oven dried tomatoes

I was given a copy of Eden cookbook a few years ago and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. It is my go to reference book for quantities and measurements for larder staples and sauces, onion marmalade, pickled cucumber, those sorts of little things that make something ordinary into something special.

Oven-dried tomatoes is one of the things I make regularly from the book - this method makes bad tomatoes good and good tomatoes great. Now is the time of year that the bulk of tomatoes ripen in the green houses and poly tunnels with a little bit of September sunshine.

Eat these immediately adding them to salads and sandwiches. I prefer to keep them in the fridge for a week or two in an airtight jar covered in a good olive oil and put them on pizza or into a pasta sauce for a burst of deep tomato flavor. Use the oil you kept them in for salad dressings, it is too delicious to waste. Or, as soon as they are cool, freeze on a sheet and then transfer to a zipped freezer bag where they will last for months. A little taste of summer to lift your spirits in the depths of winter.

Oven dried tomatos
Adapted from Eden Cookbook

20g sea salt
8 plum/24 cherry tomatoes halved or quartered depending on size
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots peeled or finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
1 sprig rosemary roughly chopped
1 sprig thyme roughly chopped
10g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 100C/200F - the bottom oven of an Aga is also perfect.

Sprinkle salt on the baking tray (non-metallic) place the tomatoes on the salt skin side down. Mix all the other ingredients together and sprinkle over the tomatoes. Place in the oven and dry until juices have stopped running, edges are shriveled, and pieces have shrunken slightly. Timing will vary depending on the variety, ripeness. Up to 6 hours for a plum is usual, about 2 - 3 hours less for a cherry variety.

irish onion soup...

French onion soup made properly is a joy. But, this is not French onion soup. This one has an Irish accent and is all the better for it.

The most important element to a good onion soup is the proper caramelisation of the onions. Caramelising onions take at least thirty minutes of slow cooking of the onions over a medium high heat. This browning brings out the sweetness in them and that's what makes this soup so good. The chicken stock and cider give it a lighter finish than the traditional French version which usually lists beef stock and Cognac among its ingredients, but at the end of the day, it's just a different kind of delicious.

It's the bog-standard brown onions you want here, red onions will go a sickly grey colour as they cook. Thinly slicing the onions is a doddle if you do it with the shredding attachment of a food processor.

Ingredients
50g butter
1kg brown onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp picked leaves of thyme
200ml Irish cider (MacIvors or another artisan cider is ideal)
Chicken stock fresh, cube or concentrate made up to 1.2 litres

1 nice sourdough or baguette, sliced
1 garlic clove, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil
100g Mossfield or other hard Irish Cheese, grated

Method
Heat the butter in a large pan and gently cook the onion and thyme until the onion is softened but not browned. This might take up to thirty minutes. Increase the heat slightly and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring now and again to stop them catching, until the onion becomes dark golden, sticky and caramelised. Add the cider and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then add the stock and bring to the boil. Season. Simmer for 10 minutes.

While that's simmering, toast the bread, rub each slice with garlic, then drizzle with a little oil. Sprinkle with the cheese and grill until golden and bubbling. Serve the soup with the cheese croutons on top.

a winters tail...

It's the start of a New Year and for my first recipe I am going to ask all my vegetarian friends to look away now, as I share with you my very favorite cut of meat.

Oxtail is the most unctuous and flavoursome cut of beef, my personal favorite and still inexpensive enough, despite the popularity of it on the menus of many prestigious restaurants. When you buy an oxtail it is generally cut into sections, across the tail, in rounds of oxtail on the bone. These are just perfect for casseroles or braising. Oxtail is a tough, gelatinous cut of meat that really has to be slow cooked to tenderise, but also to extract that lovely gelatin which adds body to the stewing liquid. The oxtails are fatty, so are really best cooked a day ahead, so they can chill overnight and have the fat removed from the top the next day.

You can of course serve the oxtails with the bone-in, but because the meat is so easily removed from the bone I always think it better to do just that before dishing up, as it really doesn't take long at all.

There are many ways of cooking oxtail, and while I don't think I can pick a favorite, this recipe makes for a robust and rich pasta dish. Warm crusty bread is all that is needed as an accompaniment to mop up the last of this most delicious ragu. As with all 'Slow Cooking' you will need a low to moderate heat in your oven - I cook this in the lower oven of the range which is about 120C for at least 3 hours, times and heats being approximate.

1.5lb oxtail – cut into sections
1 small onion – finely chopped
1 carrot – finely chopped
1 stalk of celery – finely chopped
2 - 3 glasses of red wine
2 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
Beef stock
Olive oil

Your choice of pasta (I like a wide papardelle with this) with parmesan and fresh basil to serve.

In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil. When hot, start browning the oxtail pieces. Don’t overload the pan – do it in two batches if you must. When the oxtail is nicely colored, remove from the pan to a plate.

Add a little more oil to the pan, if required, and gently cook the onion, carrot and celery until soft, then pour in the red wine. Deglaze the pan, scraping around to get the tasty bits off the bottom. When the wine has reduced a bit, stir in the tomato paste and transfer to your casserole dish. Add in the browned oxtail and tuck in the herbs.

Put the oxtail into a heavy casserole dish that has a well-fitting lid. Pour in the red wine, stock and vegetables. Add enough water to get the liquid level about half way up the side of the meat if necessary, keeping it topped up with water during the cooking to this level if needed. Cover the dish tightly either with a lid, or foil, and place in the oven for about 4 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Remove the meat from the sauce and when cool enough to handle, pull the meat off the bone, and chop. Skim any fat from the top of the braising liquid. In a medium pan, combine the meat and liquid from the braise, discarding the bay and thyme leaves. Cover the pan loosely, and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta until it still has a little bite.

Toss the pasta with oxtail ragu. Serve with some freshly grated parmesan, and a few sprigs of basil.