Very delicious greek-style roasted tomato salad

Thanks for Gourmet Traveller. This salad was pretty delicious. Roast tomatoes with lemon, garlic, oregano, crushed almonds, feta, raisins.... wow

Salty feta, sour lemons, sweet raisins and beautiful tomatoes.

We had it with steak and a crisp green salad dressed with lemon and olive oil.

8 beautifully ripe tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic, skins left on and bruised

7 strips of lemon peel

Large handful of oregano, bruised in your hand

3/4 cup raisins

3 bay leaves, crumbled

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fennel seeds, crushed roughly in the mortar and pestle

Large handful of feta cheese, crumbled roughly

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp roughly crushed roasted almonds

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the tomatoes into a baking dish that gives them a nice snug fit. Tuck the garlic, herbs, lemon peel and raisins underneath and in the gaps between the tomatoes. Any herbs or raisins sticking up will get quite crisp so try to tuck them away. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle over the fennel seeds and season generously with salt and pepper.

Put in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the tomatoes are starting to collapse and smell beautiful. Remove from the oven and arrange on a serving platter. Crush the garlic out of the skins and mash into the sauce. Pour the sauce over the tomatoes and then sprinkle with almonds, feta and the juice of half a lemon.

These would be good with crusty sourdough bread and salad for lunch.

free-form pumpkin pie/tart

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

The pastry is amazing. Flaky, almost like puff pastry. Try it.

Add a simple salad of spicy rocket leaves with salt, pepper, good olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The freshness and pepperiness of the salad is perfect with the buttery, rich tart.

It would generously serve 4 for lunch or dinner. It could serve 6 as an entree.

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

a generous pinch of salt

150g butter, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup sour cream or creme fraiche

a good squeeze of lemon juice from half a lemon

1/4 cup iced sparkling water (substitute with iced tap water)

In a food processor combine all ingredients for the pastry except the water. mix until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add the soda water in a stream until the pastry comes together in a ball. Do not overmix. Pour onto plastic wrap, push into a rough disc shape, wrap up well and refrigerate for an hour or up to a day or two.

Filling

1 small butternut pumpkin

1-2 tbsp butter

2 medium onions, sliced in half circles

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp ground nutmeg

good pinch of ground chilli

1/4 tsp smoky papria

3/4 cup gouda cheese, grated

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves

For the pumpkin.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel, then cut the pumpkin into 1.5cm dice. Mix with olive oil, salt and pepper to coat and lay in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 25-35 minutes or until cooked, and getting dark golden around the edges. Remove from the oven. This can be stored at room temperature for a few hours, or refrigerate for a day until ready to assemble.

For the onion.

Put the butter into a small pan. Add the onion, salt and sugar. Cook gently for 10-20 mins or until the onion is soft and starting to brown gently. Do not cook over high heat. Stir in the paprika, nutmeg and chilli. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Roll the pastry out to make a 40cm round. Mix together the pumpkin, onion, cheese and sage. Season to taste with plenty of pepper and salt as required. Place the pastry onto the baking sheet then pile the pumpkin mix in the middle, leaving a 3-5cm border around each edge. Fold up the edges to semi-enclose the filling. This pastry does not need glazing - it goes lovely and brown without it.

Bake for 30-40 mins or until golden brown.

Serve with a crisp fresh salad and enjoy.

yum!

Gran's tomato chutney - woo hoo

We have finally made the much anticipated chutney that Gran used to make for us.

Step 2: find her recipe for bread - then my afternoons of cheese and chutney sandwiches will be complete.

8 lb (~3.6kg) very ripe tomatoes, chopped into 8 pieces each

1/4 lb (~100g) salt

2 lb (~900g) white sugar

1 quart (~950mL) vinegar

1 oz white pepper

1/4 oz allspice

1/4 oz cloves

1 oz chillies, chopped

4 large apples, chopped

4 large onions, chopped

4 large red capsicum, chopped

Place all ingredients into a large pan. Boil for 1-1/5 hours (we boiled for 2).

Bottle into sterilised glass jars.

Makes 4-5L.

You will finish this all in a month - so delicious

Cheese and chutney sandwiches

Dip grilled french trimmed lamb chops into it

Dip ham and cheese toasted sandwiches into it