Dear Val,
Please find attached a couple of Seasonal recipes.
The main ingredients can be found in the market and gardens at this time of year.
I'll have a look at the market on Sunday and see if I can match 'plentiful' produce to recipes and send a couple in the next week or so.
Bon appétit !
Greg
Here is an excellent way of using up a glut of tomatoes. Home dried tomatoes in olive oil are much nicer than the leathery sour imported variety. Although I think the tomatoes would have to be really dry to keep well in jars, they are even better when taken out of the oven early. These soft, sweet, powerfully flavoured semi-dried tomatoes keep for days in the fridge and are gorgeous in salads or with bread and cheese.
Cut tomatoes in half and spread them on a baking tray. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, salt, and (if you like) chopped basil.
Drizzle over a little olive oil. Bake in a very low oven. The exact time will depend on your oven - I found Gas 1/140C/275F for three hours gave perfect wrinkled semi-dried tomatoes
More fully dried ones took ten hours at Gas ¼ /110C/225F. Eat the semi-dried tomatoes as they are.
Fully dried tomatoes should be put in a sterile jar with any oil that has accumulated in the tin.. Add some slivers of garlic and chilli. Top up with olive oil. Use in sauces, soups and casseroles, or slice very finely to put in salads.
•The best and cheapest tomatoes are in the shops at the same time the English crop ripens, from mid July to September.
•Choose unblemished, deeply coloured tomatoes. Allow shop-bought tomatoes to ripen out of the fridge - even cheap orange supermarket tomatoes taste much better when given a week to turn deep red.
•Tomato leaves are toxic - the plant is related to deadly nightshade.
•Yellow tomatoes are generally particularly sweet and low in acid.
•When cooking tomatoes for a sauce, the calyx can be left in to give a herby flavour.
Greg’s Version :
Only adding drizzles of Olive oil & a sprinkling of salt (No Sugar)
Bake @ 100C for (say) 2 hours , repeat until NEARLY what you want,
allow to 1 or 2 tomatoes to cool occasionally to check what they are like when they are cold
also, take out any that are beginning to show signs of burning etc.
and pop them in a jar, awaiting the others !
then :
100C for 30 mins or appropriate
repeat until the desired consistency
Notes :
•
To use the oven to maximum potential, do as many as you have or can fit in !
•
The tomatoes need to be kept/stored under the olive oil. I re-use the oil the following year
•
The resultant oil is also good for dressing a salad or as a dip for bread etc.
•
I also add some tomatoes to Spaghetti Carbonara
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