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

National Marmalade Week

I normally yawn when I hear of yet another "National Week" usually dreamt up by someone like me who works in PR, but this one is different. It celebrates the most delicious of toast toppings - marmalade. Anyone who has read my blog will know that there's a special place in my heart for the sweet and tangy stuff. Call me Paddington Bear if you like, I just love it. So to celebrate this most auspicious week, I baked a cake - a Marmalade Cake. Originally a recipe from Nigel Slater in the Kitchen Diaries. I used my very own homemade marmalade and the grated citrus of a blood orange.Well the proof is in the pudding as the saying goes and here's the pictorial proof - now to eat!

To check out more about Marmalade Week and the World's Original Marmalade Awards (that were held last weekend), follow this link:

http://www.marmaladeawards.com/festival/2012/01/664/national-marmalade-week/

Oooh Betty

No, this isn't a personal homage to Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em Betty or Betty Turpin (of Coronation Street fame).  I've been baking a Betty. A homely, traditional baked pudding that you can imagine granny making for Sunday lunch (and one that I'm sure Betty Turpin would have loved too).  

So what exactly is a betty?  It's an American dessert that dates back to Colonial American time.  A ‘betty’ is a baked pudding, made with layers of sweetened and spiced fruit and buttered bread crumbs. I have also seen it referred to as a Brown Betty and in my research have discovered that Apple Brown Betty was apparently a favourite of Ronald and Nancy Regan.

For my star turn last Sunday I baked an Apple and Blackberry Betty. Apple and blackberries are cooked in a little butter topped with soft white breadcrumbs mixed with brown sugar and then drizzled with melted butter and golden syrup. For the full recipe you need to consult Nigel Slater's book, Tender: A cooks guide to the fruit garden. http://www.nigelslater.com/tender_volume-two.asp

It was fabulous with ice cream and was more crispy and crunchy than a traditional apple crumble. There was a spoon or two left over and it was just as good served cold, not that there will be many left overs.

I've got one thing to say to you Kimmy, "Chocolate Ginger Cake"

Combining two of my favourite flavours and upon special  request I attempted a Chocolate Ginger Cake. Lucy (who has been freelancing in our office) left work on Thursday and like all special occasions, I mark it by baking a cake. This time upon request. There are a number of recipes for chocolate and ginger cake - but no one in particular grabbed me. I love Nigel Slater's Ginger Cake and the icing from Nigella's Choco-ginger (as well as the idea of chocolate drops from another recipe) so I set about adapting both and making my own additions. Leaving out the sultanas and adding in chopped up 70% dark chocolate (Green and Black's no less) removing a touch of the flour and replacing with cocoa - and then the most fabulous touch of all, added ginger beer to the chocolate icing. It was done. Moist, rich and a little dense but ever-so divine. We scoffed it the office like gannets. There were a couple of bits left for me and Karl at home. We popped them in the microwave for 30 seconds and topped with ice cream. OMG. I will be doing that again very soon. Recipe will be appearing on my website soon.