Monday, October 6, 2008

Short post

Hi Nancy,
Just a few quick pictures (Skeeter says she only looks at the pictures...well!)
I had to harvest the basil because something was starting to give it brown spots. It is a lot of basil:


I used the heirloom tomatoes you left here and made a very tasty tomato sauce, if I do say so myself:

I cooked diced chicken breast in it, and served it in a bowl with polenta on top.
I have three shopping bags stapled up, with basil drying in them. Yippeeee, I'll have plenty of aromatic flavorful basil until next year's harvest.
Love, Mary

4 comments:

  1. Ok, So you started by sauteing onions and garlic....then what?
    Love,
    N.

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  2. Nope. I started by slowly cooking the peeled and seeded tomatoes and some basil v e r y s l o w l y. I cut up onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, celery, carrot and sauteed them in olive oil with more basil, and dried oregano and thyme, and lots of minced garlic from Dad's jar. Saute -ing the dried herbs is something I learned from Dimitri, a chef I worked with. I sauteed them until they wafted all over the house, then added the tomato sauce and chicken and a tablespoon of kosher salt. That was too much. We all liked the meal, but I had to drink a lot of water afterwards. Only 2 teaspoons of salt would be better.

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  3. I forgot to say I pureed the tomatoes with a can of tomato paste. I've never used fresh tomatoes to make marinara sauce before. Those were some lovely tomatoes.

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  4. I am making my tomato sauce now. I seeded about 5 of the big brandywine tomatoes and two or three of the Amish Paste that we brought in before the trip. I still have several of each variety left for sandwiches or whatever as they are not quite ripe yet.
    I will freeze the sauce and use it as needed. I only have about 3 quarts but it will hopefully add a little oomph to the winter menu.

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