Simply Tomatoes

There's so much happening this long Bank Holiday weekend: Pride, Carnival season,  Poetry in the Park and lots of other community events in and around Wales, but we haven't ventured far from home this weekend, other than the garden centre to pick up some compost. We have spent most of the weekend carrying out joyful tasks such as tidying up both the house and garden, which was beginning to look a bit overgrown in places. It looks much better now, but still so much to do.  

 Anyway, onto my most recent harvest of vibrant colourful tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Whilst your here, here's a little peek in the greenhouse. 

Red tomatoes next to green tomatoes.

Abundant vines

I've made a number of dishes such as Arrabiata and vegan Puttanesca with fresh tomatoes, I usually make these with tinned tomatoes.  I have also made Tomato Pilau and Lebanese Tomato and Bean Stew.  

If you are looking for tomato recipe inspiration, please also check out 's a link to some tomato recipe inspiration.  

We still have plenty more tomatoes to come.  But some of the tomato plants have become unruly, look at the state of this (below).  It really does look a bit like an overgrown jungle or a tangled mess in the greenhouse this year.  

I'm letting regular readers, especially those that come through via Harvest Monday that, I won't be able to participate in Harvest Monday next week, as we have some some friends coming from America and then we are off on holiday for a week or so.  So hopefully, I will be able to join the following week, but this is my contribution for this week.  Please go by and check out  Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday every week and showcases some impressive homegrown fruit and vegetables.

Bakers Dozen: Best Tomato Recipes

We have been growing our own tomatoes for nearly fifteen years, whether it was on our window sill at home, our greenhouse at the allotment plot  in Scotland or here, in our back garden in Wales, the passion for trying to grow some of our own, continues.   

This year the tomatoes are not as plentiful, but they are still tasty and bit like the courgettes, every year I wonder what am I going to do with all these tomatoes, other than making the usual soups , chilli red tomato chutneys, sauces and lasagne.  So if you are looking for some inspiration and are looking for something different than you have come to the right place.

First up is Rosemary Elliot's vegan Bloody Mary Jelly 

Next we have an Oven Baked Za'atar Tomato and Potato Frittata

Something light to snack on Pan Con Tomate - Catalan Tomato Bread

Something light to eat for lunch Red Pepper and  HarissaTomato Potatoes , the vegan  with VPud Black Pudding is optional. 

How about this Red Tomato, Fenugreek, Paneer Coconut Curry

Something to impressive your dinner guests with - Savoury Cherry Tomato Clafoutis

Savoury  Cherry Tomato, Paprika Mozzarella Muffins

Slow Cooked Balsamic Tomatoes and Butter Beans 

Sweet and Savoury Tomato Spring Rolls

Tomato Farinata with roasted aubergines and black olives

Tomato, Potato and Rosemary Bake

Vietnamese Tofu in Tomato and Black Pepper Sauce

Green Tomato Chutney

Do you have a favourite tomato recipe that you make year on year, please let me know.

I am also sharing 12 tomato recipes from my co-host of Eat Your Greens Veg Hog, as well as linking to the Guardian celebrity chef and food writer tomato recipes. 
The Guardian Part 1
The Guardian Part 2
The Guardian Part 3
The Guardian Part 4

Last of the November Tomatoes

I have been such a wimp recently, I have not ventured much into the allotment garden plot of late.  The constant drizzle is bringing me down.  I leave home to go into work in the morning and get drenched; and I get home home and I am soaking.  The joys of waiting for public transport when there is no shelter.  So come the weekend and its raining, the last thing I want to do is go out - even if it is my back garden.  Fortunately for me, my husband picked the last tomatoes in the greenhouse in November.

These were all used for a pasta sauce and a cold pasta salad for work..

Some of you may remember that from my last Harvest Monday blog post that I do still have some curly kale and black Tuscan aka dinosaur kale, and purple Brussels sprouts to harvest, but after that there will not be much else to share on Harvest Monday until Spring next year.   For now, please enjoy the last of my homegrown tomatoes that were harvested in the last week of November. I am sharing this blog post with Dave who hosts Harvest Monday at his blog Our Happy Acres.  

The Great Big Red Tomato

As mentioned in a previous Harvest Monday blog post, the tomatoes are coming along very nicely in the greenhouse

 We have all types and the names escape me, especially of this rather large tomato.

Just to give you some context of how big it is, I am holding it here; and no, I am not going to stuff it!. 

We have been harvesting raspberries too.  I have had to freeze some as we are still enjoying plums from the tree.

The cooking apples are beginning to fall from the tree too, in fact one fell and cracked a greenhouse window pane, fortunately it did not go through this time. 

I made a Raspberry and Apple crumble at the weekend, and let me tell you it was absolutely the gorgeous, the apples just turned to pulp taking on the colour of the raspberries.  It was lush, I tell you.

Funnily enough we are still harvesting courgettes, though I will be pulling the plants out next week as those remaining courgettes are tiddlers. 

I made an untraditional Oven Roasted Ratatoulle with some of the homegrown tomatoes and courgettes, don't diss me - the recipe comes from a French woman.

With the weather turning and me having the sniffles, I also made a stew of sorts with some of the courgettes.  I will be sharing the recipes later this week, if you want to come on by and check them out.  As always, I am sharing this post with  Harvest Monday hosted by Dave over Our Happy Acres.  

Red Tomatoes, Red Raspberries, Red Apples and Ripe Plums

The marrows and courgettes are still growing well in the garden plot and I have been cooking with them loads, but this week its the tomatoes that have got us excited.  I think its another two weeks and then was distracted with work la

We finally are harvesting them on a daily basis.  

I have made so many dishes with them from Savoury Tomato Clafoutis, Tomato Couscous Tart Tatin and Tomato Date Baklava!

This is a cake stand full of assorted tomatoes and some chilies.

Chillies growing happily.

 The raspberries are starting to come along nicely.  

However, the birds are beating me to them - they are welcome to it, we still have plums dripping from the tree. 

I have given some plums to neighbours and friends, as well as family.

And if the plums were not keeping me busy in the kitchen, the neighbours gave us bag full of eating apples.  I am sharing this post with  Harvest Monday hosted by Dave over Our Happy Acres.  

Lunch on the Go

Yes its all about the tomatoes and this week I have mostly been eating tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Here is a Orzo Pasta Salad with tomatoes and runner beans.  I made a big batch that was good for three working day lunches.

Tomatoes Are The Elixir of Summer

'Tomatoes are the Elixir of Summer' 

Anna Thomas of The Epicurean

I have come to enjoy home grown tomatoes, not pureed to a pulp in a soup or mushed for a pasta sauce, not roasted or de-hydrated either, but completely natural in their own right.  It wasn't always this way though, I used to find them rather bland and tasteless.  

Let me tell you something,  in the early 2000 when I graduated and got a job with this big organisation, I used to have to attend formal dinner party events, award ceremonies and that kind of thing.  Well the most innovative Western inspired starter this vegetarian would often get served (and I write this with some sarcasm) would be a 1970s style large beef tomato hollowed out and then stuffed with some herby grain like barley.  I would not mind that much at all had the star of the plate, this fruit (and yes tomato is a fruit) been deliriously tasty, instead it was often insipid, tough and tasteless and the filling was either under done (chalky) or overcooked (mushy), never just right. I did not want to see or eat another stuffed tomato ever again (and I have not).

Then I began growing my own tomatoes from seed, it all began with this blog really.  I loved admiring our prize tomatoes and moreso loved inviting people both in reality and virtually into our Greenhouse (2009).  Things happened and the growing antics came to a halt and getting the passion back to growing both vegetables in the ground and tomatoes in the greenhouse has certainly taken its time, but it is returning slowly, especially when we harvest the fruits of our labour and are reminded once again that you cannot buy or see such beautiful specimens at the supermarket or even at the green grocers.  I have especially  loved harvesting these rather stunning buxom 'Black Russian' tomatoes that I have dubbed Gothic tomato.  

My husband jokes often,' we may not be financially rich, but we are rich in tomatoes'. Compared to last year, yes we are rich in tomato goodness.  Our tomatoes are doing fabulously as for the rest of the garden vegetables - well I better not talk about them.   

So with the tomatoes tumbling literally from the greenhouse, we have been finding simple ways to enjoy them, mostly plain as a salad with a little seasoning and dried herbs, mostly mint.  We have also been having easy meals like tarts - simply slice the tomatoes and lay on puff pasty with  herbs and seasoning and bake - a healthy kind of pizza without the cheese.  

The tomatoes are really sweet, juicy and succulent - some of these puff pastry tarts have had soggy bottoms, but we have not minded that - the taste of the tomatoes is certainly one you cannot buy that easily. 

So yes, tomatoes of have become my favourite late summer food.

Gothic Looking Tomato

I've been lucky this year with the homegrown tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Last year we lost loads to blight, this year they have been coming on strong and rather beautiful too.   

Here is one dark Gothic looking beauty that I am very proud of that I felt i had to share it on it in its own glory.

Shades of Tomato

I thought I'd let you peek into our greenhouse.  Compared to last year, our tomatoes are thriving, but everything else has been either been neglected or lost our to the voracious appetite of the butterflies and dastard snails and slugs.  

As you can see, we have loads of tomatoes still growing. 

Loads still ripening. 

Loads to eat. 

Okay now onto my little harvest for Harvest Monday, other than the many tomatoes.

The green stripey courgettes have been a bit slow.  I've used them in a few recipes, but one recipe that has got me all excited has been baked courgette - zucchini fries aka chips, I will share the recipe later this week.  I also harvested my second golden courgette.  I have to show it off in all its glory as I am not that confident of many others being harvested, as the horrid slugs are beating me to them. 

On Saturday when the rain stayed off, we pottered in the garden for a while.  I harvested some plums, as you can see our tree is burgeoning.  

I picked one plum that was rather splendid.  I dubbed it as Plum Bum, click the link if you haven't yet seen it.

Some plum were given to neighbours, these are for my family when I go over tomorrow for a cuppa tea. And of course, we will enjoy many in the sweet bakes, cakes and crumbles. 

The blueberry plant has been rewarding me with berries on and off, a handful in fact.  Not enough for a pie, but great scattered over cereals or yogurt. 

My runner beans and other climbing french beans are not worth shouting about either, but we have some that have been serving as an accompaniment to simple meals rather than playing a starring role.

I think our neighbour pitied us somewhat as he came on over Saturday afternoon and gifted us with some of his runner beans.  He even chopped them up for us.  I am sharing this harvest with Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.