Barley, Beans, and Roasted Heirloom Tomato Stew

Barley, Beans, and Roasted Heirloom Tomato Stew

We're back! Sorry we were on vacation for a bit, but we've returned. Hopefully some postings about said vacation will appear soon!

I had about a dozen left over heirloom tomatoes that were about to go bad (and were being replaced by new, fresher heirloom tomatoes so something had to be done! And it's a soup! Or rather some sort of soup/stew hybrid. It's good. Note: this makes a lot of soup. Awesome for leftovers. Also great for a starter at dinner parties. I estimate it feeds anywhere from 8-12 people depending on how you portion out your servings.

Ingredients:
12 or so smallish heirloom tomatoes (say 2 inches in diameter each?) If you only have larger tomatoes probably about 6-8 of those or if you're going with canned (no shame in that, I do this all the time) one of those larger 28 oz cans of whole or diced tomatoes.
3-4 carrots or a good handful of baby carrots, finely chopped
3-4 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup pearl barley
1 quart vegetable (or chicken) stock
1 cup water
1 15 oz can of beans (I used the marinated bean salad from trader joe's and thoroughly rinsed of the oil/vineger marinade I like it because it has about 4 different kinds of beans in there and it's really pretty).
1/2 cup chopped basil
salt
olive oil

1. If you're using canned tomatoes skip this step. Otherwise, set your oven to about 500 degrees. Coat tomatoes in olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in the oven on a cookie sheet (I line with foil because I'm terrible and lazy). Roast for 15 minutes.

2. While tomatoes are roasting, heat some olive oil on medium-high heat in a large stockpot or cast-iron pot (we used a 6.5 quart enameled cast iron for this). Then place carrots, celery, and onions in the oil when it is hot. Cook until the vegetables start to get soft. [Note: celery, carrots, and onions are the fancy schmancy soup mirepoix. Trader Joe's will actually sell you a cut celery, carrots, and onions and call it 'mirepoix' if you'd rather not buy a bunch of carrots, onions, and celery.]

3. When vegetables are soft, add the barley to toast for five minutes. Stir often so barley doesn't burn.

4. Add the stock and the extra cup of water to the pot and cook the barley (with the lid on) until soft. Add some salt to taste (the stock should already be a bit salty, so it shouldn't take much). Make sure to stir every so often.

5. While the barley is cooking, remove the roasted tomatoes and allow to cool for a few minutes. At this point you have several options. If you have a blender or food processor you can leave the skins on and pulse the tomatoes (but not too much). If you don't have that, you will probably want to remove the skins of the tomatoes (easy after roasting) and then just mash them up. Obviously, if you have a food mill, you can run the tomatoes through that to remove the skins as well. Your choice. Place the crushed tomatoes in a bowl. [If you're using canned tomatoes either crush them (by hand) or run them through the food processor/blender to crush and place in a bowl.]

6. Rinse the beans from the can well and then add to crushed tomatoes.

7. Add the 1/2 cup of chopped basil to the tomatoes/beans.

8. When barley has reached desired consistency (which is probably not mush) add the tomatoes/beans/basil and stir. Allow to cook for 10-15 more minutes and adjust salt again if necessary. The whole process from start to finish should take about an hour.

Tuna Ceviche & Mango Avocado Relish

I got a food processor for my birthday. It's this one. It is fantastic. This recipe doesn't require it, but it was sure speedy! The recipe feeds about two for dinner and maybe four as an appetizer or side dish. It would feed more with the addition of more tuna.

Ingredients:

For Ceviche--
About 10 ounces of tuna (one large Tuna Steak should do). Sashimi quality is best, of course.
Juice of 4 limes (or lemons). About half a cup of juice.
About 1 tbsp of either soy sauce or some kind of soy marinade (we used Trader Joe's Island Soyaki)
Pinch of Salt

For Relish:
Two mangos
3-4 sprigs of cilantro
3-4 sprigs of mint (just the leaves though, not the stem)
1 small onion
1 Bell Pepper (red would be nice, for color)
Juice of 2 limes
Pinch of Salt to taste
1 Avocado

For ceviche:
1. Cut Tuna into small half inch cubes. Place in a bowl with lime juice, pinch of salt, and soy sauce (or marinade). Make sure all Tuna is emersed. Combine well and place in refrigerator for about 4 hours.

For relish:
1. Finely mince the mint and cilantro. Put in medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Chop the onion finely and add to mint and cilantro.
3. Finely chop bell pepper, add to other ingredients.
4. Chop fruit of mangos (peel and remove pit) into small but tactile chunks. Add to other ingredients.
5. Add lime juice and pinch of salt to taste to the ingredients.
6. Cover and move to refrigerator to chill until tuna is ready.

Serving suggestions:
- Coursely chop the avocado. Put down a scoop or two of the relish, then a few chunks of avocado, and then a scoop of the tuna on top. Enjoy together. (The 'fancier' option).

- Mix avocado with the tuna and add enough relish until you're satisfied with the ratio. Eat all together.

- Add some jalapeño to the relish or, if you don't have any add some cayenne or red pepper flake to the relish to spice it u

- Serve with some tortilla chips or even ON tortilla chips as little tactile snacks.

- There will probably be left over 'relish'. You can use this as a tasty salsa! It might even be nice to add a chopped tomato or two to the mix for this purpose.

- Use a different kind of fish. A good whitefish like tilapia would work well.