When visitors are expected and the garden vines are fat with tomatoes and the like, why not share the bounty and savor the fruits of your labor? That was our thought on Sunday, and here was the menu, designed to showcase tomatoes, eggplant, basil and these fruity-but-hot Peruvian peppers we’ve been growing this year:
Appetizers:
→ Fresh Salsa with corn chips
→ Caponata with baked garlic toast chips
Salad:
→ Insalata Caprese
Main Course:
→ Pesto and Linguine
→ Brined, smoked Label Rouge chicken
Dessert:
→ Loquat Cobbler
And the recipes:
1. Fresh Salsa:
Ingredients:
- 4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped;
- 1/3 cup of sweet onion, chopped fine;
- 1 or 2 garlic cloves, mashed and minced;
- 4 Mirasol peppers, minced (or substitute 3 Serranos);
- 1 tablespoon olive oil;
- 2 teaspoons cider vinegar;
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano;
- juice of one lime;
- one tablespoon fresh chopped cilantroMethod:
Stir everything together well in a bowl except for the lime and cilantro. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Stir in cilantro and lime juice and serve with chips.
2. Capanota:
Ingredients:
- 3 small or 2 medium eggplants, quartered;
- 1 large sweet onion, chopped;
- 1 sweet red bell pepper;
- 6 celery ribs, chopped;
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced;
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley;
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil;
- 1/2 teaspon dried thyme;
- 1 teaspon fresh rosemary;
- 4 ripe medium-sized tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped (substitute 1 large can crushed tomatoes);
- 1 teaspon fresh black pepper;
- 1 teaspon salt;
- 2 tablespoons olive oil;
- 1 cup capers;
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar;
- 1 cup chopped black olives;
- 1 cup chopped green olivesMethod:
Peel eggplant and slice into 1/4-inch pieces. If you’re using a bitter variety, place in a bowl and sprinkly generously with salt. Scrape off seeds.Saute onions, celery, garlic, bell pepper and parsely in a large pot. Rinse salt off eggplant, pat dry and add to pot. Add tomatoes and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add olives, capers, vinegar, olive oil, herbs and seasonings and mix well. Cook a few minutes more until celery and eggplant soften. Cool, then chill in refrigerator before serving with crisp toast rounds.
3. Caprese:
Ingredients:
- 12 Fresh basil leaves;
- 3 or 4 large, ripe tomatoes, sliced;
- Buffalo mozzarella cheese, sliced to equal number and thickness of tomato slices;
- Olive oil;
- Balsamic Vinegar;
- Salt & pepperMethod:
Season tomato slices with salt and pepper. Lay down a tomato slice on a plate. Overlap with a basil leaf and then a mozzarella slice. Continue with pattern until plate is full. Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over ingredients, then chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes or so to allow flavors to mingle.
4. Pesto Sauce:
Ingredients:
- 24 fresh basil leaves;
- 2 tablespoons walnuts or toasted pine nutes;
- 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese;
- 2 cloves garlic;
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon;
- 3/4 cup olive oil;
- Fresh ground pepperMethod:
Pulse together ingredients in a food processor or blender until liquefied and somewhat oily. Serve over hot linguine, with more fresh Parmesan sprinkled on top.
5. Brined & Smoked Whole Chicken:
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken (we were fortunate enough to have one of Rachel’s Label Rouge birds from down the road on hand, but smoke what you got);
- 1 lemon, quartered;
- 3 sprigs rosemary;
- olive oilFor the brine:
- 1 gallon water;
- 3/4 cup kosher salt;
- 1/2 cup soy sauce;
- 1 cup light brown sugar;
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano;
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped tarragonFor the rub:
- 4 tablespoons chili powder;
- 2 tablespoons paprika;
- 1 tablespoon rubbed sage;
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper;
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper;
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic;
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onionMethod:
Heat the water to near-boiling in a large pot and add the salt and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Add the other ingredients and mix in well. Take brine off the heat. Allow to cool. Pour into a clean, two-gallon plastic freezer bag, working out air before sealing. Pack bag in ice in small cooler.When brine has cooled to at least 40 degrees, remove giblets from chicken, rinse well, pat dry and immerse in the brine bag, taking care to fill the cavity with brine. Soak in the brine, in the cooler, for about 4 hours.
When chicken has about 1/2 hour left to go, get your smoker fire going. I prefer a pecan wood fire and would also use oak if I had it handy. Smoke at a fairly high temperature if possible – 300 to 350 degrees.
Rinse chicken thoroughly with water in the sink, inside and out, for at least one minute. Pat dry with paper towels, inside and out.
Work skin back from chicken breast and from between thighs and legs. Work rub into meat under the skin, and also sprinkle rub into chicken cavity. Sprinkle juice from one of the lemon quarters on the chicken skin, then put lemon quarters and rosemary into cavity. Brush the chicken on both sides with olive oil.
Put the chicken on a grill in the smoker, breast side up. After an hour, brush the breast side with olive oil, flip the bird over the brush the back with olive oil. After another hour, check the temperature with a meat thermometer. It may take three hours or more, maybe less depending on the fire. However, the chicken will cook much more quickly after brining than it would if you smoked it without the brine, so be careful not to overcook. When the thermometer registers 165 or 170, take the bird off the smoker and allow to cool in the kitchen under loose aluminum foil for 10 or 15 minutes.
If you can, capture the juices that will run off the bird, and baste the breast with them. Carve and serve.
6. The Loquat Cobbler recipe can be found here. I would’ve liked to show off with a blackberry pie, but our berry crop still isn’t coming on that strong, quite possibly due to the steam-heat we’ve been having for days now. So I thawed some frozen loquats and made the cobbler. The taste was fine, but the fruit came out of the freezer brown, having lost the orange cast it carries when used fresh.
