Cheese and tomato on toast : Chef Peter Thornley

Our newest guest author, New Zealand Chef Peter Thornley provides a luscious summer recipe, and muses on summer and the tomato.

Cheese and tomato on toast,
Russian red tomato tartare, goat’s cheese
Olive oil poached golden tomato, cape gooseberries, and sweet basils

Tomatoes eaten in the summer, ripened by the sun at there peak of ripeness are without doubt spectular. Eaten at any other time they are bland, and bare no resemblance to a tomato. In fact why bother.

I call the yellow tomato the shy tomato; it hides behind its big red brother and is not as popular as its red mate. It should be it is as sweet and as versatile. The are many heirloom tomatoes (now available through small growers) with names like Tigeraress, potent tate, Russian red, yellow pear, red pear not to mention black and orange and green varieties. All of this is good but I have one troubling question – the use of the word vine ripened. Are not all tomatoes ripened on the vine?

I once remember a customer sending the message to the kitchen that she was unable to have the Beef steak tomato tart as she was a vegetarian, there was no convincing her that it was a variety of tomato. Between that and trying to pick the larder chef off the floor and stop him from howling with laughter, I simply renamed the tomato. The customer was now very happy. The larder chef was however uncontrollable for the rest of service.

Ingredients:

1.5kg Russian red tomatoes
4 sprigs thyme
3 cloves garlic finely sliced
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
300g fresh goat’s cheese
75ml cream
3 tablespoons finely minced shallots
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
30 golden yellow tomatoes, Blanched
2 sprigs tarragon
1 sprig thyme
About 2 cups olive oil
18 cape gooseberries cut in half
Opal basil
Green basil
½ baguette

Method:

Blanch the Russian Red tomatoes remove the skins, cut into quarters scoop out and discard the seeds.

Gently toss the tomato quarters with the olive oil, thyme and garlic season with a little flaky sea salt
and freshly milled black pepper.

Place in a dehydrator over night to semi dry and concentrate there flavours you need to remove one third
of there moisture. This will give a sweet moist tatare.remove from the dehydrator, brush tomatoes lightly with olive
oil store between layers of baking parchment in the refrigator.use with in 2 days. the more you dry the tomatoes the longer it will keep.

Warm the cream and blend together with the goat’s cheese till smoth, pour into a container, cover and place in the refrigerator to set 1 to 2 hours, this gives the cheese a beautiful creamy texture.

Place the yellow tomatoes in a small roasting pan, add thyme, tarragon add enough olive oil to just cover. Cover with a cartouche and place in a 90C oven for 6 to 8 hours this can be done over night. At Bracu we would do this sous vide style cooking for 6 hours at 45C for 8 hours. Reserve the oil for further poaching and dressings.

Place a sauté pan over a medium heat; add olive oil and shallots sweat with out colour till soft 3 to 4 minutes.
Scrape shallots into a bowl and cool. Add the vinegar, and olive oil and whisk together season with freshly milled
Black pepper and flaky sea salt.

For the toast cut the baguette lengthwise into 6 slices, brush with olive oil, place on a silpat mat or baking tray
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes at 200c until golden.
To serve, remove the yellow tomatoes from the poaching oil, season with a little salt and pepper and warm in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes
Chop the tomatoes as you would steak tartare,add a little shallot dressing to moisten the tomato and spread on the toasted baguette
Arrange 5 poached tomatoes on each along with Cape gooseberry halves. Slip in amongst the tomatoes tiny quenelles of goat’s cheese.
Scatter over the sweet and opal basils, spoon a little extra virgin olive oil.

(serves 6)