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Salade de Tomate à la Crême
Blanch the tomatoes for a few seconds, then peel and cut them in quarters. Serve with mayonnaise mixed with a little thick cream, poured over. Sprinkle with chopped tarragon.
A two-minute salad that depends entirely on the tomatoes and the dressing, since there is nothing else to hide behind.
- Blanching"A few seconds" means 10-20 seconds in fully boiling water after scoring an X in the base, then straight into ice water. Any longer and the outer flesh cooks and slumps once quartered.
- QuantityThe original gives none. Reckon on one medium tomato per person as a side salad, dressed with about 4 tablespoons mayonnaise slackened with 2 tablespoons double cream for four.
- The cream"Thick cream" here is British double cream, roughly 48% fat. Heavy cream is the closest supermarket equivalent; whipping cream will thin the mayonnaise more than intended, so add it a teaspoon at a time until the dressing just coats a spoon.
- MayonnaiseA period recipe of this kind would most likely have meant a freshly made egg-yolk mayonnaise. If you make your own and are serving anyone pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised, use pasteurised eggs; a good jarred mayonnaise thinned with cream is a legitimate substitute.
- Salt and acidNo seasoning is specified. Salt the quartered tomatoes lightly and let them drain in a sieve for ten minutes before dressing, or the weeping juice will break the sauce on the plate.
- TarragonFrench tarragon, chopped at the last moment. Dried tarragon is a different and duller thing here; if you have none fresh, chervil or chives are nearer in spirit than the dried leaf.
- ServingDress it just before it goes to the table and serve cool rather than refrigerator-cold, which flattens tomato flavour.
A plate of peeled tomatoes and mayonnaise carries a French title because high-class cookery in Britain was long written in the shadow of French practice. Peeling was a mark of care in dishes of this class, the skins being thought coarse on the plate. The pairing of tarragon with a creamed mayonnaise is straightforwardly French.