Rob's feast

For today a guest post by Rob, my husband, who is an amazing cook when he has time and a peanut-butter-a-holic when he doesn't.

Pan seared, and Grilled Ahi Tuna served on a salad bed, with a side of roast garlic stuffed mushrooms sauted in olive oil and white wine, and Pasta Romesco


Chez Piggy Romesco Sauce

1/2 Cup Olive Oil
2 Red Bell Peppers
1 tomato, halved
5 cloves of garlic
2 finger-hot chilies
1.5 cups blanched almonds, toasted
1 tsp. red-wine vinegar
Pinch coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350, Warm 1tsp oil in ovenproof pan. Place tomato in pan, coat with oil, roast 20 min.
Roast red peppers, and steam for 25 min, remove skin, stems, seeds.
Place all ingredients into food processor, blend to a paste.

I did two vine ripened tomatoes instead of one, both halved, with a bulb of garlic in the center of the pan, and poured olive oil over them all. The tomatoes were finished in 20 min, the garlic bulb took another 20 minutes to roast (I your blue iron pot - which worked amazingly - and cleaned up really well afterwords).

I added the juice of 1/2 a lime - although, I don't think it added much to the flavor.

The sauce is really good (if I do say so myself), but I think I'd add less almonds next time. The sauce by itself, without the almonds is rich and creamy, and I think if one were to put in the juice of a couple limes, and to not add almonds at all - one would have a basic roasted red bell pepper mole, or a mole rojo.




A basic salad of home-grown lettuce (various types including spinach), chopped tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Pan seared and then grilled tuna steak with a zest of lemon (from the brand-new zester!)



The mushrooms were stuffed with roasted garlic and then refrigerated until dinner time. They were then sauted in the pan the tuna was seared in. The mushrooms were browned on both sides, and then white wine was added (Sauvignon Blanc). They were then cooked in the wine sauce, while covered for about another five minutes. If I had to do it over again, I would probably add the roasted garlic stuffing after the mushrooms were done - this seemed to cause the garlic to loose some flavor!
yummy- mushrooms.