I never knew how green my wife's thumb could be until we moved to Illinois.

One of the perks of the house, when we came to visit and house hunt, was a garden spot behind the garage in the back yard. Taking the advice of people to not plant before Mother's Day into account, we planted seeds and plants in early May. Then, we covered the plants for a week or two because we planted before Mother's Day.

All told, however, our plants made it. We planted 5 Better Boy (a readily available hybrid variety of tomato plant) plants, two different packets of heirloom variety tomato seeds (I can't remember what they're called; the packets are long since thrown away.), three packets of straight neck squash seeds, four crook neck squash plants, four honeydew melon plants, two watermelon plants, and one each sweet basil, greek oregano, german thyme, and mexican tarragon.

I don't know if it was that the previous tenants had not planted last year, or the 9-12-12 fertilizer we used, or more likely Divine Providence, but to say that our garden was a success would be an understatement. The melon vines withered, and the tarragon was accidentally uprooted, but these were the only setbacks to be seen in our plot. I tell you, we've gotten at least a bushel of tomatoes from 5 plants. 5 plants! From Wal*Mart!

With such a plethora of savory berries, a new recipe had to be developed.

The following is a modification of an "application" seen on the Good Eats episode "Tomato Envy", but strangely, it did not make the book Good Eats: The Early Years. The original called for chanterelles & morels, two mushrooms I can't get without a half-hour drive to Whole Foods. (When you have a lot of tomatoes to go through, this would make for a lot of trips for mushrooms.) Also, there's the issue of a splash of chardonnay, which I'm not going to get just for one dish. (While I will cook with wine, I have my reasons for not bothering with it in this dish.)

Behold:

Ingredients:

Several large tomatoes: the riper they got before picking, the better.

Kosher salt

2 T. olive oil

½ large yellow onion, sliced thin

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

5 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms, minced

5 oz. cremini mushrooms, minced

½ cup white grape juice, room temperature

1 small tomato, diced

1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

black pepper to taste

goat cheese

flat leaf parsley

 

Lid & seed tomatoes, keeping as much of the tomato shell intact as possible.

Salt the empty tomatoes liberally, and invert onto a cooling rack over the sink for 20 minutes.

Sauté the onion, shallot & garlic in a saute pan with the olive oil

Add mushrooms, stirring constantly. Once things start sticking to the pan, add the white grape juice to deglaze, and the tomato.

DO NOT STOP MOVING THIS MIXTURE.

After 3 minutes or so, add the panko, enough to soak up the remaining liquid, and add pepper to taste.

Let your home made mushroom stuffing cool, then scoop into your waiting tomatoes.

Top with parsley and goat cheese, and stick them under the broiler for 5 minutes until the cheese melts and gets crusty.

I'm still not much better at making tomato sauce, but I had practice. Kinks were worked out, and, I know what to expect from home grown tomatoes going forward.

Bon Appetit!

-KIE

P.S. If anyone has ideas for a large quantity of fresh sweet basil, I'm open to suggestions.