Cafe Fernando

Preserving Summer: Homemade Tomato Sauce

Thanks to my father, I preserved more tomato sauce than I’ll ever need this winter. It was impossible to consume the amount of fresh garden tomatoes he brought every Monday morning. He would not only bring the tomatoes he grew in his garden at our summer house, but also hand-picked the tastiest tomatoes from the farmers’ market on his way back.

Six batches later, I came up with a nice recipe and photos to share. As you’ll see below, the recipe is quite basic. I avoided herbs and spices to come up with a base sauce I can build upon. You can always add them in later when you’re heating up the sauce.

So hurry to your local farmer’s market and buy as much as you can carry home.

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Lunch at The Mansion

No recipe today. Just some snaps from a lunch we had at The Mansion last week. We were sitting around the table, reading the paper and having tea and all of a sudden we realized that it was way past lunch time. The lady of the house started listing what she had in the fridge from the day before: “Let’s see… We have braised Romano beans, borek… We can prepare a simple salad, reheat the fish left over from dinner.. And Cenk brought a Peach Crumble!”. Not a single word from anyone. This is so typical. In a matter of minutes, she’ll suggest that we set the table for a late breakfast and everyone will agree. Sliced tomatoes swimming in extra-virgin olive oil, local cheeses, black olives, homemade sour cherry jam, Nutella and toasted bread. No one will say no to those. Instead, she proposes “Menemen”! And we’re sold. We are SO sold.

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The Croissant Challenge

A couple of weeks ago, when Vera and I were planning the brunch menu, the last thing I needed was a baking challenge. The menu was already ambitious and required two full days of proofing dough and baking, but I just couldn’t resist… Flaky, buttery croissants that crackle as you bite into them… Even more butter on top with homemade plum jam… Chocolate dripping from half of the batch… you see where I’m going with this? Once I start dreaming of a baked good, there’s no turning back.

As luck would have it, on one of those nights filled with croissant dreams, I came across Jacques Torres’ cooking show. He was baking croissants! It was then that I seriously started thinking this was a sign from the universe. The universe was clearly telling me to start beating that pound of butter right away. Plus, Jacques made it look as easy and effortless as baking a batch of cookies. So I stopped worrying and started reading the croissant recipe from Dorie Greenspan‘s award-winning book “Baking with Julia”.

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