recipe: tomato basil sauce

so... somehow we ended up with three 6 lb, 10 oz cans of pureed tomatoes. largest cans i have ever seen in my life. i've been meaning to make sauce for some time now, but the 'time' aspect of that is what has messed me up. today was finally the day. i looked at the Tomato and Basil Sauce recipe from allrecipes.com as loose inspiration with a few tweaks here & there... the end result was really good - actually more flavor that i expected (the Italian half of me us usually pretty bad - i rarely eat red sauce b/c it's "boring"... opting for cream sauces & vodka sauces instead...or just curry haha). i made it pretty spicy, but the amount of red pepper can easily be adjusted for personal pref.

ingredients list (servings: unknown. this is a ton of sauce): 

- 1 onion, finely diced

- 8 gloves of garlic, minced

- 4 tbsp of olive oil

- 1 tbsp of garlic oil (if available - i had snagged this from the Asian market & it seemed like a  good fit here)

- 2-3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

- 1 (6 lb, 10 oz) can of pureed tomatoes

- 2 tbsp white sugar

- 1 tsp oregano

- 1 tbsp italian seasoning 

- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper

- salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste

- 1 bay leaf

- 1.5 cups fresh chopped basil

to make: heat olive and oils in large pot; add onion until it's soft. add garlic to onion and cook for 1 additional minute. add 

balsamic vinegar & allow to cook down for 1 minute. 

add pureed tomatoes, white sugar, oregano, italian seasoning, red pepper, salt & pepper to taste, and the bay leaf. allow sauce to come to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 1 - 1.5 hours. 

remove from heat, remove bay leaf, and stir in basil. done! 

 

hong kong bakery & bistro

i was tres-happy to learn about the opening of hong kong bakery & bistro in Colonie NY... it's menu is - i believe- the 3rd dim sum menu in the area. or at least the 3rd that i've been able to find so far (with the first 2 being CCK Chinese & Taiwan Noodle). apparently the operation had been working out of the Asian Supermarket and expanded to this standalone spot. 

Friday night i hit up the Asian Supermarket... it was MINDBLOWING -- i had already visited my fav Asian market in Danbury, CT not long ago (TBS Asian Food) and stocked up on rice noodles, curry, & impulse purchases, but somehow i ended up leaving with 2 giant bags of goodies anyway (i think there are 3 or 4 different types of dumplings & pot stickers in my freezer at the moment...oops). the mind blowing amount of products and total adventure of foreign foods is just something you need to visit (if you're into visiting Asian and/or new grocery stores... which um... kinda is one of my favorite adventures. heh.)

the market stpre still has a food stall in it for takeout, but it was closed by the time i left the store (i was there late late)... i popped up the street to Hong Kong B&B after. i ordered the shrimp and pork wonton noodle soup and an order of mini-steamed pork buns. the pork buns were pillow-soft, had a nice slight honey glaze to them, and were stuffed perfectly with lil bbq delish pork. i was eating solo and planned to save 1 of the 3 buns as leftovers... but there were none. the noodle bowl was equally as delish. the bok choy flavor did overtake the broth a little bit (which is fine, just not my personal preference), but i think if i had a beef bowl instead of wonton, the meat would help balance out the flavor. the bowl was HUGE, and i left with a hefty portion of leftovers from that. was even better 2nd day. i didn't try any of the pastries they had (and there were a loooot available), but they looked adorable. definitely plan on returning and trying a few of their signature dishes... very happy to have such a growing number of fantastic Asian restaurants in Cap City.