Category Archives: Tomato

Saganaki Prawns on Toast

Posted on by
6

It’s Sunday again, and I’m in my usual routine of cooking something fun for lunch and sitting down to a blog post while it does its thing. Making pea and ham soup today; it’s part of a pet project to try cooking new cuts of meat (bacon hock this week). I’ve been annoying busy butchers with my many questions. It’s working well so far.

But today’s recipe is a prawn dish. I find prawns great; it doesn’t matter if you need to defrost them just before you start cooking because they thaw fast, they’re quick to cook, healthy and superlecker (my favourite German word of all time, meaning emphatically tasty). I usually cook them with chilli, ginger and garlic, but this dish is tomato-based and pairs them with feta.

I hadn’t come across prawns saganaki until recently… I never really associate prawns with Greek cooking, but it makes sense, I guess. Anyway this dish has gone to my favourites pile – really good for weeknight cooking as it’s simple, fast and offers a bit of variety from same old same old. This is a really healthy dish too – pretty light on kJ for a main meal, and will fill you up, specially if you serve it with colourful salad.

Saganaki Prawns on Toast
Serves 2

½ red onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp (or to taste) minced chilli, or finely chopped fresh chilli
½ tin chopped tomatoes
½ cup vegetable stock
250-300g prawns, deveined and heads removed, but tails left on
30g feta
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, plus extra to garnish
sourdough bread, sliced thickly and toasted

Spray a fry pan with a little olive or rice bran oil, and cook the onion and garlic over medium-high heat until the onion softens (3-4 minutes). Stir through the chilli for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes and vegetable stock, and gently simmer (uncovered) for 10-15 minutes. If you want the recipe to stretch further, feel free to add more tomatoes.

Add the prawns and just simmer til they’re cooked – probably 4-5 minutes. I just nick off the corner of one and if the flesh is white all the way through, it should be done. I bite the corner that I nicked off to check it tastes firm and cooked too.

Season to taste and stir through parsley. Place your toast slices on plates and spoon prawn & tomatoes over the toast. Crumble the feta over and maybe some extra parsley too.

Simple Tomato & Chickpea Curry

Posted on by
8

I actually made this um, months ago, and had completely forgotten about it have been saving it up specially.

I like to have a few tricks up my sleeve to make a filling, healthy, comforting meal at short notice, and to make said meal from a few cheap ingredients that are always in my pantry. These recipes are my best friends on hungry and/or grumpy and/or flustered and/or busy evenings when I just need to Eat. Something. Now. Or. Will. Fall. Over. I think that no matter how amazing your life is, you always have days like this. And if you don’t, you really ought to share the secret with the rest of us in the comments section.

There are loads of tomato and chickpea curry recipes out there – I can’t claim this as an original idea. Most recipes are a variation on tinned tomatoes + chickpeas + spices = good. So as long as you have those things in the cupboard, and bonus points for an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, you can be munching through this in a lot less than half an hour.

Tomato & Chickpea Curry
My recipe notes that this is supposed to serve four, but from memory, that assumes you are serving it with bread or rice. Serving just the curry, Mr. J and I got through the whole lot on our own! So if you have a large and hungry family, it would pay to at least double the recipe. If you end up with too much, you can always welcome it back for lunch tomorrow, or freeze it and enjoy it on another hungry,flustered and busy day.

Another note – if you’re missing one or two of the spices, don’t worry, just press on ahead!

small dash of rice bran or canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder (or adjust quantity to taste, or leave out altogether)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or dried chickpeas, soaked)
1x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
5cm piece of fresh ginger, finely grated
chopped fresh coriander, to serve
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or frying pan. Add the chopped onion and garlic, and cook gently until softened, and just turning golden. Add the spices and stir for a couple of minutes, coating the onion with the spices.
Add the drained chickpeas, and stir to coat them in the spices too, then add the tomatoes. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the ginger and stir through.
Serve with crusty bread or, ideally, brown rice, and garnish with chopped fresh coriander. You may also like to add a dollop of low fat natural yoghurt.

Asparagus with Roasted Tomatoes

Posted on by
5

I came across this recipe in Dish magazine last year. I actually cooked it as part of my Christmas dinner last year, it was perfect with the vibrant red and green! It looks impressive and tastes amazing, but it’s pretty easy… it’s hardly a recipe – more like assembly instructions.

I’ve started thinking about what I’ll cook for Christmas dinner this year (I know, spot the obssessive planner). This one will probably make the cut second year running!

Asparagus with Roasted Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Adapted from Dish magazine. Serves 3-4

6-8 vine tomatoes with stalk attached
half a punnet cherry tomatoes
1 bunch asparagus
60g mozzarella
2 Tbsp pesto
fresh basil leaves
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°(c).  Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place the tomatoes on a lined baking tray, sprinkle over sea salt and ground pepper. Roast them for 10-15 minutes, until their skins start to split, then set aside to cool. I didn’t use cherry tomatoes, but if you’ve got them, it looks nice having tomatoes of different sizes on the plate.

Snap the tough ends off the asparagus. Steam it in salted boiling water until JUST tender; you still want it crisp, not limp and slimy. Drain the asparagus and Dish suggests refreshing it in iced water. Assemble the drained asparagus on a serving platter.

Drain the mozzarella if it’s in whey. I had bought supermarket stuff in the fridge, but for Christmas I would definitely use lovely fresh mozzarella. I might even get off my chuff and make my own. Slice the mozzarella and arrange it over the asparagus. Arrange the roasted tomatoes over the platter too.

If your pesto is really thick, add a little water to loosen it up. Pop spoonfuls of pesto over the mozzarella and tomatoes. Scatter over fresh basil leaves and season with more sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Burritos!

Posted on by
7

I looooove Mexican food. I still haven’t been to La Boca Loca in Miramar, but everyone tells me I should. I will obey this ‘everyone’ as soon as I can. In the meantime, there’s cooking Mexican food at home to tide me over. And next week I’m going to a Mexican cooking class at Social Cooking (which will be my first visit there, anyone else been yet?).

I’m worried my future experiences at La Boca Loca and Social Cooking will result in learning that all my Mexican cooking thus far is a dismal Speedy Gonzalez Americanized Tex Mexing of authentic Mexican food. I’m worried because I really like my fudged home Mexican cooking. But one can’t be close minded about these things. I might find a whole new world of authentic Mexican cooking that is even better. I’ll keep y’all posted.

We occasionally have these burritos at home. Most people probably do. I soften onions and garlic, and add prime beef mince, and get that cooking with cumin, chilli (fresh, powder, flakes or minced from a jar, depending how energetic I feel), oregano, paprika, tomato paste, a can of kidney beans, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. While that cooks, I prepare all the veges and fillings – this day we had avocado, baby spinach, capsicum, cucumber, spring onions. Always essential is grated cheese (I like reduced-fat stuff, Bega do a good ready-grated one) and lots of coriander. And I make my tomato salsa (recipe below).

Then when the mince is cooked Mr J. and I get our tortillas ready. He insists on microwaving them to separate them nicely. I respond that that’s a myth and you just need to know how to do it right. I proceed with trying to split them myself. I ruin two tortillas by tearing them to shreds before Mr J. takes the pile off me and microwaves it. The remaining tortillas are saved and Mr J. smugly puts one or two on my plate. We assemble our dinners at the table, debating about how full to fill tortillas, and how best to fold them up.

This happens every time we have burritos. It’s the rituals that keep us strong.

Fresh Tomato Salsa
Enough for two people with plenty left over for bruschetta lunch the next day. 

2 tomatoes, or a bunch of cherry tomatoes, or a combination
½ red onion
½ red capsicum
a few peppadew peppers, if you like them
good handful of fresh coriander and mint
1 lime, zest and juice (or lemon works, too)
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp sugar
splash of hot chilli sauce (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Chop the tomatoes, red onion, capsicum, peppadews and herbs, as coarsely or as finely as you like. I like mine at a medium chop – fine enough that you can pick up a spoonful or forkful of salsa and not just get a lonely chunk of tomato, but not so tiny that it’s like gazpacho to eat.

Then just toss everything together in a bowl and season to taste. You can use up lots of fridge lurkers in salsa too – I had the last 2-3 Tbsp of a tin of tomatoes that ended up in there. You might also like to add garlic, or even finely grated ginger.  The salsa is good with burritos, on bruschetta, as a dip, in salads, or alongside bbq’d fish or chicken.

Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing

Posted on by
Reply

Another recipe from that Spanish dinner. I cannot vouch for its Spanish authenticity. I based it loosely on this Laurie Black recipe for a Spanish Pepper Salad. I played around with the dressing, and added black olives, goat’s cheese and prosciutto, but hopefully I’m still allowed to use Spanish in the title.

The resulting salad has lovely smokey, salty flavours which I love, and they’re set against the creamy goat’s cheese and sweet capsicums and tomatoes. Drool. You may note that capsicums (capsica?) are not present in the photograph. That was a sad story. I forgot they were in the oven while I was dealing with my rogue beef empanada dough. Let’s just say the capsicums were more char than grill. But what the hey, I figure that from a menu of 9 new (to me) dishes, a bit of burnt capsicum and a “deconstructed” version of empanadas wasn’t too bad!

Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing
Serves 4-6 as part of a tapas spread

Vinaigrette:
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
flakey sea salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Salad:
3-4 tomatoes
1 large red capsicum
cos lettuce leaves
1 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
60-80g creamy goat’s cheese, sliced or cubed
50g very thinly slice prosciutto, sliced or diced

To make the vinaigrette, whisk all ingredients together. Adjust the seasoning to taste and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters, whatever you prefer (I find quarters are a little more manageable when it comes to the eating), and cut the capsicum in half. Place the tomatoes and capsicum on a tray or dish lined with baking paper – capsicum skin side up, and tomatoes cut flesh side up. You could drizzle them with a little olive oil if you like; I just popped mine straight in the oven. I think they take about 40 minutes, but keep a close eye on them (see above). Once the tomatoes are looking roasted (like in the photo), and the capsicum skin has started to blister, take them out. While they’re still hot, pop the capsicums in a plastic bag to cool. Then when they’re cool enough to handle, the skins should peel off easily. Slice the capsicum thinly.

You know, if you were in a hurry, you could always buy sliced roasted capsicum from the deli. You could also use semi-dried tomatoes, or I imagine you could find viable alternatives to roasting the tomatoes at a good deli.

Starting with the cos leaves, assemble the salad ingredients on a serving platter, and drizzle with vinaigrette just before serving.

Catalan Tomato Bread and Catalan Spinach

Posted on by
5

These are two recipes from my Spanish tapas and paella dinner a couple of weeks ago. These rounded out the ‘something green’ and ‘something carby’ requirements of my menu.  They also ticked an extra box, ‘something Catalan’.

 I mainly came across Catalonia in my linguistics studies. It’s a politically and culturally autonomous part of Spain, and includes Barcelona. The Catalan language has had a somewhat troubled past but seems to be getting a boost from the Government these days – public education is in Catalan, and businesses have to use Catalan as well as Spanish in menus, and posters etc, or they can face fines. Catalan public television broadcasts only in Catalan. It’s also the only official language in Andorra, a tiny little country nestled between Spain and France (thanks, Wikipedia!).

So, back to the dishes. I found this Ray McVinnie recipe for Catalan Tomato Bread – not a recipe for the bread itself, but instructions on rubbing tomatoes on lightly toasted bread, so the bread gets covered in tomato juice and seeds and little bits of flesh. Sure, I thought. That looks nice. But we need more tomatoes. So I made semi-dried tomato bread. The recipe comes from Simon & Alison Holst’s New Zealand Bread Book, which I bought when we got our breadmaker. I really like the book actually, it’s got every kind of bread I can think of, and all their recipes have breadmaker and by hand instructions. So you can make your bread entirely by hand, or get the breadmaker to do the donkey work on the dough before you shape the bread yourself and bake it in the oven, or the breadmaker can do the whole dang thing.

When I’m feeling authentic and virtuous I make the bread all by hand. But that doesn’t happen very often. And it certainly didn’t happen on this day. So Panasonic came to the rescue.

As for the Catalan Spinach, it’s really just steamed spinach with toasted pine nuts and raisins. It doesn’t sound that incredible but it’s funny how such a simple addition can really lift plain spinach and turn it into something special. It was goooooooooood! And healthy. Bonus. 10 Points.

Home Made Catalan Tomato Bread

 Semi-Dried Tomato Bread – from Simon & Alison Holst’s New Zealand Bread Book

3 tsp surebake yeast
1 cup warm water
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 cups high grade flour
¼ cup chopped semi- or sun-dried tomatoes
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (optional)

By machine: Measure all the ingredients into your bread machine in the order the manual tells you to. Set to NORMAL cycle, and choose your crust etc, and hit START. Or, you can set it to dough and shape the dough yourself, then bake it (as in the by hand instructions). I have a Panasonic breadmaker and set it to LARGE loaf.

By hand: Measure the yeast, water, tomato paste, sugar, salt, oil and wholemeal flour into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover and leave for 15 minutes in a warm place. Stir in the high grade flour, tomatoes (and the basil if you’re using it). Make a soft dough just firm enough to knead. Knead for 10 minutes, until the dough forms a soft ball that springs back when gently pressed. Turn the dough in 2-3 teaspoons of oil in a clean, dry bowl. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for half an hour.

Lightly knead the oiled dough for 1 minute. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, then pat it into a cylinder that will fit in your loaf or bread pan (or shape it round and bake it in a cake pan). Place it into the greased loaf pan and leave it to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size. Brush with milk (if you like) and bake at 200°C for about 30 minutes.

 To make it into Catalan Tomato Bread – a Ray McVinnie recipe from Cuisine

1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half
1 very ripe tomato (a vine-ripened one if you can), cut in half
extra olive oil and salt, to serve

Slice the bread into 15mm slices and lightly toast. Rub each toast slice with the cut clove of garlic, and then with a tomato half, so that you leave plenty of tomato juice and seeds on the bread. Drizzle with olive oil and serve sprinkled with salt.

Catalan Spinach – from this recipe I found randomly

1 Tbsp olive or avocado oil
1 Tbsp pine nuts
2 Tbsp raisins
1 bunch spinach, washed and stems trimmed
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, and add the pine nuts. Watch them carefully; it’s a fine line between aromatic and burnt. As soon as they smell lovely, add the raisins, and let them plump for 1 minute. Add the spinach. Toss for a minute while the spinach wilts. Splash in the balsamic vinegar and toss for another 30 seconds. Season to taste and serve straight away.

Mushroom Bruschetta

Posted on by
4

We had bruschetta for lunch recently on a sunny Sunday. Such a sunny Sunday, in fact, that most of my photos are a bit overexposed! But they give you an idea of what a nice day it was.

I love bruschetta for a weekend lunch; it feels Italian-y and a bit special (depending on what ingredients you use), but is actually really easy. At its core, it’s fancy tomatoes on toast.

Annabel Langbein’s Great Food for Busy Lives has a recipe for mushroom bruschetta topping, which I borrowed for this lunch. And the nice thing about bruschetta, like pizza, is that you can use up ingredients lurking in the fridge.

Note – I’ve updated this part of the post, after some tips from Alessandra Zecchini on the best authentic bread for bruschetta. I had read a bunch of recipes suggesting ciabatta, but as Alessandra notes, a Tuscan-style compact loaf is best. I am happy to be put right as I had used a good dense grainy bread (I think it was McKenzie country stuff). My original choice would have been our homemade sourdough (the starter is still going well, by the way), and I can now confirm that would also be a suitable choice. Thanks, Alessandra!

Mushroom & Artichoke Bruschetta (adapted from an Annabel Langbein recipe)

olive oil
as many slices of ciabatta as you need
1 tsp sesame oil
about 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 Tbsp unsweeted greek yoghurt
squeeze lemon juice
1 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
spready options – harissa paste, tahini paste, or olive tapenade
cherry tomatoes, halved
canned artichoke halves, drained and chopped (optional)
extra Italian parsley, to garnish

Preheat the grill. Brush the bread with olive oil (if you want to keep things a little healther, I actually sprayed my bread with olive oil spray), and grill it lightly, just until it’s beginning to toast. Once it’s done, take the bread out and turn the oven to bake function, at 180°.

Heat the sesame oil in a frypan, and cook the mushrooms and garlic until the mushrooms have softened and reached that delicious-smelling, melty stage. Mix them with the yoghurt (you could also use mayonnaise), using just enough to bind the mixture and make it spreadable. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the parsley.

You don’t need to spread anything on the bruschetta before adding the mushroom topping, but I used a little tahini paste on some, and a little of my harissa paste on others (tip: spread very thinly, that stuff can be quite hot!). If you have it on hand, try a black olive tapenade.

Spread the mushroom mixture over the bruschetta, and top with artichoke hearts and cherry tomato halves. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bruschetta are starting to crisp at the edges.

Huevos Rancheros!

Posted on by
Reply

Huevos Rancheros is a bit of a tex mex thing. Eggs, tomatoes and tortillas. Great for weekend brunch! Most recipes have the eggs fried separately, and served over a tortilla with tomato mix. I like recipes that poach the eggs in the tomato sauce itself, then you pour the eggy tomato-y mix over your warm tortilla. Mmmm.

Huevos Rancheros – serves 2

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
pinch – or more if you like – chilli powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
dash of hot chilli sauce (optional)
400g can tomatoes
pinch salt
2-4 eggs, depending how many you want
tortillas
chopped coriander & freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a fry pan and gently cook onion and garlic until soft. Add your cumin, chilli powder and oregano and cook for a minute or two.

Add the tinned tomatoes and chilli sauce, if you’re using it. Let this tomato mix simmer for about 5 minutes. Make little wells in the mixture for your eggs, and carefully break them in.

Cover the pan and let the eggs cook for 4 or 5 minutes, depending on whether you like the yolks still runny, or longer if you want them hard poached.

Warm your tortillas up in the oven or microwave, and get them ready on the plates. Once the eggs are cooked, spoon the mixture over your tortillas and serve with coriander and lots of pepper. Delicious!