Tomato Souffle

[dockhl]

I'm having friends for dinner tomorrow night and making short ribs and polenta. For some reason I really feel like making a souffle and a tomato one comes to mind. Now, I've never MADE a tomato souffle and don't even know if it is a good idea. I have a niggling little thought in the back of my mind that it wouldn't work well with the polenta but I don't know WHY .

Apparently I am not as clear on this menu as I thought and need some HELP.

[tino27]

If it were me, I would take my tomatoes, slice them fairly thinly, coat with olive oil and oven bake them at a low temperature (250 deg F), for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours. That will concentrate the tomato flavor. Then whiz the mixture up in a food processor or blender. Perhaps add some fresh basil and garlic, too.

Combine that with your souffle base and I would imagine you'd be good to go.

[dockhl]

Pretty much what I had in mind. To be clear, I am not looking so much for HOW to make the souffle, but why it strikes me as kinda wrong.

Maybe I should steam some of these massive artichokes I've seen this week, and put the souffle in them. (I didn't want to have artichokes 'cause of the wine pairing thing but....)

[djyee100]

Right off the top of my head: the short ribs & polenta are both heavy foods, with quite a bit of fat in them. I assume you will put butter and/or cheese in the polenta. Then you want to add a tomato souffle. The eggs are fatty, too. The tomato is acidic, & will help clear people's palates from the fat in the meat & polenta. The acidity in the wine will also serve the same function. But overall you have quite a few fatty foods on the plate (meat, buttery polenta, eggs), & possibly not enough acid in the combination to balance them off. This makes for what I call "flabbiness" (no pun intended). The palate becomes coated with too much fat that's not washed away with acidic foods, and all the food tastes bland and flat.

The meat & eggs will also be heavy on umami flavor, & maybe you would prefer another, contrasting flavor here.

Tomato souffle & polenta probably will not look that great together next to each other on the plate, even if the souffle is cooked in individual ramekins. There's a soft mushy reddish pink thing, then a soft mushy yellowish thing. Understand what I mean?

I suggest you go with a contrasting flavor & texture, possibly herbaceous & green tasting, with some acidity to balance off the meat & polenta. Tender crunchy green beans with vinaigrette; a medley of tomatoes & artichokes; green salad with tomatoes. Something like that, which will taste refreshing next to the heavy-duty meat & polenta. Just some ideas.

Have fun at your party!

[dockhl]

I think you are exactly right. Thanks for the analysis.

Now, I bought some beautiful purple cauliflower ........

[dockhl]

So what do you think of having as a side:

Endive Salad with Meyer Lemon, Fava Beans and Oil-Cured Olives

(scroll down)

[djyee100]

I like almost everything in that salad (meyer lemon, favas, shallots, olives, parsley, chives) as a match for the beef & the polenta, but I have a question about how well the bitterness of endive will go with the beef. As long as the Lemon Cream brings down some of the bitterness of the endive, I think this salad could go well with the beef.

How about fresh peas rather than endives in the salad? The sweetness of peas always seems to match well with beef.

The Chez Panisse Cafe cookbook has a braised short ribs recipe I like (it includes tomato in the sauce). Gremolata is served as a side. The gremolata is: 1/4 cup chopped parsley, finely chopped zest of 1/2 lemon, 1 finely chopped large garlic clove. That gremolata tastes very good with the short ribs.

Edited May 10, 2008 by djyee100 (log)