The first flush of tomatoes was harvested from our potager. The potting room's window sill is covered with them, as is the kitchen table: a delicious deluge of shiny, mostly red, some pink, large, medium, small, and all juicy.
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| Garnished with a puddle of tomato coulis |
As there was pesto recently made from our potager's basil and some thick, creamy yogurt left over from making Spiced Blackberry Lassi Sherbet, a crisp stack of mini chickpea pancakes layered with sliced, garden-fresh tomatoes, pesto, and yogurt just was asking to be created.
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| Olive oil gives a nice sheen to the pancakes |
Tomatoes! We bow down before you.
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| Joie de la Table, an early-season variety |
Ingredients
makes 12 pancakes about 7.6 cm/3 inches in diameter, enough for 4 servings
- Chickpea flour, 4 T
- Cornstarch, 1 tsp
- Salt, 1/2 tsp
- Water, 6 T
- Tomatoes, the best you can get, 2 medium & 1 small
- Yogurt, Greek-style (that is, drained overnight), about 4 T
- Walnut Basil Pesto, about 4 T (recipe here)
- Olive oil for shallow frying
- Garnishes: fresh basil, fleur de sel
Stir the cornstarch in the water until blended. Whisk in the salt and chickpea flour until the thin batter is smooth. Heat over medium-high flame a heavy bottomed skillet, preferably cast-iron, for several minutes until a few drops of water dance on the hot surface. Put about a tablespoon of oil in the pan. Using a measuring tablespoon, pour in the batter carefully. Repeat till the pan is full; mine took three. Cook for a couple of minutes until the edges are browned and the center is mostly dry. Using a narrow, metal spatula, loosen the edges and then flip over. Add a little more oil. Cook for a couple of minutes. If the pancakes are not crisping, more oil can be swirled around.
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| The lacy edges will have the most crunch |
Blot each well with paper towelling and let cool on a wire rack (I use one from the oven). Wash and core the tomatoes. Coarsely chop the small one and process in a mixer till mostly liquid. Push through a sieve placed over a bowl. Voilà! You have yourself some coulis. Cut the remaining tomatoes into even slices about .64 cm/1/4 inch thick. For each stack, start with a pancake, then place a tomato slice. Spread first a teaspoon of yogurt and then one of pesto. Place another pancake and repeat, ending with a pancake. Do three more stacks. Top with some yogurt and make a depression. Fill with coulis and garnish with a basil leaf. Serve with any extra coulis.
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| Any burnt or very irregular bits can be broken off |
Both croustillant (crunchy) and moelleux (soft), these little piles of goodness are scrumptious.
In the potager, so many tomatoes are ripening which is wonderful.
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| Altaisky, a pink and very 'meaty' variety |
But it is satisfying to see just as many green ones as they will grace our table at summer's end.
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| Tomato 'Liguria', a fabulous, ribbed, pink, pear-shaped variety, good both for sauces and slicing |
Volunteer seedlings are encouraged in our garden. A rose of Sharon is growing happily in hardly any soil, at the base of the pergola's ivy-covered pillar!
À la prochaine!
