Veggie Latkes

1 giant zucchini, or 2 small zucchinis

2 medium carrts

1 sweet potato

2 eggs

1/4 c flour

vegetable oil

1 Tbsp herbs (I used thyme and rosemary because we had it on hand)

salt

Grate veggies in food processor. Once grated, lay veggies on papertowel to absorb some of the water; get as dry as you can. Meanwhile, heat 1/4 inch of oil in a big skillet over med-high heat. When veggies are dry-ish, put in large bowl, mix with both eggs. Add flour incrementally as you may not need all of it.

Form veggies into golf ball-sized lumps, press to make a little flat, and then place in hot oil. Brown first side, flip, then brown second side. As each latke is ready, place on papertowl-lined plate and sprinkle salt.

Serve with saurkraut and sriracha. 

Pizza Sauce: Roasted Tomato and Basil

I've been writing a lot of things recently. Not sure why but I'm going with it. I'm trying to use this as a recipe-holder for things I try out, and a way to process something I made and think about how to make it better next time. So...hope that's fine :)

At my new job we get donations from City Harvest every Thursday for the clients, but whatever is going to go to waste (which is always a lot, I'm told) gets to go home in the arms of the staff. This past week I scored 8 huge, beautiful tomatoes and a ton of bagels. The bagels I sliced and put in giant ziploc bags in the freezer, for easy breakfasts for weeks to come, and the tomatoes got a few variations. This is just one. It makes a beautiful, completely professional pizza sauce, without the crap.

Roasted Tomato and Basil Pizza Sauce

3 large ripe tomatoes
2 large handfuls basil leaves
1 small can tomato paste
bit of olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt

Cover toaster oven pan with foil and set toaster oven to Broil. Slice tomatoes in half and put cut-side down in the pan . Place in toaster oven and broil for 20-25 minutes or until skins are mostly blackened...or at least half. When done put in a bowl and immediately cover with pan lid or cookie sheet. This helps to loosen the skins. After five minutes, remove skins and chop tomatoes.

Saute onions in a bit of olive oil and salt. When transluscent, add garlic and a bit of juice from the tomatoes. Cook for two minutes, stirring, then add tomatoes and 1/2 can tomato paste and a ton more salt. If needed, you can add the rest of the tomato paste but I only used 3/4 can and it was perfect. Do what you feel.

Once everything's incorporated and the sauce is your desired thickness (that's what she said), turn off heat and stir in basil. One second later, when basil is wilted, dump everything into the blender.

Leave the hole on the blender open, or prop the lid a bit so that steam has a way to escape. Blend to desired consistency, which should happen quickly. Cool and use immediately or stick in freezer for later pizza making parties (as I did).

Sofrito

Apparently everyone else in the world knew that there's this amazing stuff, sofrito, that you use in cooking beans, rice, meat, vegetables, ANYTHING, and it makes it eight thousand times better. How embarrassing. No worries, though because now I have two recipes and a jar of it in my fridge that a coworker made me. Phew!

Two co-workers, one Puerto Rican (Carmen), one 1/2 Dominican (Jamie), each gave me the recipes they swear by (and always have on hand) plus recipes for their signature sofrito dishes. I'm never looking back.

Carmen's Sofrito

20 pieces or more of garlic
2 bell peppers (red or green, depending on what resulting color you want)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch recao (also known as culantro, or Mexican coriander)
2 onions
a little water
10-20 ajices (small round sweet peppers, usually green or orange)

Clean, de-seed, and chop everything into similar-sized pieces. Throw everything in the food processor and add water, a tablespoon or so at a time, until the sofrito looks homogeneous and just a little watery.

Carmen's Spanish Rice

little oil
1 bullion cube
1 small can GOYA tomato sauce
+ water for rice (1:1 ratio)
+ couple spoons of Sofrito
rice

In large sauce pan or saute pan, warm a glug (ya know, a pour out of the bottle) of olive oil, and break bullion cube into it. Add tomato sauce and water.* Bring water to a boil, then add rice. Cover and cook until rice is tender.

*Carmen instructed: "If cooking 4 cups of rice, then use 4 cups of water." Firstly, I don't know what sort of army she's feeding but there's no way I'd ever need that much rice. Secondly, I have not yet made this and don't know if that ratio actually works well, especially with the recipe scaled back. Will have to make this soon!

Jamie's Sofrito
This is the one I have in my fridge

1 clove garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper chopped
3/4 cup of water
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbs oregano
1 tbs black pepper
2 tbs. Goya recaito

Blend all together and freeze extra.

Jamie's Beans with Sofrito

Use red or pink with 1/2 can tomato sauce and 2 tbs. of sofrito

OR

For hearty beans:
3/4 cup of water
1 potato (chopped)

Boil potatoes until tender.

1 tbs. of oil
beans
1/2 can tomato sauce (Goya's small can)
2 tbs. of sofrito

Spinach Raita from Caitlin

First of all, I know I've eaten this somewhere before, and it has a real name... second, it's pretty good, but missing something... please post changes if you think of them

Ingredients (quantities are mere suggestions)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot or onion, minced

spinach, fresh or frozen

Yogurt

garam masala

salt and pepper

oil

Directions:

Sauté garlic and shallot, throw in frozen spinach (careful to pick out stems-- i hate stems)... once it's cooked down, let it simmer for ten-ish minutes, to get some of the water off. Then add spices and yogurt (I like equal parts spinach and yogurt, personally). All done!