Roasted Garlic Tomato Spread

A friend of mine gave me a really great tip about roasting garlic for garlic bread a while ago, and I recently found myself wanting to make something else with roasted garlic since it has a such a complex set of flavors. I came up with this delicious spread that is a little sweet and a lot savory, with a hint of spice. It goes great on crusty bread like a baguette or ciabatta loaf. I'll also be suggesting it with a couple recipes coming up that I think it pairs well with.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes–1 hour

Ingredients:

3 bulbs of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
½ oz of sundried tomatoes
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Crusty bread

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. (Hint: this is a great recipe for a toaster oven since it uses such small amounts.)

Cut off the top of each bulb of garlic so that each clove is exposed. Pour one third of the olive oil on each bulb and gently work into the bulb. Wrap each bulb in tinfoil and roast for 45 min–1 hour.

I like my garlic to be pretty roasted, since it gets sweeter as the existing sugars caramelize. I recommend cooking for 45 minutes and then checking every 5 minutes till it is as dark as you would like. Once the garlic is cooked to your liking, remove it from the oven and set it aside to cool.

Put the sundried tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil into the carafe of your blender. Once the garlic is cool enough to be handled, simply squeeze each bulb into your blender. Blend until a smooth paste is formed. Feel free to add more extra virgin olive oil if you need to make it a little more spreadable.

Toast or grill some slices of your bread of choice, spread, and serve. This is pretty powerful stuff so a little goes a long way!

Honey Butter

So when I was looking for cornbread recipes to use as references, I saw a lot of people serving cornbread with honey, which is something I had never thought of. I tried it, and it was amazing. I thought to myself, "butter is great on cornbread, honey is great on cornbread, why not cut out the middleman and combine them!"

Don't get me wrong, I love my cornbread, but this really cranks it up to 11. While I made this butter for cornbread, it also goes brilliantly on pancakes, waffles, and as a finishing butter for salmon.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 stick or ½ cup of softened unsalted butter*
2 tbsp honey
½ tsp salt

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a small bowl and combine thoroughly. (That was easy!)

*I only have unsalted butter at home since I find it to be better for cooking and my wife likes it better generally. However, feel free to use salted butter and just add the honey, not the extra salt.

Sage and Garlic Finishing Butter

Finishing butter is a basic way to add tons of flavor to a dish. Many herbs and seasonings have fat soluble flavors and smells that butter helps extract for your tasting pleasure. You can easily customize your butter to fit the dish you are making, from steak, to seafood, to pasta. This one is a basic herb butter that goes great on steak.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1 t dried sage
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried thyme
1 clove of garlic

Directions:

Soften the butter in the microwave, fold the herbs and garlic into it, then wrap the butter mixture in plastic wrap and stash in the freezer for an hour before using. This allows for good flavor extraction and makes it easier to portion the butter for the dish you are putting it on.

Classic Pesto with Cashews

While I am on a pesto kick, I decided to share my recipe for my everyday pesto. I still don't use pine nuts in this one, since cashews create a similar texture and are way more affordable.

Ingredients:

2 C of fresh basil

¼ C of raw unsalted cashews

1 clove of garlic

½ C of extra virgin olive oil (EEVO)

½ C of parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In the bowl of your food processor or blender, combine the basil, cashews, and garlic. Blend or process until you get rough chunks. Add the EEVO and cheese and process until smooth. Add the salt and pepper to taste, mix, and enjoy!

Citrus Butter, Pea Puree, and Pesto Mayo

By popular demand (aka being asked by my sister) I will provide the recipes for making some of the spreads I mentioned in my Tea Party Menu. Feel free to vary the amounts of any flavoring, as all of these are to taste and don't require specific ratios. Without further ado, here you go:

Ingredients

Citrus Butter:

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lime

Juice of 1 lime

1 T of sugar

1 stick of butter

Pesto Mayo:

1/4 C of mayo

4 t of pesto sauce

Pea Puree

1 C of frozen peas (thawed)

1 5.3 oz container of Greek yogurt

8 mint leaves

Pinch of salt

Directions

For the butter, combine the lemon and lime zest, the lime juice, and the sugar with one softened stick of butter. Once thoroughly combined refrigerate over night so the fat can extract as much flavor as possible. I shape the butter into a log in a sheet of plastic wrap. The lager surface area means that it softens faster on the counter. Once it's soft, spread on scones, biscuits, or use in making cucumber sandwiches.

The pesto mayo is easy, just combine the ingredients and spread. You are welcome to make your own pesto for this application, but I find it easier just to buy a jar.

The pea puree isn't much more complicated, combine all of the ingredients in a blender then blend until smooth.