A tidal wave of tomatoes

Lately it has been tomato season and I have harvested kilos of cherry tomatoes from the allotment. Even without being staked and with impending blight in the area, this has presented me with a problem of how to use so many in one go when we are traveling often or deadline with deadlines.

Nature has her own deadlines though so I had to get creative.  Clearly there are the standard roast tomatoes, tomato sauces that can be frozen. But there is only so much space in our 3 freezers and they are pretty much full! So I've made Mexican inspired brunches (sort of Huevos Rancheros without the chilli) which is essentially chopped fried tomatoes and onions, whatever vegetables you might have to hand (here I used peas) with a well made for an egg in the middle - a really filling breakfast that is low calorie and healthy.

I also made ketchup which, to be honest, doesn't taste anything like the Heinz ketchup I am used to but is tasty none the less.

Ingredients
1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
Chilli flakes to taste
Pickling spices
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 cloves
Sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup soft brown sugar
Place all the vegetables in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with a big splash of olive oil and the garlic, chili flakes, coriander seeds and cloves. Season with the pepper and a good pinch of salt.

Cook gently over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until softened, stirring every so often. Add all the tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half.

Blend the sauce in a food processor or with a hand blender. Put the sauce into a clean pan and add the vinegar and the sugar. Place the sauce on the heat and simmer until it reduces and thickens to the consistency of tomato ketchup. At this point, correct the seasoning to taste.

Spoon the ketchup through a funnel into sterilized bottles, then seal tightly and place in a cool dark place or the refrigerator until needed - it should keep for 6 months.

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* Sterilizing Jars Tips:

To sterilize jars before filling with jams, pickles or preserves, wash jars and lids with hot, soapy water. Rinse well and arrange jars and lids open sides up, without touching, on a tray. Boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan, covered with water, for 15 minutes.

Or else pop some water in and microwave them.

As a rule, hot preserves go into hot jars and cold preserves go into cold jars.

Delicious ideas from a pop up restaurant

Mike and Ollie are a favourite in my area - they can be found at the excellent Brockley Market and there is also a pop up restaurant.   Wonderfully seasonal (though mackerel, beetroot and pork belly seem to have featured every time I'e been!) and often featuring foraged finds, this was my third visit to the pop up restaurant. The venues vary - once in Deptford Project's train cafe, once in live work units in New Cross Gate and this time in the badlands of Camberwell, my old stomping ground.

You know the drill, 20 or so people are entertained with amazing food (4 courses and a cocktail) supplemented by copious wine all for the price of a blow out meal at La Strada. What's not to like?

The food was great and I will definitely be trying to recreate the sweet pickled heritage beetroot (white, golden, chioggia and 'normal'). I was also really impressed with the delicious and almost portable scallop served in its shell with roast new potatoes, peas, wild garlic, butter and hollandaise sauce.

It is by reaching out and trying new things that you discover better or different ways of doing things. A volunteering stint at the Telegraph Hill Festival introduced me to someone who does French speaking evenings, a great jewellery designer which uses old books (trainstopjewellery.etsy.com), made a felted soap (something I had no idea I wanted to make until I saw how much fun it was!) and discovered a simple recipe for a citrus gluten free cake.

Instead of just using the juice of the citrus, you boil the whole fruit up for 2 hours and then take the pips out and blitz the rest (pulp and all). The house smells divine and it adds extra moistness. Perfect.  I adapted the recipe which is for a Clementine Cake on Smitten Kitchen (which in turn is an adaptation of Nigella's recipe) to use lemons and limes instead of the Clementines and added a touch more sugar to balance the added tartness.  Delicious. Even if I do say so myself.

Invasion of the triffids/ giant artichokes

Well not triffids at all really. Just enormous Jerusalem artichokes. Maybe because they have been in the ground for a long time or were grown from good sized tubers. Whatever the reason, they are at least twice the size of the last 2 years (those are kitchen scissors by the way not teeny tiny scissors chosen to skew the scale).

Last weekend I cleared some snow away (along with some cat or fox 'gifts' - yuk) to unearth over 4kg of artichokes. And I still have more than twice that to harvest still. So I will have to be quite creative in using them up.

I first decided to use some of them as an alternative topping for a weight watchers fish pie. It worked brilliantly even if next time I would boil and slice them thinly rather than try to mash them which had mixed results.

I also shaved them with a cheese slice and layered them with garlic, creme fraiche and feta for a bake to go with a haggis we are eating to celebrate burns night.

Finally, I also made this great tray roast of Jerusalem Artichokes, chicken and lemon from Yotam Ottolenghi's fabulous book 'Jerusalem'. You can find a copy of the recipe here.  I omitted the tarragon and peppercorns and substituted preserved lemons for fresh ones as I have some I need to use up.

Along with the the haggis it is traditional to have 'neeps and tatties' - potatoes and swede (not turnips as one would logically assume). As luck would have it I still have a swede lurking I the garden as a refugee from the Christmas over catering experience. I mashed half of it and turned the other half into chips (Morrisons have a good recipe here). No potatoes as health kick is still ongoing.

I have also signed up to attend a local baking event in March. the theme is British Classics. I am currently debating between all time classics (scones/ shortbreads etc) OR savoury (game pie/ pasties) OR a historic slant (long lost puddings like Deptford pudding)).  I would do a Woolton pie except it was developed in the war as 'nutricious and economical'. Not sure I want to make my debut with a ration book creation...