In celebration of tomatoes!

[KG Steve]

Hi All. Following our feature in the August issue 'How Do I use All These Courgettes' to which many of you contributed with recipes and advice, we'd like to do a similar thing with tomatoes. This would appear in the October issue (out early September).

So if anyone has any family recipes, preserves, ideas for storing tomatoes, anecdotes, favourite varieties etc, please do let us know and we'll use as many in the feature as we can.

Hoping you manage to keep dry this weekend (still, no watering for a change! ). All the best, Steve

[Monika]

Captain Carrot, I am going to put my thinking cap on about the tomatoes, but just to put the record straight: plenty of watering to be done here - not a drop of rain today or yesterday! And none expected tomorrow, they say.

[alan refail]

Betteravestomates1.JPG (35.35 KiB) Viewed 5698 times

Many more years ago than I care to remember we were in the south of France. One night we booked into a hotel/guest house/restaurant. In those days the dinner was not from a menu but what they had cooked. When I asked what there was I was told trout, roast pork. We chose the roast pork. After a fantastic dish of local trout we had the roast pork! I must have misheard truite et roti de porc as truite ou roti de porc

What we mostly remember from that meal (probably less than 10 francs per person) was the accompaniment of beetroot salad. Ever since we have never seen the recipe in any book, English or French. Just eaten it again for lunch today. Here's the recipe - give it a try.

About one cooked beetroot per person
The same amount or less of ripe tomatoes
Garlic - as much or as little as you like
Virgin olive oil
Wine vinegar
Parsley

Dice the beetroot and tomatoes into 1-2 cm cubes
Chop garlic
Mix all together with a good lot of olive oil and about a tenth the amount of wine vinegar
Mix together and leave to marinate for as long as you like
Serve topped with a generous amount of chopped parsley

[alan refail]

If, like us, you find green tomato chutney a bit boring and more a matter of “making the best of a bad job” at the end of a poor tomato season, try this one which we have adapted from Nick Sandon and Johnny Acton’s book Preserved. We make it every year and it gives green tomato chutney a whole new dimension.

GRILLED GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

500 g green tomatoes
275 ml cider or white wine vinegar
50 ml balsamic vinegar
125 g muscovado sugar
100 g dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2.5 cm lump of ginger roughly sliced
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
2 teaspoons of Szechwan or black pepper
2 medium dried chilis
10 fresh sage leaves
a couple of sprigs of rosemary
a couple of sprigs each of thyme and oregano
1 medium onion chopped
500 g apples peeled and chopped


Slice the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, then place on a very hot griddle pan until browned but still firm and uncooked.
Heat the vinegars in a pan and add the sugars, stirring till dissolved.
Put the ginger, mustard seeds, pepper and chilis into a muslin spice bag.
Chop the char-grilled tomatoes and put into a pan with the rest of the ingredients.
Simmer for at least two hours, stirring occasionally, until the chutney is your desired consistency.

Pour into sterilised jars with non- metal lids. The amounts above are enough for 3-4 medium jars.

Store in a dark place for at least 3 months.

[alan refail]

CARROT AND TOMATO SOUP

Extremely easy, quick and tasty

1 small onion
225g carrots
225g tomatoes
½ litre weak vegetable stock
Salt, pepper and bayleaf


Soften the chopped onion in olive oil and butter
Add chopped tomatoes and carrots
Add stock and bayleaf

Simmer for twenty minutes then blitz in the blender
Reheat and season to taste

[Primrose]

Oven dried herby tomatoes (which cost a fraction of those bought from the supermarket delicatessen)

Cherry or smallish tomatoes
Salt, pepper
Oregano. (Fresh or dried)
Oive oil

Lightly grease large flat oven tray
Cut tomatoes into halves and place on tray open side upwards.
Lightly sprinkle with salt, pepper and dried organo or finely chopped fresh leaves and the tiniest drizzle of olive oil
Dry in low oven for about two hours (or more) until most of the moisture has disappeared and the tomatoes look slightly leathery. This really concentrates the flavour of the tomatoes.

When cool store in small containers in fridge. You can cover with olive oil and store containers in freezer. The oil will congeal and thicken but thaw though when defrosted. Keep refeigerated and eat within a week.

[Geoff]

It would be nice to have some Tomatoes actually ripening to inspire a reply. Favourite variety at the moment Bloody Butcher - at least it is just about keeping us in lunches, but it is good as well.
Rain very localised here - wherever I put the sprinkler!

[Primrose]

My outdoor bush tomatoes are ripening now but they're always ahead of the cordons, so help to extend the season.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I was very late sowing my tomatoes this year and have picked the first ripe ones this week. What a treat. I had forgotten how much more flavour they have than even the best shop ones.

When and if I get too many to use I cook and sieve them and store them in take away size containers in the freezer so they are ready for soups, stews etc all winter.

[robo]

Last year i froze about 70 tomatoes, in packs of 6, they are no good for salads but for cooking with a knob of butter then poured on to a couple of rounds of toast for breakfast in the middle of winter takes some beating

[alan refail]

Back to the recipes.

Warm tomato salad
One of my weekend inventions to use up a late crop of tomatoes; something different from just eating them cold.

Cherry tomatoes (Gardener's Delight/Sungold) halved
Medium sized red tomatoes sliced
Garlic
Basil
Extra virgin olive oil

Slice garlic thinly
Warm in olive oil
Add tomatoes and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until soft but still whole
Add chopped basil
Allow to cool for a few minutes
Eat warm with hot or cold meat or anything you like.

A tasty addition is some rounds of crispy fried chorizo. This sort, not the thin ready sliced.

[KG Steve]

Wow thanks folks! Great response over the weekend. Keep em' coming! Yes I've yet to find a red tom, even in the greenhouse although a few are turning. I'll need some of those recipes myself when they do finally ripen.

Sorry Monika & Geoff - poured all day here yesterday. Doing my best to send some your way!

[AdeTheSpade]

I made Alan's tomato and carrot soup today - delicious! Thanks Alan, I'm going to keep that recipe - I'm sure it'll be used time and time again.

[Catherine]

Alan, we do a similar recipe for our breakfast but add balsamic vinegar and a pinch of brown sugar and put it on brown bread toast.

Tonight I made tomatoes with feta and broad beans.

Cut toms in half and start to fry gently in olive oil till starting to break down then add cooked broad beans and cubed feta cheese, once the cheese starts to break down remove from the heat. Add pepper but no salt. We have had this tonight with a pork, choritzo and fennel casserole and a few new potatoes from our allotment. Absolutely delish.

[alan refail]

Good to see that the forum has made a big contribution to the October issue, pages 70 to 73.
Pleased to see the contributions we made: Primrose, robo, Catherine, Plumpudding and me