Book Ninety-Five: Tom's Big Dinners

by Tom Douglas

I really, really, need to read recipes in full - not just scan the pages. I did not realize until I started making the tomato confit (about one-thirty) that they slow roast for three hours, and are best after an overnight stay in the refrigerator. And here I thought I was getting a head start. Oh well. They chilled for about an hour.

I also did not note how much this recipe served as I jotted down the ingredients. As I was shopping I thought to myself this is going to feed an army - well a small one of eight anyway. I thought about making half of the recipe then decided against it; I had most of the ingredients in the cart already. This turned out to be a good thing. Practice makes perfect - as you will see in a photo below.

For the tomato confit you roast the tomatoes in olive oil, rosemary, thyme and garlic. I was surprised that he has you discard the garlic cloves along with the herb sprigs. Roasted garlic anyone? Spread on a baguette or tossed into some pasta sauce or something. My cloves did not go to waste. My sister arrived sooner than expected and was helping me prepare dinner, and she devoured those oh so tasty (so she said) cloves.

To make the beautiful spiral effect, you stuff, roll, and tie the flank steak.

I was so excited to use some of my fancy baker's twine I recently purchased - it comes in several different colors! Only to find out that this twine has not been tested for direct food contact. Great. Here I am already running behind and I have to go buy some string. Of course Safeway does not sell cooking twine or any other type, nor could the butcher (unfamiliar with this location) find any to give me as suggested by one of the checkers. Good thing there is a hardware store a couple blocks away - bingo - they had plenty.

This you will want to make for company it's so impressive looking. The tomato confit can be made up to five days ahead, the stuffing a day or two in advance, and the steak can be stuffed and tied early in the day and refrigerated.

Aside from the issues I had, this was fun, relatively easy, and pretty darn delicious.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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The stuffing: onion, garlic, Kalamata olives, parsley, thyme, pine nuts and currants. I'm not a huge fan of pine nuts and they are ridiculously expensive (thirty-five dollars a pound!) next time I'll sub pecans or walnuts, or maybe leave them out all together.

I pounded the meat between to pieces of freezer paper. Even though I have a weighted meat pounder, my trusty rolling pin covered in plastic wrap made the job easier - and this was not all that easy to do. It took me like ten minutes to get it to what I thought was thin enough. Not as thin as the recipe recommended, but it worked for me.

I was not happy with the way my first attempt rolled so I re-rolled it; hence the bits of filling on the outside. Isn't the second one so much nicer looking?! Night and day. Once you get the hang of tying, it really is easy. I found this video extremely helpful on learning to tie a roast.

You brown the steaks in the roasting pan on all sides before placing in the oven to finish cooking.

The tomatoes definitely benefit from an overnight stay in the refrigerator. We had leftovers the next day and they were so much better. The recipe has you serve the confit at room temperature; I liked them best heated in the microwave - a soft, warm burst of deliciousness. I may have to make more just so I can try it over pasta with fresh goat cheese as recommended in the book.