Heirloom Tomato & Polenta Tart and a Giveaway!


First things first, a giveaway!

CSN Stores has been nice enough to offer me a chance to host a giveaway worth $80 of credit towards anything in any of their 200 stores and I’m very excited to be giving it away to you, my loyal readers!

I don’t have a say in what you buy at all, it is completely up to you. But if it were up to me or I was the one holding the $80 credit, I would be buying a Dutch oven. No joke. The Dutch oven is the single piece of kitchen equipment which I am without and think of constantly. There are so many things that can be made in a Dutch oven and I long to make them, especially bread. My biggest reason for never making bread is the amount of time it takes, but you can make no knead bread in a Dutch oven. Beautiful, crusty on the outside, soft and airy on the inside and….oh never mind. You get the picture. Dutch ovens are amazing..and I strongly encourage you to think about purchasing one. They can run an amazing amount of money ($300 for a Le Creuset!), but with $80 off you’ll be that much closer!

In any case, if you are not familiar with CSN Stores, they are an online retailer who “offer the largest selection of items for most home and office goods”. They ship to the US and Canada and offer a whole host of leading brands.

This contest is now closed. Thank you for participating!

Here’s how the contest is going to work:

1. Leave a me a message in the comment section telling me what you would buy from CSN Stores and why you deserve to win it. Be sure to leave an e-mail address where I can contact you.

2. Contest is open to residents of Canada and the US only. Should the winner be Canadian, there may be International shipping charges. (The Giveaway is subject to all applicable laws of your country, state or province and is applicable therein.)

3. I will pick a random winner using Random.org.

4. I will notify the winner via e-mail upon choosing the number and he/she will have 48 hours to respond before I pick another winner.

5. Contest opens at 4 a.m. PST on Thursday August 20th, 2010 and closes on Sunday August 22nd, 2010 at 12 noon.

6. Winner will be chosen and announced on this website by Monday August 23rd at 4 a.m. PST.

7. Good luck!

Summer.

Summer conjures up different meanings for all of us.

To me, summer is the season where the sound of kids screaming and ice cream trucks tinkling by fills the air on those hot steamy nights. Though, for the most part, there are no ice cream trucks for me anymore. Living in the middle of nowhere will do that to you. Even the garbage man doesn’t venture down our road, leading us to haul our trash a block down the street to make sure it gets taken away.

Summer is a time to spend with family, taking kids out to tourist spots and showing them your love for family activities, like camping, swimming and the like. Living so close to a tourist town has it’s definite benefits. Mostly the sheer volume of delightful restaurants and places to spend a glorious summer afternoon. When we lived in the city we went out almost every day. We would take our dog to the off leash park at the very Southern tip of the island, and enjoy the cool breezes blowing across the perpetually flat landscape.

Or we would spend the afternoon hiking around the areas many mountains and hills, burning off all those calories consumed while creating this website (I’m a food blogger, and it’s making me fat.) Warning, cheesy picture:

But nowadays, summer afternoons are spent at our house on the lake, hanging with our newly expanded family and kicking our feet up with delightful local brews.

Outside, the crickets are chirping in our nearly dead lawn, chipmunks natter away in the trees outside our window and drive our dog mad…

Whatcha lookin’ at? Huh?

But summer means more to me then just tinder dry lawns, annoying chipmunks and sticky vinyl seats.

Mostly food.

August is the peak of all the produce and it’s high time to take advantage. Every meal I cook lately centers around some kind of vegetable. Forget the meat, it’s there all year. There are only so many weeks when corn is at it’s sweetest and tomatoes at their juiciest. So take advantage of those freshly picked crops and makes this tart this weekend. Try to use produce that has been picked that day, as the flavours will dissipate the longer they are away from their host plant.

Heirloom Tomato & Polenta Tart

Yield: One 9″ Tart, about 8 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes

4 cups  low sodium chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coarse whole grain cornmeal
2 Tbsp butter
2 medium sized cobs of fresh corn
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
90g Parmesan Cheese, grated fine
2 Tbsp butter
300 g ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 1/2 lb. Heirloom tomatoes (about 2 large tomatoes), sliced (about 1/4″ thick)
sea or kosher salt to taste
fresh cracked pepper to taste

1. In a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan, bring stock to a boil.
2. In an even stream, pour in the cornmeal, whisking as you do so. Stir in salt.
3. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, stirring very often. Continue to stir and check on the polenta for the next 30-40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in another large saucepan, fill about half way with water and add about a tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, add in the corn and cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Remove the corn and run under cold water to stop the cooking process and make it easy to handle.
6. Hold the corn upright (vertically) and run a knife blade down all sides to remove the kernels. Like this:

7. In a large sauté pan, melt 2 Tbsp of butter and add in the corn, rosemary and garlic. Sauté on medium high until the corn begins to take on a golden look to it and the garlic is fully cooked. About 6-7 minutes.
8. When the polenta is finished, stir in 2 tbsp of butter, some pepper and the Parmesan cheese. Mix in the corn and rosemary mixture as well and set aside for a minute.
9. Remove ricotta from refrigerator and stir in one egg and salt and pepper to taste, mixing until completely incorporated.
10. Grease a 9″ round baking dish (preferably glass).
11. Line greased baking dish with polenta, pushing it up so it meets the sides and leaves a bit of a well in the center for the remaining ingredients. Kind of like you are making a very thickly crusted pie.
12. Pour the seasoned ricotta into the well and even it out with a spatula or large spoon.
13. Top tart with concentric rings of tomato slices. Season with salt and pepper and bake in a 400°F oven for 45-60 minutes.
14. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serve with a side salad for a wonderfully refreshing, seasonal dinner.

Similarly delicious recipes from other blogs:

Heirloom Tomato Tart in a Parmesan Crust on 101 Cookbooks
Cherry Tomato Tart on La Tartine Gourmand
Peach and Thyme Polenta Tart on The Kitchn
Balsamic Onion and Polenta Tart on Cooking Books
Heirloom Tomato and Quinoa Galette on Canelle et Vanille


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