Saturday, 19 February 2011

Recent kitchen capers

Been flat out working and gardening, so not much energy for blogging - but enough for some kitchen adventures.

Our first harvest of plums from our 2 trees (mariposa, L) and satsuma . I'm pretty happy with the 4.5 kg of plums we harvested from our 2 trees this year. It's the first year they have fruited in 4 years - although in fairness they have been moved 3 times in those 4 years (!!)

An immature red kuri pumpkin. This vine fell off the vine early, but is still tasty! Today I'm also making some ginger syrup,
 some bread  (wholemeal/rye/spelt), and a roasted red onion and (homegrown) tomato soup

Roasted red onion and tomato soup ( from the Covent Garden soup book)
Put tomatoes (I used about 3 kg), red onion (I used 2), basil (loads cause I love it!), and 2 fat cloves of garlic squished and roughly chopped into a roasting dish, and sploosh (technical cooking term) over olive oil to coat. Season with salt and pepper (I also used a good few grinds of Oxfam's harissa mix) Roast for about an hour until tomatoes are soft. Leave to cool a bit while you make come caramelised red onions  (melt butted and a tablespoon or so of brown sugar in a pan, and fry onions until caramelised - add a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Puree the tomato mix with a bit of water. You can pass this mix through a sieve if you like but I never bother. Add this to the caramelised onions and add more water if you like a thinner soup. Reheat gently, toss in a few torn basil leaves and serve.

Lovely!

6 comments:

Dmarie said...

oh, you are RICH...what lovely tomatoes and love it that you were able to preserve plums. can't wait 'til it gets warm enough here again to have a garden!

dixiebelle said...

Do your plums have tart, or bitter, skins? Ours did (no idea what kind they are, it was here when we bought this house) and so I made pie and some sauce, but has to add alot of sugar.

Cute pumpkin!

Food Renegade said...

That pumpkin looks amazing. Thanks for sharing this in today's Fight Back Friday carnival.

Cheers,
~KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)

beautyfulworld5 said...

mmm.. that ginger syrup would be a delight with the bread! happy thursday, and i'm having a joy reading your blog!

Margo said...

@dixiebelle - I have to say I'm not sure, I preserved them all because the fruit here generally has been lacking a bit of flavour and texture due to all the rain.

@KristemM - thanks for stopping by ... LOVE Fight Back Fridays :-)

@beautyfulworld5 - thanks for dropping by and for your lovely comment!

Margo said...

@Dmarie - thanks...although the flavour hasn't been that good on the tomatoes this year due tot he rain, but at least we have some! :-)

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