Tomato Confit

Tomato confit

French baguette

Servings

Confit is a French cooking technique used for preserving poultry (duck, goose, rooster) which also involves roasting the meat in its own fat. The meat is seasoned to perfection and roasted slowly on low temperature in duck fat. The meat becomes incredibly tender, so tender that it simply melts in your mouth. This technique is also used for fruits and vegetables. The main difference is the fact that the cooking liquid is not an animal fat, but a vegetable fat for veggies or a sugar-based syrup for fruits.

Tomato confit is a wonderful way to cook these lovely veggies. The tomatoes are seasoned generously  with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs. After that, they are slowly roasted on low temperature until they are tender, juicy and slightly caramelized on the edges. This technique brings out their own sweetness and concentrates their own flavor. This simple and humble ingredient can elevate almost every dish, from pasta, polenta or risotto, to sandwiches or crostini or can even be served as a side dish. Even though the tomato confit can be time-consuming, the effort definitely pays off! Continue reading Tomato Confit

Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin with Sour Cherry Sauce

Juicy tenderloinSour cherries

Plating

Whenever I want to roast pork, I seem to choose tenderloin more and more often, and the reasons are multiple: it cooks fast, it’s tender, it’s delicious, it’s moist and it’s inexpensive. While pork shoulder is sometimes quite fat and the pork loin quite dry, the tenderloin has just the right amount of fat. It’s so easy to work with tenderloin because it remains moist and juicy long after it’s sliced, not to mention that regarding the side dish, tenderloin literally goes with everything.

Don’t get me wrong, even without being marinated, tenderloin is juicy and flavorful, but today I chose to run the extra mile and I brined it in pomegranate tea and sea salt. It became even more tender and the fruity flavor was spot-on. After the marinating process, I coated the tenderloin with creamy roasted garlic and I wrapped it in thin bacon slices.

It’s not a big culinary secret that pork goes heavenly with all sorts of fruit, so I dressed up this marvelous steak with a sweet and tangy sour cherry sauce. To keep it simple, this morning I’ve picked some lovely new potatoes, I’ve boiled them in broth and I sauteed them in sage-flavored butter. The whole business took less than an hour, including the time spent waiting for the garlic to roast / drinking a coffee / taking more than a dozen trips to my vegetable garden as I have the memory of a 90 year old and I always forget half of my ingredients. Continue reading Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin with Sour Cherry Sauce

Cream of Carrot Soup

Soup

Soup - bowl

Carrot cream

Carrots

I’ve finally found a recipe for cream of carrot soup that doesn’t taste like baby food. It is made from roasted carrots and fennel, two vegetables that go so well together. I must confess that I picked my carrots from my garden this morning, on a warm summer rain. It sounds enchanting, doesn’t it? So, I chopped the vegetables, I drizzled some olive oil and I roasted them in the oven, just to enhance their flavor. After they were nice and brown, I simmered them in vegetable soup, with red onion, wine and thyme. At the end I flavored the soup with some fragrant roasted garlic. The result was a delicious and hearty soup. The funny thing is that only long after I enjoyed this divine soup I realized that it was in fact vegan. My family never suspected! Continue reading Cream of Carrot Soup