I can proudly
announce the end to this year's
Tomato Festival. This week has
been full of cooking with tomatoes for me and without a doubt, the
tomato cooking will continue. Sometimes posting daily can be quite
challenging, but I somehow managed, and you can find my tomato
recipes in the sidebar on the right hand side. Rather than talking
about my cooking, I want to dedicate this post to the wonderful
contributions that I received through several different channels. I
am very grateful for each and every contact. Thank you so much for
being part of the Tomato Festival again this year!
So let's start
with the contributions. I received a lovely email and recipe from a
reader called Vegan Rob. He sent me a vegan tomato curry
recipe that sounds so tasty! He also attached a picture of the dish to the
email and he wrote:
“Hello Veghog
I often read your
excellent blog to get recipe ideas. Even though I don't blog myself I
thought I'd share my recipe for vegan tomato curry with you for your
tomato festival. It's not a very precise recipe, but it should work
anyway!
You will need:
Tomatoes (I used
12 medium vine tomatoes, each about 4-5cm in diameter, chopped into 8
pieces)
Chickpeas, about
250-300g, cooked beforehand, or 1 can
2 large onions
Fresh coriander
leaves
Tomato puree
5 cloves of garlic
A chili pepper
A thumb sized
piece of ginger
Vegetable oil
Spices
Bay leaves
Fry 2 large onions
in a little vegetable oil on a medium heat until they are caramelised
and deep brown. Add a pinch or two of salt to help draw the moisture
out of the onions. Be careful not to burn the onions, you'll want to
fry in a large heavy pan with a lid and stir every few minutes. This
might take anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour.
When the onions
are done, add about 5 cloves of garlic, a medium sized chili and a
thumb sized piece of ginger, all finely chopped. Fry for a further 2
minutes, with stirring. Add another splash of oil if the mixture
looks a little dry.
Add some garam
masala and fry for a further minute. I made my from the seeds from a
single green coriander pod, 3 cloves and a level teaspoon each of
coriander seeds, ground cumin and onion seeds. All these components
should be ground before use, and rather than precook the mix it
worked fine just frying it with the other ingredients.
Add a teaspoon
each of ground turmeric, fry for a further 30 seconds then add the
tomatoes and chick peas. The tomatoes will start to release their
juices, but add a little water so most of the mix in the pan is
covered. Add two bay leaves, remove these just before serving. Reduce
to a low heat so the mixture boils, and reduce for at least 30
minutes.
About ten minutes
before serving, taste and add enough tomato puree to get the colour
and taste correct. This might be one or more tablespoons. Also add a
teaspoon or so of smoky paprika and check for seasoning and spicing.
Add a generous
amount of roughly chopped coriander leaves just before serving. I
served the curry on its own, but it would work well with rice or
breads.
I hope you like
the recipe, keep up the good work!
Vegan Rob”
Thank you so much
for your contribution, Rob! I really have to try this recipe soon!
I also received
some posts from fellow vegetarian food bloggers.
Shaheen
posted another vegan recipe for Ramiro Pepper and Harissa Tomato Potatoes with Black Pudding.
This dish is nice looking and vibrantly red. It's made with new
potatoes, tomatoes and red pepper and spiced with harissa. I'm very
curious about the vegan black pudding that Shaheen served the dish
with. Maybe I'm brave enough to taste it one day to find out what it
tastes like. I have seen it in my local health food shop and Shaheen
has shared several recipes with it.
Laura shared
two tomato recipes from her blog archives, a tomato sauce for preserving and tomato koftas. A homemade tomato sauce
for preserving is a very nice and useful idea. I hope I'd have the
time to make some this year. The tomato koftas also sound very
delicious, chopped tomatoes are made into a mixture with herbs and
then fried until golden brown. This would be a very nice summer snack
with a dip.
Then I received
pictures of homegrown tomato plants in Twitter from
Valeria Valo
(@ValeriaValo) and I thought it would be nice to share them with the
Tomato Festival, as they fitted the theme so well. She is growing her
tomato plants in my home country Finland and wanted to share the
progress of the plants. She is growing jersey, beefsteak and roma
tomato variations. The vines are looking very good and I'm sure that
she will have a wonderful crops.
Thank you again so
much everyone!
Your VegHog
