tomatoes!

i am very excited to find out that cj yang has taken a nice picture of his garden harvest! it's so pretty! he also planted squash, but i think most people won't go around buying squash. or will you? hmmm...

home grown tomatoes!!!

so when we have about a gazillion tomatoes on our hands, we give them to neighbors, and try to finish them before they rot (and we actually succeeded!)

this is one of my favorite tomato dish: lasagna XD


now please forgive how much this slice of lasagna look like it's about to collapse: i didn't give it enough time to cool before putting it on my plate (i was hungry and it was 2pm) so the cheese didn't solidify enough yet and hold the meat together neatly =(


but it tastes pretty good. a little like spaghetti too actually =)

this is the recipe based on what i cooked last sunday, but you can substitute as you see fit. i've done pure beef lasagna, beef+pork lasagna, pork+turkey lasagna, pork+chicken lasagna... it doesn't matter lol. whether you want veg or not, more tomatoes or less, more flavor or less, you can modify to fit your tastes.

(extremely modified) lasagna recipe

Servings: four to six, depending on how much you eat.
Baking tray size: approximately 8in by 8in

ingredients:

7 lasagna noodles
500 - 600 lbs of meat, minced
10 - 15 tablespoons of tomato based pasta sauce
4-6 tablespoons of tomato sauce
4 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup of peas
1/3 cup onions, diced
10 mini tomatoes (see pic above), quartered
or 1 tomato on vine (giant size), sliced thinly
or 2 small roma tomatoes, sliced into eight pieces
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
~6 slices of cheddar cheese
or rough equivalent in quantity of other type of shredded/bar cheese
cooking oil
salt and sugar to taste
(optional) 1 tsp oregano
(optional) 1 tsp chili powder
(optional) 1 tsp black pepper


1) (Optional) After mincing meat, mix with 1 tsp of oregano, chili powder, black pepper and some salt to marinate for about 10-15 minutes.
2)Boil the lasagna noodles with a little salt for about 10-15 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
3) Saute minced garlic until slightly brown before adding onions and minced meat. Fry until the meat looks thoroughly cooked.
4) Add the pasta and tomato sauce until sauce is enough to cover the meat. Make sure that it is not too watery (else the lasagna won't hold properly)
5) Add mushrooms and peas, and about half of the quartered tomatoes. Stir fry for about 1-2 minutes more.
6) Add a pinch of salt and sugar. If the pasta/tomato sauce is sour, you might need to add a bit more salt and sugar to balance it out. Set aside.
7) Grease your baking tray with oil or butter. Lay three lasagna noodle down as base. "Frame" the pan: Let the ends of the lasagna noodles lie on the side of the pan.
8) Cut each cheese slice into 12 pieces. Place them along the "seams" where the noodles meet.
9) Layer the noodles with approximately half the fried meat/vege combo.
10) Place half of the uncooked quartered tomatoes on the meat. Layer with more cheese if desired (recommended)
11) Cut the remaining noodles to fit the size of the pan. (Most noodles are longer than 8in). Save the "prettier" pieces for the top. Use the others as the second layer.
12) Again, place the cut cheese slices along the "seams" where the second layer of noodles meet.
13) Layer with the remaining fried meat-vege, decorate with the rest of the tomatoes, and layer with more cheese (must do if you want the upper layer to stick)
14) Layer with the last of the lasagna noodles. Sprinkle shredded cheese on the top as decoration if desired.
15) Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 375 F.
16) Remove aluminum foil and continue baking for another 10 minutes (or until it turns slightly golden brown. Do not overbake -> the noodles will turn really hard)
17) Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving, so that the cheese will solidify again and make sure your lasagna doesn't fall apart.


actually, it's a real simple dish in the sense that you can modify it however you like. the original recipe i obtained needed cottage cheese (i really dislike the taste lol) and it didn't have any vege in it, and it required more spices that my kitchen holds, so i modified according to what i have on hand (that's how i ended up mixing two kinds of meat in one lasagna. they taste good nonetheless. and i didn't get stomachache) if you do try to make this with two types of meat, i would recommend frying them separately and then putting them on different layers.

i love making this on sundays because then i will have leftovers to pack as lunch on monday =p microwave it for 1-2 minutes after it is defrosted, and voila! lunch~!

toodles for now! i can't believe i wrote a whole (albeit slightly incoherent) recipe just because i wanted to show off the home-grown tomatoes (shakes head). ja' ne~!