This past week we were treated to a lovely jar of tarragon vinegar from the garden of a colleague and his wife. We couldn’t wait to try it and decided to make a tarragon mayonnaise to serve with a pressed leek & tomato salad.
We began with the leeks and tomatoes. After cleaning them we cut the leeks down and scored the top of the tomatoes.
The tomatoes were slowly lowered into boiling water and left for about two minutes simply to remove the skins.
After two minutes they were removed and submerged in an ice bath.
The leeks were also lowered into boiling water until tender at which point they were removed and submerged in their own ice bath.
The tomato skins were removed and the core & seeds were also taken out. The tomato was then sliced. We saved the tomato juice for the mayonnaise.
Season with salt and pepper.
Top with olive oil and fresh thyme.
Stack the slices with layers of thyme.
Our little tomato cake was then carefully inserted into a vacuum packing bag and sealed.
It was lowered into a pot of simmering water for about two minutes and then placed in the fridge for a few hours.
The leeks were removed from their ice bath and arranged in a long rectangular dish which had been lined with saran wrap.
The entire glass dish was vacuum sealed and then placed in the fridge with the tomatoes.
On to the mayonnaise. We began with an egg yolk.
Added a good splash of tarragon vinegar.
Combined with a whisk.
Began to slowly drizzle in canola oil as we continued to whisk until emulsified.
We added a little of the tomato juice and seeds and then continued to add oil until it reached the correct consistency of mayonnaise.
We added some tarragon that we had dried over the summer.
And some fire roasted tomatoes. We’ve mentioned before…we love Home Goods for good culinary finds. These fire roasted tomatoes were one of our prizes on a Home Goods trip a while back.
The leeks were turned out of their dish and then sliced thick. We did the same with the tomatoes.
We served our pressed leek & tomato salad with two lovely spoonfuls of tarragon mayonnaise and a few fire roasted tomatoes.
Can we just say….yum. The mayonnaise was so good that (we will be honest) we ate it off the spoon after our salads were finished. Tarragon can be overpowering at times but this was very subtle and a lovely accompaniment to the fresh produce.
This was a perfect way to extend the feeling of summer into the beginning of fall. Thanks so much to Greg and Lynn for the lovely vinegar.
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