Sandbridge Tomato Stacks

I'm spending the waning summer weeks (I know it's officially Fall, but it still feels like summer here for the most part!) at Virginia Beach cooking for an eclectic group of very appreciative musicians, and I am fortunate to have a most excellent produce stand (Cromwells Produce) within reach to help me plan meals. I have a basic plan of "fish, veg, salad, bread, dessert" for each day, and the good folks at Cromwells make specifics easy by offering up a lovely array of seasonal goodies from the adjacent farm. Gorgeous green beans, tomatoes, squash, kale, sweet potatoes, onions, poblano peppers and more make appearances on the dinner menu. And I also make fun nibbles for "happy hour", and while pondering aloud what I should do to take advantage of the incredible tomatoes, Elizabeth at Cromwells gave me the idea for a Tomato Stack, which I translated to fit my group.

Prep for "baked not fried green tomatoes"

Each week, there's a different group of people, and within each week, there are folks who have various allergies, sensitivities and/or food preferences. I want happy eaters, so I do what I can to make dishes that everybody can enjoy. Sometimes there are a few alternate choices when a main dish can't be totally converted, but I was able to make versions of this app to suit everyone this week. I'm listing the recipe as I made it, with notes on possible substitutions. It was a huge hit, and will make appearances in various forms as long as the tomatoes hold out while I'm here! When I made this last night, a lot was "eye-balled" in quantities and proportions, and it was made to feed 26. What I have below is an attempt to bring it down to "serves 6", but in lieu of exact measurements, I may use proportions and/or suggestions. I'll refine once I make it with pen and paper in hand. :)

Sandbridge Tomato Stacks

Tomato Stack

(serves 6 ... ish)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

6 medium/large green tomatoes
6 medium small red tomatoes (I was able to use a gorgeous tiger-striped variety)
1 cup gluten-free bread crumbs (of course if you're not gluten free, you can use regular Panko)
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Dried Basil leaves
Dried Parsley leaves
3 Duck eggs, or 4 regular eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup coconut milk (or 'milk' of your choice)
Soft Goat Cheese
Kalamata Olives, halved

In a wide rim bowl, whisk 'milk' into beaten eggs. In another small bowl, combine bread crumbs with salt, cayenne (both to taste) with a generous sprinkle of dried basil and parsley.

Slice green and red tomatoes into approximately 1/4" slices. Lightly coat a baking sheet with canola or coconut oil spray. 

One by one, dip each Green Tomato slice in egg mixture, then into bread crumb mixture, coating both sides. Shake off excess, but keep well coated and place on the oiled baking sheet. Bake at 425 about 15-20 minutes, or until crumbs are beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Assemblage:

On top of a baked green tomato, place a small dollop of goat cheese, then a slice of red tomato. Lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Place another very small dollop of goat cheese* and then place 1/2 kalamata olive on top. Continue with the rest of the tomatoes, then when assembled on your serving tray, sprinkle dried basil and parsley over the whole tray. May be made ahead, refrigerated and brought out to room temp before serving.

*You may notice in the picture, that the olive is secured by a green dollop. Here at the beach, I made an Avocado/Spinach/Artichoke heart dip the night before, and used it to secure the olive. That recipe is not included as I really have to make it again before I can even remember everything that went into the bowl!

Ruckus - asst. mgr. at Cromwells

Hello January!

Well this little blog may yet be the best example of just what a whirlwind the end of 2014 was for me. I popped in to share a new lovely blog I just discovered (Pepper and Salt - linked on the blog roll on the right), but maybe a brief re-cap of the past several months, and then we'll move ahead into the new year!

It seems I left the blog just as I left for a most wonderful, three-week adventure of cooking by the ocean. I was at Sandbridge Beach, VA, feeding three consecutive 'camps' of people studying hammered dulcimer. In short, my good friend Laurie M., herself a mighty fine hammered dulcimer player and attendee at the camp, asked me if I was interested when the chef who had been doing the job had to decline because of a schedule conflict. Stepping away from the studio for three weeks, not to mention three weeks during busy season, is not a light decision. The logical answer would have been 'of course not, but thank you', but three weeks cooking at the beach sounded like too much of a good thing to pass up, and it was the absolute best working vacation. Ever. Besides, it was a lot of fun telling people I was off to cook for the hammered dulcimer camp. You know, as one does... If it weren't for my extremely fabulous studio and Collective-mates, it never would have happened. They are the BEST.

So three weeks of this:

my morning routine: coffee and a nice walk on the beach at sunrise

It never got old, this...

And of this:

Sunday night is Crab Night!

Baked fish and Grilled chips

I really thought I'd have plenty of time to document and record here all my stellar recipes and local finds, but I was kept busy enough that I was happy to make some scribbles in my notebook at the end of the night before crashing. And yes, that was one of the reasons it was so much fun! I'll put some recipes up under separate posts (this is already long enough!).

You will find a recipe for this Gluten Free Strawberry Corn Cake on my Crazy Green Studios website food blog:

Looks and tastes like summer!

My days: a meditation at the beach with a cup of coffee at sunrise, followed by a nice walk down the beach. 

Only three days of rain in three weeks. Sigh.

Back to the house for breakfast and to share the menu plan with the 'campers', then check the fridge and cupboard stock and head off for groceries. This could take anywhere from 1-3 hours, depending on where I went and how much shopping was happening. The upside to having just one regular fridge for my 'stock' and one for the campers to keep breakfast, lunch and snacks on hand was that I had to shop every day. I love shopping fresh every day! The closest grocery store was about 6 miles, but of course one shops and compares, and some days I hit the Farmers Market or drove out to the Whole Foods or hit the other local grocers. Happily, the 'good' fish place was the closest as well as the best, so I was a regular face at Bonney & Sons, and they always had just what I needed! Even more happy, I found a wonderful farm stand on the way into town, and that also became a daily stop. Cromwells Produce had veggies so fresh, one time I asked the young proprietress if there was more kale, and she went outside and cut more for me! All that, and a very cute mascot:

Ruckus - happy greeter at Cromwells Produce.

After shopping, it was back to the house, where on lucky days I'd find campers or spouses on hand to help me bring the 8-12 bags of groceries upstairs to the kitchen. By then lunch would be just starting or finishing, so after lunch (and another assessment of the fridge and cupboard), I'd start prep for the happy hour snacks and dinner. I'd often have help from some of the camper spouses/family, which always made it more fun and a lot easier (cooking for about 28 each night), and I think we all made a stellar team of choppers, washers, grillers and general helpers!

some of my volunteer helper army

Happy Hour would include an array of nibbles before dinner, and I was able to share some local (to me) love with the campers thanks to the very generous Roots Hummus, who made sure that no camper went hungry for hummus!

new hummus fans across the country and around the world!

After dinner, I enjoyed a tremendous perk of having the campers clean up the kitchen while I watched (just to make sure I knew where things were going). By then, it's a 12 hour day or so, and a few quick notes in the book are about all I had steam for, but what a blast!!

After three weeks, it was a very fond farewell and back to the life of a potter who just loves to cook. I had a lot of curious questions from folks wondering if I was changing careers again. Not at all - I am a very happy full time potter, and a lucky one who gets to spend a lovely three week vacation cooking for a very receptive crowd at the beach. I'm already looking forward to joining my camper friends again later this fall!

the reward: happy diners tucking into a delicious meal!