THE TOMATO GIVES A BRIGHTER NOTE TO COOKERY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 143, 13 March 1937, Page 24

THE TOMATO GIVES A BRIGHTER NOTE TO COOKERY

.-17 V OLD FA VOURITE SERVED IN MANY ATTRACTIVE NEW WA YS

This is a season of colour and fashion, which begins at the dressmaker’s, will reach the dinner table and influence not only its arrangement, but even the choice of dishes that are to appear on it.

Tomatoes give such colour to cookery that they are bound to play an important part in this brighter autumn note. The number of ways in which they can be introduced in the menu is apparently inexhaustible. They follow the courses round, from soup • or hors d’oeuvre, to sweet and savoury, apart from their all-important role in the making of preserves. Everyone has baked tomatoes as a vegetable accompaniment to the meat course, but not every housewife is acquainted with the following ’ unusual way of preparing this dish. Piquant Vegetable Dish To make this hot vegetable dish you will want 6 or S tomatoes, Joz. butter, 1 tablespoonful very finely chopped onion, 1 small teaspoonful brown sugar, 4 teaspoonful mixed spice, salt and perper. Cut tomatoes in four. Do not peel. Melt a little butter in shallow casserole. Place tomatoes in it. Sprinkle with the onion, sugar, spice, salt and pepper.. Put butter on in dabs. Bake in moderate oven until tender from 20 to 30 minutes. Mere is a dinner party sweet that can be made from the tomato or—to call it by its old-world name—the love apple. -4s A Sweet Wanted: 41b. ripe tomatoes, one lemon, castor sugar, 4-pint cream, vanilla, pistachio nuts; Slice tomatoes into a dish, after removing skins. Strain over them the juice of. a lemon and sprinkle well with castor sugar. Whip the cream, sweeten to taste and flavour, with vanilla. Heap in centre of dish. Chopped pistachio nuts sprinkled oh the cream add greatly to the appearance. Baked In Tomato Juice Place a good-sized chicken in a casserole. .Surround it with 21b. of ripe tomatoes cut in halves, and two peeled .

sliced onions. Flavour with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful ground ginger. Cook in a moderate oven for about two hours. No water is needed, as the juice of the eookiug tomatoes takes its place. Tomato And Ginger Jam Choose ripe, red tomatoes. Wipe them, cut in pieces, and then put into a pan without water. Cook slowly, stirring frequently, till reduced to a pulp. Hub through a sieve and measure the puree. To each pint of puree allow 31b. preserving sugar, rind and juice of two lemons, loz. whole ginger, crushed and tied iu muslin. Put all in pan and boil till jam will set. Remove the ginger, pour into pots, and cover. Girdle Cakes , Sift together two cupfuls Hour, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, one teaspoonful bicarbonate . soda, one saltspoonful pepper, one teaspoonful salt, and one cupful of chopped tomatoes. Whip one egg and stir into one cupful of sour milk. Add to the other ingredients, beat till smooth, and bake on a hot girdle. Crystallised Tomatoes Wash some big tomatoes and cut four small slits near the bottom in each one without breaking them. .Squeeze out the seeds as much as possible and press them down. Boil a syrup, allowing 31b. of sugar to 1 pint of water. When it is thick, add the tomatoes and boil a little longer. Take them out of the syrup, roll them in coarse sugar and put in the sun to dry. Bottled Tomatoes Choose small firm tomatoes, just ripe or slightly under-ripe, and as near one | size as possible. Place in wide-mouthed

bottles, or large glass jam jars, putting half a teaspoonful of salt in the bottom of each jar. then place in a very moderate oven, standing on sheets of thick paper or thin cardboard. Leave until the tomatoes look cooked and have shrunk a little. Fill up quickly with boiling water to within half an inch of flip top, and then fill quite level with melted fat (mutton kidney suet). Leave the bottles where they are standing. without touching, until quite cold. If the fat has shrunk fill level again with more melted fat. Cover with parchment when cold, and store in a cool place. The tomatoes will keep perfectly for at least a year, and will be most useful for sauce, soup or stewing during the winter. It is important to use the right fat—mutton kidney suet—as this | is absolutely hard when cold. A Basque Recipe You will want 5 or 6 piinentoes, or more, if they are small ones; lib. tomatoes, 1 onion, 6 eggs, a little milk and butter for frying. Cut up the onion and fry 'it. . Ada the peeled tomatoes. Cut up the pimentoes and fry them separately, then add to the onion and tomatoes. Beat up the eggs and add a little milk and salt to taste. Fry with the other ingredients foe about five min- . utes. Serve at once. Savoury Toast Ingredients for this tomato ana apple savoury are: 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 tablespoonful butter, salt and pepper to taste, a little ground ginger and cinnamon. Melt butter in a saucepan. Peel and slice the apple and coak for a few minutes in the butter. Then add the tomatoes, skinned and sliced. Season with salt and pepper and add a pinch of ground ginger and ground cinnamon. Cook slowly for seven to 10 minutes and serve on buttered toast.