Blue Cayenne

Sunday is my Farmers’ Market day. Can’t wait.

In particular, I’m looking for peak-of-the-season tomatoes. In recent weeks the vendors at my market have artfully arranged mounds of all sorts of beautiful tomatoes on their tables in colors ranging from bright golden yellow flecked with Christmassy red to a green that would make Kermit the Frog sit up and take notice.I’m particularly fond of those large flat multi-colored tomatoes. Few things are as pretty on a galette than an arrangement of multi-colored tomato slices. Here is one we previously featured on Blue Cayenne. You can find the recipe if you follow this link Tomato Galette.

This summer, I’m also in love with the black cherry tomatoes like the ones shown in the background photo below; I think they are a variety called Indigo Rose. There also is an abundance of tomatoes this year (see front right of the photo below)  with intense dark red flesh; they are a small to medium sized tomato that is deep red with some black on the tomato’s “shoulders” by the stem. The Farmers’ Market vendor I buy tomatoes from says they are called Black Krim. 

Scientists seem to be of a mind that intensely-colored fruits and vegetables (like these tomatoes)  are good for our health. In fact, the site Science Insights says of black tomatoes: “A black tomato is a tomato variety whose skin turns deep purple, mahogany, or near-black due to high levels of anthocyanins, the same pigments that give blueberries, eggplant, and red cabbage their dark color. Despite the dramatic exterior, the flesh inside is typically red or dark red, and the taste is often described as richer and more complex than a standard red tomato. Black tomatoes aren’t genetically modified. Most come from traditional crossbreeding between cultivated tomatoes and wild species that naturally produce anthocyanins in their fruit.”

“Richer and more complex”  flavor? I’m definitely “in.”

My plan for this week’s buy is to make an arborio rice-stuffed tomato bake on a bed of waxy Yukon Gold  potatoes. I love this recipe because it allows the tomato taste to shine with little significant interference from the bland accompaniments–the rice and the potatoes. Served with a pretty tossed green salad,these stuffed tomatoes make a substantial main dish or they can be served alongside a main dish of your choice. 

This recipe is from Leah Koenig’s Portico cookbook. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here,

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldies But Goodies recipe is for an Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake

Here is the link: Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake.

Want to dive deeper into our archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page:Blue Cayenne Food and Photography Blog. . If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

Who doesn’t need a little ice cream right now?

This Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream is pretty special. Creamy with a real coffee kick!

Living here in Southern California, I’m near Little Saigon in Westminster, California–the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. That gives me entree to all sorts of Vietnamese food delights–from the everyday to the esoteric. From a gazillion permutations of brightly-colored chili sauces to homemade tofu, it’s here.

For a very long time I’ve seen Vietnamese locals cruising the lanes of local stores nursing a milky-looking Vietnamese coffee creation–either hot or gloriously iced. Once I got up the courage to try one, I was hooked. And, of course, that brought me home to surf my cookbook collection (and the Internet!) for a recipe. There were a lot and I’ve happily enjoyed the treat ever since.

But Vietnamese Coffee  ice cream! Who knew? 

This recipe is adapted from Meera Sodha’s cookbook East. You can buy the cookbook through your local bookstore or at Amazon here.

Here is the recipe as I adapted it to my kitchen. This recipe is too simple not to add it to your cooking repertoire–a piece of cake! Speaking of cake, this would be pretty wonderful scooped on top of a small square of chocolate cake or a chocolate brownie.