Welcome to Smith's Kitchen

FOR CAKES, BAKES AND OTHER TASTY TREATS

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Too many tomatoes?

No, there's no such thing as TOO many tomatoes. The trick is to be clever with what you do with them. Yes there's Greek Salad, tomato salad, bruschetta and a basic tomato sauce to use with pasta. But what about a hot and spicy salsa to top some corn fritters? Now there's a summer treat if you ever had one. Tomato relish? You keep the love for longer. And that tomato sauce - make a big batch and freeze it. Faced with a glut of tomatoes and being a touch greedy, I didn't really want to give any away I headed to my trusty tome, Nigel Slater: Tender Volume 1.

Home grown garlic
It's one of my favourite books for finding new and innovative ways to prepare vegetables from the kitchen garden. He treats each vegetable to it's own chapter, with an introduction detailing his love and experience of the veg, then talks about how it grows it, perfect flavour pairings and then he shares some of his recipes. With said glut of tomatoes I wanted to do more than make a salad, so to the book I went. He offers up a very simple dish of Baked Tomatoes with Chilli and Coconut. Well the tomatoes aren't baked in the oven, they are cooked on the hob but it does pack a punch with chilli and it contains coconut for a fabulous creaminess. Tomato Curry would be a much more appropriate name for it - as that's basically what it is - a delicious bowl of lycopene (which is really good for you) chilli and coconut.  It is packed with a heady mix of garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander, turmeric, cumin and cardamon seeds, lots of tomatoes and creamed coconut and that's it. For the full recipes you will need to click here: Baked Tomatoes with chilli and conconut and scroll down a bit. It is seriously good. Served topped with chopped coriander, some rice and perhaps a warmed roti - there's dinner.

Tomato Curry: baked tomatoes with chilli and coconut


Wednesday 22 August 2012

It's back and it's great

You've gotta love the Great British Bake Off. Drama, suspense, great personalities and the will they, won't they rise? I was particularly impressed with last night's episode as they had to tackle bread and quite tough ones too. Plaiting bread with 8 strands - now there's a challenge. But it sorts out the winners and losers and sadly one had to go. It's given me a renewed enthusiasm for trying my hand at bagels. Not sure about plaiting bread yet - maybe a three stand loaf.

Keep watching as the competition hots up, as Paul keeps his keen eye on the bakers and Mary - well you can't but love Mary. And of course Mel and Sue - they can divide opinion, but I think that this vehicle suits them perfectly. What with the Great British Bake Off and The Accused - Tuesday night is now officially telly night.
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