Recipe

Heirloom Tomatoes with Warm Golden Turmeric Oil

Heirloom tomatoes graded red through orange and yellow to green across a black harvest bin

Raw heirlooms under an oil bloomed with fresh turmeric rhizome, garlic and black pepper.

Serves
4
Time
10 minutes prep, 2 minutes cook

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs mixed heirloom tomatoes, large slicers cut thick, cherry tomatoes halved
  • 3 tbsp high-quality extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp fresh turmeric rhizome, microplaned
  • 1 clove garlic, microplaned
  • 1.5 tbsp sherry vinegar or fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil or cilantro, hand-torn
  • 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts or pepitas
  • Flaky Maldon sea salt and coarse black pepper

Method

  1. Bloom the golden oil. Combine the olive oil, microplaned turmeric, garlic and coarse black pepper in a small pan over low heat, 150F to 180F. Warm gently for 60 to 90 seconds until fragrant and a bright translucent yellow. Off the heat, whisk in the sherry vinegar.
  2. Season the tomatoes. Splay the sliced heirlooms across a platter and sprinkle lightly with sea salt to draw out the juices.
  3. Dress and finish. Spoon the warm turmeric oil evenly over the tomatoes. Garnish with torn basil, toasted pine nuts and Maldon.
The culinary why

Warm fat, not raw. Curcumin, the compound doing the work in turmeric, is fat-soluble and will not go anywhere in a cold dressing. Warming it in oil pulls the aromatic oils out and rounds off the raw bitterness.

Fresh rhizome over dried powder. Fresh turmeric carries bright ginger and citrus notes with something floral behind them. Dried powder goes dusty and chalky on fresh produce.

The black pepper is not garnish. Piperine in black pepper increases curcumin absorption, and the sharp pungency is the contrast the sweet fruit needs.

From the garden

Love and vegetables. That was the theme and the motivation for the body art on my arm. I have always been in awe of the different ways that vegetables grow.

Around the time I met my lovely fiancé, Brandi, I got my first tattoo of the two carrots wrapped around each other. It was partly due to this fascination with the way things grow, and I also wanted to symbolize the way people can grow together.

I then used a picture of two beets I grew that grew together in the shape of a heart, a heart-beet if you will. I am a sucker for veggie puns. She was also the inspiration for my "two peas in a pod" and little "Brandi Bee" on my "farm arm". What can I say, I'm a romantic, I'm a lover (just like my "lover carrots"), and I was falling deeply in love with Brandi at this time, and was literally going to wear my heart on my sleeve....

My sweet Brandi, the reason for my Brandywine tomato I have on my arm, the most beautiful, flavorful heirloom I have ever grown and truly loved.

Chris's farm arm: a botanical sleeve of vegetables, a bee and linework, shot in black and white
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