Minty tomato, peach and nectarine salad

This year I planted various tomato bushes, one of them being a yellow tomato, which has been a huge success, bearing luscious fruit quite fastidiously. They are sweet, fleshy, very little seeds, and make a colourful dish.

As the stone fruits are nearing the end of their season, I couldn’t help but look for a salad recipe to incorporate them with my lovely yellow tomatoes and bright red roma tomatoes. I love any salad with fruit thrown in as a refreshing change. Strawberries in a tossed salad are one of my favourites. Or honey dew melon and fresh garden green lettuce varieties.

Martha Stewart had the perfect recipe for what I was looking for, and I altered it slightly by using balsamic reduction instead of balsamic vinegar, and threw in a few finely shredded basil leaves for good measure. The mint, however, stood out as the ingredient to highlight the peaches. I also added a couple of nectarines as well.

The family had thought I’d finally lost my marbles when I put the salad on the table. However from the very first mouthful, there were thumbs up all round. I could eat a bowl of this on its own, it’s that good.

Ingredients

1. 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2. 1 tablespoon balsamic reduction
3. 1 tablespoon lemon juice
4. 3/4 teaspoon salt
5. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6. 2 peaches
7. 2 nectarines
8. 3 red tomatoes
9. 3 yellow tomatoes
10. 2 small inner celery stalks, peeled to remove strings and cut into1/4-inch pieces
11. 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, plus shredded basil for garnish

Method

1. Whisk together olive oil, balsamic reduction, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl; set vinaigrette aside.
2. Halve and pit peaches and nectarines. Cut halves into quarters. Slice tomatoes into 1/2-inch rounds.
3. Arrange peaches, nectarines, tomatoes and celery on a serving plate. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Coarsely chop mint leaves; add to vinaigrette. Pour over salad, and garnish with shredded basil.

Weekend Herb Blogging this week is hosted by Chris from Mele Cotte. Be sure to stop by her page to follow the roundup of this great event, culminated by Kalyn and inherited by Haalo.

Now I’m off to do something special with this haul from the garden. Wish me luck!

Fruit Salad with Moroccan Dressing

With the warmth of the Australian summer, Mother Nature brings an abundance of juicy fruits and berries, and because I love all the fruits from this season, what better way than combining them all together, to devour in one greedy swoop.

Fruit salad never fails to satisfy, and when you combine nectarines, peaches, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, banana, ya ya pears and strawberries with this delicious Moroccan influenced syrup, and a sprinkling of refreshing mint leaves thrown in, you’re on your way to summer heaven. Of course you could use any fresh fruits you have available.

Moroccan Dressing

(from my fav TV show Food Safari)
1 cup water
1 small stick cassia bark (or cinnamon)
2 teaspoons orange blossom water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
10 mint leaves, torn

Preparation

Combine all ingredients for dressing except mint leaves in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Cool and place in fridge for 1 hour, then mix dressing through the fruit salad with mint leaves. Don't forget to remove the cassia bark!!

As I’m proudly hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week, an event which was started way back by Kalyn’s Kitchen, and has now been passed down to Haalo from Cook Almost Anything, I look forward to receiving a wide variety of interesting recipes and dishes which incorporate a herb, fruit or vegetable as the major ingredient. I hope you can catch the roundup on Monday.

Toffee Apple Clafoutis HHDD#19

Childhood memories bring to light many joyous moments, such as receiving my first Teary Deary Doll from Santa, or the feeling of jubilation riding my two wheeler, finally unassisted by Dad, and not crashing into the lemon tree in the backyard. Two memories really stick out though. The first is homemade toffees in patty pans, covered in hundreds and thousands or peanuts, which I could savour all day, wrapped in a handkerchief in my pocket when the sugar fix had wained. The second is autumn apples, Golden Delicious apples, the size of a softball on steroids, the juice running down to my elbows with every deafening crunch. These apples were straight from the orchards in King Valley, and a large box would always be sitting on the table of our back verandah, tempting us every time we walked past.

When Bron Marshall (the esteemed winner from last month) announced the theme for Hey Hey it's Donna Day #19 as clafoutis, I was a shattered woman. I'm not normally one who opts for desserts, and thought a savoury clafoutis, maybe baby tomatoes, prosciutto, goats cheese...something along those lines, would satisfy my savoury tooth. This is a popular monthly event founded by Barbara from Winosandfoodies. Check out both of these fabulous blogs.

Finally the penny dropped. Use what is in season. Tomatoes have finished...finito, kaput. Apples rule. So I have combined two of my childhood favourites, apples and toffee to make Toffee Apple Clafoutis.

Preparation Time

15 minutes

Cooking Time

60 minutes

Ingredients (serves 8)

• Melted butter, to grease
• 6 (about 1.2kg) golden delicious apples, peeled, cored, quartered
• 220g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 80ml (1/3 cup) water
• 100g (2/3 cup) plain flour
• 160g (2/3 cup) sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbs Cointreau liqueur
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 2 tbs vanillin sugar
• 500ml (2 cups) milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush a 10-cup (2.5-litre) ovenproof dish with the melted butter to lightly grease. Arrange apple pieces over the base of the dish.
2. Place caster sugar and water in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until mixture is golden, occasionally brushing down side of pan with pastry brush dipped in water. Remove from heat, allow bubbles to subside. Pour toffee evenly over apples in dish.
3. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add the liqueur, oil and vanillin sugar. Gradually pour in the milk, stirring continuously, until the mixture is smooth. Pour the mixture over the apples. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes before serving.

Fig frenzied filcher

Yesterday, I have to admit it, I was a very bad, bad person.

It all started whilst having a coffee at a little country cafe, under the shade of a massive fig tree. The figs were fresh, abundant and sadly just outer skins as the birds love them so much. I had a sudden craving for fresh figs. Sadly the owner of the cafe didn't offer me any, and the coffee was only so so. On leaving though, there was a yellow plum tree, groaning with ripe juicy plums, and just at the right height for me to sneakily pick one. That'll teach the cafe owner a lesson for not offering me some figs. I'll just nick a plum instead to make up for it. Trying to be discrete as possible, I quickly picked a plum, and bit into it nonchalantly, only to have another plum fall onto my head. So much for being discrete and unnoticeable. Unfortunately my husband noticed, and said it served me right for stealing.

Those figs were the foremost thing in my mind. Meanwhile, we came upon Harry's Vege Patch. I met Harry three years ago on a flight home from Athens to Melbourne. Harry is Italian, and even though he lives in Melbourne, he has a patch of ground "up the bush", as we call it, to plant his veges, escape from the city, and make a couple of dollars on the side as well. It was a nice opportunity to catch up with Harry again and buy some of his potatoes ("good for gnocchi" he informed me), some peaches and some nectarines. Then onto a berry farm where I purchased 2 kgs of frozen raspberries. I was about 3 weeks too early for the Autumn crop, but I can still put the frozen berries to good use. Ice cream comes to mind.

Heading closer to home, I couldn't get off the subject of figs. I was obsessed with the fact that amongst my booty of fruit and veg, there was not one fig. That is, until my husband took a slight detour, pulled the car into what looked like a bus depot (being Sunday luckily it was closed) and said "There". I couldn't believe my eyes. A massive fig tree groaning under the weight of ripe figs. I was out of that car in half a second returning back only to scrounge for a bag or receptacle of some sort, and proceeded to behave like a frenzied female fig filcher.

Now you're probably thinking this woman is a total thief, as well as a lunatic. I must defend myself here, Your Honour, and state that I never had to climb a fence, use bolt cutters or force entry of any sort. It was broad daylight, I wasn't wearing a balaclava and the tree was just there. I did however attract a toot from a passerby; I'm not sure if it was a gesture of country friendliness or he was tooting because I was stealing. And I did feel quite guilty, but not for long.

Especially when the figs were served with prosciutto, Parmigiano Reggiano, fresh rocket (aragula) from the garden, and drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette. Teamed with dukhah crusted BBQ lamb and a glass of prosecco, that guilt I was feeling earlier went straight out of the window.



Fresh Fig and Prosciutto Salad

8 ripe figs (don't refrigerate them)
1 bunch of rocket
Extra virgin olive oil to taste
Balsamic vinegar
Squeeze of lemon juice
8 slices of prosciutto
freshly shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, to serve

Cut the figs in half and then toss with rocket in a bowl. Dress with a vinaigrette of 3-4 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar. Add lemon juice to taste. Divide evenly among 4 plates, then drape over two slices of prosciutto. Top with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and serve immediately.