Tag Archives: bell peppers

August 15, 2014 · 5:40 PM

Roasted Peppers + Tomatoes Provençal

Happy Friday! The first week of school has come to a successful close. I enjoyed having some time to myself and got a few things done that I just didn’t have time for over the summer.

Now that I have a little more time, I am going to try to hit two French Fridays with Dorie recipes each week for a while. I missed a few over the summer, and I really don’t have many of the older recipes to catch up on, so I want to start cranking them out!

This week I made two easy and delicious summery side dishes: Roasted Peppers and Tomatoes Provençal.

Roasted Peppers

We love roasted peppers. My husband buys jars of them all time time for snacking on. I don’t know why I don’t make them more often, because homemade tastes so much better and they really aren’t a lot of work.

Dorie’s version is pretty classic. Roasted peppers drizzled with olive oil and scattered with garlic and fresh herbs. The big difference is the cooking method. I have always charred my bell peppers under the broiler, but Dorie has us roast them in a 425°F oven.

These peppers were tasty! I used basil from the garden, but you can also use parsley, rosemary, and/or thyme. I served mine as a side dish to Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken (except I had to roast the chicken due to an unexpected thunder storm). A delicious dinner!

Tomatoes Provençal

The FFWD group made Tomatoes Provençal last month. I chose to wait so I could use garden tomatoes. It was worth the wait!

This is a very simple, but impressive, side dish. Tomatoes are halved and placed in a baking dish. Season with salt and pepper, top with diced garlic and herbs (again, I used basil from the garden), then drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven until tender and delicious!

If you look at the picture above, you can see that I served these tomatoes with leftover Roasted Peppers, as well as a chicken salad made from the leftover chicken. Another winner of a dinner!

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Tagged as bell peppers, cooking, French Fridays, tomatoes

July 4, 2014 · 12:29 PM

Catching Up…

Happy 4th of July to my American readers! Happy Friday to the rest of you! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was a delicious sounding tomato recipe. I did not make it. In a few weeks we can start harvesting garden tomatoes, so I will wait until then to make this dish.

Instead, I am catching up on some recipes from May and June that I hadn’t gotten to yet. Actually, I made two of these back in May but just haven’t written about them. The fish I made this past week. Let’s get to catching up!

Smoked Salmon Waffles

Smoked Salmon Waffles are a savory waffle meant to be served as a starter or a snack. The concept is pretty simple: basic waffle batter enhanced with smoked salmon, green onions, and chives.

These were good! Though they would have been better served as a starter rather than a main dish. These would be wonderful for brunch! In fact, the next day I reheated a leftover waffle and put a fried egg on top of it. Yum!

Pipérade Stir-Fry

Pipérade Stir-Fry is really just a dish inspired by the Basque Pipérade. Colorful bell peppers are sauteed until tender, then coated with red wine vinegar. After cooling to room temperature, the peppers are seasoned with thinly sliced red onions, garlic, piment d’Espelette, and salt and pepper. Dorie suggests these peppers are great with any kind of grilled meat.

I served Pipérade Stir-Fry with our first grilled steaks of the year (remember, I made this back in May). So delicious! The peppers really did go well with the grilled beef and we enjoyed this side dish very much.

~~Skate~~ Halibut with Capers, Cornichons, and Brown Butter Sauce

So, this dish was supposed to be prepared with skate. I knew there was no way I was finding skate here in Reno, so I decided to see what looked good when I hit the fish counter. The wild-caught halibut looked good to me! (Actually, I tried making this dish a week earlier, but got seduced by the fresh and wild Copper River sockeye, and I didn’t want to mask the wonderful flavor with this sauce…)

This is a very quick and easy recipe. After the fish is cooked in butter on the stove, a sauce is made by browning butter and adding sherry vinegar, grainy French mustard, thinly sliced cornichons, and a few capers. Spoon it over the fish and eat!

This sauce was wonderful with the halibut. Don’t be afraid to try this recipe if you can’t find skate. I am sure it would work with any firm, white fish.

All of these recipes can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book Around My French Table.

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Tagged as bell peppers, cooking, French Fridays, halibut, piperade, smoked salmon, waffles

September 22, 2012 · 3:28 PM

Chicken Basquaise

Making this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Chicken Basquaise, felt like a gateway to fall and winter cooking. In the summer I cook differently. A little lighter. Meats are grilled. Veggies are quickly sauteed or served raw. No stews simmering on the stove and no long braises.

But cooking Chicken Basquaise changed the game. The vegetables were cooked slowly until meltingly tender, and the chicken stewed gently on the stove. Summer wasn’t abandoned completely: the stars of the show were gorgeous bell peppers, rounded out by tomatoes from the garden.

I have to admit, I love the comfort of fall and winter cooking. Knowing I have something nourishing simmering on the stove, with the smell wafting through the house. I look forward to fall when I can begin cooking more slowly.