Caprese Salad Shitheap

Part of Icehewk's entry in Iron Chef SA 028:Balsamic Battle

Caprese Salad Shitheap

Ingredients

   * ½ lb Tomatoes
   * ¼ C Hot Pepper Jack Cheese
   * 2 Eggs
   * ½ C Heavy Whipping Cream
   * ¼ C Balsamic vinegar, reduced
   * Parmesan Cheese
   * S+P

Method

Preheat your oven to 450 F. Grate your parmesan cheese and arrange in piles on a flexible baking dish like such. This is where a silpat is golden.

Pop’m in the oven and take them out when they’re golden brown.

Don’t do this on the lid of a cakepan without lining it with a flexible material. I ended up redoing these with butcher paper waxed side up on another pan and scraping these off for crumbles.

Steam yer maters so the skins come off easily.

Drain the water from your piping hot tomatoes and then blend them.

Chop ze basil and grate yer cheese.

Add your cream, eggs, basil, cheese and s+p and stir it all up.

• insert processor photo*

Pour in to buttered ‘ramekins’ and bake for 30 minutes in a water bath.

When ready to serve, run a thin knife around the edge, place your best diningware on top and gently flip.

Drizzle with the balsamic reduction and garnish with a parmesan crisp and basil.

This didn’t turn out texturally (it was sort of grainy and watery) as well as I thought it would, but the taste was amazing. I think there was too much water in the mix. Next time I’d use sun-dried tomatoes or tomato sauce.