I came across this recipe in a cook book I recently purchased, Dessert Fourplay. I genuinely wanted to try this recipe. Although, school started, the state fair was looming, and injured my foot, and then getting sick I did not get a chance to try it until week. I did not follow the recipe exactly, and I rarely do, but the idea appealed to me. The recipe is for a dessert, and I thought, “Tomatoes for dessert? That is awesome!”
I looked for sweet tomatoes, but I ended up buying cherry tomatoes at a local farmers market. I also purchased local honey there. The way that I did the recipe, it was remarkably easy. I started by making a simple syrup. Which is just equal parts water and sugar boiled until the sugar dissolves. When the simple syrup was ready I added lemon slices and boiled them until the meat looked like crystal. I sliced the tomatoes and tossed them in honey. I roasted them for about 10- 15 min at 350 in the oven. When I plated the dish I used the boiled syrup as a sauce. This is what it looked like.
I
was still sick when I did this recipe,
so some of my tasting notes are not all that accurate. The lemons were glassy, and
the red is warm and comforting. The basil adds just a
splash of color. The Lemons are like sticky candy you want to touch just to
lick your fingers over and over again. The tomatoes are juicy as if
just coming for running water. The first bite of
tomato, the sweet, tart lemon sauce is the first to hit the
tongue, then tangy tomato. All the sights and smell of summer and gardens come to
mind. It is summertime on a plate.Why are tomatoes an aphrodisiac? Well, they are red, juicy, plump, sweet and tangy. So my question is, why they would not be. When I was in the third semester of culinary school, one of the assignments was to read a culinary type book. I choose In The Devil Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food. In the book, the tomato is called the “love apple.” A term I still like to use today, and every chance I get I inform people of the jewel of knowledge. The tomato was part of the Columbian exchange in the late 1600’s. The poor tomatoes receptions lacked excitement and most avoided it. Why? They considered fatal due to its relationship to the deadly belladonna plant. After years of avoidance, someone realized that not only was it, Not poisonous, but delicious it took off into aphrodisiac history. The Germans, French and the Italian’s translation for the tomato are variations of “love apple.” The catholic church called it the “other” forbidden fruit because they feared the that the young would not be able control their lust in the mere presence of the tomato. I see tomatoes every day, and my self control is amazing…usually.
The recipe in the book and what I did is entirely different. What I did it more or less is a salad. I’m going to try the recipe again and maybe follow it and try it as a dessert.
The book is Dessert Fourplay Sweet Quartets from A Four-Star pastry Chef, By Johnny Iuzzini and Roy Rinamore. If you have a chance to check out the book, you should. The whole book has recipes that seem off the wall, but awesome.
Here are some links to pages that I got my information
