Roasted Roma Tomato and Bacon Croquettes with Aurore Sauce
Ingredients
- 10 strips Johnston’s Bacon
- 6 roma tomatoes ripe
- 2-3 cups arborio (Italian rice) cooked in chicken stock & quality white wine
- 2 cups bread crumbs seasoned with kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
- ¼ cup chives chopped
- ¼ tsp thyme
- 3 eggs
- 3 cups milk
- ½ cup aged cheddar cubed
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 shallots minced
- 2 tbsp roux (equal parts flour & butter) to thicken
- 8 tbsp virgin olive oil
- ½ cup fresh basil cut into thin strips
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- Aurore Sauce: Cook shallots in medium hot pan. Add tomato paste and brown. Add 2 cups milk and simmer lightly stirring constantly. Thicken with cool roux and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
Roasted Roma Tomato and Bacon Croquettes
- Cut tomatoes in half and rub with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.
- Bake in oven at 375° for 1 hour.
- Fry Johnston’s Bacon strips medium crisp.
- Add 1 egg (to bind), chives, and thyme, to cooked rice.
- Cool bacon and chop.
- Peel and seed cooled tomatoes, then chop medium.
- Mix tomato with cheddar and Johnston’s Bacon.
- Take a golf ball sized portion of rice and flatten in hand, forming an impression in center, then add 1 tablespoon of tomato mixture to form croquette.
- Bread croquette (standard breading station) then sauté crispy in olive oil over medium heat.
- Nape with Aurore sauce and garnish with fresh basil and squeeze of lemon.
