Tomato Basil Soup

Tomatoes are plentiful right now and the Farmers Market was selling them this morning, for about $2 USD for 3 kilos, or 6.6 pounds.  I set aside a few to dehydrate later for "sun-dried tomatoes" and I made some cream of tomato soup with the rest.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
½ cup onion
2 cloves of minced garlic
6 cups fresh tomatoes, cored, peeled, and chopped (8-10) or 6 cups canned whole tomatoes, crushed. (The easy way to peel fresh tomatoes is to drop them in boiling water for 20-30 seconds.)
4 cups tomato juice
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
12 -14 fresh basil leaves, washed and chopped
2 cups of milk, or heavy cream (I use half & half)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

Directions:
Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil in the same saucepan you will use for the soup.

Add the tomatoes, tomato juice and stock to the saucepan.  Bring it to a boil on medium heat and then turn to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the fresh basil and use a hand held immersion blender and puree, along with the basil leaves, in the saucepan.  If you don't have an immersion blender, use a regular blender, but use small batches, because hot liquids expand in a blender.

If you used a regular blender, return the puree to the saucepan and add milk, cream, honey, lemon juice and butter, while stirring, over low heat.  If you used heavy cream, do not let it boil or it will want to curdle.

Garnish with basil leaves and serve with your favorite bread or a grilled cheese sandwich.

Soup

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Barbecued Pulled Pork – Crock Pot Style

Ingredients:
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1½ tablespoons chili powder
1½ tablespoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4½ -5 pound boneless pork
2 cups barbecue sauce

Directions:
Place the onions and garlic in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the chicken stock.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a small bowl to make a dry rub.

Rinse the pork meat and pat it dry with paper towels.

Thoroughly coat the pork with the dry rub and place the meat on top of the onions and garlic.

Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender. It will take 6-8 hours on high, or 10-12 hours on low.

Turn off the crock pot. Carefully remove the pork and place it on cutting board. It will be so tender it will want to break apart. Let the meat rest for about 15 minutes.

Slice it cross grain in one-inch slices. Then shred the sliced meat into bite-size pieces with 2 forks and discard any fat.

Pour all of liquid in the crock pot into a medium size bowl.

Use a skimmer, or strainer, to collect the solid onions and garlic from the liquid and return it to the crock pot.

Set the remaining liquid aside to cool.

Add all of the shredded pork back to the crock pot with 2 cups of barbecue sauce.

When liquid has cooled, skim off the grease and discard.

Now add 1 cup of the strained liquid to the crock pot with the meat and barbecue sauce and discard the remaining liquid.

Heat the pork until ready to serve on hamburger buns.

Garnish with fresh sliced onions, dill pickles and Jalapeño peppers.

Pork

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Mock Graham Cracker Pie Crust

Graham crackers are not found in Costa Rica, let alone a Graham cracker pie shell. The pie shell can probably be found in one of the high-end super market that caters to expats with expensive imported foodstuffs. The lack of Graham crackers should not deter you from making a pie.

I remember years ago, my sons' Tica grandmother used to make a pie crust with Galletas Maria. The Galleta Maria is a very popular sweet vanilla cookie with the crispness of a cracker. You can find it everywhere in Costa Rica, and this is my substitute for the original Rev. Sylvester Graham's cracker.

Preheat oven to 300° F.

Crush about 25-30 Galletas Maria until you have about 1½ cups of fine crumbs.

Mix this with ¼ cup of sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and ¾ of a stick of butter, melted.

Firmly press the crumb mixture into a pie pan making sure to evenly cover the bottom and side.

Bake for 15 minutes and allow it to cool to room temperature before you add your pie filling.

Pie

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Zesty Salsa Picante – Canning Recipe

Ingredients:
12 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
6 cups chopped and seeded sweet peppers
6 cups chopped onions
8 Jalapeño peppers, minced & seeded (Warning: wear gloves while preparing the Jalapeños)
1 ½ cups cider vinegar
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 large garlic cloves, minced
½ cup chopped cilantro
4 teaspoons salt
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

Directions:
• Combine all ingredients except the tomato paste in large sauce pot.
• Bring to a boil and simmer until desired thickness. We like it chunky so 5 minutes is more than enough
• Stir in tomato paste.
• Ladle hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head-space.
• Process the jars for 15 minutes in a hot water bath

Adjust the amount of Jalapeño peppers for a hotter or milder salsa.

Yield: 8 pints

Snacks

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