Tomatoes

Heirloom Organic Tomatoes

We have reached the time of year when many of us have plenty of tomatoes ripening in the garden or greenhouse and they are also plentiful at the market or in the shops. My favourite way to eat good organic tomatoes or those out of the garden is a simple tomato salad. However, if you have a glut you might want to consider making a tomato confit which is also delicious.

The word confit comes from the French verb confire that means to preserve. A confit tends to be something that is cooked slowly and then preserved in the fat or oil it was cooked in. A tomato confit is made by slowly cooking tomatoes in olive oil, normally with garlic and thyme. It concentrates the flavour of the tomato by reducing the water content and they end up absolutely delicious. By putting them in a preserving jar and covering with olive oil and keeping in the fridge you will have tomato confit available for between a few days and maybe up to a month. You can eat them on their own, in a tart or as part of a salad or other recipe. I like adding them to grilled vegetables (courgettes, aubergines, mushrooms, red peppers etc). You can also eat them on toast like a form of brushetta.

Prepared tomatoes ready for slow roasting

Opinions differ on how to prepare tomatoes to make the confit. In Michelin star establishments they tend to peel the tomatoes and remove the membrane, seeds and jelly, thus just leaving the sweet flesh. Some amateurs leave all of the tomato intact and thus get a less refined result but keep some extra flavour and acidity.

Four different types of tomato confit

Last weekend I decided to see which I preferred the best. I prepared 32 tomatoes in total, eight I peeled and removed the centre, eight I peeled but left the centre intact, eight I did not peel but removed the centre and eight I left completely intact. The tomatoes were medium size and I quartered them. They were laid out on a baking sheet and I then sprinkled over a quarter cup of best quality extra virgin olive oil, 5 garlic cloves and a dozen small sprigs of thyme. They were then slow roasted at 100° C for three hours and then allowed to cool. It is was easy as that.

The next day we had a taste test with five of the family participating to decide which of the four variations we preferred. All were given high marks and were delicious. Top came the Michelin Star style prepared tomatoes with just the flesh. We definitely decided we preferred peeled tomatoes and the ones with the centre were good but different. They also required less work and there was less waste.

Ready for peeling

By the way, it is very easy to peel tomatoes if you use the following technique - cut a small cross in the skin at the bottom of each tomato. Then put these in a bowl and pour bowling water over them. Leave in the water for about 20 to 30 seconds and then remove. The tomatoes are then easy to peel, starting where you cut the cross.

Wine pairing will depend on the food accompaniment to the tomato confit, but you might want to at least consider a nice Italian red wine.

Piccalilli Recipe and Royal Wedding Street party

On the day of the recent Royal Wedding we had a street party from 2pm until 10pm. In all, we visited seven back gardens in our road and had a course and a drink in each. It was great fun and we met some neighbours we hadn’t really known before. In between courses we marched down the street to get to the next house.

We were the second course and served Jane’s gorgeous potted ham with some of my homemade piccalilli. Piccalilli is a mustard pickle and I prefer mine to be tangy rather than sweet and have a chilli hot flavour as well. It goes well with cold meats, cheese, sausages and burgers. It was very popular when I was young and seems to be undergoing a bit of a revival. For those who enjoyed my Piccalilli, here is the recipe (it took three seasons to perfect this).

Walking down the road between courses

Johnny’s Homemade Hot Tongham Piccalilli Recipe
Ingredients
Between 3.5 and 4 lb of mixed fresh vegetables including:
1 Cauliflower
A good handful of French beans
1 Cucumber
A good handful of Spring Onions
1 decent sized Courgette
1 Red pepper
Plus:
2 large medium hot Red Chillies (chopped)
2 fat cloves of Garlic (crushed)

Potted ham, bread and piccalilli

1.5 oz of Mustard Powder
2 tablespoons of Turmeric
Over 1.5 pints of White Wine Vinegar
Plus Store Cupboard ingredients such as:
Salt
Sugar
Plain Flour
Dijon or English Mustard
Malt Vinegar
Corn Flour

1. Clean and prepare the vegetables and then chop into small pieces. Put the vegetables into a large bowl and sprinkle with about 1 ounce of salt to dehydrate. Shake and then cover with cling film and leave overnight.
2. Drain off any liquid and then rinse thoroughly in cold water. Allow to dry.
3. Mix the flour and mustard powder with a little of the wine vinegar and make into a paste. Put into a large saucepan and add the rest of the white wine vinegar, chillies, garlic, turmeric and a generous 2 ounces of sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring a little to ensure the paste mixes in well. Add the chopped vegetables, bring back to the boil and simmer for a maximum of 15 minutes.
4. Allow to cool a little and then taste. It is important to have a nice bright yellow colour and a hot and sour taste. It must also have a thick consistency. Thus at this stage you need to achieve the right balance by adding some mustard, corn flour, sugar and malt vinegar.  If you add corn flour to thicken you will need to bring to a boil again in a little vinegar and stir but do not cook the vegetables any longer. Once done to your taste, allow to cool a little again so that you don’t burn yourself when trying to put in the jars.
5. Sterilise some old jam or honey jars, add the piccalilli and put the lids on.
6. You should store for at least 3 months in a cool and dark place before opening and tasting your delicious homemade Piccalilli.

Tongham Duck with Orange Sauce Recipe

Tongham Duck with Orange Reduction (makes a meal for two).

This is a great recipe and much easier than most traditional duck a l’orange recipes. You do not need an oven and you can do this with boneless duck breasts rather than a whole duck. Also no need for ingredients like marmalade which add to the cost.

Shopping List
2 Large Duck breasts off the bone but with skin on.
2 Juicy Oranges
About 250ml of fresh Chicken Stock

Store Cupboard Ingredients Required (check before you go shopping)
Dijon Mustard
Brown Sugar
Piment d’Espellette or Chilli Powder
Sea salt
Black Pepper

Step 1 – Starting the Sauce
First start the sauce by zesting or grating the skin (without pith) off of two oranges. Reserve this for later. Then halve the oranges and squeeze into a small saucepan. Add about 2 teaspoons of sugar and a heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

Step 2 – Preparing the Duck Breasts
Take both the duck breasts, dry on kitchen paper and score the skin deeply in a diamond pattern. Then season them both with plenty of freshly ground pepper and a little salt.

Step 3 – Cooking the Sauce
Take the saucepan of orange juice and bring to a rolling boil. Continue boiling until it has reduced by about one half.  Then add about the same quantity of chicken stock to the reduced orange juice and again bring to the boil and reduce by about a half. At this point start cooking the duck.  Taste and season the sauce as required with the chilli, salt and pepper. Taste again and adjust seasoning until satisfied. Add the orange zest and keep the sauce warm while cooking the duck.

Step 4 – Cooking the Duck
Pre-heat a frying pan to a high temperature and then put the duck breasts in skin side down and cook without turning for up to 7 minutes dependig on the breast size. Then turn the heat off and cover the pan. Leave to continue cooking and resting for a further 10 minutes.

Step 5 (optional) – Finishing the Sauce
If not worried about presentation you can serve the sauce as it is but if you want something more professional pass through a sieve or blitz in a Thermomix or food processor for one minute.

Step 6 – Plating Up
Take the duck breasts and carve into thick slices at a slight angle. Arrange each duck breast onto a plate and pour the sauce over the top. Add any vegetables and serve. Enjoy!



Duck with orange sauce and mash served with a Sweet Bordeaux wine

 Serving Suggestion – This goes well with my potato, parsnip and little gem mash. Take a 50/50 mixture of potatoes and parsnips and cut into pieces suitable for boiling (not too small). Put into a saucepan and cover with water and then bring to a boil and continue cooking until ready for mashing. Mash well and then add a little gem lettuce (or part of it) which has been sliced. Mash the lettuce, causing some wilting, into the parsnips and potatoes and then add seasoning and stir.

Alternative – This sauce also works well with pork, or why not try with chicken.

Wine Pairing - This will pair very well with Sauternes or other sweet Bordeaux wines.

Beer and Bruschetta

Everyone knows about my love of wine but my secret pleasure is watching Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me! It amazes me that some of these contestants exist and are willing to appear ridiculous on TV. The Edinburgh Come Dine with Me was rather a classic with a self styled cougar, a rock chic, an unfortunate young man constantly being harassed by the “cougar” , a Polish lady and an Italian food snob Toni. It was amusing to watch Toni criticise Michel for her rather un-Italian Tiramisu and then come up with a rather strange version of the Italian classic Bruschetta, himself . However, it did inspire me to cook a slightly more authentic Bruscetta this lunchtime (shame that I had no Italian bread) and as ever at lunchtime I went for a beer pairing rather than wine.

For this quick but delicious lunch I diced three medium tomatoes per person and added some salt and fresh herbs. I then toasted some bread and rubbed the bread with a garlic clove. The tomatoes were added to the bread and some olive oil (or in my case rapeseed oil) and good quality balsamic vinegar (but not too much) sprinkled on top.

The beer was another excellent bottle conditioned beer from the Hammerpot brewery which like the other I reviewed recently had a lovely historic motor racing themed label – this one was a 1952 Cooper-Bristol just like local hero Mike Hawthorn used to drive. The beer was Madgwick Gold, a lovely hoppy golden ale, quite light but the citrus undertones matched well with the tomatoes. In Tongham we are blessed with our own excellent brewery but it is always nice to try others as well such as this beautiful example from Sussex. We bought it in Secrett’s farmshop but it is available elsewhere – do try some.

Never watched Come Dine With Me, look it up on www.channel4.com/programmes/come-dine-with-me.  A guilty pleasure but fun!

Recipe for Mushrooms Feuilleté

(2 large starter servings or 2 light lunch servings)


We were surprised how many of you really enjoyed the mushrooms at the Champagne Gala Fundraising Dinner this September at Tongham Village Hall. In the absence of Jane sharing her recipe at present, here is a recipe I did one Valentine’s Day for Jane – it was very good, even though I say that myself. It is a good way of using up any left-over puff pastry. I was once a vegetarian and this developed my love of mushrooms and cooking them. This recipe shows you how to properly twice cook mushrooms and how to make a nice mushroom stock and also a mushroom sauce without cream. Credit must go to Paul Gayler whose excellent Vegetarian Cookbook taught me how to make a good mushroom stock; the version below is simplified a little. Also mention must go to Patricia Wells and her wonderful Paris Cookbook that first taught me the proper way to twice cook mushrooms à la Frederic Anton.

Shopping List
400g of Cheap Basic Mushrooms
2 Shallots or 1 medium onion
2 Tomatoes
1 large clove Garlic
1 bunch Parsley (preferably Flat Leaf)
Ready Made Puff Pastry
250g Chestnut Mushrooms
2 large knobs of butter

Store Cupboard Ingredients required (Check before you go shopping!)
Olive Oil
Tomato Puree
Soy Sauce
Salt & pepper

Step 1 – Make the stock for the sauce (this can be done the previous night if preferred)

Take 400g of cheap basic mushrooms and roughly chop.

Chop 2 shallots or one medium onion finely.

Peel and chop 1 large clove of garlic.

Roughly chop 2 tomatoes.

Cut the stalks off of a bunch of parsley and then chop the stalks.

Add one tablespoon of Olive Oil into a very large saucepan and bring to medium heat.

Add the chopped shallot and garlic and sweat for a few minutes until soft, without browning.

Add the 400g of chopped mushrooms, bring up the heat, and stir until they have gone brown and released their liquid.

Add the chopped tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato puree and the chopped parsley stalks.

Add a pint of water and turn up the heat.

Bring to a rolling boil and continue boiling for 25 to 30 minutes (it depends on the pan) until well reduced (it needs to taste quite concentrated).

Add 2 good slugs of soy sauce and stir.

Taste and season with salt, pepper and soy sauce as required.

Sieve the stock into another saucepan, pressing down in the sieve to ensure you get all of the good stock out of the vegetables and let cool. The contents of the sieve can be discarded as all the flavours have been cooked out. You will need the stock in Step 4.

Step 2 – Making the “Feuilleté”

Roll out the ready-made puff pastry.

Cut out 2 three-inch squares. Other shapes such as triangles or circles also work well. Make a smaller square, not cut all the way through, in each pastry square, to form a border.

Bake in the oven according to the instructions on the packet.

Step 3 – Prepare the Mushrooms and Herbs.

Take most of the parsley leaves, leaving a few whole to decorate the plate later, and chop (not too finely). Reserve until step 5.

Take 250g of Chestnut Mushrooms and thinly slice.

Fry the mushrooms in a little olive oil until they begin to lose most of their liquid.

Put to one side.

Step 4 – Prepare the Sauce

Take the stock you prepared earlier and heat in a small saucepan to just below boiling and then stir in a knob of butter; continue to stir until you have a shiny rich sauce. Taste and add seasoning if required.

Step 5 – Finish Cooking the Mushrooms.

Add a knob of butter to a frying pan and bring up to a reasonably high heat.

Add the mushrooms and stir whilst cooking for about 2 minutes.

At the end, stir in the chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 6 – Plating Up.

Put the mushrooms on each plate.

Add some sauce to the mushrooms.

Place the puff pastry delicately on top.

Decorate with some whole parsley leaves.

Serve and enjoy!

Alternative serving suggestion - If you’re not a fan of puff pastry, serve on some toasted brioche or other toasted bread. If not a fan of Parsley then try Tarragon or Chervil. At this time of the year you could substitute any Wild Mushrooms for the Chestnut Mushrooms. If you have other mushrooms such as Shitake or Portabello use can these in the stock; they add more flavour but make it more expensive.

Wine Pairing – This goes very nicely with a Blanc de Noirs Champagne. Otherwise try a Pinot Noir (e.g. Burgundy, Oregon or New Zealand) or a Cabernet Franc (e.g. a Chinon or Bourgueil from the Loire). If you are a confirmed white wine drinker, try a Chardonnay.