After making this oh-so-super-easy homemade tomato paste you are never going to buy any ever again. Even if you don’t grow your own tomatoes all you need to do is go to the market and buy a box of over-ripe tomatoes and some locally grown garlic and you are set for the most amazing smell to waft throughout your house.

I use this tomato paste as a flavouring in soups and casseroles and stews – yes its fantastic for that. But also its perfect for pizza, for dips and even sandwiches. Use it anywhere you need a tomato tapenade or extra burst of flavour.

Make a few jars of this and stash them in your fridge – they make cooking a whole heap quicker – for a bonus … here is a Jamie Oliver one-pot chicken dish that is my go-to dinner when I can’t think of anything else. This is a slight variation on Jamie’s dish – as it uses my tomato paste instead of fresh herbs and garlic.

Quick tomato and chicken one-pot dinner:

Take a few chicken thighs (depending on how many you are feeding) and chop them into large chunks, fry them in your oven safe casserole dish with some olive oil. Meanwhile peel and boil a few potatoes (one per person as a rough guide) – drain the almost cooked potatoes and toss them in with the browned chicken. Take it off the stove and add a few spoonfuls of your homemade tomato paste (with garlic), and then add in a few roughly chopped fresh tomatoes, a pinch of salt and another splash of olive oil. Bake in a medium oven for 20 minutes. Serve with a fresh salad. (if you don’t have any homemade tomato paste then you will need a handful of fresh herbs such as thyme and oregano and some chopped garlic gloves)

But here is my recipe for my homemade tomato paste…

You will need as many overripe tomatoes as you can get a hold of – cut them in half and lay them open side up on a baking tray. Splash or spray good olive oil over the tomatoes, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then peel a few garlic cloves and throw them in with the tomatoes (I used our homegrown garlic here) – use local garlic without all those terrible chemicals sprayed all over them. Bake in a medium/slow oven for about an hour. You want the tomatoes to have shrunken and browned a little but not be too dark.

Take your roasted tomatoes and garlic and put them into your food processor – if you don’t have one you can use a stick blender, pestle and morter or even a potato masher – and blend until you have a lovely paste. Now you can add a few different flavours – its up to you – some ideas include: anchovies in oil (just a couple), salted capers (rinse the salt off first), pitted marinated olives, roasted capsicum (adds sweetness), roasted chillies (add a bit of spiciness), or even roasted eggplant (adds a smoky flavour), also add some more olive oil.

Put your paste into clean jars that you have sterilised with boiling water, and pour a layer of olive oil over the top. Seal with your lids and label. The jars will keep in the fridge for about a month like this. Alternatively this freezes very well too – so if you do have a huge glut of tomatoes in your veggie patch why not make enough paste for the rest of the year!

Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home

Martha Stewart. Clarkson Potter 2009, Hardcover, 272 pages, $12.96

As usual Martha Stewart’s impeccable taste and style win through with a very useful book for dinner parties. The recipes are broken into menus – each with a starter, sides + dessert. We (the family + but mainly me) love the preparation schedule at the beginning of each menu – what you can make in advance – what order to make it all it – how long it will take.

I haven’t made anything from this book yet – it is too perfect and I just am not quite sure where to start – I am content at the moment just to look and wait for the perfect combination of ingredients and inspiration to hit me.

The recipes all seem very achievable – lots of hearty home style cooking – nothing seems too fancy or overdone – the book is dedicated to hardworking families. With a seasonal chapter breakdown you can prepare your menus according to what is in season and the weather. Right now I am thinking spring/summer — baby lamb chops + asparagus with aioli + Quinoa, pea and mint salad + vanilla poached rhubarb – but all of you going into fall/winter how does this sound — Roast pumpkin soup + cheese flautas (deep fried wrap) with cilantro pesto + black eyed pea salad with baby green beans + apple cranberry crumble.

Manna from heaven: cooking for the people you love
by Rachel Grisewood. Published by Allen and Unwin, Australia November 2009.

Loving how earthy and friendly this book is. The photographs are on the rustic side of styled with some sweet ‘crayon’ drawn illos to add to that family flavour of this book.

Rachel Griselwood is a london born london trained chef who moved to Australia – working and traveling – living the good life that Australia has to offer before setting down with her ‘Manna from Heaven’ bakery and treat shop in Sydney. However this book is all about cooking for family – her first love – the great feeling you get from nurturing and tending to your loved ones – we all know about that don’t we.

This gloriously big book, is full of satisfying family friendly fare – Each chapter takes you on a different journey in Rachels life – she takes us on a discovery tour with her first mouth watering treats that she baked out of her home kitchen to the lovely tartlettes [pdf download to recipe for tomato tart] she developed for trendy sydney delis to her big batches of Indian chutneys she made to sell.

There is a journey through her kitchen – with a story behind her favourite baking trays and tins – her favourite egg recipe to cook in her favourite red frying pan. The dinner party journey – the perfect fare for dinner with friends, dinner with family, her daughters favourite flat bread recipe, her best friends love of prawns, foods that trigger memories of her lost loved ones. A sentimental cook book – with a story behind each and every dish. But you don’t have to read it all – flicking back and forth through the book lands you on pages filled with lemon polenta cup cakes [pdf recipe download], a leaning tower of pisa sponge cake filled with cream and chocolate and raspberries.

There is a recipe in here that reminds me of my childhood – memories of farmers wives kitchens with soft creamy butterfly cakes – oh heaven …

Lemon Butterfly Cakes
recipe:
125g butter (room temperature – slightly softened)
180g caster sugar
185g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
grated lemon zest (1 lemons worth)

Slice the rounded top of each of the cakes – making a slight indentation in the cake – and cut this top in half to make the wings. Dollop a little of the mock cream [or as I have done - use real whipped cream] place the little wings on top and dust with powdered sugar.

These are so light and tempting and delicious – too too yummy