Fare Exchange: Tomatoes, cucumbers star in recipes, requests

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To reach us

Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send. Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750 E-mail: chattfare@gmail.com

photo Jane Henegar

Good morning readers, here at the tail end of July. You will find today a fine assortment of easy recipes, and that has been encouraged by the request of one young man just beginning housekeeping. All of us, however seasoned, can benefit from great food simply prepared.

So read on, but first this.

"Country Bumpkin" needs some help in how to clean and store farm-fresh eggs and also what to do with a gracious plenty of cucumbers. "I was thinking tzatziki sauce and maybe a cold cucumber soup but would like some other ideas."

SUMMER STANDBYS

Dan Cobb offered three simple recipes for beginning to cook on a summer day, or any day.

Southern Corn Salad

1 can white sweet corn, drained

1 Roma tomato, seeded and diced

14 cup Ranch dressing

Optional: 2 stalks green onion, thinly sliced

Mix all together in a sealable bowl, and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Fast Texas Hash

1 pound lean ground beef

2 large onions, sliced (not chopped)

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 cup diced bell pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup water

1 can petite diced tomatoes with juice

1 cup instant rice

In large covered skillet, brown meat until pink is gone. Remove meat and drain, leaving about 2 tablespoons drippings. Very lightly sauté onions and peppers in drippings. Add rest of ingredients and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes or until rice is tender.

Slow Beans and Kielbasa

2 cans black beans

1 can corn niblets, drained

1 can petite diced tomatoes with juice

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 pound kielbasa, skinned and diced

Drain 1 can of beans, but leave juice in the other. Combine all except kielbasa in slow cooker, then put kielbasa on top. Cook on low 8 hours. Smoked sausage will work just as well; just be sure to skin it first, or buy the skinless variety.

TOMATOES, 2 WAYS

Marcia Kling admits with a smile, "I have a serious, acknowledged addiction ... to cookbooks. Even though I've long since run out of space to store them, I continue to pick up those books that look intriguing. All I can say in my defense is that I actually use them. They aren't simply collectibles.

"That's my preface to a wonderful summer recipe from a cookbook I picked up on Prince Edward Island. Many of the recipes are different, and I have really enjoyed using them. The following is a favorite."

Requests

* Cleaning and storing farm-fresh eggs* Cucumber recipes

Uncooked Pasta Sauce

1 cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, grated

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Kalamata olives to taste, sliced (the original recipe calls for black olives, but we prefer Kalamata)

4 tablespoons capers

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste (original recipe does not call for salt)

5-6 garlic cloves (I use fewer)

3 medium tomatoes, seeds removed, chopped

Combine ingredients, and marinate 1 hour or longer. (I think the flavor improves with age, and I have made it the day before serving.) Cook your favorite pasta (we like whole-wheat angel hair), drain, and mix in sauce while pasta is still hot.

Ms. Kling continued her fresh tomato theme. "The second recipe I'm including is delicious, incredibly easy and a wonderful way to use our summer bounty of tomatoes."

The Simplest Tomato Soup

4 tomatoes, chopped

1/2 stick butter

Extra-virgin olive oil for serving

Fresh basil

If you prefer a smooth soup, puree tomatoes in a food processor or blender. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add tomatoes and salt to taste, and simmer for 10 minutes. Divide between two bowls or cups, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with fresh basil. There you have lunch in no time.

HASH REHASHED

Here is a reminiscing recipe from Linda Leake. "Hash brings back many childhood memories. Mother really knew how to prolong a meal. Our hash usually consisted of pot roast and leftover vegetables. The same vegetables for hash were the ones in the pot roast."

Hash

4 or 5 pounds pot roast, cooked

2 Idaho potatoes, medium-size

3 carrots, chopped

3 celery sticks, chopped

1 medium to large onion, chopped

1/2 cup ketchup

Pull or cut up cooked roast beef. Put it with above vegetables in a skillet. Add enough water to cover. Add ketchup. Put cover over skillet, and simmer until done.

Note: More vegetables may be added. Just get them tender. Good with cornbread with plenty of butter.

THE ART OF OMELETTES

We printed a request long ago for an omelette as prepared by a Frenchwoman in a New York postage-stamp-size eatery, and this week her book arrived at our desk. Her name is Madame Romaine de Lyon, and her book, now out of print, is "The Art of Cooking Omelettes."

She prepared hundreds of varieties of omelette in her restaurant, but her plain omelette is mighty simple. New Yorkers loved her plain omelettes and simple salads and purchased both for no small sum, though both could be made with great ease at home. Here is the simple way to make a plain omelette, from her book.

Plain Omelette

1 medium-weight skillet (never thick iron), no more than 6 or 8 inches at the top, with sides slanting out

1 tablespoon butter

3 eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Take your pan and put it on the fire over a low flame so that it will warm up. In it put a well-rounded tablespoon butter. While it melts, slowly break eggs in a bowl; add salt and pepper and a tablespoon of water from the faucet. Never use milk or cream.

Beat eggs briskly with a fork for 25-30 seconds. Turn the flame high under the pan, and when the butter is a light brown color, pour the eggs into it. With the handle of the pan in your left hand and a fork in your right hand, bring the eggs from the sides of the pan to the center. Do this quickly, meanwhile shaking the pan so that the eggs will not stick to the bottom. Keep on lifting the eggs with the fork, almost as if you were doing scrambled eggs, until all the liquid runs under. In about five more seconds, transfer the omelette quickly to a warm plate by lifting the edge of the omelette nearer you, folding it in half and turning it onto the plate.

This should not take more than a minute to make, and practice is the only way to a perfect omelette.

Here's to minutes well spent, to recipes well designed and to the resultant food well appreciated - this week and all Wednesdays to come.

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