Yellow and Green Bean Salad, Tomato Confit, Crème Fraîche, and Toasted Hazelnuts
Chef Cyril Renaud of Fleur de Sel – New York, NY
Adapted by StarChefs

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients:

Tomato confit:
• 4 plum tomatoes (peeled, seeded, and halved)
• 2 garlic cloves (peeled and finely chopped)
• 1 shallot (finely diced)
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme (de-stemmed and coarsely chopped)
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tablespoon sugar

Bean salad:
• Gray salt
• ½ pound yellow wax beans, blanched
• ½ pound green beans, blanched
• ½ pound Romano beans, blanched
• 2 teaspoons crème fraîche
• 2 teaspoons hazelnut oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh whole hazelnuts, cleaned
• 2 sprigs oregano, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh sage, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 sprigs baby basil, leaves picked and chopped
• Fleur de Sel

Place the tomato halves on a half size sheet pan and sprinkle all the ingredients on both sides of the tomatoes. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, turn over and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Remove tomatoes from the sheet pan, reserve, and allow to cool.

For bean salad:
Boil water with gray salt. First cook the yellow wax beans, then the green and Romano beans in the same water. When the beans are cooked, shock them in ice water, dry and reserve. Mix the cooled beans with the tomato confit and reserve.

In a small pan, add the hazelnut oil. When it’s warm, add the hazelnuts and toast until they are lightly browned. Turn off the heat and add the crème fraîche, but do not cook it. When the hazelnut mixture has cooled, poor it over the bean and tomato confit salad. Mix well and adjust seasoning to taste.

To serve, place salad in a bowl and sprinkle with fresh herbs and Fleur de Sel.

Wine pairing:
A fino Sherry such as the Lustau “Gonzalez Obregon” Almacenista Fino Puerto