AN ABUNDANCE OF LETTUCE

 

Too cold for salad; lettuce soup!

After a few rainy days and some sunshine the kitchen garden is flourishing. The lettuce looks gorgeous and it’s time to start picking. But with temperatures so low, I have no desire to eat salad. 

I’ve added chopped lettuce to my usual vegetable soup, but, searching for something a little different, I was delighted to find this recipe for a Spanish lettuce soup on the blog Me Sabe a Málaga ("it tastes like Málaga") by Ana Abellán. 

Crushed almonds give the soup a creamy consistency without any dairy. Made with vegetable stock or water, the soup is a nourishing vegetarian dish. For my rendition, I used homemade chicken stock and finished the soup with poached egg. 

Cooked lettuce is nicely chewy. Crushed almonds give the soup a creamy consistency.

Poach eggs right in the soup. 

Lettuce Soup

Sopa de Lechuga

Beaten eggs can be stirred in to thicken the soup or, alternatively, one egg per person can be poached in the soup. Serve the soup with bread which can be broken up into the soup, as desired.

Serves 4.

From garden to soup pot.

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 slices bread

¼ cup blanched almonds

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed to split the skins 

1 medium onion, chopped

1 leek, chopped

4 cups chopped or shredded lettuce

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Chopped ham (optional)

2-4 eggs

Sprigs of fresh mint

Fry bread, almonds.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil on medium-high in a pan. Fry the bread, almonds and garlics until they are golden. Skim them out. Discard garlic skins and place the garlics in a blender container with the bread and almonds. Reserve.

Add the onion and leek to the pan with additional oil, if needed. Sauté them gently until softened, 4 minutes. Add the lettuce and sauté until lettuce is wilted. Add the stock or water, season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Cook 20 minutes. 

Ladle some of the broth from the pan into the container with the fried bread, almonds, and garlic. Let it stand 5 minutes to soften the bread, then blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into the pan. Add ham, if using. Cook 5 minutes.

Stir 2 beaten eggs into the soup or break 4 eggs into the soup and poach them until whites are set and yolks still runny.

Ladle soup and eggs into bowls and serve the soup garnished with mint sprigs. 

Second day, I reheated the lettuce soup with chunks of lacón, smoked ham.

More recipes--mostly salads--with lettuce:
Lettuce Salad with Everything 

Lettuce Hearts with Garlic and Asparagus

Gazpacho with Cucumbers and Lettuce 

Spanish Mixed Salad 

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings 

FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS 

The Culinary Legacy of Spain

FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain. Here's a fresh angle on the traditional cooking of Spain, with 120 recipes that trace their roots to Moorish Spain. See below for where to order. 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times. Dishes from this era include exotic spices such as saffron, the use of fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus live on in modern Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s cuisine distinctive from the rest of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

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Order on amazon.es  (Spain)

Order on amazon.co.uk (UK)

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(If you order on Amazon, please give my book a review!)

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THE TORTILLA: VARIATIONS ON A THEME

 

A classic potato tortilla with the addition of wakame seaweed.

Do you ever come across a recipe on Instagram that you’ve just got to try? Me, rarely. But a post for potato tortilla with wakame seaweed from Porto-Muiños (#portomuinos), Galician harvesters and distributors of algae products, grabbed me. An interesting variation on a classic and I just happened to have all the ingredients to hand.

I can buy several types of algae at my local market at the “health food” stall. Wakame is my favorite. It tastes like a sea breeze smells and is nicely chewy. I use wakame in salad with sesame to accompany sushi, poke and tuna tataki. But, seaweed with potatoes cooked in olive oil? Yes! Wakame adds an interesting flavor as well as texture.  

Shards of dry wakame.

Wakame comes layered in stiff sheets that have been pressed and dried.  After 10 minutes of soaking, it turns from black to dark green and softens to a chewy consistency. Once rehydrated it can be used raw or cooked.

I accompanied the seaweed tortilla with a mushroom sauté al ajillo which also was a variation on a traditional recipe. Instead of the usual champiñones I used white shimeji mushrooms, a product that recently turned up at my local grocery store. With some cherry tomatoes the tortilla and mushrooms made a delightful vegetarian lunch. 

Tortilla is perfect for a vegetarian lunch.

Variation on a theme: champiñones al ajillo made with shimeji mushrooms.

Potato Tortilla with Seaweed

Tortilla de Patatas con Alga

The Porto-Muiños recipe calls for patatas gallegas, Galician potatoes. Those with the PDO Indicación Xeográfica Protexida Pataca de Galicia—protected geographic indication, potato of Galicia, are the Kennebec variety. Not always available where I live, I used ordinary russet-type potatoes for this tortilla.

Potatoes for tortilla are best cooked slowly—not fried—in lots of olive oil. The potatoes absorb very little of the oil, which can be strained and used again. I like onions in tortilla, although the recipe from Porto-Muiños didn’t include them. Your choice.  

½ ounce dry wakame 

1 pound potatoes

½ cup olive oil

Salt

3 tablespoons chopped scallions (optional)

6 eggs

Freshly ground black pepper

Wakame after soaking.

Break the wakame into several pieces. Place them in a bowl and cover with warm water. Soak 5 minutes. With the fingers, prise apart the layers of wakame and soak 5 minutes more. Drain. Discard any clumps that have not softened. Cut any large pieces into shreds. (Makes approximately 1 cup of ready-to-serve seaweed.) 

Cook eggs and potatoes to set.

Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the potatoes, lower heat and cook the potatoes, turning them frequently, without letting them brown. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. When potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes, add the scallions, if using. Cook another minute. Remove the potatoes and onions with a skimmer. Reserve the oil.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Add the wakame and potatoes. Let the mixture stand 10 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil to a small (8-inch) no-stick skillet. When hot, pour in the egg-potato-wakame mixture. Stir it gently for 30 seconds, then allow to set on the bottom, 3-4 minutes. Adjust heat so that it doesn’t brown or scorch. 

Have ready a flat plate or pan lid. Place it on top of the skillet and hold it tightly while reversing the skillet so that the tortilla turns out onto the plate. Carefully slide it back into the skillet to cook on the reverse side, about 2 minutes. Lift the edge of the tortilla and slide it onto a serving dish.

Serve the tortilla hot or room temperature. 

Shimeji Mushroom Sauté

Setas Shimeji al Ajillo

White shimeji mushrooms, also called beech mushrooms, are a cultivated version of a wild fungi. They somewhat resemble enokitake mushrooms—shell-like caps with slender stems. Sauté them quickly for a slightly crunchy finish or add them to stews and soups to cook to chewiness. 

Chopped ham is often added to mushrooms al ajillo. If you’re cooking a vegetarian meal, just omit it. 

Slice root-end off shimeji mushrooms.

Serves 2-4.

1 bunch (about 6 ounces) shimeji mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

Red pepper flakes

½ ounce diced serrano ham (optional)

Salt

2 tablespoons dry Sherry

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Fry with garlic.

Wash the whole bunch of mushrooms in a bowl of water. Drain. Cut off and discard the clump of root ends. Separate the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and fry them 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and sauté 1 to 2 minutes. Add the ham, if using, and Sherry. Cook 1 to 2 minutes until the alcohol is cooked off. Serve the mushrooms hot garnished with parsley.

Shimeji mushrooms sautéed with garlic, finished with Sherry.

Follow me on Instagram #mykitcheninspain

More recipes with seaweed:

Hake Steamed with Seaweed.

Potato Salad with Seaweed Mayonnaise.

Tartare Sauce with Seaweed.

Baked Sardines Stuffed with Seaweed.

Seaweed and Squid Noodles with Ink Sauce.

Seaweed Salad with Sesame.

Poke Bowl with Ponzu Sauce.

Kombu Vegetable Stock for Fideo Noodles.

More about Galician potatoes here.

More tortilla recipes:

Classic Potato Tortilla.

Spinach Tortilla.

Tortilla with Fava Beans.

Eggplant Tortilla.

All-Onion Tortilla.

Potato Chip Tortilla

Potato Tortilla With Chorizo and Chard.

Tortilla with Potatoes and Zucchini.

NEW LIFE FOR THE LEFTOVERS

 

Going to recycle the roast pork, sweet potato flans.

Remember those sweet potato flans from last week’s blog? We were only three for Christmas dinner, but I had made enough for a banquet. I frequently do that if I am testing the proportions for a recipe. Then I need to figure out what to do with the leftovers.

I found in the cupboard a carton of coconut milk (unsweetened beverage, not canned coconut “milk” for cooking) whose expiry date had come and gone. And some leeks that were threatening to expire as well as a bag of chopped chard, passed over more than once. Soup? Yes, a curried sweet-potato soup with coconut milk and chard.

Leftover sweet potato flans, mashed up and cooked with curry and coconut milk, get a new lease on life as soup.

Chunks of pork get recycled with black-eyed peas with spicy sofrito--good fortune for the New Year.

The main dish for the holiday meal was a boneless pork shoulder roast, done with a Venezuelan-style pernil marinade with orange juice (that recipe is here.). That pork went round a few more times, but in different guises. First was Chinese-style red-cooked pork. Since the pork was already well-seasoned and cooked, all I had to do was make the rich sauce—using leftover pork gravy, soy sauce, Sherry, ginger and star anise—and reheat chunks of pork in the sauce. I accompanied the pork with rice and stir-fried cabbage, recycled from a cabbage dish served at another meal.

The end chunks of the roast are heading for 2024 in a pot of black-eyed peas. Those guarantors of good fortune in the new year were cooked and ready-to-go in the freezer. All I needed to do was add a spicy sofrito. (The recipe for black-eyed peas with pork and sofrito is here. A vegetarian recipe for black-eyed peas is here.)

Even the pork marinade, half of which was stashed in the freezer, will re-emerge on New Year's Eve as a marinade for magret de pato, duck breast, with a different sort of orange sauce!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Sopa de Batatas al Curry

Some of the sweet potatoes I used for the soup were leftover flans that contained grated cheese and had been cooked with eggs. If you use plain pureed sweet potatoes, you may want to add a little grated cheese.  Once cooked, blend the soup. Add the cooked chard before serving.

Serves 4.

2 cups pureed sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped leeks or onions

1 clove chopped garlic

½ apple, diced

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger

4 cups unsweetened coconut milk beverage

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup grated cheese (optional)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup cooked, chopped chard 

Chopped scallions, to garnish

Greek yogurt, to garnish

Smoked pimentón (sweet or hot)

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the leeks and garlic until they are softened, 5 minutes. Add the apple, curry powder, ginger, and the pureed sweet potatoes. Mash the sweet potatoes into the sautéed leeks. Add the coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper. Add grated cheese, if using. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook 15 minutes, until leeks and apple are very soft. 

Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until quite smooth. Add lemon juice and reheat the soup before serving. Add chard to serve. Garnish with scallions and yogurt. Sprinkle with pimentón.

More recipes for recycling leftover food:

"Ropa Vieja" (Hash).

Chickpea Puree with Croutons.

Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb.

Cous Cous with Leftover Lamb.

Orange-Olive Salad with Leftover Chicken.

New Year's resolution: Join the movement! SIN DESPERDICIOS!  NO FOOD WASTE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!    FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

A bowl of good fortune for the New Year! Black-eyed peas with vegetables and a scattering of red pomegranate.

I’m cooking up a pot of black-eyed peas to celebrate the New Year. But, you say, it’s a few months before January 1, 2024. True, but Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is right upon us, based on a lunar calendar, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. This year Rosh Hashana begins at sundown next Friday, September 15. 

In the American south, black-eyed peas, symbolizing good fortune and prosperity, are cooked for New Year’s.  Amongst Sephardic Jews, black-eyed peas also are eaten to welcome the New Year for similar symbolic reasons. 

Black-eyed peas are similar to, but not related to, familiar beans such as navy, cannellini, lima, pinto, black. Those beans are all New World legumes, whereas black-eyed peas/beans, native to the African continent, were known in Biblical times.  

Black-eyed peas cook up soft and creamy without disintegrating to mush. They readily soak up flavors, so benefit from spices, herbs, lots of garlic, tangy accents from citrus or vinegar. And salt, they need plenty of salt, and olive oil. 

In Spain, black-eyed peas are called alubia carilla, judía de careta or, in Catalan, fesolets.    

My recipe here is similar to the Spanish potaje de carillas, but without the usual chorizo and pork belly! It’s completely vegan, in fact, so would be a perfect dish for Rosh Hashana or any meal. It can be served hot or cold, as a side dish with meat or as a vegetarian main. 

Not collard greens as in the South, but chard, spinach or beet greens can be cooked with the beans. I’ve added a garnish of pomegranate seeds. The ruby-red arils of this autumnal fruit are also considered auspicious for the Rosh Hashana holiday. 

Carrot "coins," rings of leek, chard leaves and black-eyed peas all have symbolic meanings for the New Year meal.

Serve the black-eyed peas as a vegetarian main dish or as a side dish alongside meat or chicken. 

Black-eyed Peas

Potaje de Carillas

For this recipe, I started with dried black-eyed peas that need to be soaked overnight then cooked 60 to 90 minutes. If you can get fresh shelling black-eyed peas, you will need about 3 cups shelled. They do not need soaking and should cook in about 40 minutes. If using frozen peas, use about 6 cups cooked and frozen ones. 

As with all legumes, it’s best to use soft water for soaking and cooking the peas. If you have especially hard water, add a pinch of baking soda to the soaking and cooking water or use low-mineral bottled water for cooking. Spanish cooks say you should asustar the beans—give them a "scare" while they cook—when they are partially cooked, add a half-cup of cold water to “shock” them. Supposedly, this keeps their skins from splitting. 

Crush the whole spices, garlic and herbs in a mortar or substitute ground spices, if preferred.

The cooked black-eyed peas can be served cold as a salad. Add additional olive oil and vinegar to them and serve with salad greens. 

Serves 6 to 8 as a vegetable side dish.

2 cups dried black-eyed peas (1 pound)

Water for soaking and cooking

3 carrots, peeled

1 leek, divided

1 stalk celery

1-2 bay leaves

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1/3 cup olive oil + additional to finish

1 cup chopped onions

½ teaspoon coarse salt

10 peppercorns

2 cloves

2 coriander seeds

1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon oregano

4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

4 cups chopped leaves and stems of chard

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Pomegranate arils, to garnish (optional)

Eight hours (or more) before cooking: place the black-eyed peas in a bowl or pan and cover them with water. Leave them to soak. (Two cups dried beans will swell to almost six cups soaked.) 

Drain the beans. Place them in a pan and add 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and skim off the froth that rises to the top. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook the beans 15 minutes.

Add the carrots, half of the leek, celery and 1 ½ teaspoons salt. Cover and cook the beans 30 minutes.

Crush spices in mortar.

While beans are cooking, heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onions on medium heat until they are very soft but not browned, 6 to 8 minutes. If they start to brown, add a few drops of water and continue frying them. Slice the remaining half of the leek and add the slices to the onion.

Place the coarse salt in a mortar with the peppercorns, cloves, coriander, cumin and oregano. Crush the spices and herbs to powder. Add the garlic and continue crushing to make a paste. Remove the carrots from the pan of beans. Cut one carrot in half. Add half a carrot to the mortar mixture and mash it with the spices. (Reserve remaining carrots.) Dilute the paste with a spoonful of the bean cooking liquid. 

Stir the paste from the mortar into the sautéed onions in the skillet. Fry them two minutes more. Stir the contents of the skillet into the beans along with the chopped chard. Add ½ cup of cold water and continue cooking the beans until they are very tender, about 20 minutes. 

The peas and vegetables can be served soupy, with cooking liquid, or scooped out with a slotted spoon and served fairly dry. Be sure to drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top before serving.

Remove and discard the bay leaf, piece of cooked leek and celery. Slice the reserved cooked carrots and return them to the pan. Stir in the lemon juice. Allow the black-eyed peas to set 10 minutes before serving.

Serve the black-eyed peas in bowls with their liquid or, as a vegetable side dish, removed from the pan with a slotted spoon. Drizzle olive oil over the top. Garnish with pomegranate, if desired.

More recipes for Rosh Hashanah:

Chicken Braised in Spiced Grape Juice.

Apple Cake with Honey-Wine Syrup.

Chicken Not-Marbella.

Stuffed Chickens Roasted in a Clay Pot.

Spicy Moroccan Squash Salad.

STUFF IT!

 

Eggplants stuffed with two kinds of cheese. 

How I love any vegetable that can be hollowed out and stuffed! This week, it’s eggplants and the stuffing is vegetarian—bread and two cheeses. They make a fine main dish, two halves per person, or a nice starter. 

Serve these stuffed eggplants as a vegetarian main dish or a starter. They're good hot or cold.

Two kinds of cheese go into the stuffing for the eggplants. Queso fresco is a fresh, white cheese, from goat, sheep or cow’s milk, that crumbles or mashes easily. If not available, use ricotta or well-drained cottage cheese. Manchego is a cured sheep's milk cheese that melts readily. Any hard cheese could be substituted.

The eggplants are partially cooked before stuffing so that the pulp is soft enough to be scooped out. This can be done in the oven or microwave. Cut the eggplants in half and score the flesh so that it softens quickly. Allow about 20 minutes in a 350ºF oven or 6 minutes on High in the microwave. Test with a skewer; eggplants are done when a skewer easily pierces the flesh.

Bake the eggplants then finish them under the broiler for a crispy top.

Eggplants Stuffed with Cheese

Berenjenas Rellenas con Queso

Serves 4 as a vegetarian main dish or 8 as a starter.

4 medium eggplants, about 12 ounces each

3 ounces day-old country bread, crusts removed

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, chopped

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

4 ounces queso fresco

5 ounces grated Manchego cheese (about 1 ¾ cups)

1 egg

Pine nuts

Bake, then scoop out flesh.

Remove the stems from the eggplants and cut them in half lengthwise. With the tip of a knife, score the flesh. Place them, cut-side down, on a baking sheet and bake at 350ºF until tender or place them, two halves at a time, in a microwave-safe plate and microwave on High until tender. Allow the eggplants to cool.

Use a spoon to scoop out the flesh from the eggplant halves, leaving the skins with enough flesh to hold them together. Turn the shells upside down so they drain. Place the pulp on a cutting board and chop it coarsely. 

While eggplants are cooling, break the bread into pieces and place in a bowl. Pour over the milk and allow the bread to soak until softened.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat until softened, but not browned, 5 minutes. Add the chopped eggplant and continue to fry the mixture for a few minutes. Season with nutmeg, pepper and salt. Remove from the heat and add the parsley.

Place the softened bread in a mixing bowl. (Discard any milk left in the bowl.) Use a fork to break it up. Crumble, chop or mash the queso fresco and add to the bread. Add the grated Manchego. Add the eggplant mixture from the skillet. Mix thoroughly. 

Place the eggplant shells in a lightly-oiled baking pan. Spoon the eggplant-cheese mixture into the shells. Smooth the tops. Beat the egg with ½ teaspoon of water. Spoon beaten egg over the filled eggplants. Stud each with a few pine nuts. Bake until the eggplants are heated through and egg topping is set, about 15 minutes. Place the eggplants under the broiler until browned on top.

Serve the eggplants hot or room temperature.

Stuffed eggplant is good served with a dollop of Greek yogurt and salad.

More recipes for stuffed vegetables, some vegetarian, some not:

Meat-Stuffed Eggplant.

Turkish-Style Eggplant Stuffed with Lamb.

Zucchini Tubs Stuffed with Shrimp.

Zucchini Boats Stuffed with Vegetables and Quinoa.

"Pizza"-Stuffed Zucchini.

Cabbage Stuffed with Meat.

Cabbage Rolls with Meat.

Peppers Stuffed with Tuna.

Stuffed Peppers with Chunky Tomato Sauce.

Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Shrimp.

Red Peppers Stuffed with Quail.

Microwave-Cooked Stuffed Peppers.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Meat.

Vegetarian Stuffed Squash.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice and Olives.

Onions Stuffed with Chorizo.

Stuffed Grape Leaves with Meat.

A SUMMERTIME DISH, SWEET OR SAVORY

 A basket of ruby-red cherries and a flat of bright cherry tomates were keeping company on my kitchen table. Why not use them in a joint effort, for a dish, either sweet or savory, full of summer’s essence?

Clafoutis is a baked fruit dish, of French origin. It’s dense and eggy, somewhere between quiche and cake. The dessert version, traditionally made with black cherries, can be made with any sweet cherry, such as the cerezas or picotas now in Spanish markets, or other stone fruit such as nectarines, peaches or apricots. The savory version is with cherry tomatoes and diced zucchini. 

Twins, sort of--cherry clafoutis at the top and cherry tomato clafoutis below. Clafoutis is a baked custardy dish, sweet or savory. 

The batter for clafoutis, somewhat like pancake batter, is quickly mixed in a blender. The sweet and savory versions are basically the same. The cherry clafoutis has sugar —but not much—added to the fruit and to the batter. The tomato version has more salt, some chopped onion and fresh herbs (I used oregano). These cherry tomatoes are so sweet that this version could have been prepared with sugar, exactly like the cherry version. 

Just to keep things interesting, I added almond flour to the fruit version and, for the savory recipe, I subbed gluten-free breadcrumbs and flour. 

Use a round, oval or square baking dish or oven-safe skillet to bake the clafoutis. They will puff up in baking, but deflate as they cool. Serve clafoutis warm or chilled, scooped or sliced. Cream is a nice accompaniment to the cherry clafoutis; Greek yogurt goes well with both the fruit and the savory one.

Cherries bake suspended in a dense custard. 

This fruit dessert is not overly sweet. Whipped cream or a dollop of Greek yogurt goes nicely with it.

The savory version, with cherry tomatoes and zucchini, is flavored with snippets of fresh oregano.

These cherry tomatoes really pop with flavor!

Clafoutis with Cherries

Flan de Cerezas

18 ounces fresh cherries, pitted (3 cups)

Olive oil for the baking dish

4 tablespoons sugar

1 ¼ cups whole milk

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup almond flour (unsweetened)

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup flour

Powdered sugar (optional)

Pit the cherries. (18 ounces whole cherries made about 15 ounces, 3 cups,  pitted.) 

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Cherries in baking dish.

Lightly oil a 5-cup baking dish. Spread the cherries in the bottom of the baking dish and sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of the sugar.

Combine 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the oil in a blender container with the milk, eggs, vanilla, almond flour and salt. Blend at high speed until thoroughly mixed. Add the flour and mix at low speed until blended. Pour the batter over the cherries in the baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar on the top.

Bake the clafoutis until browned on top and set in the center (test with a thin skewer), about 45 minutes. Cool on a rack. Serve the clafoutis, warm or chilled, dusted with powdered sugar, if desired.

Clafoutis will puff up while baking, deflate as it cools. 

Clafoutis of Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes

Pastel de Calabacín y Tomates Peras

Use gluten-free crumbs and flour for this recipe, if desired. 

1 cup diced zucchini

Salt

Oil for the baking dish

4 tablespoons grated aged cheese

2 tablespoons fine dry (gluten-free) breadcrumbs

8 ounces cherry tomatoes

Chopped fresh herbs

1 ½ cups whole milk

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon chopped onion

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

½ cup (gluten-free) flour

Freshly ground black pepper

Place the diced zucchini in a colander and sprinkle it generously with salt. Let it drain 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Spread zucchini, tomatoes in baking dish.

Oil a 5-cup baking dish. Combine 3 tablespoons of the grated cheese with the breadcrumbs. Spread the cheese-crumb mixture in the baking dish.

Spread the tomatoes in a single layer in the baking dish. Pat the zucchini dry and tuck it around the tomatoes. Sprinkle with a little chopped herbs.

In a blender container, combine the milk, eggs, onion and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Blend until smooth. On low speed, blend in the flour and pepper.

Pour the batter over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 tablespoon of grated cheese. Bake until the custard is set and the top is golden-brown, about 45 minutes. Serve, hot, warm or cold.

More recipes with cherries:

Cherry Gazpacho.

Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Ketchup.

Sangría with Cherries.

More recipes with cherry tomatoes:

Sauté of Beans and Cherry Tomatoes.

Pear Gazpacho with Cherry Tomatoes.

Cucumber Gazpacho with Cherry Tomatoes.