T is for Tomatoes

French food alphabet advent calendar

Welcome to my French Food Alphabet Advent Calendar where I am working my way through a selection of delicious food posts; some are regional specialities, some are my personal favourite foods, some posts include recipes, but all are linked to French food and drink. I hope you are enjoying your virtual tastings.

It’s the 20^th December and T is for Tomatoes.

Tomatoes are a very important part of our semi-self sufficient life in France; from the seed sowing in March, to looking after the tender seedlings in April, to planting out in May, to watering, weeding and side-shooting in June, to (hopefully) starting to harvest from July. That is when the fun in the kitchen begins. We try to grow at least three different varieties and usually have around fifty tomato plants each year. Some will be small and sweet cherry tomatoes, some are pretty and colourful varieties that are perfect for salads and some are grown for their size, quantity and flavour and are ideal for roasting, puréeing and freezing. This delicious red elixir is then used in pasta dishes, casseroles, soups and as pizza toppings throughout the year.

It is obvious that I love tomatoes, but I have a secret, I only eat home grown tomatoes. Out of season I never buy them as I just don’t like the taste, in fact as a child I didn’t think I liked them at all. It was only when someone gave us some tomato seedlings about 15 years ago that I realised they could taste nice and were worth eating. Now I couldn't imagine a summer without them.

Here are some links to my favourite tomato recipes: tomato ketchup, tomato chutney and tomato and chilli jam.

T is also for Terrine de porc and Tourteau, a cheesecake speciality of our local area.

Don’t forget to pop back tomorrow for the letters U and V (well there are 26 letters and only 24 days). If you have missed my previous advent posts you can catch up by clicking on the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R and S.

Farewell to the summer garden

The weather has turned and the season has changed, so we have taken the first steps towards putting the potager to bed for the winter. There are still the Brussels sprouts for Christmas, some lettuces, the Jerusalem artichokes and a few beetroots, but the tomatoes were struggling and so were the courgettes and squash. This is the earliest we have ever had to give up and just thinking that doesn’t do much to improve my mood on a dark, damp day. We have harvested all the green tomatoes, most of which were turned into tomato and apple chutney (there are still a few apples to harvest too) and the baby squash were roasted for a soup. I am hoping the larger squash will store for a little while longer, they do make a delicious soup but I like the idea of using them as a fresh vegetable for as long as possible. I am really pleased with my Longue de Nice squash and with three of them weighing a combined ten kilos of firm orange flesh (similar to a Butternut squash) I predict lots of curries this autumn.

Longue de Nice squash

As usual the weeds have taken over in the potager, possibly more so this year - an unfortunate side effect of too much time spent cycling and not enough time spent gardening. However it was such a fantastic summer I’m not really complaining. Getting the plot ready for next spring will be hard work and we really could do with some good old-fashioned muck to improve the soil. We both felt that although we have harvested quite a bit from the garden the yields could have been better. We have a compost heap that provides some goodness for the plot and all the plants from the potager we have pulled up have been added to it, with grass cuttings, leaves and kitchen scraps, but there is never enough. It is at this time of year that I think a piglet would be the perfect answer. Fenced into the potager he or she could spend the winter weeding, rotivating and adding muck with very little effort on my part. Just thinking about the size and quantity of courgettes next year that would go so well with a pork chop is making me hungry. Enough of my dreaming, I have a huge vase full of parsley from my neighbour that is destined to become the star ingredient in a batch of pesto that will also use up some of last year’s walnuts. It is just a shame it hasn't stopped raining for long enough to pick and dry many of this years walnuts – I am not a fan of cold, wet autumns. 

At least wet days mean reading days and this weekend, as well as celebrating Ed’s 13^th birthday, I will be indulging in some book therapy at the Hope Association Book Sale – thousands of second hand books on sale all at 1euro with proceeds going to local animal charities. I will be there on Friday, so only two sleeps to go.

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Tomato and Chilli Jam

Early autumn is one of my favourite times of year to be in the kitchen, cooking away the end of summer blues and knowing there will be lots of homemade goodies to indulge in over winter. Here is another great tomato recipe, a sweet and hot tomato and chilli jam that makes a great marinade for meats, zings up a stir-fry as well as spicing up the Christmas day cheese platter.

Tomato and Chilli Jam

1kg ripe tomatoes, skins removed

Fresh chilli peppers (to your taste, I use at least 8)

8 cloves of garlic

600g Demerera sugar

2tbsp Soy sauce or Worchester Sauce

235ml red wine vinegar

Chop the tomatoes and add to a food processor with the peeled garlic, the Soy sauce and the chillies (chopped but with seeds). Blend to a mush. Pour this and the vinegar into a large heavy bottomed saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously to dissolve the sugar. Once boiled, turn the heat to low and leave to simmer, stirring every 10 minutes to keep from sticking. It is ready to pour into sterilised jars when a channel remains on the bottom of the pan after stirring with a wooden spoon.

For an alternative version with courgette (zucchini) rather than tomatoes, blend the chillies, garlic and soy sauce and add to 1kg grated courgette and the vinegar in the pan, then add the sugar and continue as above. This obviously doesn’t have the deep red colour of the tomato version, it is more of a murky brown, but the flavour and texture are superb and it is another way of using up courgettes.

Tomato Chutney

I have been enjoying myself in the kitchen today, despite – or maybe because of, the horrid, squally, damp weather outside. At least I won’t need to worry about watering the potager today, and probably tomorrow too. My first task this morning was a batch of tomato chutney, which is another good way of preserving the glut of tomatoes and adding a bit of summer sunshine to a winter cheese or cold meat platter.

Tomato love

Ingredients for two jars of chutney

1,375g tomatoes

225g onions

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli, seeded if you wish

175g demerara sugar

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp mixed spice

pinch of salt

115g raisins (I used my own dried cherries which have given it an unusual pink colour)

140ml white distilled vinegar

Skin and roughly chop the tomatoes and add to a pan with the finely chopped onions and crushed garlic. Cook until it is a thick purée. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally until reduced to a thick consistency with no remaining liquid. Pour into sterilised jars and cover. As with all chutney, it is best left in a cool dark cupboard for at least two weeks and will keep for at least six months. Once opened refrigerate and enjoy.

Tomato Chutney

Tomato Ketchup

We are at that time of year when things are busy, busy, busy in the kitchen. As well as the courgettes (zucchini), there is no shortage of tomatoes to be preserved and stored for winter and the recipe I chose for today was Roasted Tomato Ketchup, from Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2 by Pam Corbin. It is delicious (like all of the recipes I have tried from this book) and will be perfect for our next burger night. If you have some tomatoes or passata, do give this recipe a try as the flavour is so much better than shop bought ketchup.

Roasted Tomato Ketchup

1 litre of roast tomato passata
100ml cider vinegar
50ml lemon juice
1 heaped tsp of celery salt
1 heaped tsp of mustard powder
1 heaped tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp of ground cloves
100g demerara sugar

Put the passata, vinegar, lemon juice and spices into a heavy based pan. Bring to a simmer then add the sugar. Sir until dissolved then simmer, stirring occasionally, until it has reached a thick, but pourable consistency. Pam writes this should take 25 to 30 minutes, but I found it was nearer 50 minutes for me this morning.

Pour into warm, sterilised bottles or jars and seal with vinegar proof lids. Use within four months and once opened store in the fridge.

On a fruity note we are reaching the end of the plums and pears so instead of gorging on them all day, every day we are treating them like rare treats. Thankfully there are plenty of apples for cakes, tarts and chutneys, and the first of the peaches was ripe and ready to replace the pears for my breakfast this morning. I have got lots of dried plums (and cherries) put away for winter mornings and some of them will be added to my mincemeat. Much as I hate to talk about Christmas in September, now is the perfect time to make your mincemeat to give it time to mature for the perfect mince pies. I will post my recipe next week.

Burgers, Chips and Pizza

We are now at the end of what has been a perfect summer holiday and we are all a little glum that summer can’t last forever. Ed is back to school tomorrow and Ade back to running training courses next week, leaving me plenty of time on my hands to flit from one outstanding task to another and probably achieve very little. To make the end of the holiday feel special I have given Ed control over what we will be eating this week, with the exception of Friday as we always have moules frites on Friday. Top of his list were burgers, sausages, chips and pizza – no surprise that courgette (zucchini) didn’t appear. Food should be a comforting thing that makes your mind and belly feel happy so I have no problem in indulging his wishes. However I wasn’t ready to hit the frozen ready meal section of the local supermarket, oh no, it’s all homemade here, if possible.

100% minced beef burgers

Last night was meat feast BBQ night. The burgers were from the meat counter at the local supermarket where we watched the steaks of beef enter the mincer machine and appear as thick, pressed burgers the other end. The sausages were from a local pig-keeping friend and made on their premises last weekend. To accompany the meat we had a garden grown tomato salad, homemade oven chips, my special sweet courgette relish (see here) and griddled courgettes (he may get to choose the menu, but he can’t escape the courgettes).

Tonight is pizza night; the tomatoes have been roasted with garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and put through the press to leave a delicious tomato purée. This is a daily task for us at the moment and the freezer is filling nicely with pots of puréed tomatoes that will be used all winter for pasta dishes, casseroles, soups as well as pizzas. The toppings tonight include some leftover chicken from the weekend roast, sausages that didn’t get eaten last night, fresh made pesto (see here) and butter sautéed courgettes. Here is my pizza dough recipe. This makes enough for three thin 20cm round pizzas.

Homemade French Village pizza

½ teaspoon of dried yeast

300g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of olive oil

170 ml of water

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the olive oil and warmed water. Bring together to form a dough, then turn onto a floured surface and knead for about ten minutes until smooth and elastic. Form into a ball shape and place in a greased bowl or cake tin, cover with cling film and a towel and leave to rise for at least an hour. Divide into three equal balls and form the bases of the pizzas. Place on baking trays and add your favourite toppings. Bake in a very hot oven for about ten minutes, until the dough is just crispy enough and the cheese nicely melted. We always add an egg for the last two minutes of cooking, but this is optional.

Roasted tomato puree

Amazon have a similar looking (but smaller) tomato press called the Passata Machine but mine was brought from a local store by my parents.