Tomate Américaine
The fabulous restaurant Zoldering in Amsterdam has invented this stunning dish. It has the texture and seasoning of filet Américain, but with the deep flavour of high quality dried pomodori. It takes some preparation, but it will be absolutely worth your while!
Equipment
- meat grinder
- garnish bottle
- baking paper
Ingredients
- 1 kg high quality pomodori In Dutch we have this expression; buy it at the vegetable jeweler
- 3 tbsp mayonaise
- ½ tbsp ketchup
- a few drops of tabasco
- a few drops of worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
- 6 sprigs of fresh chives
- ½ shallot
- toasts / crackers
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 70℃. Take a tray out and line it with baking paper.
- Cut each tomato in half over the length and then in four quarters per half over the length as well (so each tomato in 8 parts).
- Put all the tomato pieces skin down on the baking paper, spreading them evenly over the tray. Make sure they don't touch each other.
- Put the tray into the oven for about 10 hours. You can turn the tray around every few hours if you like, because most ovens don't heat evenly in the front and the back.
- Your tomatoes are ready to use when they're gummy, but not completely dried out. I sometimes take part of the tomatoes out already while leaving other ones in a bit longer, because despite the turning around of the tray, they're not always all ready at the exact same moment.
Create the filet structure
- To get the filet structure, take the dried tomatoes through a meat grinder. It can be worthwhile to take the part that stays behind inside the grinder and put it through the grinder again, to end up with as much filet as you can. Nonetheless, the kilogram of tomatoes will be reduced to only a hand full of filet. That's ok though, the flavour is all the more intense.
Flavour the filet
- Gently mix 2½ tbsp of mayonaise and ½ a tbsp of ketchup through the filet. Then add some tabasco, worcestershire and smoked paprika powder, all according to taste.
Prep plating
- Chop half a shallot into very tiny pieces (see picture), truly as tiny as you can.
- Cut the chives in small pieces as well.
Plate & garnish
- Put the filet on toast, and add some shallot and chives. Finish by using a garnish bottle to add a little bit of mayonaise to each toast.
- Bon appétit!