tomates a la provencale

Best breakfast ever and super easy to make.
tomates a la provencale
Recipe from Choupette (my nephew’s girlfriend, she’s French thus the fancy name of the dish).
I made it just for me so this is for one serving. I only eat one egg but obviously you could add more:
Heat a little olive oil in fry pan. Add one clove of chopped garlic and sauté until soft. Add one medium size tomato, sliced and sprinkle with herbes de provence*. Sauté until it cooks down then add one egg and a dash of salt & pepper. Let it cook until the egg is cooked the way you like it. I like mine a smidgeon past medium so I put a lid on the pan and let it cook a little longer than the one pictured above. Eat with crusty French bread (I toasted mine). You actually just dip the bread into the mixture. OMG, this was crazy good.
Choupette said you can add fresh basil too if you'd like but I didn’t have any. I imagine that would be good.
Starting with farm fresh garlic, tomato and egg from Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm is an added bonus. Super fresh and delicious ingredients. http://tonopahrob.com/
*Herbes de provence is in the spice aisle. It’s a blend of thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, sage, fennel and lavender.
When I asked my good friend Mr. Google about tomates a la provencale, most of the hits were for a baked or broiled tomato with herbs and breadcrumbs, not sautéed and topped with an egg. I wonder if it’s a regional thing in France. Kind of like if you ordered a burger in Wisconsin it would likely have cheddar, in California it would have avocado and in the Southwest it might have chilies. Maybe in their region in France they skip the breadcrumbs and add the egg.
Another funny thing, Frenchy Momma, Choupette’s Mom Marie, wrote on my Facebook page picture that they don’t eat this for breakfast, they eat it for lunch or dinner. For breakfast they have toast with butter or jelly. Call me crazy but I think it was perfect for breakfast!
Please let me know if you try and what you think.

Canning Tomatoes

Rub-a-dub-dub: Onions and garic on standby:

All tomatoes to the Hot Tub:Plunging into the the ice bath:

Ready for the boiling cauldron:

Doing their thing:

Final product:

“Recipe" courtesy of Tonopah Rob (link removed, out of business).  For quart size jars, put a clove of garlic in the bottom of each jar. Then put two small onions quartered (these onions were very small, about the size of shallots). Add Kosher salt and lemon juice for your brine and acid. Then blanch your tomatoes, put them in an ice bath, drain and fill the jars. Boil jars about 30-40 minutes.

To blanch the tomatoes, put a little cross cut at the bottom of each tomato.  Put them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Then put in an ice bath.  I filled the sink with ice and water.  The skin will peel right off.  

He said the amount of tomatoes I bought (12 pounds) should yield 6 quarts. He was spot on, 6 quarts exactly. He said he likes to add the garlic and onion because then your tomatoes are good to go for just about any recipe. Sounded good to me so that’s what I did. Of course I did a smidgeon of research and asked my good friend Mr. Google about sanitizing the jars (boil them) and how much salt (1 teaspoon per quart) and lemon juice (2 Tablespoons per quart) to use. Most of them said to use bottled lemon juice. Why would I want to buy a bottle of lemon juice when I have a lemon tree and plenty of the real deal right in my fridge? They say it’s because the acid level is more predictable with the processed variety. Bottled schmottled, call me a renegade but my lemons are plenty pungent so I used real lemon juice. Besides, a few experienced canners said they just blanch the tomatoes without adding any salt or lemon juice to the jars so somehow I think the experiment will turn out just fine. After CAREFULLY removing the jars from the boiling water (not an easy task without a jar lifter) the lids are supposed to “pop” while cooling which indicates they are sealed. I was busy and not paying attention so I missed the popping. Then I was wondering how I would know if they sealed. The experienced canners said if they don’t seal, put them in the refrigerator and use them within a few days. After a good night’s sleep a light bulb went off in my head. Remove the rings and if the lids are attached they sealed. If the lids slide right off then marinara sauce will be on my agenda. The lids were all perfectly tight! Ta-da. My first experiment with canning appears to have been successful.

Heirloom Tomato Chow Chow

Ingredients
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled, grated or chopped
2 pounds firm green heirloom tomatoes, cut into quarters
2 medium onions, diced
Directions
Combine vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, turmeric, mustard seeds, celery seed, cayenne pepper, and ginger in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to extract the flavors of the spices. Once the liquid is boiling and steaming add tomatoes and onion. Gently stir to incorporate. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Shut off heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in a serving bowl and serve.
~Source: Tyler Florence, Food Network

Patti’s Notes: This comes out like a sweet, spicy relish. Can you believe I couldn’t find celery seed? I tried two stores and ended up subbing celery salt (even though there is no salt in the recipe) and it worked fine. I cut the recipe in half and it made plenty. I severed it with grilled pork chops. I think it would be good with chicken, fish or steak and I think it would be perfect on burgers.

Easy Meter: PDE (pretty darn easy). I will warn you that as the apple cider vinegar begins to boil the steam is really pungent. My house smelled like vinegar for hours, which isn’t offensive, just sayin’…

Tip of the Day: If you are in Arizona I highly recommend you shop for produce at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm. He only sells what he grows and everything is grown chemical-free (no pesticides or insecticides). Everything is super fresh and amazingly delicious. http://tonopahrob.com/

Pictured above with a grilled pork chop and Green Bean & Tomato Salad (posted 6-13-10 but here’s the link so I’ll save you the trouble http://foodpornpatti.blogspot.com/2010/06/green-bean-and-tomato-salad.html).
This time I made it with Dragon Beans (pictured below). They start off purple and pale yellow but once they are steamed the purple disappears. I also hard poach my eggs instead of hard boiling. They come out super tender like little silky pillows. M-M-De-lish.