comfort food

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Tomato Bread Pudding

November 7, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 5 comments

Comfort, finding sources of comfort, is all some people have been able to think about this week. I happened to find comfort from the storm and the marathon cancellation with my family. Comfort can often be found in food as evidenced by the 100 pieces of Halloween candy I have eaten this week, not just the nourishment, but the time spent and the togetherness when eating.

Prior to Sandy’s arrival, I cooked up a storm. Not knowing how bad some places would get hit, preparing was more like going camping, gathering lots of tasty food and wine, a travel Scrabble in case we lost power, and other things to get us through.

Looking through my Wine & Food Affair cook book, I saw a recipe for a tomato bread pudding, thought it sounded amazing and also like something we could eat at room temperature if we lost power. I decided to whip up my own version. I would make this all winter, and luckily with access to greenhouse tomatoes like Backyard Farms, it’s possible.

tomatoes

Ingredients:

4 large tomatoes

1 head of garlic

1 large baguette

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup 1% milk

4 large eggs

1 cup shredded parmesan or other cheese

1/4 cup prepared pesto

tomatoes

Cut tomatoes into chunks, spread out in pie plates, and roast at 400 until they begin to shrink. Once tomatoes have started to shrink/look wrinkled, remove from oven and set aside.

roasted garlic

At the same time you can get your roasted garlic ready. Simply chop off the top of a head of garlic, drizzle in olive oil, wrap in foil, and pop into the oven. When you start to smell the garlic, it’s done. Just keep an eye on it; burnt garlic is not a good thing!

roasted garlic

Chop your roasted garlic, and set aside.

baguette

Rip bread into big chunks, ensuring that the soft inner pieces are really exposed to let the cream/egg mixture soak in.

bread

cream and parmesan

Mix milk, cream, garlic, cheese, and pesto, pour over bread and toss to coat everything. Add in tomatoes and toss again.

pastene pesto

Bake at 350 until bread looks golden brown and top is set, sort of like a custard. Serve with a green salad.

savory bread pudding

One of the things I love about this bread pudding is that it can be altered for the season. I almost made it with squash, swapping the pesto for some sage. I could also see it being delicious with fresh summer corn. It’s certainly not super healthy, but there are times when comfort comes first. This week has been one of those times.

I hope you are all staying warm and safe during the bad weather predicted today!

Tags: bread, bread pudding, comfort food, Food, recipe, Vegetarian

Love and Leftovers

October 6, 2011 in Food by traveleatlove | 13 comments

Mmmm  mmmm mmm. Leftovers can be the best dinners, and this week’s fried rice with kimchee and shrimp, topped with a fried egg, was definitely evidence of that fact. The making of the dish was inspired by leftover kimchee and rice from Myers + Chang. You see, I wasn’t feeling well on Monday; I felt achy, and while I normally do jump out of bed in the morning, I could not get up for the life of me. I may have actually gotten up and gone back to bed, something I never ever do. I felt that icky.

Fast forward to dinner time, and my husband was on his way home from work. ALL I WANTED was hot and sour soup from Myers + Chang. Last year when I had pneumonia and multiple flus, I discovered this soup to have magical healing powers, not to mention deliciousness, and comforting powers. And my awesome husband, after a 10 hour work day, went out of his way to the South End to pick it up, along with my other favorites.

Since we didn’t have any food in the house the following day (Did I mention I may have slept through most of Sunday because I felt awful and never made it to the grocery store?), I turned to leftovers. Thinking back to a post that Michelle wrote awhile back. I decided on kimchee fried rice.

kimchi

It consisted of kimchee and rice. Winking smile

rice

kimchi

Yum me, yum you. I love Myers + Chang so much.

I also added in some chopped carrots and broccoli.

carrots

broccoli

I got the carrots started in a little bit of olive oil first so they would soften. Then I added the broccoli. I had hoped to add chopped onion, but all of our onions were moldy. Boy do we need to go shopping!

fried rice

Once the rice and carrots were sizzlin’ I tossed the kimchee in and gave the whole thing a few splashes of sesame oil, soy sauce, and sriracha.

fried rice

At the very end I added chopped shrimp and tossed everything until well mixed and cooked.

shrimp

I then topped the fried rice with a fried egg.

fried rice topped with egg

And some more sriracha.

fried rice topped with egg

Yum. My husband commented that the meal tasted like it was made with a lot of love, and it really was. Despite feeling off, I loved being able to whip up something really delicious that also left extras for his lunch.

Have you had any lovely leftover meals lately?

Tags: comfort food, Food, recipe

Cabbage and Bows

February 28, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

When I was little, I HATED cabbage. That didn’t stop my mother from putting it in quite a few meals. We often ate kielbasa, cabbage, and potatoes on the grill in the summer. And then there was sauerkraut and pork (BLEH), and stuffed cabbage, or halupki as it was known in our house. I can remember the very smell of some of these dishes making me want to run for the hills. Sorry, mom!

I really can’t remember when I started to like it, but now I can’t get enough cabbage, pickled, in salads, coleslaws, braised, and all other forms. One of my favorite things about visiting Prague last winter was that there was cabbage with every meal.

The other night, still feeling awful and unable to cook or eat much, I returned to my childhood for a simple, comforting meal, cabbage and bows. I have included a real recipe at the end of the post, but I just winged it, remembering flavors over measurements.

I started with about half of a sweet Vidalia onion, chopping it into thin pieces. The onion should cook down quite a bit, so you can feel free to make it as small as you like.

Vidalia onion

My childhood cabbage and bows was made with green cabbage, but I had a purple cabbage on hand, so that is what I used.

purple cabbage

I roughly chopped up about a cup of cabbage for the pasta and ate about half a cup while chopping. Raw purple cabbage is so good!

purple cabbage

The chopped onion and cabbage get added to a generous amount of butter, Kerrygold for me, enough to coat the bottom of a frying pan. You could use something lower in fat like a butter substitute, but I wouldn’t. Butter gives this dish flavor, and it is comfort food after all!

image

Back in the day, cabbage and bows was made with bowtie pasta. I also didn’t have that stocked in the cabinet, but I did have some whole wheat rotini which worked just fine.

image

While the pasta cooked, I cooked the cabbage and onions down in the butter until they were nice and soft. I mixed the cabbage, onions, and butter with the finished pasta, added salt and pepper, and climbed under a pile of blankets to get some much-needed comfort.

cabbage and noodles

Do not, I repeat, do not get sick. I take pretty good care of myself, but I think I let some of the stress of all of the changes and wondering in my life right now get to me big time. 

The last time I left my house, other than to go to the doctor on Thursday, was last Tuesday. Help!

Do you have a food or foods from your childhood that you hated then and love now?

Tags: butter, cabbage, childhood recipes, comfort food, cooking, Food, onions, pasta, recipes, vegetables, Vegetarian

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