Italian-style salad two ways

A while ago I've been reading one of the threads on Mumsnet where the poster was asking why you could never find tomatoes as good as she had in Greece in this country. I was rather flummoxed.
Who said there are no good tomatoes anywhere else but in Greece?

I prefer to buy British tomatoes, for example, grown at the Isle of Wight.
And I also grow my own tomatoes, and have been for about 10 years. The tomatoes from our greenhouse are the sweetest little things.
Both my grandmas and auntie grew a lot of vegetables including tomatoes in their gardens in Russia. Italian produce could be excellent. So, excuse me, I'm not rubbishing the Greek tomatoes, but you need to be more broad-reaching.
Of course, if you tend to buy cheap plastic-looking tomatoes, then yes, they don't taste good.

Tomatoes are one of my top favourite fruit, they are versatile and could liven up any salad or pasta dish.
Right now, you can buy beautiful heirloom tomatoes of all shapes and colours.

In summer I tend to make simple salads for dinner, adding whatever I have in the pantry or fridge, so they often vary. Tomatoes go well with many kinds of dressing - a simple vinaigrette, or basil-based dressing.
The easiest salad I enjoy is a mix of tomatoes and cucumber with soured cream and mayo combination, well seasoned, and with a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

The latest Degustabox food box included a bottle of Newman's Own Italian Dressing. I rarely buy salad dressings, as I prefer to mix my own, or just drizzle a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad.
Newman's Own Italian Dressing is their best-selling original dressing made with red wine vinegar, rapeseed oil, olive oil (17%), extra virgin olive oil (2%) and garlic puree. Its ingredients also include white wine vinegar, salt, cracked black pepper, dried onion, brown mustard seeds, spirit vinegar and celery seeds. You need to shake it well before using. It's suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Italian-style two ways
Ingredients (approximate quantities, as I didn't measure anything)
3-4 big good quality tomatoes
a handful of leaf salad
100g or half a pack of green beans, cooked in salted boiling water
a handful of olives
a few forkfuls of artichoke hearts (pre-cooked)
a dressing of your choice
+
half a tin of tuna chunks
or goat's cheese (vegetarian, e.g. Capricorn)

Slice tomatoes, and season with salt. I remember reading that the tomatoes acquire better flavour if you season them in advance and leave in a bowl for about 15-20 minutes before adding the remaining ingredients. Not sure whose advice it was, but it was one of famous chefs.

Then start adding leaf salad, cooked and cooled green beans, artichokes, olives and either tuna chunks or goat's cheese. For a vegan version, add a vegan cheese.

Add a dressing of your choice, for example, Newman's Own Italian Dressing, which adds a lovely acidic note.

This is the vegetarian version with goat's cheese.

And this is a tuna salad, with the same base, and minus cheese.

Oven-dried tomatoes with herbs and garlic

My tomatoes in the greenhouse have gone totally out of control, we just cannot catch up with all the produce. Salads, roasted veggies, soups... but I also fancied some sort of preserves, maybe a tomato jam, or pickles.

Then I happened to find a recipe for oven-dried tomatoes on Sainsbury's magazine site and knew I really fancied trying it.

Oven-dried tomatoes with herbs and garlic
ingredients:
800g mixed cherry or baby plum tomatoes
1 bulb of garlic
a handful of fresh thyme
a sprig of fresh rosemary
500ml bottle of olive oil
sea salt, black pepper

Slice the tomatoes in halves and place in a big tray or ceramic dish with the sliced herbs. Drizzle 3 tbsp of olive oil over the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Toss them a bit, but keep all the tomatoes cut-side up.

Place the tray in the oven preheated to 120C. Now, according to the recipe online, they should be in the oven for up to 3 and a half hours. As my tomatoes were small sized ones, they shrank pretty well after 2 and a half hours. I added the garlic cloves in skins for the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Put the tomatoes and garlic in the sterilized jars, and pour the warmed oil over the tomatoes.
I have used the whole bottle of olive oil, as I thought it will be lovely, all infused with the tomato and garlic flavours, and I can use it later for salad dressings.
Seal the jar and keep in the cool place for a few days before you use the tomatoes.
Don't add any fresh herbs to the jar, they need to be dried in the oven, or they get mouldy in the jar.
I love roasted garlic, so added a whole bulb.
What do you do with the tomato glut?

Chickpea and tomato salad

We've been eating salads every day for the last week. I'm trying to vary the ingredients and flavours. The weather has been so warm and close some days, that we don't fancy anything hot. Salads are perfect for summer, and it is a pleasure to have a dinner outdoors, in the garden. I had a tin of chickpeas in the pantry for about six months, I think it was delivered with one of Abel & Cole soup boxes. It was time to do something with it. A chickpea and tomato salad sounded just about right.

Chickpea and tomato salad
Ingredients;
1 tin of chickpeas (400g tin, 240g drained weight)
2 medium tomatoes
a small bunch of parsley
15 mixed olives
4 heaped tbsp of canned sweetcorn
100g feta cheese, cubed
a handful of sundried tomatoes
2tbsp olive oil
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

It couldn't be simpler: drain and rinse the chickpeas in the cold water. Chop the tomatoes and cube the feta cheese. Mix all the ingredients together, with the added finely chopped parsley, mixed olives, sweetcorn and sundried tomatoes. Mix the olive oil with the zest and juice of half a lemon, and pour over the salad, mix it again and serve with a chunk of bread.

What are your favourite summer meals? Are you also eating lots of salads?

Adding my simple salad recipe to KitchenClearout July Linky on Madhouse Family Reviews blog, since I used a tin of chickpeas which was collecting dust in the kitchen for a while.

Baked okra in tomato and soured cream sauce

As my darling husband is off gallivanting tonight, i.e. going to the high table at his college, I fancied something vegetarian for dinner. I wasn't sure what I was going to cook and was just browsing the veggie aisles, when I spotted a couple of packs of okra which were reduced. I have recently torn a few pages of Yotam Ottolenghi's okra recipes from The Guardian's Weekend, and thought I'd cook something Ottolenghi-ish.
When I arrived back home, and looked at the recipe clippings, I realised I didn't have all the ingredients, but then again, who usually does?! So, all inspired by Yotam, I ended up with a dish that only is vaguely related to his delicious recipes. One day I will buy some fresh coconut and will try to cook the first recipe (go on and check the link above for the great okra recipes).

350g okra
200g sugarsnap tomatoes
3tbsp olive oil
about 7 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp chilli paste
1/2tsp ground cumin
1tsp maple syrup
70g (1 serving) of double tomato concentrate
150ml soured cream

Chop the tough little ends off okra and place it whole in a big roasting tray or deep dish, well oiled. Slice the tomatoes in half and scatter over the okra. Add the garlic cloves. Season with sea salt. Place the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Roast for 30+ minutes.
In a bowl mix the ground ginger, chilli paste, cumin, maple syrup, tomato concentrate and soured cream. Mid-way through cooking spoon the tomato-soured cream sauce over the okra and tomatoes and sort of spread it over with the spoon, as the sauce is quite thick. If you use a plain yogurt rather than soured cream, it might be runnier.

Serve hot with a nice chunk of bread.
A very tasty meal. And I have some left over for tomorrow's lunch too.

The colours are pretty amazing, and all the flavours work well together.
What do you usually do with okra?

Adding my okra recipe to Farmersgirl Kitchen linky #RecipeClippings for June.

Salad with spring greens

Having read the family saga written by Lauraine Snelling, which is set in North Dakota, I enjoyed all the mentions of food and recipes. There were a lot of Norwegian foods, and I do plan to cook a couple of dishes described in the books. But it's the mention of the first spring greens, especially the dandelion leaves, that made me go foraging in the garden.
I did get rid of a good amount of dandelions last year, so it wasn't that easy to find them, but I did locate a couple of newly sprouting dandelion clumps. I picked a small handful, just enough for me to make a salad for one. I knew that my guys would decline my offer, but I really-really fancied a salad with dandelion leaves. I also picked a few fresh garlic leaves and a few primrose flowers.
It's not much of a recipe. I have assembled a plate with well-washed dandelion greens, tomato, cucumber, sliced egg and chopped garlic leaves, and scattered a few primroses over it.
I kept the dressing very simple - just a mix of olive oil, honey and lemon juice.
It was lovely. I am definitely going to pick more dandelion leaves. You need to use only very young leaves, about 5-7cm in length. If the leaves are bigger, you might need to soak them in salty water before eating them, to remove the bitterness.

Adding my simple recipe to Simply Eggcellent linky run by Dom from Belleau Kitchen.

Bloody Mary soup

The spring has come, but hasn't decided on whether it wants to be warm or cold. One day the sun is shining, and you feel like getting rid of a coat and enjoying the fresh mild wind. The next day it's grey and miserable with the rain in different degrees from a slightly bothering drizzle to a bucketing relentlessly outpour. On a day like that, you crave comfort food. I love soups, and never get bored with them. It must be my Russian upbringing, as the Russians tend to eat soup on a daily basis.

I've been enjoying my souping boxes from Abel and Cole, of which I talked recently. 

The latest box had ingredients for Bloody Mary soup. 

I used all the ingredients suggested by Abel and Cole, but have slightly adapted a recipe. First of all, I added some vodka. How come a Bloody Mary miss such an important ingredient?! I didn't use a big chilli. In fact, the chilli has found a different kitchen altogether. I am not very good at chopping chillies, way too often I end up swearing at myself for touching my eyes or face in the process. So, I prefer to use a good old Tabasco sauce or chilli paste, which saves me time and effort (as well as my eyes).

Bloody Mary soup

Ingredients:

a punnet of tomatoes (about 15 small ones)

1 big red sweet pepper

1 red onion

a dash of olive oil

2 celery sticks

2 cloves of garlic

1tbsp of freshly grated horseradish

parsley, torn

zest of 1 lemon + juice of half a lemon

a dash of Tabasco

50g vodka

celery salt (optional, you can use a standard sea salt)

Roast the sliced pepper, onion and tomatoes in a tray with a dash of olive oil. Season with a bit of celery salt. Roast for about 20 minutes.

Dice the celery and chop the garlic, give them a quick fry with a bit of olive oil. Put all the veggies in a pan, add water to cover all the vegetables. Bring to boil, and simmer for half an hour, with the grated lemon zest and lemon juice, grated horseradish and a bit of Tabasco. Add vodka in the last 10 minutes of cooking. The alcohol will add a deeper flavour to the overall dish, but you can skip it for sure. Once cooked, blitz the soup with a hand blender. Serve the soup hot in mugs with parsley and a nice slice of bread.

This is an excellent zingy soup, very flavourful and tasty. Bloody gorgeous if you ask me.

If you fancy finding out what other delicious soups you can cook with Abel and Cole, check out their Superb Souping Box. 

I have used Diplomat vodka in this recipe, but I guess any good vodka will do, like Stolichnaya (only not the flavoured varieties). Actually I don't drink vodka, never have, but because I was born in Russia, people automatically jump to conclusions that I must be a vodka-drinker. Quite often when we have guests, they bring me a bottle of vodka as a treat, bless them. I don't want to sound rude, so always thank them graciously and then use in cooking. It's excellent for curing salmon for example, or making pickles. This bottle has been unopened for half a year, now that I opened it I'll need to think of good recipes for using it. What would you suggest?

Abel and Cole Superb Souping Box

If you decided to observe Lent and go meatless, soups are certainly an answer to a question What to cook? Lenten recipes don't have to be bland and lacking in flavour. If you are running of ideas though, you might consider getting a Superb Souping Box from Abel and Cole. I have been a customer of A&C for a few years, on and off, skipping some weeks altogether, or ordering for a few weeks in a row.
I love soups, and was very curious to try their recent addition to fruit & veg boxes - Superb Souping boxes. which are different each week. So far I have tried two of them (the third one was delivered just yesterday, and I'm cooking one of the soups today)
Soup boxes come with a selection of vegetables, fruit, herbs and spices as well as recipes for three wholesome soups.
To give you an idea on what to expect, have a look inside the box. The first Souping box I ordered had ingredients for 3 delicious soups, all vegetarian. The recipes suggested cooking a Winter Pho, Spanish carrot soup and Bay beet borscht. I cooked the first two soups and used the vegetables for the 3rd soup in a different dish, but I will use the recipe one day.

Winter Pho was a delightful hearty fusion soup, a mix of English and Vietnamese flavours: leeks, carrot, mushrooms and watercress were cooked with chilli, ginger, garlic, star anise, juice and zest of lime and tamari. The addition of zest and juice of a whole lime made it extra special. It was easy to make and tasted delicious. A real winner.

Winter Pho

Spanish carrot soup was a pureed soup variety, vibrant, colourful and zesty. I love carrot soups, and usually add some orange juice to it. This recipe asked to roast the carrots first. Cook the red pepper, cut into strips, with an onion, garlic and chilli. Add smoked paprika, zest and juice of one lemon and cumin seeds. Smoked paprika adds an extra warmth to the soup. It was great comfort food.

Spanish carrot soup

The second box had ingredients for Moroccan chickpea soup, Mushroom and rosemary soup as well as Parsnip, Banana and lime soup. It's the last soup that totally sold it to me. I haven't tried those flavours together in soup before, and was very curious.
Abel & Cole themselves say in the recipe "Banana in a soup may sound a bit bonkers. Trust us - it works, and adds a creamy, velvety depth". I am so glad I gave it a go.
Parsnip, banana and lime soup might not have been a looker, but oh boy, it was so good. I am definitely keeping the recipe to use in the future. It uses 2 parsnips, onion, red chilli, garlic cloves, turmeric, zest and juice of 1 lime and a banana. You have to try it.

Mushroom & rosemary soup is a classic soup, with a twist, as it included an apple as one of its ingredients. These are the ingredients which went into the soup: a punnet of mushrooms, celery, onion, garlic cloves, carrot, balsamic vinegar and rosemary. I usually add a potato or some rice, when cooking a mushroom soup, and it was the 1st time I tried it with an apple.

The earthy flavours of mushrooms were enhanced by the fruity note from an apple and rich acidity from balsamic vinegar. It was an interesting recipe, but I still prefer to add a potato instead of an apple.

Mushroom & rosemary soup

The last of the three was a Moroccan chickpea soup, another colourful dish with lots of flavours going on.

Moroccan chickpea soup

As I was editing the photos for this post, a new soup was simmering on the cooker from my 3rd Superb Souping box - Watercress, Salsify and Crispy Garlic Soup. Black salsify looks quite ugly, like a dirty rough-skinned carrot. But under that rough skin there's a delicate soul. I have tried it before, in a salad (see my old post Black salsify and wild mushrooms warm salad)

Black salsify

The soup recipe included onions, carrot, black salsify, celery, juice and zest of one lemon and watercress, with garlic thinly sliced, fried and scattered over the soup. Very flavourful and quite unusual. I liked the addition of crispy garlic, though I think the delicate salsify is a bit overwhelmed by the peppery watercress and garlic. Still, top marks to A&C for developing varied recipes every week. I still have to cook two more soups - Bloody Mary and Asian apple beet soup.

Each soup box costs £12.50 plus delivery. It includes all ingredients, from vegetables to fruit, from herbs to spices and sauces.

Have you tried a Superb Souping Box?

Watercress, salsify and crispy garlic soup

Disclaimer: I haven't been asked to write about soup boxes. All products have been purchased by me.

Fennel in tomato sauce

Fennel in tomato sauce

My mother-in-law has a great collection of Italian food magazines as well as files with clippings. This is a hobby we share. One of my Christmas presents from her was a book of recipes as featured in Inspector Montalbano series. Imagine my delight. I am totally in love with Salvo, have read all the books in the series and watched all episodes. A while ago I asked her if I could borrow a small magazine "Le verdure d'autumno" (Autumn vegetables) from the series Arte in Cucina which was published in October 1999. Having read the issue, I liked most of the recipes featured in the magazine, they are not too difficult (in fact some are very easy to make) but look colourful and full of flavour.
One that I fancied trying the other day is called simply "I finocchi" (Fennel). I have adapted it, changing some quantities and ingredients.

Le verdure d'autumno (L'arte in cucina)

Fennel in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
750g fennel (two big bulbs)
1 big banana shallot, finely chopped
4tbsp olive oil
1 tin of plum tomatoes in tomato juice
a few cloves
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a few sprigs of fresh oregano
salt and pepper
Slice the fennel into big pieces. Fry the chopped shallot in the olive oil for about 4 minutes, stirring. Use a deep frying pan. Add the fennel, scatter the cloves, add a tin of tomatoes and freshly chopped herbs. Season with salt and pepper, cover the pan with the lid and cook, simmering, for 25 minutes.
Serve hot, as a side dish or a meat-free main with a nice chunk of bread.

Adding my post to Cooking with herbs linky at Lavender and Lovage. This month's theme is Store-cupboard basics, essentials and herbs. A tin of tomatoes counts as one of my cupboard basics and essentials.

I'm also entering this into the #RecipeClippings at Farmersgirl Kitchen.

And one more linky, Bookmarked recipes at Tinned Tomatoes.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars

Prawn cocktail

Like many parents nowadays, I am looking for lower sugar and salt choices, when doing grocery shopping for my family. Thankfully, many brands have started introducing lower sugar and salt versions of the classic food products. To go with the times and healthy trends, Heinz has launched a new Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars, which has 50% less sugar and 25% less salt than  regular Heinz Tomato Ketchup.
Heinz has been producing its famous ketchup for over 130 years. Heinz Tomato Ketchup has reached the iconic status and even got immortalised in the artwork by Warhol.
I always have a bottle of Heinz ketchup in the kitchen, and we enjoy it with a variety of foods, from French fries to Russian borscht.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars replaces the current reduced sugar and salt ketchup and also meets 2017 Government salt targets.
It contains sweeteners from natural sources, with some of the sugar being replaced by stevia, a plant from South America.
New ketchup has appeared on the shelves of the major supermarkets in September (priced £2.05 for 555g top down bottle).

I confess I am quite partial to a good old retro-style prawn cocktail with a sauce made from mayo and ketchup. You will need half an avocado and a handful of cooked prawns per person. Mix them with chopped chicory leaves and pour a sauce over it, made of mayo, ketchup and a god squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Sometimes, when I am on my own, and don't want a sandwich for lunch, I do a quick dish of sauerkraut, fried in the olive oil with chopped frankfurters and mushrooms and good dollop of tomato ketchup.

My son Eddie enjoys his fish fingers, fries and peas with a bit of ketchup. This is a treat for him, as I don't often offer him French fries (I usually bake the fries in the oven rather than fry to cut down on fat). He didn't guess that I offered him a new variety of ketchup, as it has the same unmistakable taste of the original Heinz ketchup.

At the moment this is Eddie's favourite meal, he even got a sticker at school from a lunchtime assistant for polishing off his plate (and he often leaves the other foods untouched). When we got out together as a family, that's what he asks for lunch.

This new variety of Heinz tomato ketchup would appealing to parents as it has a much lower sugar intake without compromising in the taste.
Have you tried Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars?

Disclosure: I received a bottle of new Heinz tomato ketchup for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Pumpkin, pork and chorizo stew

It's cold and miserable outdoors, just the right time for slow-cooked stews and casseroles. Imagine ladling a rich smoky stew in a deep bowl and dipping a chunky bread in it. As I have just had a big delivery of colourful pumpkins from Abel & Cole, I am cooking everything with pumpkins these days, from cupcakes to stew. Pumpkin, pork and chorizo stew is a great comfort food and a belly warmer.

Pumpkin, pork and chorizo stew (serves 4)
Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin
700g pork belly
2tbsp olive oil
pepper
100g chorizo
3tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce
1 cube of Knorr ham stock
1tbsp fresh thyme, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic
2 parsnips
1 carrot
9 dried apricots, sliced in half
1 tin of plum tomatoes (400g)
1 tin of butter beans (235g drained weight)
1 potato

Wrap a small pumpkin in foil. Cook it in the oven preheated to 200C for a half an hour to soften a tough skin.
Once the pumpkin is cool, remove the skin and seeds and cube the flesh. Set is aside.
Cut the pork into big size cubes. Heat the oil in a big pan and fry the pork for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle it with fresh thyme & pepper and pour 1tbsp soy sauce over it.

Chop the chorizo and fry it for about 3-4 minutes in the pan where the pork has been cooked. Chop the parsnips and carrot, put them in a big pan and add boiling water. Put the pork and chorizo in as well. All the vegetables and meat should be well covered with water. Add 2tbsp soy sauce, a cube of ham stock, finely chopped garlic and sliced apricots. Open tins of butter beans and plum tomatoes and add the contents to the pan. Cook simmering for half an hour, then add a chopped potato, and cubed pumpkin. Cook for another 30 minutes on low.

I didn't add the salt, as the stock cube and soy sauce gave all the saltiness that was needed.

I used Kikkoman's naturally brewed soy sauce in this recipe. It is a versatile ingredient, which is much more than an Oriental cuisine product. In fact, it is a universal seasoning, and I often use it instead of salt in salads and roasts.
I was recently invited to make a one-pot warming winter dish as part of Kikkoman Blogger recipe challenge. The task was to make anything so long as it not oriental in style.

Disclosure; I received a bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. All the other ingredients were purchased by me.

If you are looking for seasonal recipes, check out this delicious soup recipe from Cheryl (Madhouse Family Reviews) called Autumnal Hug in a Bowl.