Tomato Salad with French Fried Shallots

Summer is coming and our Farmer's Market has been open for a month already.  It won't be long until we have fresh homegrown tomatoes available.  That got me thinking about this recipe that I created after having something similar at a local restaurant.

Tomato Salad with French Fried Shallots

 Ingredients:

4-6 Large Slicing Tomatoes – red and yellow if available

1 Bunch of Fresh Thyme

1- Large Log Goat Cheese (Costco Size)

Jane’s Crazy Mixed-Up Salt (Available at most Supermarkets)

½ Cup White Balsamic Vinegar

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation:

Slice Tomatoes.  Arrange on a platter, overlap slices and alternate slices of red and yellow tomato.  Sprinkle with the Janes Crazy Mixed-Up Salt.  Cut goat cheese into ¼” thick discs.  Lay a goat cheese disc on the center of each tomato slice.  Wisk the white balsamic and extra virgin olive oil together until emulsified.  Drizzle the dressing over the tomatoes and goat cheese. You won’t need all of the dressing.  Just use as much as you think will work for your taste. Save the rest for a salad later.  Strip leaves off of the Thyme stems, until you have about 1 TBSP of Thyme leaves.  Sprinkle the Thyme leaves over the tomatoes.  Finally, top with the French Fried Shallots. (See Recipe Below)  Alternately, if you are in a hurry, just use French’s Fried Onions out of the can. They work fine but aren’t quite as spectacular as the French Fried Shallots.

French Fried Shallots

Ingredients:

2 – 3 shallots

1 Cup all- purpose flour

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

2 eggs

1 TBSP butter

¾ cup beer

4 cups vegetable oil

Preparation:

Separate the eggs whites from the yolks and reserve both the whites and the yolks. Slice shallots into thin slices and separate each slice into rings.  Whisk together, in a medium bowl, the flour, salt and pepper.  In another bowl, whisk together the 2 egg yolks and the butter. Once they are blended, whisk the beer in with the egg and butter mixture.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and whisk until just smooth.  Let stand up to two hours at room temperature.  Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Fold the egg whites gently but thoroughly into the batter. Place the vegetable oil into a pot until it is about three inches deep.  Heat oil to 375 degrees.  Drop 3-4 shallot rings into the batter at a time and turn gently to coat well.  Using tongs, lift the coated shallots out of the batter and drop into the hot oil.  Fry until golden brown, about three to five minutes, turning once or twice.  Remove and drain on paper towel.  Repeat until all of the shallot rings are fried.  Then use as directed above.