Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts

Monday, March 10, 2014

Communal Breakfast: Recipe for Taking Eggs and Any Relationship to the Next Level

Egg Breakfast with The Temple's Men's Club,
a photo by 
atl10trader on Flickr.
Sunday morning I met with my Temple's Men's Club to share one of the best ways to make eggs for anyone they'd like to impress. Everyone brought their own saucepan and a spatula. The Men's Club President-elect brought the ingredients - who I thank for having traveled far and wide in search of the best. I think his effort showed!

This was the event headline:
Learn How to Make the Pen-Ultimate Egg Breakfast
Real Men Know, the Path to Forgiveness, Awesome Dad-ness or Extra Marital Credits Is Through the Stomach.







Here's the recipe.
Ingredients: per person
Ellis Vener Photography
  • The best artisan loaf of bread you can find
  • 1 Tbsp of the best french butter you can find, preferably unsalted
  • Eggs. Organic. Fresh. Qty: 2 eggs per person
  • 2 Tbsp Greek yogurt (low fat Ok but not fat free)
  • 4 Small to medium tomatoes on their vine. In a pinch cherry tomatoes will also do. 
  • 2 Medium, large mushrooms
  • Chives
  • Sea salt and pepper
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil    
  1. In a skillet or pan heat some olive oil over medium heat place the tomatoes and mushrooms in with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes spit and the eggs are done and you're ready to plate.
  2. Toast the bread that's been sliced into 1/4 - 1/2" slices.
  3. Over medium heat, place in a saucepan the eggs along with the butter (you can add a bit of olive oil before this step to prep the saucepan)(add salt at the end, not now)
  4. Do not let the eggs overcook in the saucepan.  Depending on the heat on the pan, spend about 30 seconds on the heat constantly stirring the eggs with the spatula. Take the pan off the heat and continue stirring the eggs. Repeat until eggs begin to thicken and fluff.
  5. Time's up when the steam comes off the eggs when off the heat and stirring. To stop the cooking process, add the Greek yogurt and incorporate into the eggs.
  6. Add pinches of salt and pepper.
  7. Add chives. Stir.
  8. Plate like the picture above.
  9. Don't forget a mimosa and strong coffee!

    Ellis Vener Photography
A variation on this recipe would be to add some smoked salmon at the end as well.  You could also sauté some kale to go along with the tomatoes and mushrooms.

Here's another example:
Breakfast with Eggs,
a photo by 
atl10trader on Flickr.





Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Spring Dinner: Mediterranean Fish Dish & Radish Relished

Relish the Radish by atl10trader
Relish the Radish, a photo by atl10trader on Flickr.
Spring brings the cooking itch to a fever pitch. So many good ingredients make their appearance as the farmers' markets remerge from their hibernation. It can be overwhelming on what to choose for a spring evening meal.  Food writers like Kitty Greenwald thankfully know this and make it their mission to help.

Inspired by her recent article from the WSJ (Weekend Edition, April 6 - 7, 2013, "Relish the Radish"), I assembled this salad and added my own garlic onion pesto as a finishing touch. Matched with the salad was a Mediterranean cod dish with olives, roasted peppers, spring onions, and oregano. It made for a beautiful meal on a blissful spring evening.


Recipe for the radish and fennel salad is below along with the wine pairing.


Radish and Fennel Salad
Total Time: 15 minutes Serves: 4

In a large bowl, toss together 8-10 small to medium radishes, thinly shaved, 1 fennel bulb, thinly shaved, ½ tablespoon picked fennel fronds, 4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts, 2 ounces crumbled sheep's milk feta and 1½ tablespoons thinly sliced shallot. Season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon lemon zest and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Toss salad with enough dressing to coat. Garnish with extra fennel fronds, feta and pine nuts, if desired.

—Adapted from Jenn Louis of Lincoln and Sunshine Tavern, Portland, Ore.

Garlic Onion Pesto Dressing
Total Time: 5 minutes

Roughly chop half a garlic onion (which looks very similar to a leek) by taking 1/4 from the green top end and 1/4 from the white bottom end (cut and discard the very bottom with the root ends).  Put into a high speed blender with 1 cup of olive oil.  Blend until frothy and thoroughly infused.  Drizzle a line on the plate and serve the salad on top.

Wine Pairing:
Can't go wrong with a Carneros, CA Chardonnay.  In this case a bottle of 2008 Vine Hill Winery Chardonnay, Clements Ridge Vineyard.  Lots of lemon notes and enough body to compliment the freshness of the fennel and radish as well as the zesty tomato base of the fish.


Monday, July 23, 2012

Atlanta's Most Creative Foodie Festival: Attack of the Killer Tomato

One of the best ways to enjoy Atlanta in the summer heat happens when the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival roars into town.  The festival sticks to a formula that works:
  • a simple, creative theme:  food or drink or both - incorporate tomatoes
  • a great location (JCT Kitchen and its culinary atrium of neighboring restaurants in the White Provisions development, Westside, Atlanta)
  • a great band (the Spazmatics from Austin, TX: seeking asylum, covering everything and appropriately killing it) 
and each year some lyprocene-deficient soul is sacrificed to the Man-Eating Tomato to assure cloudless, sunny skies.

Here's the story as I saw it "cherry-picking" some of my favorites.  Enjoy.

Lara gets things going smoothly.
A cocktail as delicious to drink as amazing to watch Kellie craft.
Kellie & Co. on the assembly line.

Kellie's pour of Alegria Vital ('Joie de Vivre')!

Straight-forward can be as delicious as imaginative.

Ford Fry's entry delivered on taste.


The Host, Ford Fry, JCT Kitchen.









Slapping herbs with flair to release oils. 


Asylum seekers: The Spazmatics.




Tyler Williams, Abattoir, making 'salad-of-the-future'.




Drops of each ingredient goes in, pearl sized dots of goodness come out.
The only item for which I returned for seconds.  Delicious and imaginative.

Unforgettable popsicles.








Mixologist Stuart White with one of the best in show cocktails.


Loosely translated as, 'Bad Ass'.

La Tavola


Best makeup.

Best costume.




Still Hungry?

More photos of the festival (and from years past) appear in this set: Killer Tomato Festival Photos


Related Articles

Read the review of the 2010 Killer Tomato Festival.
Read the review of the 2009 Killer Tomato Festival.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Homage to the Tomato

Tonight's dinner menu was inspired by tomorrow's Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival at Atlanta's JCT Kitchen:


Everything was cooked in my sous vide machine which is reclaiming its spot as an important culinary device thanks to the Vac Master P112 chamber vacuum sealing machine. Can't do sous vide without a good, functional vacuum sealer.  This duo will hopefully be working together for a while.

Above is the tomato and blueberry shooter with parmesan crisp.  Recipe: http://www.wildblueberries.com/recipes/tomato_shooter.php


It's a shame but when the evening gets going, I am often forgetful in taking pictures especially as the meal progresses!  The better the dish, the more likely I dive in without snapping a photo.  Will try to refrain in the future.

Some additional photos from another photographer who participated in the meal last night:



Saffron Scented Halibut