Honey Roasted Tomatoes with Sweet Lemon Glaze

Honey Roasted Tomatoes with Sweet Lemon Glaze

              I came across this recipe in a cook book I recently purchased, Dessert Fourplay. I genuinely wanted to try this recipe. Although, school started, the state fair was looming, and injured my foot, and then getting sick I did not get a chance to try it until week. I did not follow the recipe exactly, and I rarely do, but the idea appealed to me. The recipe is for a dessert, and I thought, “Tomatoes for dessert? That is awesome!”

            I looked for sweet tomatoes, but I ended up buying cherry tomatoes at a local farmers market. I also purchased local honey there. The way that I did the recipe, it was remarkably easy. I started by making a simple syrup. Which is just equal parts water and sugar boiled until the sugar dissolves. When the simple syrup was ready I added lemon slices and boiled them until the meat looked like crystal. I sliced the tomatoes and tossed them in honey. I roasted them for about 10- 15 min at 350 in the oven. When I plated the dish I used the boiled syrup as a sauce. This is what it looked like.

            I was still sick when I did this recipe, so some of my tasting notes are not all that accurate. The lemons were glassy, and the red is warm and comforting. The basil adds just a splash of color. The Lemons are like sticky candy you want to touch just to lick your fingers over and over again. The tomatoes are juicy as if just coming for running water. The first bite of tomato, the sweet, tart lemon sauce is the first to hit the tongue, then tangy tomato. All the sights and smell of summer and gardens come to mind. It is summertime on a plate.
            Why are tomatoes an aphrodisiac? Well, they are red, juicy, plump, sweet and tangy. So my question is, why they would not be. When I was in the third semester of culinary school, one of the assignments was to read a culinary type book. I choose In The Devil Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food. In the book, the tomato is called the “love apple.” A term I still like to use today, and every chance I get I inform people of the jewel of knowledge. The tomato was part of the Columbian exchange in the late 1600’s. The poor tomatoes receptions lacked excitement and most avoided it. Why? They considered fatal due to its relationship to the deadly belladonna plant. After years of avoidance, someone realized that not only was it, Not poisonous, but delicious it took off into aphrodisiac history.  The Germans, French and the Italian’s translation for the tomato are variations of “love apple.” The catholic church called it the “other” forbidden fruit because they feared the that the young would not be able control their lust in the mere presence of the tomato. I see tomatoes every day, and my self control is amazing…usually.

The recipe in the book and what I did is entirely different. What I did it more or less is a salad. I’m going to try the recipe again and maybe follow it and try it as a dessert.

The book is Dessert Fourplay Sweet Quartets from A Four-Star pastry Chef, By Johnny Iuzzini and Roy Rinamore. If you have a chance to check out the book, you should. The whole book has recipes that seem off the wall, but awesome.


Here are some links to pages that I got my information 

http://www.eatsomethingsexy.com/wordpress/aphrodisiac-foods/tomato/
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/romance_through_the_ages/58719

Carrot Gnocchi

      Gnocchi has always been one of my favorite dishes, the little bit of chewy and the versatility and variety of sauces made me excited to eat it. I used the Potato Gnocchi with Pesto recipe from the Williams-Sonoma web site.www.williams-sonoma.com Instead of using all the potatoes, I replace ¾ of the potatoes with carrots. I left some of the potatoes for the starch. The sauce that I use to top it with I just came up on the fly, it is just butter, sage, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. I did not want to have a sauce that totally over powered the uniqueness of the gnocchi. The recipe is remarkably easy to follow. I can see this as a dessert recipe. I made this recipe savory. The carrot gnocchi has a delightfully smooth texture and the potato and the carrot play well off each other. Neither is dominating, and both makes an appearance leaving a feeling of wanting more and more. Which is fine of course, because are super nutritious.

I did the history of carrots the last time and I thought it would be fun to have some quirky facts about carrots. I got most of these facts from the Carrot Museum.www.carrotmuseum.co.uk

The voice of Bugs Bunny, Mel Blanc actually didn’t like carrots.

So how was the Carrot used as an aphrodisiac? Well, men in Teheran in the late nineteenth century stewed carrots with sugar to increase the quality and quantity of sperm.  

Carrot Vodka? Carrots produce more distilled spirits than potatoes.

Carrots as a conceptive? In India women eat carrots seeds to prevent getting pregnant.

The Calming effect of Carrots? Romans conquerors fed carrot broth to female captives to loosen them up.

These are just a few facts, there of course thousands more and I encourage you to look them up and have fun with the carrot! I use a lot of my recipes from Williams-Sonoma, here is the web site, www.williams-sonoma.com, Please be my guest and take a look. 

Carrot Cupcakes

Where did carrots come from? Asia, America, or Africa?  Would you believe that they came from the Middle East?  Carrots were first mentioned about 5000 years ago in Afghanistan.  Traders took the seeds of the carrots and spread them through their trade routes, and as many of the cultures embraced the carrots.  Even in ancient times carrots were considered an aphrodisiac, even though they were used more for medicinal uses that as a food staple. 

Carrots of ancient times were not the carrots that we know and love today.  They ranged in color from purple, white, black, red, and yellow.  It was during the Middle Ages that the red and yellow carrots were cross bred to make the sweet and delicious orange carrot.

Carrot cake is one of those desserts that show the versatility of the carrot.  If you type in carrot cake into the search engine, hundreds of different recipes will show up.  I personally love my carrot cake without raisins and nuts, but some of my friends don’t consider it a carrot cake with these two additions.   The recipe that I used was the Classic Carrot Cake from the Williams-Sonoma web site. (Williams-sonoma.com). It has a lovely spiced scent that is alluring, and the color, though it’s not bright orange, is rustic and warm.  The cake itself is super moist with a delicate balance of the spices and carrots. I added ginger to it because I love the dynamic of carrots and ginger, and to show that carrot and ginger can be a dessert too.  The cream cheese icing adds a bit of bite to the dynamic of the flavors.  Carrot cake can be used as an aphrodisiac because it ignites all of the senses with warm and inviting colors and smells. Cinnamon is the most prominent smell, and then you can just smell the carrot in the back ground.  Having both of the smells together does get me excited to cut into a piece of carrot cake.

I encourage those that read this blog to try out the recipes and to come up with your own ideas and let me know how it goes.

Just a note: I got the information about the history of the carrot from www.indepthinfo.com  So got check it out and see what you come up with.

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Carrot ginger soup.

Aphrodisiacs do not always have to come at the end of the meal, they can be at the beginning or can be the main course. The recipe that I worked on this week is a carrot-ginger soup. The idea for the soup is actually fairly common, but how often is it thought of as a starter for a passion night?

Carrots are always in a well-stocked kitchen. They add depth for many dishes and sauces. This month the carrots are in the spot light. They have a rustic taste to them that is warm and welcoming. The color orange, according to Kendra Cherry, will draw your attention. People will be more likely to remember and take food that is “warm” and “inviting”. The color orange also promotes a feeling of excitement, enthusiasm, and warmth.(Cherry).

So why carrot ginger soup, your eyes will automatically be drawn to the warm, rustic color. Once you get past the excitement of color the texture will put you over the edge with it smooth and creamy taste. The ginger adds an exceptionally gratifying nuance and a bit of a kick that will add to your night.

Here, is where I got the information on the color orange.

Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors."about.com, Psychology. About.com, n.d. Web. 3 Jul 2011. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm>


Here is the recipe
Carrot Ginger Soup
       2 cloves of garlic- minced
       1 large onion- diced
       3 celery stalks- diced
       4 cups carrots- diced
       3 tbsp minced ginger
       1/2 cup dry white wine
       6 cups chicken stock
       4 tbsp butter
       1/2 cup cream
In a large pot, saute garlic until it is fragrant.  
Add the onions and saute until the onions are translucent.
Add celery and saute until soft
Add the carrots and ginger, and saute for 5 min.
Add the chicken stock. make sure the liquid completely covers the contents of the pot. Simmer until the       carrots are soft enough to cut with a fork.
In a blender, puree the soup.  You may need to puree the soup in batches. 
Once all the soup is pureed put back in the pot. If the soup is too thick add more chicken stock
Add the butter and the cream
Serve hot and Enjoy! 
You may garnish with the cream or with croutons. 
   

The Beginning

Food is passion. Food provides many things, sustenance, comfort, warmth, coolness, opportunity to bring friends together, and passion. Aphrodisiac is a food that promote a sense of love and pleasure, either from the way that they look, or from the nutrition that it provides. I truly enjoy creating food that help promotes pleasurable feelings. I find aphrodisiac particularly interesting, because of the long held belief of distinctive properties for certain foods. I want to explore and create recipes that use aphrodisiacs. This blog is for my to share what I’ve learned and created also to learn from those of you that have your own experiences.

A little bit about myself, I have a culinary arts degree and understand the importance of preparation and the visual appeal of food. I learned the basics of cooking and baking. I found that I love to bake. I do currently work in a bakery, but I love to bake at home so that I can be creative and try new and unusual recipes.

When I came up with the idea for a blog, the first food that popped into my mind was carrots. Why carrots? Well, I honestly don’t know, they just did. Carrots are an excellent source of Beta-Carotene and vitamins (a good article on the benefits of carrots is at) ttp://healthmad.com/nutrition/the-health-benefits-of-carrots/). Although, the reason it is considered an aphrodisiac is that it looks like the male reproductive organ. The carrot is truly versatile in the kitchen, because it can go into almost everything. It is a vegetable, but it makes some of the best desserts. The recipe that I’m featuring today is one that I came up with on my own. Carrot Basil Crème Brule.

It is not overly sweet but has a delicate balance and ends a meal on a good note.
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Just a note. I may have degree, but I don't consider myself an expert in aphrodisiacs. I will let you know  where and when I get my information, and where I get my base recipes. This blog is to journal my experiences in creating recipes and learning about aphrodisiacs.