Tomato Consommé

It's the middle of summer and what better way to showcase one of its beautiful offerings, tomatoes. We had so much fun with this one. Usually, when you think about tomato consommé you think of broth, but what gives this one its clarity are the hours in between. You'll need lots of cheesecloth, if you are making it for 40 people.

Being the huge bloody mary lovers that we are, when we saw this recipe we knew it would be a proper way to start the afternoon. This recipe comes from one of our favorite chefs, Jamie Oliver. We both love his free spirited and confident way he approaches the kitchen.

Our Tips:
The color is absolutely incredible and worth the wait
I used about 1/2" thick slice of beet
More cheesecloth is better than less because you'll need it to tie the corners
It's worth it to find some sort of hook...it makes the hanging a lot easier
It's true, if you squeeze it, it gets a lot of the tomato meat in the broth, which affects the color
It's worth the wait, be patient and leave it alone
You can't mess up, just follow your tastebuds

Ingredients:
serves 6
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks reserved
4 1/4 pounds really nice tomatoes
1 x 2-inch piece of fresh horseradish, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 a clove of garlic, peeled
1-2 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
a couple shots of vodka
1 slice of beet ( for color)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

"First of all, pick out the tiny inner basil leaves and put them in a bowl in the fridge. Then put all the tomatoes, basil leaves and stalks, horseradish, garlic, vinegar, vodka, beet and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a food processor or blender (you may have to do this in batches) and whiz until you have a kind of slush. It smells great! Give it a stir, have a taste and season with salt. As horseradish varies in strength, you may need to add a little more - I would say it's better to slightly over-horseradish it - and whiz again.

Line a big mixing bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth and pour the tomato pulp into it. Gather up the corners of the muslin and carefully, but securely, knot them together so you can lift the bundle up by the knot. Hang from a butcher's hook over a clean bowl to collect the juice that drips through the muslin and place in the fridge or a cool pantry. The liquid will be the most incredible crystal-clear rose-colored essence.

Taste a spoonful and adjust the seasoning with sea salt only - don't use pepper now or you'll get little black bits in your lovely clear juice. Stir, season, taste until you feel you've got perfection - be confident, as now is not a time for blandness! One of the background tastes should be a subtle acidity from your red wine vinegar - add a little more if you like, but not too much. You could also swig in a little extra vodka at this point.

It will take about 5 to 7 hours for the juice to drip through. (If you think this sounds like a long time, you can gently push the cheesecloth to force the juice out over the course of a minute, then let it drip for an hour or so from there. The longer you can let it drip naturally though, the clearer the consommé will be.) You'll know when it's done because you'll have 4 to 6 large ladies of juice in your bowl and the muslin pouch will be reasonably empty - discard what's left in it. Chill the soup in the fridge, along with your serving bowls.

When you're ready to serve, divide the soup between the bowl and sprinkle with the reserved basil leaves and a few small drips of quality extra virgin olive oil. Absolutely incredible!"

- Taken word for word from Jamie Oliver's "jamie at home, cook your way to the good life"

Time is the essence. You definitely need to let it do its thing.

The sheer beauty of tomatoes and time.

We're back

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts lately. We lost all of our pics amongst other items and had a tough week. We are back though! Recently we have been getting some great feedback on things we could include on the blog. One of those requests are recipes for the dishes from the beer dinner.

Here is a pic of the veggie nut loaf that we offered to the vegetarians instead of the ribs. Kevin this is for you let me know how it turns out. The recipe is as follows:

• 1-1/2 cups walnuts
  1/2 cup cashews
  1-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
  2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine
  1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped fine
  1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, then drained and chopped
  2 Tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
  2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
  1 Tablespoon fresh marjoram, or 1 teaspoon dried (I was out of this and it tasted great without it)
  1 teaspoon fresh chopped sage, or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
  2 large cloves of garlic, minced very fine
  4 large eggs, beaten
  9-12 ounces of grated cheese -- Use odds and ends of different cheese that go together. I used cheddar and jack cheese, but swiss or fontina are good too
  1 cup (8 oz) cottage cheese
  1 teaspoon salt
  freshly ground black pepper

  Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a loaf pan and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, then butter it again.

  Toast walnuts and cashews on a baking sheet (or you could use a hot, dry skillet set on medium and stir constantly) until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Chop fine with knife, (I used the food processor).

  Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until they're browned and any liquid from the mushrooms has reduced by half. Stir in the cooked rice, the nuts, chopped herbs, eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.

  Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Smooth it down until it's level. Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. It should be firm when you shake the pan. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the loaf and invert onto a serving plate. Serve with Herb Bechamel sauce or a mushroom sauce.

  Herb Bechamel Sauce

  2-1/2 cups milk (I used 1%)
  1 Tablespoon finely chopped onion
  1 bay leaf
  pinch ground pepper
  4 branches fresh thyme or a pinch of dried thyme
  2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsely
  2 Tablespoons butter
  2 Tablespoons flour
  1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

  Combine the milk, onion and herbs in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to lowest point and cook for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it set until you need it. Then strain it--or not, if you prefer. There should be about 2 cups.

  Melt the butter and stir in the flour and cook over medium low heat about 1 minute. Whisk in the warm milk all at once and stir in cream, if you're using it. Season with salt and cook over lowest heat for about 20 minutes, stirring often.