July Secret Recipe Club: Baked Caprese Salad

Baked Caprese Salad

You'd think I wouldn't be surprised when the fourth Monday of the month rolls around these days. I should be accustomed to how fast months go by. But I'm not. And I got caught off guard. Again. But never fear! This delightful Baked Caprese Salad came together in no time flat and totally hit the spot!

Ain't nothin' better than a juicy tomato. 

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment the fun blog The Adventures of an Epic Baker. She's got tons of great recipes and I found myself drawn to all of her cheesy, tomatoey dishes: Asparagus, Cherry Tomatoes in a White Wine Goat Cheese Sauce; Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil Couscous; Caprese-Esque Pasta. I had a four hour drive home from a wedding shower today (totally worth it to see so much of my family!) and wanted a fast and easy dinner. I really wanted the pasta, but alas, no wine can be purchased on Sunday, and I didn't think in advance.


So I perused The Adventures of an Epic Baker one last time and picked out the Baked Caprese Salad. I make something similar that I fondly call Cheesy Bread. But this recipe elevates Cheesy Bread to the next level. Yum. Of note, the grocery store was out of basil. And well, I haven't started my herb garden yet. Oops. I picked up parsley instead and loved the grassy, fresh taste. Would basil have been better? Of course!


After reading the author's comments, I made several small tweaks. Enjoy!

Tomatoes on toast? Yes, please!

Baked Caprese Salad
lightly adapted from The Adventures of an Epic Baker


Ingredients:
6 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
5 thick slices Italian bread
1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Brush olive oil on bread on one side in an even layer. Bake for 5 minutes or until lightly toasted. 
3. Remove from oven and turn the oven to broil. 
4. Layer lightly salted chopped tomatoes and torn mozzarella pieces on the bread pieces, piling your ingredients to the height of your liking. Lightly salt and pepper the cheese.
5. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted (your oven is on broil, start checking after one minute!). If you prefer your cheese bubbly and brown, go for it! Sprinkle liberally with herb of your choice and serve. 

THOUGHTS:
There is something about tomatoes and mozzarella that just makes my belly happy.


VERDICT:
It's-delicious-but-I-should-have-added-garlic: 1 vote!

Cheesy, tomatoey goodness!

Double Take: Meyer Lemon Aioli

Pan con Aioli/ Brot mit Aioli/ Bread with Aioli

When Tabitha suggested Meyer lemons as the Ingredient of the Month for February, I was excited. I've never worked with Meyer Lemons before and was thrilled to get the excuse. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, so I set about looking up recipes. I looked and looked and even found a great article in the LA Times with 100 different Meyer Lemon recipes. I took note of several completely ignored my list. Today was the day to post our blogs. I'd acquired the Meyer lemons two weeks ago from Trader Joe's (I haven't seen them at Publix), so they were on hand. I just needed to find a quick recipe. And when I was shopping for beverages today at Publix I got a brilliant idea. Pizza dough was BOGO, and I went from there.

100th Post: Green Tomato Gazpacho for The Secret Recipe Club

Green Tomato Gazpacho

For today's post, I'm focusing on the positive. Happy 100^th post Fabulously Fun Food! Bender and I have now been back in the USA for two weeks and will be moving to our new home next week. We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family, which has been wonderful after two years of being so far away. As such, I've spent most of my time away from the kitchen, but I snuck in to my mom's kitchen last night and whipped up a batch of Green Tomato Gazpacho. Perhaps snuck is the wrong word considering my mom put more effort into making the gazpacho than I did. Halfway through the process I realized that I could not find the avocado I purchased, so I had to get Bender to drive me to the store to get another one. Luckily, Publix accepted my story without any questions, so I didn't have to buy a second one. So Momma did all the chopping; I did the blending.

Double Take: Almost Bourdain's Mandu (Korean Dumplings)

Dumplings.... one of those things that I don't photograph well.

Dumplings are one of those foods that seem to cross food cultures. Each one has its own version, a different unique spin, and I have yet to come across one I didn’t like. Oh, some of them fail to excite me, that’s true enough, but I don’t actively dislike any of them.

But one thing that really doesn’t excite me about them is making them. There is just something about filling and sealing each dumpling individually that doesn’t get me going. I’m more than happy to eat them (and very happy in the case of samosas and empanadas), but to stand there over a bowl of raw meat filling and sealing and crimping the edges for ages just doesn’t excite me.  

Double Take: Almost Bourdain's KFC (Korean Fried Chicken)

Sticky, yummy, messy Korean Fried Chicken

Tabitha and I are finally getting around to making a recipe that has been going around the blogosphere for as long as we’ve been food blogging: Korean Fried Chicken. With all the hype, I wasn’t quite certain how I would like it. I also wasn’t totally convinced that I had access to the key ingredient: gochujang. So when Tabitha added it to our “to-make” list, I decided to look for it. Turns out, it was relatively easy to find since Ellie at Almost Bourdain had actually taken a picture of the container. If she hadn’t, I’m sure I wouldn’t have agreed to post this recipe since nothing in the store actually said “gochujang.” My smart phone came to the rescue and Wikipedia informed me that its name is also Hot Pepper Paste. The Asian store in Jena is quite small, but its shelves are also packed to the brim. Yay! Now I just had to figure out when to make it…

Double Take: Almost Bourdain’s Agedashi Tofu

Agedashi tofu with fried basil leaves

Don’t let the T word scare you. I did until I was 16. Tofu never entered my house growing up, but once I tried it, I was hooked. And I blame this particular dish for hooking me. Agedashi is actually a very descriptive term: age means deep fried and dashi is a type of broth. So, agedashi tofu is deep fried tofu in dashi sauce. I typically order it as an appetizer in Japanese restaurants, but have had to go without since we moved to Germany.

I tried making it once before when we lived in the US, but it didn’t turn out quite right. The crust was off. And the crust tasted terrible. I wasn’t the master fryer then, and I suspect that my oil wasn’t quite hot enough. When I found a recipe that used a different coating (potato starch instead of corn starch), I decided it was time to try again. And I convinced (without much difficulty) Tabitha to try it, too.

Double Take: Herbed Tomato Tart

I knew this recipe would be a winner the moment I looked at it. I liked all the ingredients, woot! I begged Tabitha to let me make, despite her dislike of puff pastry. She agreed and we set a date. Originally, I had this one listed for making in November, but I realized how incredibly stupid that was. Tomatoes are already out of season here and it’s the beginning of October, so I knew I would only be able to find mealy, yucky tomatoes in November, so I moved this one towards the top of the list.

Then I had to find the perfect time to make it. It’s not exactly main-meal material, or at least I was nervous enough about whether or not Hubby would like it that I didn’t want to serve it as the entrée. Luckily, the perfect opportunity presented itself last weekend. We went hiking with some friends, and Hubby decided to reward us all afterwards with his famous lasagna. Well, we didn’t get back from hiking until 6:30 and lasagna takes 3 hours to make, so I decided to make the Herbed Tomato Tart (p. 475) as an appetizer for us. I knew one of our guests isn’t a fan of tomatoes, so I just left them off his part of the tart.

I made a couple substitutions/changes, but not many. Instead of using preshredded mozzarella, I used two balls of fresh mozzarella, sliced about ¼ inch thick. For my herb mix, I used fresh basil, chives, and parsley. Instead of wasting a second puff pastry sheet, I simply cut the edges from the sheet I was already using (I also didn’t bother to roll out the dough).

Daring Cooks Challenge: Stuffed Grape Leaves

I've been a little quiet on the Daring Cooks front for the past two months. I actually completed the August Challenge (pierogis), but never got around to posting them. I found them bland and dull and just had no inspiration to write about them. When September rolled around and the challenge was revealed, I was thrilled. And then I realized that all the stores nearby had stopped carrying canning supplies already so I got annoyed and didn't participate. Horrible excuse, I know, but I was lacking inspiration again. 

When the October Challenge was revealed, I knew I couldn’t shirk my responsibilities again. Hubby would not go near the challenge (though when I asked him about it he said he might try it). So I decided if they were going to happen, I’d need to kick him out of the house for the day. And by golly, he kicked himself out and had a Star Wars Marathon over at The Dude’s place. The plan was that they would watch the original cannon and then come back to our place for dinner and Spaceballs.

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Daring Cooks Challenge: Nut Butters

When I saw the new challenge for this month, I wasn't quite sure how to react. The idea of making a nut butter has always been intriguing to me, but Hubby is not a huge fan of nut butters, so I wasn't sure how easily I'd be able to pull off the taste. But then I realized a holiday was near. And holidays means parties. Parties mean food. Plenty of food... which means I can make whatever I want on the side as long as Hubby has enough food. And oh boy, I went to town on this challenge.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.