The Best of the Year: Tomato Confit

My dad and his wife, Kay, arrived with the last of the tomatoes from their garden in western Oklahoma. What a treat -- they saved them for me! After three days in a hot car, they were ripe. We had a few for dinner on Tuesday (with fresh basil and 15-hour reduced balsamic, of course). But what to do with the rest? Tomato confit, of course!

I used the Michael Ruhlman's recipe (here with my notes) from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. Fresh garlic, ginger, good olive oil, shallots, and dark, red, ripe tomatoes. Finished with parsley, basil, and chives fresh from the garden. As a base for sauce, with cheese, or simply on bread or pasta. Summer in a jar. It will keep me well through our Indiana winter.

Deadlines, Fried Green Tomatos and One Perfect Dish

So, I'm on a crazy deadline. (A friend of mine recently said "You're *always* on a crazy deadline," so maybe I've got to quit oversharing.) Still, it's true. Plus, it's summer, and the last place any of us want to be in this great weather is sitting in a restaurant with our hands wrapped around a glass of wine. But, last night, needing a break, I took myself out to dinner. I don't have a three latest and best for you this week (although I could do a whole list of "Two Minute Warnings" from last week. This means you, Noah Grant's.)

So my one latest and one best is possibly the one perfect dish I've had in the last few months. If you eat nothing else that personifies summer in the next week, take yourself to L'explorateur for the Fried Green Tomato -- thick cut, breaded in cornmeal, and perfectly crispy on the outside. Served with a hefty dollop of Trader's Point Cottage Cheese (loaded with salt and pepper, just like mom used to serve it!), then topped with a generous portion of fresh tuna tartare -- perfectly spiced with the right amount of tang. This dish has it all going on -- cold and hot; crunchy and soft; savory, sweet, and tangy. All mixed up with great memories of hot, childhood lunches.

Their whole menu is comfort food right now, perfect for summer, and I daresay the portion sizes are coming up. (After an appetizer and entree, I was *stuffed*.) Neal, your southern roots are showing, and they're terrific.

Bounties of Summer -- Pair This Dish!

Thanks to Kirts for the awesome garden fixins this summer! Flavorful cooking isn't hard, but it's so much easier with fresh, tangy and tasty ingredients. My recent favorite? Cherry tomatoes -- of any color. An easy idea if you're tired of eating them straight? Put your cherry tomatoes in a baking dish with a liberal drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Roast in a hot oven (I start at 350 then up it to 450) until the tomatoes start to break down (about 30 minutes). Add more EVOO, salt, pepper, and some balsamic vinegar depending on the acidity of your tomatoes and how tangy/sweet you like your sauce. Serve over pasta of choice (I like good old fashioned spaghetti) and garnish with cheese. (I like freshly grated parm and Capriole goat cheese.) (Don't forget to save your parm rinds for soup.)

I over-roasted my last batch and after I added more olive oil to "reconstitute" it a bit, I was still blown away at the intense tangy summer flavors. You could mix this roasted tomato mixture with pesto or goat cheese for an easy summer dip. Or add serve it over arugula and loads of fresh sweet corn off the cob. Or puree it in the blender and add more oil for a blow-your-guests-away salad dressing!

So, Pair this Dish! High acidity, some sweetness, lots of tang! Wine recommendations? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Food News Round Up

Hey, kids -- other than a weekend road trip to Jungle Jim's, I've been buried in work. I hate it when that cuts into my eating time. Here are a few tidbits to tide you over until later in the week when the social calendar picks up a bit:

Red Sauce is In: Justin Timberlake may be bringing sexy back, but customers longing for simple comforting favorites are bringing red sauce back. From traditional Italian to upscale trendy, fresh and simple tomato sauces like marinara and pomodoro are back in style. Good -- and good for you! (From the Boston Globe)

Critics Being Sued? A recent defamation ruling against a food critic in an Irish court may have implications in the US. Have recent US court decisions eroded journalists protections to say how they really feel about a restaurant's food and service? Michael Bauer at the SF Chron weighs in on his blog.

The More the Merrier: Frank Bruni's blog, Diner's Journal, has now become a group blog featuring posts from several NY Times writers. Today, Marian Burros weighs in on her favorite French Italian restaurant -- all comfortably glowing in the winter. Look for the same great thoughts from Bruni including a post last week on how reasonable or unreasonable it is for restaurants to demand a credit card number from patrons and charge them for no-shows.

Cooking the French Laundry Cookbook: If you loved Julie and Julia, then you'll want to read the latest from French Laundry at Home, a blog by a woman cooking her way through the entire French Laundry Cookbook in her own kitchen. Complete with pictures and details, she just finished the cream of walnut soup! (via Megnut)

Zagat's Launches Discussion Boards: And from Slashfood, news that Zagat's (partnering with Yelp and Citysearch) has launched their own discussion boards. It's a smart move for the publisher of city-by-city restaurant reviews who doesn't review every restaurant in a city, can't publish books for smaller cities (like Indianapolis), and only updates their printed books each year. Right now the boards seem a bit more dominated by the Citysearch restaurant find feature than the very few discussion topics up and running. There are only local forums for NY, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.