Asparagus and Tomato Clafoutis

And now for something completely different! I don't usually post anything savoury on here, but this was so tasty that I wanted to share it.
I posted a recipe not long ago for a clafoutis, which we love. Looking through some old French cookery magazines of recipes for summer [making the most of the sun!] I found this recipe for a savoury version.
Local asparagus will soon be gone, so this is a different way of making the most of it.

100g asparagus
10 cherry tomatoes
20cl of whole milk
25cl of single cream
2 eggs
4 tbspn plain flour
salt and pepper

Preheat oven 180C/gas4
4 ramekins or an oven-proof dish about 20cm.

If you're using ramekins, cut the asparagus into 2 or 3 pieces, then wash and dry the tomatoes.

In a bowl mix the eggs, milk and cream, season, then fold in the flour and beat with a whisk till it's all combined.

Put the asparagus and tomatoes in the bottom of a greased ovenproof dish, or if using ramekins, as I did, put a couple of pieces of asparagus and 2 or 3 tomatoes in the bottom. Pour the egg mixture over and bake for about 40 mins.

You can serve it hot or cold.

I made mine in shallow ramekins and decorated with some basil leaves. Good contrast between the soft texture of the savoury custard, the asparagus and the soft tomatoes. They made a tasty light meal with some green salad. The recipe could be adapted in so many ways using different veg. I'll certainly make it again.

Tomato soup

Thought I'd just finish off the post that I did the other day about tomatoes.

I'd roasted a tray of tomatoes ready for soup. It's been too hot to even contemplate soup, but the weather is now cooler so we had some for lunch today.

It was really tasty.

What did I do?

I sauteed an onion in a little evo till translucent, added a few chopped cloves of garlic and some chopped  oregano from the garden. Cooked this a little longer, then added the tomatoes and 300ml of vegetable stock. [I used a good veg.stock cube].  I simmered it for about 10 mins then blended it. I checked the seasoning, then we ate it with big chunks of multigrain homemade bread.

Tomatoes

I don't plant tomatoes from seed as I only need 6 plants, so this year we bought a tray of 6 mixed varieties. These were - cherry tomatoes, vine cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes, plum tomatoes, vine plum tomatoes and a round tomato I've forgotten the name of!

As we've had so much hot weather, they've been prolific and they've had a wonderful flavour. They've lacked water, and we've got a hosepipe ban, so I've been using the 3 water butts, now they've run out!

Bob picked yet more today, so I decided to make some soup with some and I made a starter with a few more.

These are some lovely plum tomatoes going into the oven to be roasted, just drizzled with olive oil. These will be for the soup.

This is the starter. It's not a good picture as it's from a French magazine.

It's mozzarella tomato gratin.

for 4 people you need:

6 tomatoes, 1 ball of mozzarella [125g],

4 tbns grated parmesan, 1 clove of garlic

4 stems of parsley, 4 stems of basil, 1 tspn thyme

evo, s&p

Preheat oven 160C/gas6/325F

Cut the tomatoes in 2 horizontally and put them on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle them with the thyme, s&p and a glug of evo. Cook them for about 40 mins.

Grate the mozzarella coarsely. Chop the basil and parsley. peel and chop the garlic.

Mix these with the grated and parmesan and about 10cl evo. Spread this on the cooked tomaotes.

Put under a grill for about 5 mins. Serve warm. Great with grilled chops or steak.