per tomato) and season each side liberally with salt and pepper.
    3 Line up three shallow bowls. In the first one, combine the flour, cumin, turmeric, paprika, and garlic powder and mix them well with a whisk. In the second bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Dump the panko bread crumbs in the last bowl.
    4 Throw a few crumbs of panko into the oil and if they immediately pop and fry, the oil is ready.
    5 Coat four of the tomato slices in the seasoned flour and shake off any excess. Then dip them in the buttermilk mixture and then panko. Gently set the breaded tomatoes into the oil and allow them to fry on one side while you prepare four more tomato slices. Once the bottoms of the first batch of frying tomatoes are golden brown, turn them over to cook on the other side.
    6 Line Line a sheet tray with paper towels. When the tomatoes are golden brown all over, remove them from the oil and place them on paper towels to drain. Allow 1 minute for the oil to come back up to temperature and use this time to prepare the rest of the tomatoes for frying. Then fry the next batch, and so on. 7Arrange
    7 Arrange the fried green tomatoes on a platter, and then use your vegetable peeler to slice the Manchego over the top. Garnish with a dusting of smoked Spanish paprika, and serve immediately.
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    I like to use a mild Spanish cheese like Manchego in this recipe, but if you prefer a good Parmesan (made from