I got a call from Richard Ha yesterday to let me know we had 92 recipes entered in the " You say Tomato..." Recipe Contest. When I drove over to his Hamakua Springs Country Farm to pick up the entries so I can sort them and number them, he asked me if I had time to take a little ride around to the newer greenhouses where they are growing lettuces, watercress and garden onions. Of course I said yes!
The result of my little trip was a generous "care box" with samplings of the different lettuces, water cress, and an assortment of tomatoes, green onions, cucumber and the cutest little melons I've ever seen.
Pictured above are French Charentais mini-melons; an assortment of Manoa, Romaine, Butter, Red Oakleaf, Green Oakleaf, Lollo Rosa and Lollo Bionde lettuces; Heirloom tomatoes: Green Zebra, Red brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Purple Cherokee, Beeef tomatoes, Red and Yellow Cocktail Tomatoes, and sweet little Grape Tomatoes.; a cucumber; Sweet Granex, green onions, and Sylvan English varietiy of watercress.
I couldn't wait to get them home and start playing with the gorgeous bounty!
After laying them out in a flat basket on the back lanai table and taking a few pictures, I decided to make a soup with the onions. Actually, Richard gave me the idea when he urged me to smell the roots and made the comment he usually thinks of making soup with them. Since all of the veggies are grown hydroponically, the onion roots were nice and clean. All I needed to do was cut them off, rinse them a bit and place them inside a stainless steel mesh tea ball I use for when I cook with woody herbs and don't want to leave any in the food.
I cut up some small potatoes and a bit of green garden onion tips in 3 cups of chicken broth made a couple of months earlier and which I took from the freezer. I then added the onion roots in the tea ball and let it all simmer until the potatoes were done. The broth was a bit too concentrated and I ended up adding about 1/2 cup of water to dilute it a bit.
The soup was delicious served with a salad of mixed lettuces, a couple of sprigs of watercress and the sweet grape tomatoes. I served a few unsalted soda crackers on the side....voila! a filling but light dinner for a coolish evening made in no time at all!
I will be using some of the tomatoes to make some more of the tomato confit like the one I made back in November of last year. The lettuces, watercress, cucumber and the rest of the tomatoes will be enjoyed in salads and sandwiches.
I'm playing with ideas for the mini-melons and will share them at a later date....stay tuned!
