Roasted Tomato & Shrimp Salad, Sunshine Dessert

Tomatoes and green beans are what's most plentiful in my garden these days. I've been roasting tomatoes and freezing them, but last night used some in this delicious salad. It's based on a recipe I picked up at our local market, but I seriously changed it. I created the dressing on my own, and added shrimp to the top for a wonderful late summer dinner.

We don't have the level of cable that gives us Food TV - so sad. However, I get Foodtv.ca's newsletters and this week, they gave links to some online shows. Yeah! I watched Laura Calder with French Food at Home and was inspired to adapt what I had on hand to her recipe for summer fruit. The program was called Mediterranean Sun and there are a number of recipes from it that I scribbled down to try. This one, fresh summer peaches and prune plums drizzled with an orange flavoured honey syrup and sprinkled with pistachios was the perfect end to our late summer dinner.

Roasted Tomato, Green Bean and Shrimp Salad

8 roasted tomato halves (see recipe here)
green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-1/2 inch lengths (or leave them long)
shrimp (I used one package of frozen raw shrimp - about 30 medium shrimp)
2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
salad greens
Dressing (recipe follows)

The roasted tomatoes should be warm or at least at room temperature. Simmer the green beans for about 3 minutes in a small saucepan. Drain and plunge into an icewater bath to stop the cooking. Mix the beans with about half of the dressing (depending on how many people you are feeding, and how many beans you have, you may need the entire amount.) Keep at room temperature. Peel the shrimp (unless already done for you.) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat and quickly add the garlic and shrimp, stirring for about 2-3 minutes until the shrimp are nicely pink. Don't overcook them.

Pile salad greens onto plates, arrange four roasted tomato halves on one side, a mound of dressed green beans on the other and the hot shrimp on top.

Dressing Recipe:

1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp old style mustard, or Dijon mustard
juice of 1 orange (1/4 - 1/3 cup)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
freshly ground pepper and salt to taste
1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together.


Sunshine Fruit Dessert

Peaches, one per person
Prune Plums, two to three per person (or use apricots as Laura Calder did in her program)
1 Tablespoon toasted pistachio nuts per person
Honey syrup to drizzle on top (recipe follows)

Peel the peaches (immerse them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds, slip them into an icewater bath and the skin will slip off easily.) Cut them in half, take out the pit and slice them into wedges. Arrange on a plate. Wash the prune plums, cut in half, pit and arrange on top of the peaches. Drizzle each plate with 1-2 Tablespoons honey syrup and sprinkle with pistachio nuts. Laura recommended a bit of crème fraîche on the side, but I didn't have any and it was delicious without.

Honey Syrup

2 T white sugar
2 T honey
1/2 cup water

Simmer until sugar is dissolved, 1 -2 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon grated orange rind. Let cool. (Note: Laura's recipe suggested orange flower water, just a few drops, instead of the orange zest. Again, I used what I had on hand.)