Indigo's Tantalising Tomato Recipes

Earthy Chef Indigo Wheelaghan is a big fan of Jim Craig's tomatoes so when we asked for a couple of recipes he wasn't short on inspiration.

Confit cherry vine tomato soup.

750g Jim Craig's red cherry tomatoes.

250g vine tomatoes

4 red onions

1/2 a head of celery

one large carrot

one bulb of garlic

generous bunch of rosemary

generous bunch of thyme

tablespoon of sherry vinegar

teaspoon of brown sugar

basil leaves and creme fraiche to garnish

Slice tomatoes in half, roughly dice red onion, cellary, carrot and garlic.

Place in a large roasting tray, add picked herbs sea salt, cracked black pepper, cherry vinegar and a very generous glug of extra virgin olive oil, mix through the vegetables.

Cover the tray with tin foil, place in the oven at 180 degrees C, leave for one hour.

Remove foil then place back in oven for 30-40 mins until the tomatoes begin to char.

Place in large saucepan, blend until smooth adding water and seasoning to taste and texture.

Finish with torn fresh basil, creme fraiche and extra virgin olive oil.

Panzanella Salad

500g Jim Craig's mixed cherry tomatoes

1 red onion

small bunch of basil

small bunch of oregano

small bunch of parsley

some old bread

3 cloves of garlic

cherry vinegar

Slice tomatoes in half. Finely slice red onion. Add a 2 tablespoons of cherry vinegar, and 3 of extra virgin olive oil, season with sea walt and cracked black pepper.

Tear old bread into chunks, place in a roasting tray with garlic cloves, not pealed, drizzle with olive oil, season and roast in oven at about 150 degrees C until golden brown.

Pick some parsley, oregano and basil and add to the vegetables.

Finally add the bread, removing the garlic cloves and serve straight away.

Perfect with white fish, or chicken.

Producer of the Month - June 2011 - Jim Craig

The Earthy Producer of the Month

Jim Craig

Jim Craig is one of the last of a once mighty breed, the Clyde Valley tomato grower. Up until the 1930’s the region was Scotland’s orchard, with acres of apple trees, some stretching back for hundreds of years. Seeing their livelihoods whittled away by cheaper English & continental imports the farmers embarked on what is still reckoned to be the biggest single investment in Scottish agricultural history – they built state of the art, water heated greenhouses of a size & scale never seen before. So successful was the gamble that, by the 1950’s the Clyde Valley was synonymous with tomato production, but just as in the 30’s, growers in the 60’s & 70’s found themselves undercut as better transportation allowed Spanish & Italian growers to deliver their tomatoes all over Europe.

Always price conscious, supermarkets squeezed the pricier, but fresher and better tasting Scottish tomatoes off the shelves. Facing this huge drop in demand dozens of the Clyde Valley growers either sold out to garden centres & nurseries or simply allowed their majestic green houses to fall into disrepair & collapse. Slowly, but surely, however, a mini revival is occurring. Spurred on by the increased consumer desire for local produce, growers like Jim are circumventing the supermarkets to sell directly to the public either at farmers markets or at stores like Earthy where the fuller flavour and firmer texture that only fresh Scottish tomatoes can provide are appreciated. Jim admits that Scottish tomatoes are now a niche product, but that allows them to specialise in heritage varieties & even expand his range to include strawberries and cucumbers.

Available from late April until early November, Jim Craig’s tomatoes are a taste of the past. So next time you are hankering for tomatoes ‘like they used to be’ try one of Jim’s.

Byam Trotter's Hot Pepper Chocolate Cake

Byam Trotter of Trotter's Independent Condiments is one of our favourite & most inventive suppliers. From his seasonal & entirely Scottish Wild Garlic Pesto to his boozily brilliant Mojito Jelly (fantastic with barbequed fish), he rarely fails to hit the mark.

Not content with simply creating tasty condiments, he trys to inspire you to get cooking as well. His website is a mine of cracking recipes of which this scrumptiously spicy cake is a recent favourite.

Ingredients

• 1tbs ground almonds (extra for dusting)

• 300g dark chocolate (65% minimum)

• 220g caster sugar

• 110g Hot Pepper Jelly

• 165g unsalted butter

• Pinch of sea salt

• 5 large eggs

• Icing sugar

• 20cm round cake tin (with removable base)

Method

Preheat the oven to; 180C/375F/Gas mark 5 or bottom right in an Aga

Brush the tin with a little oil, sprinkle in half the ground almonds and spread around evenly.

Melt the chocolate and butter with the sugar, salt and Hot Pepper Jelly in a heatproof bowl over simmering water or in a low oven or the top left of an Aga

Whisk the eggs with the remainder of the ground almonds and fold it into the chocolate mixture

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30-40 mins (check after 30)

Remove cake from tin and leave on base to cool

Eat... yum yum!

The cake should be thick and a little gooey in texture.

Celeriac Schnitzel

The Earthlings are talented & cosmopolitan bunch - outwith their phenomenal knowledge of fruit, veg & food in general, we have experts on everything from Scandinavian poetry to particle physics - which means that we get a fantastic range of recipes from our staff. This simple take on a German classic, which makes brilliant use of the unusual texture & flavour of celeriac to really make it the star of the show, was suggested by Esther Kuck (Bonus Talent - Trained Florist) one of the shopfloor Earthlings.

Ingredients

1 good sized celeriac

100g breadcrumbs

2 medium eggs (beaten)

Salt & Pepper

Method

Peel the celeriac and cut into ½ inch slices, then season each slice with salt and freshly ground black pepper, dip into beaten egg and ideally you own home made bread crumbs (the organic boxed ones we sell are good if you are feeling lazy).

Fry on both sides in butter and olive oil until golden brown. This leaves the schnitzel with a bit of crunch.

Serve with sauce hollandaise and buttered potatoes with lots of fresh flat parsley. You can also throw a handful of chopped capers through your sauce for really tart accompaniment.

Christmas Clootie Dumpling

Fresh off her appearance on the Great British Bake Off, Earthy regular Lea Harris was recently invited to be a guest on the Edinburgh leg of Market Kitchen's Big Adventure (which aired last week on the Good Food channel). She was asked is she knew of any other keen bakers in town I was very touched that she recommended me.

Since they were looking for something distinctly Scottish, but with a Christmassy feel, I thought back to my great-grandmother's fantastic Clootie Dumpling - a Scots classic if ever there was one. While it was a year round treat during my childhood, my Nana always came up with variations for special occasions, so I hope she would approve of my festive version of her signature dish.

Ingredients (Makes a large pudding for around 10 people)

175g Plain Flour

115 oz Self-Raising Flour

30g Cake Crumbs (or bread crumbs if you don't have some old cake lying around)

90g Vegetarian Suet

60g Fine Raw Cane Sugar

115g each of Currants & Sultanas

60g each of Raisins, Dried Cranberries & Mixed Peel

1 DSp each of Treacle, Golden Syrup & Medium Cut Marmalade

1 oz Sunflower Spread, melted

1 Lge Egg, lightly beaten

1 1/2 TeSp each of Ground Ginger, Mixed Spice, Cinnamon & Nutmeg

1 TeSp each of Ground Cloves & Mace

275ml Buttermilk

1 TeSp Bicarbonate of Soda

25ml Whisky (or brandy if you prefer)

Pinch of Salt

Plain Flour for sprinkling on cloth

Coin wrapped in greaseproof paper

Method

First put a large pan of water on to boil with a plate, or ideally, a steamer rose in the bottom so the pudding can't sit on the floor of the pan. Then submerge your 'cloot' or pudding cloth - a square of muslin around 2 feet square - in a bowl of boiling water to sterilise it.

Pop your bicarbonate of soda into a cup, mix with a splash of buttermilk and set to one side.

Sift your flour into a large bowl then add crumbs, sugar, spices, suet, salt & dried fruit. Mix together so the fruit has no clumps and the spices & flour are well mixed. Now add your margarine, egg, treacle, syrup, marmalade, whisky and the bicarbonate of soda/buttermilk mix. Begin to stir, adding the remainder of the buttermilk (and your coin for luck) until you have as smooth a batter as you can manage with a mixture containing more than a pound of fruit!

Remove you cloot from the boiling water, wring it out & lay it on a flat surface. Sprinkle all over with flour, rub gently in to the cloth then shake off any excess. Now put your cloth over a large bowl and spoon the mixture into the centre of cloot. Bring up the edges of the cloth - keeping the pleats as neat and shallow as possible - then, leaving enough space for the dumpling to swell, tie the top tightly with string.

Place the dumpling into the water, bring it back to the boil, cover & allow to simmer for 3 1/2 hours, topping up with boiling water if necessary.

At the end of the cooking time, remove the dumpling from the hot water & plunge into cold water for around 5 seconds. Then place it in a colander, untie the cloot and open it up just enough so a serving plate can be placed on top. Turn the whole thing over and remove the rest of the cloot. Your dumpling is now complete, but is naked as a newborn & needs to be covered with a damp teatowel and left overnight to allow the skin to firm up.

To Serve

Once the skin has firmed up, the whole dumpling can be warmed gently in the oven & served with brandy butter or custard a la Christmas pudding. Alternatively only warm half then slice the other half very thinly so it can be fried and served with bacon & eggs for the ultimate Boxing Day breakfast.

Aromatic North African Fish with Couscous

This is my variation of a North African Stew - with the fish cooked seperately from the sauce. The ingredients list is long, I know, but most of the spices are for the Ras-El-Hanout which you can buy pre-prepared (Steenberg's do the best that I know of). This spice mix varies from recipe to recipe - try making your own and you can omit some things you're not keen on, or add others you think might work. As for the fish - use any fillets of firm fish that are available and sustainable. From line caught sea bass, mackeral, sea bream, to monkfish. Also add a few shellfish for a different texture - e.g. prawns (buy them whole) or scallops or even mussels (which you could add to the sauce at the end). I know this looks like a long recipe to do - but it's really not. It takes less than hour in total in the kitchen - and the aromas are so special, that you'll probably want to take your time over it and spend as much time there as you can.

First of all make your Ras-El-Hanout.
Ingredients (makes enough for 8 people - store any left in an airtight jar if this is too much): 2 tsp each of cumin seeds, ginger powder, fennel seeds, turmeric, coriander seeds & Salt; 1 tsp each of cayenne pepper, dried chillis, ground cloves, freshly ground nutmeg & black pepper; one small cinnamon stick.
Method: place all the spices together in a warm, dry, heavy pan and gently heat to release the oils and flavours, then crush in a pestle and mortar. Sieve into a bowl to capture any larger pieces of cinnamon stick.

For the Fish: Place 3 tbs of olive oil in a dish and add 1 heaped tbs of the Ras-El-Hanout and mix together. Coat the fish fillets well in the spicy oil. Shell the prawns (removing the black membrane) or shell your scallops and coat well with the spicy oil. Cover the dish with cling film and place in the fridge. You can do all of this well in advance.

For the Sauce: 2-3 tbs olive oil; 2 medium red onions, finely sliced; 1/2 head of 1 small fennel - very finely chopped; 1 small preserved lemon (scoop out the flesh and only use the skin) - very finely chopped; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 1 small red chilli finely chopped; 1 tin of chopped tomatoes; a good pinch of saffron threads; around 300ml of good quality fish stock; 1 heaped tsp of runny honey (Ulmo Blossom or Orange Blossom honey works well)- to be added at the end of cooking.
Method: In a heavy bottomed pan (with a lid) add the oil and 2 tbs of your Ras-El-Hanout mix and gently fry for 1 minute before adding the onions and fennel. Fry for another 2-3 minutes before adding the preserved lemon, garlic & chilli. Gently fry for another couple of minutes before adding the chopped tomatoes, one spoon at a time, mixing well. Make sure the tomatoes are well broken down into the sauce, then add the fish stock and finally the saffron threads. Mix well, turn the heat down to low and place the lid on the pan. The sauce will take around 30-40 minutes to cook through and it should be almost jam-like in consistency. Check it and give it a good stir now and again making sure it doesn't stick to the pan at all.

For the Couscous: Put a good glug of olive oil in a pan and warm it through. Tip in around 50g of couscous per person, stirring well with the oil to coat the grains. Remove from the heat and pour in enough boiling water to just cover the couscous and no more. Sstir well, then pop the lid on the pan and leave for 5-10 mins. Fluff up with a fork, and add salt to taste, a good bunch of chopped fresh coriander (or flat leaf parsley or both) and the grated zest of a lemon.

To finish the dish: Heat a large non-stick frying pan on the hob. Add a little olive oil and when hot add your fish fillets, skin-side down to sear. The fish fillets should take no more than 4-5 mins to cook; the prawns or scallops 2-3 minutes. If you're using mussels, add them now into your sauce and replace the pan lid, giving the pan a bit of a shake - the mussels are ready when the shells open (discard any that do not open). Check your sauce for seasoning and add the honey, stirring in well. Spoon a heap of couscous onto each warmed serving plate; add the sauce to the side and place the fish on top of the sauce. Serve immediately and listen to the groans of joy!