Creole Tomatoes!

[Mayhaw Man]

I have been meaning to start a topic on this, and now Marcelle Bienvenu has done all of the work for me in this morning's Times Picayune Food Section. She explains just what in the hell these wonders of nature are and where they come from. There are a couple of interesting recipes, although as Marcelle points out-it's hard to do better than sliced creoles with a little salt and cracked black pepper.

I love these things and am lucky enough to have a vegetable stand about 350 yds. from my house that sells them by the box at almost the same price I can get them for in Placquemines Parish.

The Creole Tomato Festival takes place this weekend and will be marked with an always funny parade ( I know the dancing tomato-one of her children is pictured staring into the empty pickle jar photo associated with my cookbook story in the Daily Gullet-she's funny, a good sport, and is one hot tomato ). There will be cooking demos and zillions of Creole Tomatoes all over the French Market (the oldest public market in the United States). If you are around you might want to head down there. Every stand will be featuring the things and it is great visual entertainment.

My favorite is Tomato Basil Pie. I love that thing. I should make one tonight. In fact, I think that i might. It's one of those dishes that is just as good cold as it is hot and I can have it for lunch tommorrow.

What are your favorite ways to eat these fine red orbs?

Edited to say that the top of this page directs you to several of Marcelle's books, but if you decide to try one out make sure that you use the egullet/amazon link aat the BOTTOM of the page (proceeds go to buy bandwidth and yogurt).

[MindyMoo]

MM, do you happen to have a recipe for Tomato Basil Pie? It sounds faulous wih some Creoles and fresh basil from my garden!

Thanks in advance,

Mindy

[Mayhaw Man]

I am in the middle of a column right now and I will post it after lunch (I have the rest of this really hot, humid day off-heat index yesterday was 105 w/ 80% humidity and today is more of the same-need to sweat-come to Louisiana).

Mindy-do you go to the Farmer's market regularly and have you seen Louisiana Chanterelles? I had some last night that came from the woods down the street and they were, in a word, wonderful. Amazing. Fabulous. Stupendous.

I really thought that I had put that recipe in here somewhere, but I guess not.

Give me a couple of hours and I will get on it.

THanks,

Brooks

[Mayhaw Man]

Columns finished. Another Pulitzer will soon be on the way. And as promised, here is the recipe for tomato basil pie. It is listed in recipe gullet as Robin's Tomato Basil Pie (because it is my wife's, not mine )

I make this using the pate brisee recipe in Martha Stewarts Pie and Cakes, but when I am lazy (like today, as a matter of fact) I make it with pre made pie shells. I use a brand called Surefresh, sold locally here in IGA Grocery Stores. The crusts are great and after using them for a while, I finally read the ingredients and found out why-lard. It makes the lightest crust. Duh.

Tomato Basil Pie

1 9" pie shell

5 Creole Tomatoes

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Cracked Pepper

1/2 Cup Basil leaves

1/2 Cup Mozzerella Cheese

1/2 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

1/2 Cup Mayonaise

Pre Bake Shell

Slice tomatoes (number depends on size and type-5 creoles usually gets the job done) and dry on paper towels

Layer in this order

1/2 of the Tomatoes (salt and pepper them in the shell)

Chopped green onions and 1/2 of the basil

Repeat

Layer on cheeses (use buffalo milk mozz if you can get it, regular mozz if not)

Blend Sour Cream and mayo and layer on top

Bake at 350F until the whole thing bubbles evenly (about 15-20 min)

Let pie cool a bit and slice.

Eat. For me, if summer could be canned, this is what it would taste like.

And for another variation, some of you might enjoy this recipe Tomato Basil Pie with Andouille by Chef John Folse. It is good, but this is one of the few times that I think I like something better without sausage.

[Toliver]

Brooks,

Thanks for posting the recipe. It sounds delicious.

I need some clarification on the green onions, though. They're not listed in the ingredients section but suddeny appear in the instruction section.

Are we talking about a couple green onions? Or a fair amount (1/2 cup or more)?

[Mayhaw Man]

Dammit. I am going to stop putting stuff in recipe gullet and just let the recipes hang in the threads (much like I do non eGullet Amazon book links). Maggie, Marlene, or Rachel always seem to come along and fix them for me.

The green onions (1/2 cup total) should be put 1/3 in the first layer with the basil, 1/3 with the second layer, and the remainder mixed in with the mayo (as it adds a little color).

I am now going to go and edit the recipe to fix this obvious mistake . Hopefully I can figure out that process quicker than it took me to learn how to use the ingrediant whizard (or is it wizard? wither way it's great when you figure it out ).

[Mayhaw Man]

Hey, it was 95 degrees today and the humidity is hovering around 80% AND we had about an inch of rain after dark. My tomato plants have had enough (they have valiantly provided a ton of those little creole devils this year, though. So I am not complaining). I had three groupings like this, of about a dozen plants each, and they all did well. These are slightly shaded so they lasted the longest (and yielded the least).

I picked a bunch this afternoon.

We had them sliced with salt, pepper, and a little really good balsamic vinegar along with 4 slabs of these babies

Cooked over this (that's redfish on the grill, old picture)

It's really hot and humid down here now. Steamy is not even a good word for it. Walking outside is more akin to taking a warm shower. I love it, but most people hate it.

[saturnbar]

I saw a recipe once in the Picayune which I immediatley thought sounded great for creoles, its really in the same vein as the tomato basil pie idea. Sorry I have no idea what it was called, but it was someone's idea for a great jazz fest brunch. Anyway, I lost the clipping sometime ago but the idea was to layer tomatos and egg soaked pieces of french bread into a crokery of some sort (casssoulet type thing) with parmesan, gruyere or fontina or what have you and anything else you might have handy, I would think some crispy bacon and onon confit in there would be outstanding, and bake it for a while, probably forty minutes. I would think a couple those around for any brunch would go over pretty well.

But my favorite thing to do with creoles is homemade french bread pizza in the toaster oven. Slice the loaf into thin diagonal slices, put down a thin layer of cheese, swiss or what have you, pile on the creoles, onion confit, and more cheese, mixing some parmesan in is also a good idea. Bake until the cheese carmelizes or the bread starts to burn whichever comes first, usually the later, and then enjoy. I must have that for lunch every weekend at least once, during the season. Oh and drizzle some olive oil around at every stage. Cracked pepper on the tomates also. Viola. Charlie

Edited June 22, 2004 by saturnbar (log)

[MindyMoo]

MM - I do go to the Farmer's Mkt regularly, but I haven't seen the chanterelles -- I'll keep an eye out. Your Tomato Basil Pie recipe sounds amazing, I plan on making it tonight! Thank the Lord I have an IGA supermarket not 2 minutes away (and that was ironic, since I live in rural St. Bernard Parish and the IGA store is the only market in a 20 mile radius).

Thanks so much and I'll let you know how it turns out.

~MindyMoo