Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Appetizer
French
8 servings
5 hours 10 minutes
1 hour
This savory cream brulée works well to stimulate the taste buds for a grand entrée. Left overs make a nice snack or nosh, but doubt there will be any!
4 cups heavy cream
1 cup tomato puree, fresh if possible
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled, preferably Laura Chenel
1/4 cup lemon basil (fresh) chopped
8 Organic Grape Tomatoes
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Spice Grinders, Rainbow Peppercorn
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a saucepan, heat the cream and salt to scalding. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar until mixed well and light in color.
Stirring constantly, slowly add the hot cream to the egg yolks, melting the sugar and making sure not to scramble the eggs.
Strain and skim off any bubbles. Gently stir in the crumbled goat cheese, tomato paste and lemon basil until dissolved.
Divide the mixture among 8 ramekins placed in a roasting pan. Drop one teardrop tomato into each ramekin.
Fill the pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 55-65 minutes or until center is just beginning to set and is no longer liquid. See notes below.
Remove the ramekins from the oven and cool. Refrigerate covered for at least 5 hours or overnight.
Close to serving time, combine the sugar and pepper in a small bowl. Preheat a broiler and sprinkle 1 tbl. of the sugar mix evenly over the surface of each custard.
Broil, as quickly as possible, until the sugar is caramelized. Garnish with fresh basil and serve immediately.
Checking for doneness: the custards should not be firm, but just set; edges with little color and possibly crisp bubbles. You can check by carefully dropping a metal knife into the center of one of the custards. There should be just a small amount of curdled egg remaining on the blade. The custard will continue to cook as it cools in the water.
Left over egg whites: left over egg whites, if no yolk has infiltrated, can be frozen in separate bags or all together and used within six months. Mark the container with date and quantity of whites. Thaw container in the refrigerator or in a dish with room temperature water. Room temperature egg whites will yield the most volume as long as the bowl, beaters, and whites have no yolk or fat. The egg whites may be used for cooking, coating fish or meat for breading, whipped with a pinch of cream of tartar for meringues and pavlovas or any other recipe calling for egg whites.
