Watermelon Tomato Salad, Corn & Shrimp Chowder

Dinner in the Vines

Sunday night we had "dinner in the vines" with chef Tom Schaudel and 40 others from Connecticut, Rockville Centre, Greenport.....

Candlelight in a vineyard. It was elegant, lovely, convivial, delicious. Loved the surprising tomato appetizer. Amazingly rich, almost sweet. Checking the menu this was "tomato watermelon salad". I had to ask Chef Schaudel what was his dressing? His own verjus and olive oil, 50/50. I'm not surprised. No sourness of vinegar. Verjus (green juice) is made from unripe green grapes, pressed when the acid level is high, and then either pasteurized to be stable, or refrigerated. It is picked at a high acid level but not allowed to become vinegar. It will ferment if allowed to, but it's kept cold.

To me this is pure Julia. Learn the classic, love the classic, and be innovative. Add a slice of watermelon to tomatoes, stay with the softer melon, and make a verjus dressing.

Another Riff on Tomatoes

Can't get enough of those sun-red-ripe August sliced tomatoes with basil, again tonight with a ham we cooked because my brother was coming for dinner (we usually only cook ham with guests, otherwise there is so much leftover). Leftover ham glaze from a previous ham we glazed with rum, sugar, peaches, orange peel, was pulled from the freezer, thawed and poured over the baking ham. Dinner was boiled farmstand potatoes with parsley (I insisted on potatoes), baked corn on the cob, tomatoes with basil and garlic flowers. We sprinkled some local goat cheese "white snow" over the tomatoes -- tangy.

Corn Chowder

Our dinner-in-the-vines companions were telling us about their corn chowder with shrimp: onions saute, add corn, saute, then milk and boil the shrimp separately and add at the last. Darling Husband said he would never make it. He'd rather make a bacon version, and add broth boiled from the corn cobs (something we learned from chef Todd Jacobs.)

Did I mention my brother baked a lovely apple tart a la Julia -- apples and apricot jam?

Our Dinner (for 3)

ham - $13- lots leftover
corn -$3
potatoes $2 part of our csa share
tomatoes $2
cheese $2

Cost
$21
Leftover ham for days. And sliced several meals for my brother.

Bon appetit!