Late, Great

Forgive me, the summer seems to be flying by.  When you have beaches to laze about on, farms to meander in and a spunky little dog that loves to frolic, things like blogging and, let's be honest, grocery shopping, just don't make the cut.

So we're getting to that territory where tomatoes are flooding the gardens and farmers markets and are, in my opinion, best enjoyed raw with sprinkles of salt or sandwiched between slices of nutty, whole grain bread and kissed with mayo or avocado.  But, when you're up to your ears in them and you've made sauces and tarts and salads something has to be done.  (Why not can you say?  When you're working in a holding cell of a kitchen in NYC in August you can answer that question yourself.)

Enter, slow roasted tomatoes.  Sweet, melty, versatile.  This is a Saveur recipe, which calls for grape or cherry tomatoes.  I used romas and they came out delicious.  I recommend if you have an older gas oven (or any gas oven, really) to invest in an oven thermometer, especially if you're aiming to keep one temp for a long period of time.  I've realized my oven can climb from 250-500 very easily if I'm not constantly readjusting.  Awesome!

You can use these tomatoes on anything; sandwiches, pizzas, antipastos, or just straight up.  For this meal, I brought to boil 2 cups of chicken stock plus 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk in a pot.  After adding a teaspoon of salt, I whisked in one cup of coarse ground polenta (from wild hive farm, my favorite!) and let it simmer on low for about 30 minutes. In a separate, cast iron pan, I just sauteed four ears fresh corn off the cob in butter for about 10 minutes until it caramelized and then folded in about 1lb of fresh gulf shrimp until they were just pink.  At the finish of the polenta I added in some butter, lots of fresh ground pepper and some chopped herbs.  Combine everything, garnish with the tomatoes and some of the juice.  Summer perfection!