Something Special

Ah, the humble tomato. Whether tangy or sweet, soft or firm, field fresh or unripe, tinned or pureed, they make for some of the most delicious food dishes on planet Earth.

They also go especially well with the fresh produce we’re famed for here at R&G Fresh. Which only adds to why we love them so!

So to celebrate British Tomato Fortnight happening between 24^th May and 6^th June, we’ve put together three of our favourite tomato recipes featuring fresh herbs and other ingredients. We hope you love them, just as much as we do!

Ingredients for the tomatoes

• 4 tablespoons of plain flour
• 200g of polenta
• 2 eggs
• 4 large green tomatoes (weighing around 500g), sliced roughly 1cm thick
• vegetable oil (for frying)

How to make

1. To make your fried green tomatoes, start by sprinkling the flour onto a plate. Next, place polenta into a medium bowl, season and mix well. Put the eggs in a small bowl and beat the mixture.
2. Lightly coat a green tomato slice first in the flour, dusting off any excess. Then dip in the egg. Then coat in polenta. Repeat with the rest of the green tomato slices.
3. Heat a shallow pool of oil in a large frying pan then take the covered tomatoes and fry them in batches until crisp and golden on both sides. Makes sure you turn them over with a fish slice or thin spatula while cooking.
4. As each fried green tomato batch is done, drain them on kitchen paper and keep them warm in a low oven while you fry the other batches.

Ingredients for the salsa

• 1 handful mint leaves (finely chopped)
• 1  deseeded green chilli(finely chopped)
• 1 large or 2-3 medium ripe tomatoes (finely chopped)
• 2 spring onions (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoon of lime juice

How to make

The salsa is designed to accompany your fried green tomatoes – and it’s absolutely delicious!

1. To make it, simply mix all of the salsa ingredients above in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.
2. Serve the fried green tomatoes hot, with the salsa either spooned over, or as a dip on the side.

Shakshuka recipe with chilli and coriander

Shakshuka is a tomatoey stew with eggs on top that’s brilliant as a breakfast food or evening meal alike – making it one of the most versatile tomato recipes around. It’s designed for dipping, and can play host to a variety of herbs. We’re especially partial to the easy and simple shakshuka recipe below, courtesy (yet again) of BBC Good Food.

Ingredients

• 1 red chilli, (deseeded and chopped into small pieces)
• A small bunch of coriander leaves and stalks (chopped separately)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 red onions (chopped)
• 1 garlic clove (sliced or pressed)
• 2 cans of cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of caster sugar
• 4 eggs

How to make

1. Heat the olive oil in a lidded frying pan, then add the onions so they soften. As the onions are cooking, also add in the chilli, garlic and coriander stalks for 5 minutes until they’re soft too.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and sugar, then cook the mixture all together for 8-10 mins until thick and bubbling.
3. Make 4 dips in the sauce with a large serving spoon, then crack an egg into each one (make sure to avoid any shell falling in!). Place the lid on the pan and cook on a low heat for 6-8 minutes, removing from the heat when the eggs are done to your tastes.
4. Garnish with the coriander leaves and serve with crusty bread.

How to make

1. Coat a pan with spray oil and place on a high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions until they start to soften. (if making lasagne or a Bolognese, add the meat at this point too). After a few minutes, add the garlic (and if you’re adding spice, the chilli of your choice as well) and continue to heat for a further 2-3 minutes (or until the meat has browned).
2. Once the onions and garlic are soft (and the meat, if present, is cooked), pour in the tinned tomatoes and passata and lower to a medium temperature.
3. Shortly after the pot will begin to bubble. At this point, stir in the beef stock pot, vegetable stock powder and two of the sweeteners, then pour in the red wine, giving the mixture a final stir.
4. Lower the heat and cook for approximately 15 minutes.
5. Add the chopped basil and chopped oregano leaves, stirring them in so that the flavours combine with the now-thickened sauce. (As soft herbs, you’re much better adding these towards the end of the cooking time, as explained in our blog on adding herbs to your cooking).
6. Heat for a further 5 minutes and taste-test, then add the last sweetener to suit your tastes.
7. Serve over spaghetti, pasta, or as the red filling in a lasagne.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, we thought it would be nice to come up with a whole three-course mother’s day dinner you could make for her at home that’s packed with fresh herbs and ingredients.

These are three of mum’s favourite recipes with a herby twist.

Starter: Herb and chilli calamari

Image credit: Olive

The first of our Mother’s Day dinner ideas is fantastic as a starter to share but also great as a meal outright on its own!

Ingredients

• Half a bunch of finely chopped coriander
• Two deseeded sliced red chillies
• 50ml milk of your choice (unsweetened)
• 50g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• Oil for deep frying
• 400g squid
• Sea salt and ground pepper
• Three finely sliced spring onions
• A handful of chopped or crushed peanuts
• Two limes, cut into wedges

How to make

1. Take two mixing bowls. Add both types of flour to one and season with salt and pepper. Pour the milk into the other bowl. Take a frying pan and fill it around a third full with oil, then heat it until sizzling
2. Take batches of the ringed or spiralled squid and dip them into the milk, then into the seasoned flour, coating it well. Then lower the seasoned squid into the heated oil for up to two minutes until golden. Place in a bowl lined with kitchen paper and season it with the sea salt and more pepper as required.
3. Once you’ve cooked all the squid and left it to drain of oil, place it in a serving bowl and add the chillies, spring onions, peanuts and coriander, stirring them all through until the bowl looks colourful and appetising. Serve as a sharer with lime wedges for squeezing.

How to make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade/gas mark four (higher if not a fan oven). Cut the garlic into smaller chunks then make several incisions in the chicken breasts, drumsticks and thighs and push the garlic into them. Once you’re done, tie the drumsticks together, so they’re held in place like in the picture above.
2. Put the chopped up carrots, squash and red onions in a shallow roasting pan with the rosemary, dill and thyme to make a bed for the chicken, then place the chicken on top. Cut both the lemon and orange in half and squeeze the juices all over everything in the roasting tray, getting an even spread over chicken and herbed veggies. Once they’ve been squeezed through, push the fruits into the cavity of the chicken and season the chicken with salt and pepper. Once that’s done, pour the chicken stock evenly around the outside of the chicken so it can be absorbed by the veg.
3. Roast for the guidance given on the chicken depending on its exact weight – typically around two and a half hours for a large chicken of around 2.5kg. (a cooked chicken should be around 74 degrees centigrade). If the chicken starts to brown too quickly, cover it with foil. Around 20 minutes from the end of cooking, sprinkle the spring onions over the veg.
4. Take the chicken out of the oven and cover it with foil (or leave covered if it already is). Let it stand for 15 minutes before serving with…

How to make

1. Place the thyme, rosemary, butter, grated garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper into a bowl and mix together until you have a smooth buttery mixture.
2. Cut deep, thin grooves along each potato around half a centimetre apart, giving the potatoes that ridged appearance.
3. Put the potatoes in a shallow pan for baking then coat them with the butter mix you made earlier. Drizzle some olive oil (or spray some fry light) onto the top, and place the lemon slices and garlic heads around them.
4. Cover the whole pan with foil and bake for an hour and a half, removing the foil for the final 30 minutes. If your chicken takes around two and a half hours, this means you can prepare the chicken, then sort the Hasselback potatoes while the chicken cooks for the first hour.

How to make

1. Starting with the crust ingredients, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and place the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes. Also, place the butter in the freezer at this point if you haven’t already, albeit separately from the mixture. Then measure out 250ml of water and set aside, adding a few ice cubes to cool the water right down.
2. Take the flour mixture and butter out of the freezer and grate half the butter into the mixture, tossing it together with a spatula. Pour the ice water into the mixture, adding a bit at a time until it begins to form a clumpy dough. Knead this together with your hands until it has the right consistency, then tear the dough in half, covering each in clingfilm. Place both in the fridge for at least an hour.
3. After an hour, take the dough and roll out one half into a lightly floured large pie pan. The second lot of dough you should take and roll out on a lightly floured chopping board, then cut into long strips which will form the crust. At this point, turn on the oven, preheating it to 220 degrees or gas mark seven.
4. Fill the pie base in the tin with the sliced apples, then place the strips of dough over them, sealing the pie with a lattice crust that weaves in and out as pictured. Place the pie in the fridge while you go on to making the herby sauce.
5. For the sauce, melt the other half of the butter in a saucepan and stir in the three tablespoons of plain flour in the fillings list above. This will form a paste. Add to it the white and brown sugars along with the 60ml water, plus of course the chopped rosemary and dried thyme. Bring the whole thing to the boil, then reduce the heat quickly, simmering it all for five to seven minutes until the sauce has thickened.
6. At this point, all that’s left to do is to remove the pie from the fridge, pour the caramelised herby butter sauce over it in a delicious pattern, and place it in the preheated oven, turning the heat down to 175 degrees centigrade or gas mark four. The whole pie should take around 40 minutes to cook, and we advise letting it cool for around five minutes before serving.

How to make

1. Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan over a medium to low heat for three minutes until it’s steaming without getting as far simmering. Add the mint leaves, then turn off the heat, cover, and set aside for an hour. After that hour, strain the mixture through a sieve into another pot, so the mint leaves aren’t left in it.
2. Fill a big bowl three-quarters full with water, then top up with ice to make an ice bath.
3. Put the pot of now minty cream and milk mixture back onto a medium0low heat until it’s once again steaming. Then whisk together the egg yolks and sugar for a minute or so until the mixture is sticky and runny. Gradually pour in one-third of the heated mixture from the pot, whisking as you go. Then pour that whisked mixture into the rest of the heated milk and stir it all together. Cook it for another five to seven minutes until the mixture is more like a nice thick minty custard.
4. From here, put the custard through a sieve into a medium-sized mixing bowl, then place that bowl in the ice bath, ensuring no water leaks into it from the sides. (Cover it if you’re unsure about this). Leave it there for around 10 minutes, then pour the cooled mixture into a blender along with the tarragon leaves, pulsing it all together until combined.
5. At this point you need to refrigerate the mixture for at least four hours (for ease, we’d suggest overnight as per above). From there, it’s a simple matter of running the mixture through your ice cream maker, then freezing it for at least two hours before serving with the apple pie!

With schools out for summer and the holidays in full swing, we thought we’d bring together three of our favourite refreshing summer drinks recipes infused with herbs, all in one place for you to enjoy.

We’ve gone for non-alcoholic herby mocktails so the whole family can enjoy them. But of course, you can always add a spirit of your choice if you want to take the edge off after a long hot day!

Refreshing lemongrass orangeade

The first of our favourite easy refreshing summer drinks recipes is this tasty, tangy lemongrass orangeade recipe from Waitrose.

Minty strawberry limeade

Number two of our three refreshing summer drinks with herbs in them is this gorgeous strawberry limeade from foodie blog Fifteen Spatulas, chock full of fresh mint leaves.

How to make

1. As with the lemongrass orangeade, you’ll be making a syrup here first then adding the juice. To start with, add 75ml of the water to a saucepan and pour in the sugar. Cook over a medium-high heat for between five and 10 minutes until the solution is clear, meaning the sugar has dissolved.
2. Pour the rest of the water into a pitcher or other container and add the syrup along with the lime juice, most of the mint leaves, and all of the strawberries. Put the jar into the fridge for between two and three hours to chill and infuse.
3. Serve in cold mason jars (if you like the presentation above) or chilled glasses and garnish with a couple of mint leaves. Enjoy!

Chilli watermelon agua fresca

The third and final of our favourite refreshing summer drinks is this rich, fruity watermelon agua fresca from Myriad Musings, blended with hot green chillies for a satisfying kick!

How to make

1. Grab a blender and throw in at least a third of the fresh mint leaves, all three green chillies, plus the watermelon, lime juice, honey and half the ice cubes, then blend them together until pureed. Add water if the mixture looks a little thicker than you’d like.
2. Strain into a jug (unless you prefer a thicker, more pulpy drink, in which case skip this step). Then grab the majority of the remaining mint leaves and add them to the liquid, pressing them with a muddler to release their minty flavour into the drink.
3. To serve, add the remaining ice into glasses and pour over the blended watermelon agua fresca, garnishing each glass with the last of the mint plus slices of cucumber and lime to taste.