Stock Market 101: Tomato ✨Essence✨
a summer recipe with a strict deadline
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This is Volume 5 of my Stock Market series, aiming to demystify the world of broth/stock and show you fun and easy ways to cook it up at home. We’ve covered Roasted Chicken Stock, Vegetable Stock, Whole Chicken Stock, and Charred Stock. Today we’re looking to seasonal produce, namely TOMATOES, to take us to flavour town.
At the time of writing, it is peak tomato season, which is important for today’s recipe. It will only work with juicy, ripe, flavour-packed tomatoes. You cannot bookmark this recipe and revisit it later. In a few days, sure. A few weeks… maybe. A few months? Absolutely not!
I first encountered tomato essence last summer, after ordering a Capri Martini, a vibrant, sweet and savoury martini made with tomato essence. It stuck with me for weeks and I had to recreate it the minute I was back home (unlike the Oyster Martini, which stuck with me for weeks in a BAD way - photo evidence below)
Tomato essence pretty much does what it says on the tin: it extracts the very *essence* of tomatoes and gives you a delicious and super versatile concentrate. I’ve used it as a chilled soup base, but you could also use it in drinks, make ice cubes, tomato sorbet. Whatever you feel!
SOBA NOODLES IN TOMATO ESSENCE + CRISPY SAGE TEMPURA
Tomato Essence
The essence will only be as good as the tomatoes you use, don’t be afraid to splurge!
Ingredients (yields about 500-750ml)
3 cups tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
A handful of basil leaves, roughly torn
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 tbsp ponzu (optional - for extra umami)
½ lemon, juiced
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, then cover with a towel and let everything marinate for 6 hours. Once marinated, pulse the mixture in a food processor for a few seconds until finely chopped but not mushy.
Drape a (clean) kitchen towel over a large bowl and pour the mix in. Tie the kitchen towel up and hang it up somewhere cold (I hung a string on a window handle) for 30 minutes, to allow the tomato essence to collect in a large bowl below. Add the ponzu and lemon juice (season to taste).
Save the pulp in an airtight container and use within 5 days as a kind of chutney - it goes well with burrata!
Sage Tempura
Ingredients
70g rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100ml cold water
10 sage leaves, washed and dried
Mix the rice flour, baking powder, and cold water until just combined, being cautious not to overmix.
Make sure the sage leaves are completely dry, then sprinkle a small amount of rice flour on them (this will help the batter stick). Dip the sage leaves into the batter one stalk at a time, then deep fry for 1-2 minutes at ca. 160℃.
Set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel until ready to use.
Assembling the Soup (serves 4)
200g (7 oz) soba noodles
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 litre (4 cups) tomato essence (see page X)
Top it off:
Sage tempura
Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
¼ cup white sesame
Blanch the cherry tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute, then set aside. Once cool enough to handle, peel off the skins carefully.
Cook the soba noodles according to the package instructions, then drain and divide across four bowls.
Pour tomato essence over the noodles, and garnish each bowl with a handful of poached tomatoes, a few tempura sage leaves, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
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