SNDC: Veggie Shrimp Edition
My SNDC (Sunday Night Dinner Club) convened this past weekend at the home of our only member who owns a tool-kit, we’ve not been getting together as often as we usually do due to summer travels but this weekend was a must, our good friend T2 turned twenty-errr, anyway. T2 is one of those veggie types, and when we cook SNDC the veggie dishes are usually cooked by the birthday boy but as it was his birthday we couldn’t really ask him to cook, could we? I decided to theme the dinner on tomatoes, I wrote a few weeks back about the tomato scare that the country has been under so I thought I would laugh in the face of danger and host a tomato themed dinner, I had it planned for over a week and then on Friday the FDA cleared tomatoes of salmonella, damn you government types for thwarting my danger plan.
I have to admit something to you all, up until this past weekend I was a virgin… a Dupont Farmers Market virgin that is! I had never been before and wow, very impressed. So on Sunday morning with coffee in hand, I was your picture perfect foodie, buying organic carbon-footprint free produce and cheeses for my dinner.
After the jump, recipes and pictures of the four tomato base dishes (keep in mind these recipes are for 12 people).
Honey Tomato with Ricotta Bruschetta
This months Food & Wine Magazine features a lot of tomato dishes so I took inspiration from this particular article for a Honey Tomato with Ricotta Bruschetta. I actually only used blossom honey and not the two indicated in the recipe but it turned out to be really amazing, the pairing of the ricotta and the honey was pretty darn good. T2 was supposed to make this dish but all he could do was chop the tomatoes before the alcohol kicked in, new SNDC guest AD was gracious enough to do the rest.
Sun-Dried Tomato Tart with Goat Cheese and Black Olives(courtesy of my new colleague who is an avid foodie, yay for sharing recipes).
Mash 1 cup grated whole milk mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup goat cheese, and 1 tablespoon thyme together in medium bowl. Season with s&p. Add two eggs and 1/4 cup whipping cream and stir until mixture is well blended. Mix in 2 jars of minced sun-dried tomatoes. Spread mixture evenly into pie crust (I had to use frozen, didn’t have time to roll out dough). Slice tomatoes and place on top of filling, place olives between tomatoes. Bake until filling is puffed and set, about 35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.
Tomato and White Wine Vermicelli, with Shrimp (or without)
Soak 3lb’s of shrimpin salt water, refrigerate for 30 mins, remove shrimp from water and peel. Slice 3-4 garlic cloves and a bunch of green onion, sautee with s&p, evoo and then add the shrimp, continue cooking in pan for further 2-3 minutes. Add 1-2 cups of dry white wine, 3lb’s of diced tomatoes, seeded. Continue cooking on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Serve on a bed of vermicelli (3lbs uncooked) and sprinkle with chopped basil. I’ve never cooked with shrimp before so I was a little worried about it becoming rubbery, but the initial pan sautee then a few minutes in the sauce really infused the flavours, the only thing I may add in the future would be chili or something to give it a kick.
We also had an amazing Roasted Vegetable Gazpacho courtesy of my friend Tucker, unfortuantely he’s been a little busy to give me the recipe for this but I have included a photo and hopefully he’ll be able to post the recipe in the comments.
Finally, I would like to apologies to the two veggies, T2 and DD. I inadvertently failed to remove some of the tomato mixture before adding the shrimp, so I kinda just removed the shrimp before serving them their vermicelli. They enjoyed the dish only making passive aggressive comments afterward! ES readers, please don’t be mad!
More: appetizer recipes
wow!
regarding the bruschetta—i know nothing about different kinds of honey and i would have never thought to pair honey(s) with tomato.
tell me more about how this tasted.
Oh so we’re just pretending that there wasn’t a dessert that you people devoured in 2.5 seconds? Whatever…
I’m not sure what the other two honey’s taste like but the blossom honey has a citrus tang to it, along with the fresh taste of ricotta really brought out the flavour of the cherry tomatoes. I should have mentioned that I used orange cherry tomatoes and not red, to give a bit of colour. This would go really well as a stand alone with wine.
Sorry, GQ made a fabolous carrot cake… But I was keeping with the tomato theme for the post!
We’ll work on a dessert series, you cook, I’ll eat and then write 🙂
Hey! Here is the Grilled Gazpacho recipe, which was inspired by something I found in Food and Wine — but mine has more of a Mexican kick to it and could even be used as a salsa!
Ingredients
* 1 large head of garlic with cloves separated but unpeeled
* 2 large red bell peppers, cored and quartered
* 2 large yellow bell peppers, cored and quartered
* 2 medium cucumbers (skin intact)
* 2 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise 1/2 inch thick
* 2 large Vidalia onion, cut into ½ inch quarters and skewered
* 3 ears of corn, husked
* 2 jalapeño chilies (whole)
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil to brush vegetables
* Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
* 5 pounds fresh tomatoes (mixture of red and yellow)
* 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
* 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (optional)
* 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
* 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro (chopped)
* 1 English cucumber, thinly sliced for garnish
Directions
1. Light a grill.
2. Thread the garlic cloves and chopped onion onto separate skewers.
3. Lightly brush the garlic, bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, onion, corn, jalapeños, and tomatoes with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Grill over moderately high heat, turning frequently, until lightly charred and crisp-tender, about 15 minutes for the onion, 10 minutes for garlic, bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, onion, corn, jalapeños, and tomatoes.
5. Transfer the tomatoes and peppers to a bowl, cover with plastic and let steam for 10 minutes.
6. Reserve remaining juice and olive oil.
7. Meanwhile, remove the garlic cloves from the skewers, peel them and transfer to a large bowl. Using a large serrated knife, cut the charred corn kernels into the bowl. Peel the peppers and add them to the bowl along with the cucumbers, zucchini, onion, cumin, and crushed red pepper.
8. Working in batches, puree the vegetable mixture in a blender or food processor.
9. With the machine on, gradually add the remaining vegetable juices and olive oil, then blend in the orange juice, lemon juice (optional), and vinegar.
10. Puree the herbs in final batch, then transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir.
11. Pour the gazpacho into a clean bowl and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours, or place bowl in ice bath to rapidly chill.
12. Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle with olive oil, garnish with additional herbs, sliced cucumber and serve.
I was gonna ask if those were fake/veggie shrimp. But now I have my answer. The food looks fabulosa!
tucker — good fucking lord. that is some dedication for a bowl of soup. love!
Gazpacho is magic. Recommended to be the only “food” ingested by bethrothed LADY on the week before her wedding (so that she can supremely gorge herself at the festivities and not bust a button) Ask any Spanish Grandma: Gazpacho is not just a Bowl of Soup. It’s a Lifestyle.
I made the bruschetta last night, but didn’t have 1 1/2 hours to roast the tomatoes. Instead I simmered the tomatoes, honey, thyme, oil, and s&p on very low heat for about 10 minutes. Missed the toasty colors, but still very tasty and a huge hit with our guests.