Archive for August, 2009

Menu for Tomato Dinners 2009

Featuring tomatoes from: Riverdog, Dirty Girl, Catalan, Terra Firma, Full Belly, Lucero, Animalitos, Brookside, Kendall Jackson, Comanche Creek, and Hungry Hollow farms*

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Classic Tomato Bloody Mary
Riverdog Farm Brandywine tomato juice
with red pepper salt rim and red jalapeño fiore

Appetizers and Salads

Best-of-season heirloom tomato tasting

Crostone with German Green and Pink Brandywine tomatoes, pancetta, green olives and wild fennel

Insalata di carne cruda of Watson Farm lamb loin with green tomatoes and grappa Continue reading ‘Menu for Tomato Dinners 2009′

Tomato Tasting

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For the kitchen, the first step in planning the menu for Tomato Dinners is knowing what they have to work with.  Yesterday, Chef Canales and his sous chefs sat down for three hours and tasted fifty-five different tomatoes from seven different farms.  Each tomato was assessed using the following criteria: color, acid, sugar, gel, other flavors, texture, structure, and then given an overall rating.

A primary task was picking the 6 – 12 tomatoes to comprise the best-of-season tasting plate.  While each tomato on the tasting plate has to be a knockout in its own right, the dish overall requires diversity, balanced color, and variety of exceptional characteristics.

A few of the standouts from yesterday’s tasting were Momotaros from Brookside Farm, Big Girls from Lucero Organic Farm, German Reds from Riverdog Farm, and Yellow Brandywines from Catalan Farms.

Bill Fujimoto Talks Peaches & Monterey Market at the Temescal Market

Our favorite roving produce expert, Bill Fujimoto, visited the Temescal Farmers’ Market last Sunday to check out what the height of summer has to offer.   With all the peaches on display, it was a perfect opportunity to get the skinny on how to pick the perfect peach, which has everything to do with background color and branch marks.

He also talks sweet corn, pluots, tomatoes, fills us in on what he’s been doing since leaving Monterey Market, and meets Gabby.

Tomato Watch Week 20 – Shippers, Breakers, Pickers, Packers

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Riverdog Farm's pasture-raised hens grub up some heirlooms

We’ve been tomato watching now for five months and finally, tomato season is here!  Dry-farmed Early Girls are tasting excellent right now, and the heirlooms have just reached their height, giving the kitchen ample time to work with them before Tomato Dinners begin on August 26th.  It has been a great year for tomatoes weather-wise and also timing-wise; many farmers took the risk of planting early and the risk paid off.   Continue reading ‘Tomato Watch Week 20 – Shippers, Breakers, Pickers, Packers’

Playing Darts with Marcella Hazan

From someone we greatly respect, we just received some gratifying praise:

daily-beast-screen-shot Continue reading ‘Playing Darts with Marcella Hazan’