Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
703
Herself is cooking a couple of sirloin steaks. These are the first from the online order from a butcher two counties away. The butcher sources his meat from a single farm just a few miles from his shop. Simon and Charlotte Duerden are at Mountain View Farm, Barley, Lancashire. So, I can tell you that these are from grass fed Limousins, slaughtered at a small place also local and then aged for 21 days. I’m looking forward to it. We’ll have them with saute potatoes and green beans dressed with some of the confit tomatoes we made last week.
Cheese - we still have a couple from the bargain buy a couple of weeks back. Stilton and a German smoked cheese
For dessert - trifle. It’s basically this recipe (a new one for us) although I couldnt get fresh blackcurrants, so I’m using a frozen mix of black & red currants and blackberries.
Ok, I decided to follow instructions for Nigel’s tomato.
I , cored, placed an ex on tomato, dropped them in boiling water, 5 or 6 at a time, shocked in ice water, skin slipped off easily, carved out seeds
with small teaspoon.
Then I added sugar that I grind to make it castor sugar, salt, peppercorn, bay leaf, olive oil , herbs and roasted it in oven for 3 hours. Since I was not using my small Wolff countertop oven , I thought there is enough space to roast Kirkland’s peeled garlic in EVOO ,charred and skinned 3 sweet pepper separately as the needed less cooking time, stuck them in oven with EVOO, garlic and herbs . I eyeball the amount of ingredients suggested by Nigel to the tomatoes as usual .
First picture is harvest for 2 days ( still think perhaps my son was thinking of having a vegetable stand by the roadside. I wander how he expects me to eat all those tomatoes? I have given away quite a bit but personally, can only eat one tomato a day). so I processed a tray of tomatoes, the rest, I will freeze so he can cook his tomato sauce in the winter.
My take? Too much work , too costly electricity wise, taste good but too much juice. Other than using it for pasta,
Sorry, do not know how it got sent before I finished.
Continuation: Other than using it for pasta, ( like to use cherry tomatoes , cooked in EVOO with garlic and herbs till they burst) adding it to some cold turkey or chicken breast ( but I just love eating the with a smear of mayo and fresh tomato), I was thinking of using the cooked tomato for a recipe I saw a few days ago, topping it on puffed pasta sheets with some of the roasted bell peppers, have some blistered shishito peppers, maybe some olives today but I think the tomatoes are too watery compared to not peeling the skin as the process of dropping it in hot boiling water even for a few seconds may have contributed to the watery tomatoes. I do love Serious Eats Lopez’ recipe for tomato sauce cooked in oven for 3 hours as well but I use good canned tomato for that and he suggested cooking it in French oven with the lid cracked open, and perhaps, that technique cooked down the juice. I am back to not peeling tomatoes but just slicing them and scooping up the seeds. I guess I have to change my menu for guest today, perhaps use those cherry tomatoes to make a pasta dish with shrimp, (?), have not made up my mind.
I have not peeled tomatoes that way. since the 70’s when I used to make ratatouille. I find it too cumbersome but last night, decided to do so, following Nigel’s recipe. Too much work, and tomato came out too watery. I do not mind the skin at all. The Souther tomato pie turned out excellent esp when I lined the bottom of the pie crust with cheese to absorb any moisture.
I really have never noticed any difference in tomato texture when peeling this way. The tomato is in the water for under 10 seconds. And immediately cooled in plain water until I’m ready to use it.
(Will someone point me to the “Nigel method” that is so time and energy consuming? Thanks.)
It was time consuming especially although it is not difficult if you have a method.
I processed. my tomatoes by coring, placing an x on the bottom, lowered into boiling water for a minute or less, then ice bath and skin just peel off. However, I feel that texture is fine without peeling and less watery . The extra work made my kitchen floor dirtier. Had to steam clean them today.
Anyway, I invited my new neighbors over for early dinner, used the tomato, the charred sweet pepper, also Also added bursting cherry tomatoes stir fried with EVOO , garlic and herbs, , caramelized onion and shishito peppers stir fried until they blistered, assembled on a puff pastry shell which I prebaked with 4 kinds of cheese and a quarter cup of mayonnaise on top. It was a hit!!! I am sorry I forgot to take picture as I had just met them for th e first time and did not want to explain why I am taking pictures. Also offered red wine but they declined.
meatn3
(equal opportunity eater in the NC Triangle)
717
That is the method I’ve always used for peeling tomatoes.I don’t recall feeling it was that time consuming. I didn’t feel it made the tomatoes watery - they drained in a fine mesh collander once removed from the ice bath & prior to peeling them.
I think the skin of the tomatoes available was tougher in the past. Todays tomatoes have tender enough skin that I seldom feel the need to peel them. Oddly enough, I find tough skin on cherry tomatoes much more often than on other varieties. There is no way I would skin a quantity of chery tomatoes!
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
719
Smoked haddock from the local smokehouse is going into kedgeree.
It’s originally an Anglo-Indian dish which found its way on to the middle/upper class British breakfast table in the 19th century. Now, of course, firmly a dinner dish.
Two dozen meatballs from a mix of ground chuck 80/20, sweet and hot sausage (taken out of their casings) fortified with Italian bread crumbs, eggs, garlic, onion powder, s&p. It was then roasted in the oven @375 degrees for 30 minutes and then into the pot of fresh cut up tomatoes (from my neighbor’s garden).
Sauce with lots of chopped garlic, red and yellow onion, fresh basil, oregano, turmeric, red pepper flakes S&P, rinds saved from my chunk of Parmigiano.
The meatballs are now cooking in the sauce and will probably be WFD tonight.
I really do like roasting the meatballs in the oven first, and you can see from the picture most of the bad fat is cooked off and captured, eliminating it from the sauce.
What time is dinner 