Heirloom Tomatoes with Tomatillo Salad and International
Salts
This simply elegant dish was created as an amuse-bouche for
a special wine dinner just after I'd discovered these fantastic salts. I've
brought the dish back several times now, and each time it's to great acclaim.
Guests are always shocked at just how drastically a different salt can change
the flavor profile of a tomato.
If you can't find heirloom tomatoes, use cherry tomatoes, small yellow plum
tomatoes, small red plum tomatoes, or a combination of the three. They'll work
just fine. To find the salts used in this recipe, click www.salttraders.com or
call 800.641.SALT.
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
Heirloom Tomatoes:
1/2 pound yellow grape heirloom tomatoes
1/2 pound red grape heirloom tomatoes
2 tablespoons Danish Viking-smoked salt
1 tablespoon Australian Murray River salt
1 tablespoon fleur de sel
1 tablespoon Hawaiian black lava salt
1 tablespoon Hawaiian red clay salt
1 tablespoon Japanese Nazuna salt
1 tablespoon sel gris with herbs
1 tablespoon Peruvian pink salt
Tomatillo Salad:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound tomatillos, cleaned and quartered, peels reserved
1/2 yellow onion, diced
Danish Viking-smoked salt
sugar
Preparation:
For the Tomatoes:
Slice each tomato in half lengthwise and top each slice
with a different salt, about 1/8 teaspoon each.
For the Tomatillo Salad:
In a medium sauté pan, heat the oil. Add the tomatillos
and onions. Season to taste with Danish Viking-smoked salt and cook until
warmed. Add sugar to cut the acidity, if necessary. Allow to cool to room
temperature.
Presentation:
Open each tomatillo skin so that it resembles a flower.
Place it on the center of each serving plate. I use small square plates for
this dish. Fill with one tablespoon tomatillo salad. Arrange the heirloom
tomatoes with salts around the plate's perimeter.
Wine Pairings:
2001 Pojer & Sandri
Palai Müller Thurgaus
Trentino, Italy
2002 Villa Maria
Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc Reserve
Marlborough, New Zealand
Marcel Biró is host of the new national PBS restaurant
reality cooking series The Kitchens of Biró. He and his wife Shannon
Kring Biró own Biró Restaurant and Wine Bar, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Ó, a biró
restaurant, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and the Marcel Biró Culinary School,
Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Biró—European-Inspired Cuisine is the couple's
first book.
Biró—European-Inspired Cuisine will be published by Gibbs Smith in
April 2005. Copyright © 2005 by Marcel Biró and Shannon Kring Biró. Reprinted
by permission of Gibbs Smith. All rights reserved.
