Roasted Plum Tomatoes with Garlic, Basil and Chillies

I'm getting a bit fed up with our tomatoes taking over the kitchen, but the end is in sight!
The freezer is my friend during the winter months and slow roasting the tomatoes before freezing them is one way of making sure they don't go to waste. It's like taking a little bit of summer out of the freezer every time you use a few.
I've perked them up with some red chillies (surprise, surprise) just to give bit of heat.



Roasted Plum Tomatoes with Garlic, Basil and Chillies
Not really a recipe, but a way to preserve the taste of summer for a little longer.

Tomatoes
Handful of basil leaves, cut into strips
1-5 chilli peppers, sliced or chopped finely
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt and pepper
4-5 garlic cloves, crushed

Line a large baking sheet with non-stick foil.
Slice tomatoes lengthways into 4 and place in a single layer on the foil.
Top with the strips of basil and chopped chilli.
Drizzle the olive oil over, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast in a low oven for a couple of hours. About 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the crushed garlic to the tomatoes.
When cool, freeze on the tray, and then when frozen, peel off the tomatoes and pop into a freezer bag or container and place back into the freezer for later use.



Other roasted tomato recipes you may like:
Roasted Tomatoes with Basil and Balsamic Vinegar
Puttanesca Tomatoes


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This content belongs to Nicisme at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2009 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

French Bread for World Bread Day

It's here - another World Bread Day!
To celebrate I've made some French bread, using French bread flour. My trusty bread machine was used for the kneading process, but you can get stuck in and knead by hand - very therapeutic! I use one of those special bread tins which give a lovely authentic dimply effect on the bottom of the bread.



French Bread
Recipe adapted from the Panasonic booklet that came with the bread machine

1 teaspoon quick-rising yeast
400g strong white bread flour (or French bread flour)
15g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
265 ml water - you may need a little more

Put all the ingredients into the bread machine in the correct order for your machine.
When it comes to the water, you may need less or more, keep an eye on it and add as necessary to make a smooth, soft dough.

When the dough is ready, cut it into 2 pieces and knead each one into a long stick shape. Place onto a baking tray, cover and leave to rise until they have doubled in size.

Bake in a pre-heated oven 180ºC/350ºF for about 18-22 minutes until golden brown.

(Printable Recipe)


To make butter curls, drag the curler firmly down the cold, unsalted butter and place in the fridge until you want them

My bread is off to the World Bread Day round-up, hosted by Zorra at Kochtopf. Be sure to check out all the entries and make some bread yourself - the smell of fresh bread baking is enough to make you smile!



My previous breads for this event were:
Panini Rolls
Breakfast Swirls

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This content belongs to Nicisme at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2009 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

Chilli Bomb Tomato Chutney

Things are changing for me at home. My dessert partner in crime has headed off for his first year at University, leaving me at a loss of what to do with my chocolate! A good friend told me that just when you get used to them being away, they come home and take over again.
So, I'm going to wean myself off of the chocolate for a few posts, starting with some tomatoes and chillies.


A few of the chilli varieties that we grew, just look at the Friars Hat!

We had a fabulous crop of cherry, plum and tigarella tomatoes. No aliens this year as we didn't bother with the beefsteak variety. The Chillies haven't been too bad, we just need a little more sunshine to ripen them off.



I decided to make some chutney with all the tomatoes and chillies. My chutney did take rather a long time to thicken up, it all seemed to happen in the last 15 minutes. I was reassured by anyone4seconds, via Twitter, that his chutney had taken forever to thicken up too. Other twitterers chiming in on the chilli conversation included vindee, who wanted to know what I was going to serve it with, SunitaBhuyan who was trying to scrounge a jar (sorry it only made one) and aforkful who cheerily showed me a clip of someone getting their head blown off after eating the world's hottest chilli pepper!

Of course, the clip was just a bit of fun, but aforkful had reminded me of the time when I lived in Tucson. You could buy chillies there in much the same way as you buy tomatoes here - many varieties, all fresh and piled high in big mounds. Here, you get a little package of 4, unless you go to the Asian supermarket.
Anyway, I had picked out some lovely fruity looking peppers and had roasted them whole, along with some onions. My husband popped a whole one into his mouth and started to turn a funny colour. I was insisting that it was just a sweet veggie pepper, and he was screaming at me to try one. The minuscule bit that I gingerly tried confirmed that he had just eaten a habanero chilli and not what I thought I had bought. We can laugh about it now, but at the time it was pretty ghastly as you can probably imagine!



Chilli Bomb Tomato Chutney
Adapted from dear Sherry's site, What Did You Eat.

I used a cherry bomb chilli pepper, but you can use any ripe, red chilli pepper/s you want.

¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
¼ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced into a fine paste
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup good red wine
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 lbs tomatoes, peeled, seeded, drained, and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons raisins
1 hot red chilli pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt

Combine the fenugreek, cumin and fennel seeds in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan over a medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Cook until they begin to pop (you may cover the pot if you want).

Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add the combined seeds. Cook for about 30 seconds or until aromatic, taking care not to burn the garlic.

Add the vinegars, red wine, tomatoes, sugar, raisins, chilli pepper and the salt. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 1½ hours, or until the chutney has reduced and become dark and very thick.

Leave to cool and store tightly in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Printable Recipe


These cherry bomb peppers are about 1½" round

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This content belongs to Nicisme at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2009 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.