Picked yesterday afternoon, the first of this year’s crop of tomatoes.
Posts Tagged ‘tomatoes’
Tomatoes first of the crop
September 5, 2022Planting out sweetcorn tomatoes squash courgette
June 29, 2022I picked up sweetcorn plants yesterday, other plants a few days ago.
Yesterday the gardener cleared a border, cut the hedge. The ground cleared, somewhere for the plants to grow.
Digging down the depth of a trowel, I could not believe how dry the soil, more like dust.
Each hole filled with compost. Dug out again, plants planted.
Then watered in. Watered around the plants to soak the dry soil.
Traybake roasted chicken and tinned tomatoes
June 27, 2022What to do with a can of tomatoes sitting in the cupboard which I had picked up from M&S thinking I was picking up a can of tomato soup?
Loosely based on a recipe by James Martin, roasted tomato chicken traybake, from Hello magazine. And no, I do not read Hello. I did once appear in, but that is a different story, and it was Hola. Or was it OK magazine?
ingredients
- chicken fillet
- can of tomatoes
- two or three small peppers
- small aubergine
- onion
- new potatoes
- two garlic cloves crushed
- season with salt and pepper
- drizzle with olive oil or rape seed oil
method
Scrape new potatoes, slice into chunks.
Slice into chunks aubergine, peppers and onion.
Drop in a baking tray, together with the chicken and contents of a can of tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil or rape seed oil
Fan oven 220C 45 minutes.
Serve.
thoughts
A very tasty dish..
I thought I would have leftovers. More than sufficient for two generous portions.
I laid chicken strips on the bottom of the tray. It would have been better to have a layer of vegetables, chicken strips, then layers of vegetables.
Ensure chicken is well seasoned. It could have done with more.
Lacking garlic cloves, a generous sprinkling of Herbes de Provence on top.
A little slosh of red wine on top, would be an interesting addition.
Insufficient onion, it was not in good condition, I tossed in half a dozen silver skin onions.
Synchronicity. After late lunch, writing my thoughts, I searched for James Martin. To my surprise, I found James Martin had posted the recipe on twitter minutes earlier.
I never looked for the recipe. It popped up out of the blue one day. Erm, that looks interesting, I will give it a try.
Lincolnshire sausages stuffed Rebellion tomatoes with Hasselback potatoes
April 6, 2022Rebellion tomatoes stuffed with Lincolnshire sausages.
ingredients
- Lincolnshire sausages
- Rebellion tomatoes
- medium size onion
- small carrot
- garlic clove
- celery stick
- Colston Blue Stilton cheese
- medium size Cyprus potatoes
method
Dice slice onion carrot celery stick garlic clove. Cut the Lincolnshire sausages into smaller pieces (or use sausage meat).
Oil in hot pan, drop in the sausage meat, cook until brown, decant onto a plate to be returned to the pan later. Can use sausages, but fiddly, and more expensive.
Add to hot pan, sliced diced onion, celery, carrot. garlic clove. season with salt and pepper, add a splash of oil. When cooked return sausages to the pan.
Scoop out middle of tomatoes. Not as easy as it sounds. Try a grapefruit knife. Add to the pan.
Season with salt and pepper. Add a little tomato paste.
When sausages returned, may stick to bottom of the pan. Solution, add stock, but optional.
Potatoes, slice down but not all the way, use two sticks.
Add contents of the pan to tomatoes, top with Colston Blue, place sliced off top of tomatoes back on the tomatoes, surround the tomatoes with Hasselback potatoes. Drizzle a little oil on the potatoes. Filling more than sufficient to stuff the tomatoes, allow to spread over the potatoes.
Fan oven 180C for 30-35 minutes.
thoughts
Very tasty, tomatoes had started to break up, Colson Blue seeps down, adding to flavour.
But, potatoes were half cooked. The problem lies with different cooking times for the stuffed tomatoes and potatoes. Possible solutions, add potatoes to pan, after 30 minutes add the stuffed tomatoes, or par boil the potatoes. Neither solution ideal.
Dish would go well with basmati rice. Would solve problem of different cooking times for the potatoes, except, filing more than required for the tomatoes therefore can spread over the potatoes.
Colston Blue a farm Stilton, lacks the nasty metallic bitterness of factory Stilton. Or try Stichleton, a traditional Stilton made with unpasteurised milk
Mowing lawns and planting out
July 2, 2021Mowing lawns, little grass cut.
I was expecting rain later, but no rain. Heavy rain, possibly flooding, expected over the weekend.
A tomato plant and mint planted out. The mint in a box, otherwise it spreads everywhere.
Later, espresso tonic using Panama Geisha.
Planting out
May 31, 2021Yesterday a hole dug a spade deep for a courgette plant, backfilled with compost and soil. Last week or so, compost spread on bed for runner beans.
Today, time to start planting out.
Two more holes dug for courgette plants. A spade deep, hit stony layer. Do courgettes self pollinate or do need two or more plants? Each plant has make and female flowers.
Tomato plants Alissa Craig.
Runner beans var Scarlet Emperor.
Watered in later. Water around the plants to encourage the roots into surrounding soil.
Spinach tomato and butterbean curry
April 15, 2021Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, cut side upwards in roasting tray, slosh of extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil, oven fan 200C for twenty minutes.
Peel and slice garlic and ginger, deseed and slice red chilli pepper, chop coriander, in pot with with oil, simmer for about a minute.
Add to the pot contents of curry spice pot.
Note: Contents of curry pot spices not curry powder.
- 1/2 tbsp dried turmeric
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
Add to the pot, rinsed butterbeans.
Add to the pot, coconut milk. Rinse tin, add a little water.
Simmer for around ten minutes.
In small saucepan half a mug of basmati rice, a mug of water, add cinnamon stick and two star anise, a pinch of salt, simmer for around ten minutes.
Remove from oven, add tomatoes to curry saucepan.
Rinse and add handfuls of spinach to the curry saucepan.
Remove cinnamon stick and the two star anise, drain the rice and serve.
Add contents of curry pot to the rice.
Tasty, but and a big but, somewhat bland and insipid. I think mistake was to add water to the curry.
A vegan dish, but I felt missing something. Maybe meat.
Shifting seasons
July 25, 2011Middle of July, if not earlier, wild blackberries were ripe and ready to eat. For the last few years I have found them along the River Wey flowing through Guildford end of July, early August, but never this early. The wild blackberries in my garden are also ready to eat and they are usually later than those along the River Wey. As a child we used to pick blackberries at Gibraltar Point on the Lincolnshire coast last two weeks of August.
Tomatoes in my garden variety Gardener’s Delight, planted out early May, have been turning red from mid-July, at least a week and a half ago. Yesterday evening I picked two for my tea. Delicious! I would not normally be picking until late August.
Discovery apples are ready for picking. These are the first season apples, light and crisp and juicy but have to be eaten within days of picking. The supermarkets prefer tasteless French Golden Delicious for long shelf life. According to growers, Discovery are weeks ahead of their usual picking times. [see The English apple ‘renaissance’]
I am looking forward to finding Discovery at the farmers market in Guildford next week, first Tuesday of the month.
My Father was picking Runner Beans from the garden for dinner end of June. These would normally be picked end of August.
And there are those who say global warming, climate chaos, does not exist!
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