Breaks come in several forms. In my case, there are two; a broken wrist and a vacation. What is unfortunate is these two breaks are happening simultaneously. The broken wrist is going to prevent me from doing a lot of commenting for a while...you'll have to hang in there with me. I'm reading you though!
And the other break? We are taking a vacation in August ( I wish I could tell you I will be diving and snorkeling in the beautiful Caribbean but it looks as though I will be watching, not doing). So next week I will be posting a short recipe and a lovely giveaway from American Spoon Foods and then we're off.
Please be patient with me for a month or so...I'll be back the end of August with a giveaway winner, but will still be typing with one hand!
On to a lovely Thomas Keller recipe!
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Let's be honest: you're probably not going to make this entire dish. It takes too long. (And even then, I skipped a couple elements.) But if I tell you the tomato sorbet has one of those roll your eyes flavors, will you at least try the sorbet part? It's worth the time.
The composed dishes that comprise most of The French Laundry Cookbook recipes are time consuming to make. I think that's why I like Ad Hoc...geared more for the home cook. But I couldn't resist making the sorbet and when I licked the spoon before I put it in the fridge to chill, I DID roll my eyes and say Mmmmmmm. Will it be as good frozen? Yes, it was! I discovered it's best to use the same day because this sorbet freezes really hard if you keep it overnight. But if you're not able to, just let it soften and all will be well.
And do you have to skin all those little grape tomatoes? No. (Although that was the easy part and aren't those little veins in the tomatoes neat looking?) Just slice some heirloom tomatoes, dress them and top them with a small scoop of this sorbet. It does look nice on the bread, so do what I did. I took a left-over croissant half, cut a circle out of the bottom and toasted it. You could, however, serve it on a lettuce leaf.
That little cracker on top? It's adorable (and delicious), but you don't have to make it. I did omit the basil oil which, when I serve this again, I will definitely make if only for the sake of presentation and I also skipped the tomato tartare. I liked mine just the way it was. I'll give you recipes for the components I used, OK? Up to you which ones you use.
Thomas Keller's Tomato Sorbet on a Tomato Pyramid
Ingredients for sorbet:
6-7 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1 inch pieces (I didn't peel)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/3 c. finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
pinch chopped tarragon
pinch cayenne
3/4 cup simple syrup
julienned zest of 1/2 orange (about 1 teaspoon) brought to a boil in cold water, drained and repeated 2 more times
salt and pepper
Method for sorbet:
Bring the tomatoes to a boil in a saucepan, reduce heat and cook, stirring often about 45 minutes or until the tomatoes are reduced by half. There will still be some liquid remaining
Heat the oil, add the onions and cook for 7-8 minutes until tender.
I ran the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the skins. Then put both the tomatoes and onion in a blender until smooth.
Press the mixture through a tamis (I don't own one so I used a sieve) and then blend again. There should be about 1 cup. Add the remaining sorbet ingredients and blend again. Refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker. Best to use the same day.
Ingredients for garlic tuilles:
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
1 large egg white
2 teaspoons garlic paste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano
1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian parsley, minced
Method for garlic tuilles:
Mix the flour, sugar and salt in one bowl. Beat the butter in another bowl by hand until creamy. With a spatula or spoon, beat the egg white into the dry ingredients until smooth. Add the butter by thirds. Whisk until smooth. Preheat oven to 325°.
On a silpat, spread about 3/4 of a teaspoon of the batter with the back of a spoon. The batter does not have to be even, the silpat can show through; it actually looks more interesting. Make it the size of a small cookie. Sprinkle the tops with the rosemary and parsley. Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Ingredients for cherry tomatoes:
A variety of cherry tomatoes, try to choose the same size
EVOO
salt and pepper
Method for cherry tomatoes:
Blanch the tomatoes in salted boiling water for a few seconds to loosen the skin. Peel the skin with a paring knife. Toss the tomatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To complete:
Soften the sorbet if needed.
Arrange a layer of the tomatoes on a crouton and top with another layer. You may need to trim the bottoms to get them to sit evenly. Try to make them the same size. Top with sorbet quenelle.
Keller adds basil oil around the base.
Here's a smaller version with just one layer of tomatoes:
My favorite dinner in the summer has always been a tossed salad, grilled steak or chicken and a baked potato. Of course, the potato part varies and often we serve a veggie dish of some kind. So I was overjoyed to run across this recipe in Donna Hay's 50th Birthday Issue. I love this magazine! I took a subscription, finally, and it was the nicest gift I've given myself in ages!
Is this the perfect recipe to serve with steak or what? Kind of a potato/onion upside down cake tart! And with my favorite Gruyère too. I love the way the onions cook at the bottom so when you turn it out, they are all caramelized and sit on top like pieces of fruit. And those crunchy potatoes. Don't you want to just pick them right out of the photo? This was such a fabulous side dish, I can't wait to make it again. Do I really need to say any more? Look at that photo! You gotta love it.
Potato, Onion and Gruyère Galette
Donna Hay's 50th Anniversary Issue
Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
12 sprigs thyme
1 large onion, sliced somewhat thickly ( a tad more than 1/4 inch thick)
3/4 t0 1 lb. waxy potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (I used a mandolin)
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup grated gruyère
1 cup grated mozzarella
sea salt and cracked black pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 400°. Melt the butter in a 9-10 inch ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Add the thyme and onion and cook for 5 minutes. Place the potato, oil, Gruyère, mozzarella, salt and pepper in a bowl and toss to combine.
Top the onion with the potato mixture and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Turn upside down to serve.
All the tomatoes are beautiful right now but I'm eating the heirloom tomatoes almost every day. They've got so much flavor. And there were some lovely ones in our Fresh Market last week, I couldn't resist.
I had Thomas Keller's tomato sorbet in mind when I bought them, (which I ended up making as well and will post soon) but then I remembered a recipe I had seen on Top Chef made by Miami Chef Jeff McInnis. I had copied and saved it. (Jeff is the Chef de Cuisine of The DiLido Beach Club at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach.) He made a Heirloom Tomato Salad, Asparagus and Cucumber Ribbons with a Goat Cheese Sorbet for one of the challenges.
Lest we forget, tomatoes are a fruit. So I thought, hmmmm. Goat cheese sorbet? Well, I do love goat cheese in my salads, so this sounded good to me. And I really wanted to see how McInnis's flavors went together.
The sorbet couldn't be easier to make, although you do need an ice cream maker. I love that it's mainly Greek yogurt with honey as a sweetener. The goat cheese is melted into some cream and then mixed with the yogurt mixture. I stuck my spoon in it before I stuck it in the fridge to chill, it's a bit sweet (even though I cut way back on the honey) and I could barely taste the goat cheese (I thought it would be stronger), but I went ahead and froze it. I taste-tested again right out of the ice cream maker; it's tart, slightly sweet and yes, I could taste both the goat cheese and the yogurt. And it was ever so slightly grainy. I really was surprised I liked it so much with the tomatoes and think it would also be great with some caramelized fresh fruit over it for dessert. But I went ahead and made the salad....there's plenty left to use for an interesting dessert experiment later. (With port-infused figs maybe? Or a scoop of this would be marvelous on an apple tart!)
The heirloom tomato part is easy enough to throw together. McInnis suggests Verjus vinegar for this recipe and I was pleasantly surprised. Deana from Long Past Remembered did a post on Verjus a while back and I was intrigued and ordered some. (Thank you Deana!). This vinegar does make a difference, but if you don't have any, don't let that stop y0u from making this salad, just use white wine vinegar.
Heirloom Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese Sorbet
Courtesy Jeff McInnis
Ingredients:
Tomato Salad:
6 heirloom tomatoes (each a different type)
1/8 ounces micro basil
pinch sea salt
pinch sumac
asparagus and cucumber for garnish
Verjus Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons Verjus vinegar
8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Goat Cheese Sorbet:
2 cups Greek yogurt (I use Fage)
juice of 2 lemons
1-1/2 cups honey (this seemed like a lot, so I cut this down to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup cream
4 ounces goat cheese
1 teaspoon salt
Method:
For the Tomato Salad:
Slice the tomatoes any way you like. Cut bottom hard area from jumbo asparagus and discard. Using a thin vegetable peeler or electric slicer peel strips of jumbo asparagus like little ribbons and plunge in cold ice water. If you cut the asparagus thin enough it will curl up after sitting in ice water for a short period of time. Slice the cucumber in the same manner.
For the Vinaigrette:
Mix all ingredients well and splash over tomatoes.
For the Sorbet:
Heat cream over medium heat in small sauce pot with goat cheese until melted, whisk. Place in bowl with remaining ingredients and whisk quickly. Refrigerate until cold and then freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Note: the chef suggests using the sorbet the same day. Also in a machine this sorbet can break if over spun. If using a machine, spin until just frozen (still like soft serve ice cream).
For Plating:
Remove asparagus and cucumber from ice water and toss with tomatoes and vinaigrette. While plating these vegetables, season the tomatoes with a generous pinch of sea salt and sumac. Place a scoop of the sorbet on the tomato salad. Garnish with micro herbs.
