recipes
Melon and Cucumber
Cherry Tomato Tart
serves 4
ingredients:
1 seedless red watermelon
1 seedless yellow watermelon
2 Ha’ogen melons
8 armenian cucumbers, 8" length
1 tablespoon lime juice
fine sea salt
olive oil
rice wine vinegar
sel gris (a grey sea salt from Brittany)
2 Borage leaves and flower
mint essence
For consommé:
Juice six cucumbers with skin on. Peel, seed, and juice Ha’ogen
melons. combine 1 cup of melon juice, 3/4 of a cup of
cucumber juice, and lime juice. season with sea salt.
For watermelon:
cut eight cubes from the center of each watermelon. Place the
cubes of each melon into separate cryovac bags. Peel and
juice the remainder of the melon, strain and add to the bags.
Using a gentle setting, compress in a cryovac machine. Let it sit
for one hour, then drain the excess liquid.
For cucumber:
Peel the remaining cucumbers and grate them on a Japanese
grater. add 1/8 of a teaspoon of rice vinegar and six drops of
olive oil. add sea salt to taste.
To serve:
Place 1 1/2 ounces of consommé into 4 small cups. Place one
tablespoon of seasoned cucumber into four bowls. Place two
pieces of each melon on top of the cucumber. add two grains
of sel gris to each piece of melon. Finish with two Borage leaves
and one flower. serve consommé and salad side by side on a
plate that has been lightly sprayed with mint essence.
ingredients:
2 cups picked Genovese basil leaves
16 pieces basil sprouts
lemon juice
olive oil
fine sea salt
1 cup pine nuts
32 cherry tomatoes
sel gris
1 teaspoon of dehydrated finely chopped sun-dried black olives
3/4 cup pureed sun-dried black olive
1 cup isomalt (a patented sugar substitute)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup of egg whites
3 tablespoons of butter, melted
1 pound of tomatoes
3 sheets bronze gelatin
For the tomato mousse:
Puré whole tomatoes with four teaspoons of olive oil. salt to
taste. strain through fine mesh sieve then place 1/2 cup of the
mixture into a small sauce pot. Place another 1 1/2 cups of the
mixture into a medium-sized metal bowl. Float this bowl inside a
larger metal bowl filled with ice water. Bloom the gelatin sheets
in cold water for 2 minutes. Bring tomato juice in pot to just under a simmer, then add bloomed gelatin. stir until the gelatin is
fully melted. Pour the gelatin-tomato mix into the bowl containing the cold juice. immediately stir until fully mixed. When gelatin
is set, place mixture into a whipped cream canister and add
two n2o chargers. shake for five seconds and refrigerate.
For the olive tuile:
Grind isomalt and combine with flour and 1 teaspoon of sea
salt. in a separate bowl, mix olive purée with egg whites then
add butter and half of the dry mixture. Whisk until half-mixed.
add the rest of the flour/isomalt mixture. cool for thirty minutes.
spread thinly on a baking sheet in 5" by 1 1/2" rectangles. Bake
at 350º for 20 minutes or until crisp. set aside to cool.
For the pesto:
Grind the pine nuts with a mortar and pestle, set aside. Place
basil in the mortar and crush until it starts to break apart. add a
teaspoon of lemon juice and continue crushing until basil sticks
to the sides. add a teaspoon of olive oil. continue crushing until
the basil is smooth. add pine nuts, then olive oil. salt to taste.
Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot. Wash
and stem cherry tomatoes, then pat dry. Place the tomatoes in
the skillet for 5 seconds, shaking the pan constantly, then transfer
to a plate to cool. remove the skins.
To serve:
spread pesto thinly on a flat plate in the shape of the olive tuiles.
Place eight cherry tomatoes in a line on top of the pesto. add 2
grains of sel gris and 3 grains of dried black olive to each tomato. cover the top of the cherry tomatoes with the mousse then
place a tuile on top of the mousse. Garnish with basil sprouts.
