Ingredient Challenge

Following my early success in the No Croutons Required monthly challenge last month I thought I'd risk it again and make a dish for the November challenge.  This one is more tricky as it's using an ingredient selected by Lisa that I've never cooked with before - quinoa.

From the reading that I've done on this grain, I understand that it can be used in place of couscous or rice in most recipes.  With this in mind, and given that I submitted a soup recipe for the October challenge, I've decided to try a salad this time.  The resulting dish was lighter than a couscous version and less grainy than a rice version; I'll be trying quinoa again perhaps in a soup next time.

Quinoa, Courgette and Dolcelatte Salad

Ingredients

75g quinoa

1 small courgette, sliced into ribbons using a vegetable peeler

quarter of a red onion, finely diced

75g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small red chilli, finely diced

75g dolcelatte, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Cook the quinoa following the packet instructions.  Drain and refresh under cold running water.  Leave to drain and cool.

When cool, add the courgette ribbons, chopped onion, chilli, cherry tomatoes and dolcelatte cubes and toss together well.  Whisk the olive oil and red wine vinegar together and pour over the salad.  Toss together and there you have it!

Note: I didn't add any salt to this salad as the salty flavour of the cheese added enough flavour for me.

Breakfast or Brunch

It's been ages since the Handymand and I have made time for a proper cooked breakfast, but by gaining an extra hour yesterday we decided the time was ripe.

It coincided with the last of the Holly Grove tomatoes and a recent trip to our local butcher resulting in bacon, sausage and free range eggs.  Though the kitchen is in upheaval (more of that to follow in a future post) we made a space to sit down and enjoy our brunch.

Not the healthiest of breakfasts but once in a while a real treat!

Bright Bite

Just taken enough time to come in from the garden to make myself a bite of lunch.

A local pastie from our local butcher (well, half a pastie as a whole one is too big for lunch), with some homemade tomato salsa and a few tortilla chips. Not a lot of home cooking here but a quick, colourful and tasty lunch...now back into the garden for some more autumnal sunshine!

Tomato Fest Soup

The tomato harvest is coming in thick and fast now, even with the lack of sunshine they seem to be ripening well. This year I've grown several varieties; some old, reliable friends and others new and untried, by me anyway. The range of colours, sizes and shapes has provided a very interesting harvest.

This season I've grown cherry tomatoes in the following varieties: Tumbler, Yellow Tumbling Tom and Sun Belle - supposedly a yellow plum tomato but looking far more like an orange cherry variety. I've also grown the ever reliable Shirley and Money Maker varieties of 'standard' tomatoes and Totem, a bush variety. All of these have cropped and ripened well despite the cool, cloudy days of July and August.

The final variety in the greenhouse is Principe Borghese, a plum tomato, grown from seed. This is also cropping well but is slower to ripen, the first fruits are only just beginning to redden whilst the other varieties have been producing fruits for the table and pot for about 3 weeks.

All in all a pretty good year for tomatoes. So having made batches of tomato sauce and passata for the freezer, what to do with this latest colourful bowl? With the weather turning a little chilly how about a creamy tomato soup? Light and fresh in flavour but warm and comforting too...and so pretty to look at...

Dreamy, Creamy Tomato Soup
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 celery stick, chopped
7 ozs carrots, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig fresh thyme, tied in a bundle
1.5 lbs mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
0.5 tsp sugar
salt and black pepper
7 fl ozs passata
17 fl ozs vegetable stock
3 fl ozs Greek yoghurt mixed with 2 tbsp milk
splash of dry sherry, optional

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan and gently cook the onion until soft but not brown.

Add the garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaf and thyme and continue to cook gently for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chopped tomatoes and sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes and then add the passata and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer then cover and cook for 35-40 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Remove the bay leaf and thyme and blend the soup. Pour the blended soup through a sieve into a clean saucepan then stir in the yoghurt/milk mix and sherry, if using. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

Pour into bowls and, if desired, top with a teaspoon of tomato salsa and serve with bread rolls.

Note: I'm pleased to say that the onion, garlic, celery, carrots, tomatoes and thyme used in this recipe were grown at Holly Grove and the passata was homemade from Holly Grove produce.

Tomato Salsa

This summer I've used this salsa as a starter with pitta bread sliced and dribbled with olive oil and then crisped in the oven for 5 minutes, an accompaniment to barbequed chicken and sausages and added as a topping for soup...and occasionally, because I just love the fresh taste of this, on its own by the teaspoonful! It's also incredibly easy to create and requires absolutely no cooking, so here goes...

Tomato, Cucumber and Red Onion Salsa
Ingredients
10 cherry tomatoes, diced
half a small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced
half a red onion, peeled and diced
half a green chilli, deseeded and very finely diced
juice of half a lime

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least half an hour and no more than 2 hours. Remove from fridge about half an hour before serving then put into a small serving bowl and enjoy!

Blackberries and Tomatoes?

This time of the year I'm running to try and keep up with all the produce from the garden and hedgerows around our plot, and trying to find recipes to use up the various gluts that we benefit from, tomatoes being the current crop of the moment.

Yesterday I spent just a few minutes in the garden and came back to the kitchen with a strange concoction in my trug...huge blackberries from our thornless plant (a real boon as I can gather the fruits without getting by arms scratched to bits), lots of lovely tomatoes and a solitary courgette...now how to use these offerings...


The blackberries were easy, I'd make an apple and blackberry crumble, just needed to get a few apples from the tree in the garden, a little underripe but sharp flavoured and delicious in a crumble. Now for the tomatoes; I had already taken some chicken thighs from the freezer earlier in the day and I had a paprika sausage in the fridge crying out to be used, so Spanish Chicken it had to be...


Spanish Chicken with Tomato
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
1/4 tsp pimenton or smoked paprika
100g Mangalika Hungarian paprika sausage, thickly sliced
(you could use any chorizo type sausage)
4 large chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
200g cherry tomatoes or larger tomatoes halved or quartered

Method
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Gently cook for 3 minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add the paprika sausage and the pimenton to the onion and cook together for another 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and sausage mixture from the pan and set aside. Add the chicken pieces to the oil in the pan and fry until browned; this should only take a few minutes.

Place the chicken in a shallow ovenproof dish, cover with the onion and sausage mix and then place the tomatoes on top. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and bake at 180C for about 25-30 minutes ensuring that the chicken pieces are cooked. The tomatoes should be soft but not mushy. Serve with plain boiled rice and a green salad.

Note: I don't have a photo of the finished dish as it smelt so lovely we couldn't wait to taste it.

Tomato and Apple Chutney

The Holly Grove tomato harvest is in and another use for the apple glut - Tomato and Apple chutney. I know, another chutney recipe, but it's that time of year and I need to do something with all this produce.


Most of these chutneys and jams I'll give to friends and colleagues, a few jars will make their way into Christmas hampers for neighbours and the rest the Handyman and I will munch our way through between Bonfire Night and next Summer. The most important thing is that I love making preserves...seeing lots of lovely fruit and vegetables turned into pretty jars of colourful and tasty goodness - no artificial preservatives, colours or other chemicals, just good HG produce, sugar and vinegar and...a great sense of satisfaction.

This is a dark and rich chutney, a spoonful of this on top of a baked potato filled with a mature Cheddar cheese - food heaven!















Tomato and Apple Chutney
Makes about 5lbs

Ingredients
3lbs HG tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3lbs HG apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 large onions (or 4 small HG onions), chopped
2 HG garlic cloves, crushed
9ozs pitted dates, chopped
2 red peppers, seeds removed and cut into chunky pieces
2 dried red chillies
1tbsp black peppercorns
4 cardamom pods
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sea salt
1 pint distilled malt vinegar
2lbs 4ozs granulated sugar (I used unrefined granulated)

Method
Put the prepared tomatoes, apples, dates, onion and garlic into a preserving pan. Slit the chillies lengthwise and add to the pan. Put the peppercorns and remaining spices into a grinder (or mortar and grind with a pestle, if you need the exercise) and roughly crush. Add the spices and salt to the pan.

Pour in the vinegar and the sugar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the red pepper and cook for a further 30 minutes - you may need to turn the heat up to reach a faster simmer - stir more frequently as the chutney becomes thick and pulpy.

Spoon the chutney into warmed, sterilised jars. Seal the jars , label and store in a cool, dark place. The chutney will be ready to eat in 1 to 2 months time.