No longer updating, but hope you enjoy the recipes!
Unfortunately, I got too busy to go back to blogging, after I was forced to take a break from it in 2015 because of tendonitis.
But you can still follow my cooking, eating, and travels on instagram: (@spontaneoustomato)
Mole Chocolate Chip Cookies
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I’m posting two dessert recipes in a row! Sorry! (Although, is this really something I should be apologizing for? I’m not sure…)
I usually try to mix up my posts more, but I assume you’ll forgive me. After all, I made you chocolate chip cookies. With mole poblano.
That’s right: these chocolate chip cookies have an extra dose of (Abuelita) chocolate along with a good amount of ancho, pasilla, and chipotle chili peppers, pepitas, almonds, cinnamon, and other spices.
Paula made me mole poblano from scratch for Valentine’s Day and that is why I’m marrying her and it was her genius idea to take some of that mole sauce and put it into some cookies! An idea she got from eating a disappointingly boring mole cookie at a coffee shop in Santa Barbara… and thinking, “we could do better.”
Raspberry Blood Orange Bars
Can it be? It’s the day before Valentine’s Day and I am actually posting something appropriately sweet! (And pink and red!)
Nothing chocolatey though, since I like tangy fruit desserts even better than chocolate ones. (Good thing every other food blog out there has got you covered…)
And no, I’m probably not going to start being on top of themed holiday posts all year round; I didn’t even intend for these to be Valentine’s-y… I made them last week, for Paula’s birthday.
At first she requested the same zesty lemon lime bars I made for her birthday last year. But then she changed her mind and asked for blood orange bars. This would have been easy enough to accommodate, since it’s just swapping in a different kind of citrus juice… until she also asked me to add raspberries. An inspired flavor and color combination, to be sure, but I was at a loss as to how to do it.
Avgolemono (Egg & Lemon) Soup
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I’ve been obsessed with the idea of this soup for ages.
I love all things eggy and all things lemony. Put together, the rich mixture of tempered eggs and lemon juice gives this soup a decadent, creamy feel, and without any milk or cream.
I used to think of it as a rare restaurant treat—a complicated and mysterious miracle of science. How else could you add eggs to a simmering stock and end up with a smooth, velvety lemony broth, without separating the eggs into the messy striations of egg drop soup?
Once again Santa Barbara’s shortage of decent restaurants—of Greek restaurants, in this case—led me to take the miracle-working into my own hands. As with learning any new recipe, this started with demystifying it: it turns out there’s a very simple step to making such a luxurious broth.
Yakimochi (Grilled Mochi Rice Cakes)
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Every once in a while I post recipes that are not really recipes, and I assume everyone will see right through them and think less of me as a food blogger.
But I am also such a fan of snacking and procrastination (and procrastisnacking*) that I often get into the habit of making myself a certain type of elaborate snack or another, and then I get to thinking about sharing it with you.
This one is not that elaborate, but it does take some time (6 minutes to be precise) standing over the stove, flipping the mochi as it grills. Then you get to enjoy the most delightfully textured warm, comforting snack of soft chewy mochi wrapped in crisp salty seaweed.
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Yakimochi (grilled mochi), seasoned with soy sauce, and wrapped up in seaweed is called Isobeyaki. I like improvising little variations on isobeyaki, like adding some citrusy ponzu and sesame oil to the soy sauce, or sandwiching a slice of melty cheese in between the seaweed and the mochi. (Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.)
Chicken Pozole (Guest Post)
As much as I love Mexican food, I’ve always been a little intimidated by some of the dishes.
I’ve made mole, tamales, tacos, rice and beans, but in the past I’ve always taken shortcuts when making the dishes, using canned or bottled sauces. Since Allison started this blog, I’ve been more up to the challenge of tackling recipes from scratch, but the one recipe I was still too intimidated to try was pozole. I just thought it would be far too complicated to make.
At my old job, I had a co-worker who told me that pozole was so easy, and that she would write down the recipe for me. But she never got around to writing it down, despite the stacks of post-its and note paper available all over the office. She and my other coworker would just condescendingly tell me how simple it was to make.
Now I have a new job with co-workers who are quick to help me out; I can tell they are genuinely happy when they see me succeed, not just in ophthalmology, but in cooking as well. My co-worker, Linda, mentioned she made pozole one day. When I asked her for the recipe, she told me it was really easy, while grabbing a bit of paper and scribbling down some simple directions.
Tuscan Kale Salad
I know what you’re thinking: ugh, another raw kale salad? That’s so 2012; I’ll just skip over this post and no one will be the wiser.
But don’t skip this post! I swear this is the best way to eat raw kale, and I bet 99% of you would thoroughly enjoy this salad. A bold claim, I know.
This is my new favorite winter salad. I think I’ve made it about seven times in the past few weeks.
After all the Christmas-y cookies and quick breads, and after all the nights it’s been too chilly to find cold salads appealing—and we’ve gone the noodles/rice/soup + bread route instead—it just feels right to return to fresh greens! (Even if we’re still enjoying those greens as a side dish to our breadier entrees.)
spontaneous tomato 