From this …
… to this
Those two days of heavy rain earlier on seem to have worked wonders on Miss P's outdoor reared tomato vines. (
Or could it be that she's been talking to her plants again … Hmmm.) I found her in her growing space carrying off a
huge bag of toms - with plenty more ripening on the vine and masses of green tomatoes still waiting. One option is to freeze the ripe tomatoes (I'm told it works well and the skins slip off easily when defrosted) but also worth mentioning is a version of Nigella's moon-blushed tomatoes - one of my favourite kitchen makes (after cake, of
course! - priorities, people).
It's incredibly basic but very yummy (if you like tomatoes … um - duh). Preheat oven, chop tomatoes in half, lay out on a tray, sprinkle with a couple of teaspoons of fine sugar, dried herbs, salt and a glug of olive oil. Bung in oven. At this point Nigella would have us turn the oven off and leave overnight (hence 'moonblushed' -
how sweet). What suits my tastes (and greediness) better is to leave in the oven for 10 minutes with it still on, then turn off and leave tomatoes in oven until it's cold (about an hour). They're still juicy but the flavour is probably less concentrated than it should be. (I tried the original way
once and found the tomatoes too dry.)
What I did this time, though, was to remove the tray of tomatoes after 15 minutes to the smaller oven above my main oven (which had heated up nicely from the cooking going on below), and then I quickly knocked some bread together. (
That'll be my inner domestic goddess showing off…) When the bread was ready, the tomatoes were taken out of the oven and spread over slices of warm bread (
are you feeling hungry yet?); and the remainder spooned into storage pots. (I always save those small lidded pots as they have many, many uses. Take note.) I also tried using fresh chopped herbs from our various gardens, which I feel worked well (
and with the added bonus that I'm not dead yet).
If you want the full recipe (my version), I will shortly add a pdf link to a downloadable page.
Foodie Facts: This recipe is good for you! Tomatoes contain lycopene which is concentrated by cooking and which may help to prevent some forms of cancer. Tomatoes are a good source of vitamins C and E so very good for fighting off those Free Radicals. Fresh herbs (Sage, Thyme, Oregano) are also beneficial. Sage is antiseptic and antibiotic; Thyme aids digestion, helps break down fatty foods and is also antiseptic; Oregano (sweet marjoram) eases bad colds and has a calming effect on nerves. Olive Oil helps in the absorption of Vitamin E and is high in mono-unsaturated fatty acids which lower blood cholesterol.
