FEEDBACK LINK-UP FEEDBACK Dear GR People,
Every family has its repertoire of dishes that are quick to make but delicious for those times when it’s already getting late and everyone is starving, eg those in GR 276 ‘In the Kitchen’. French toast was one of our family’s standbys too, except we made a savoury version. Years later when running a B & B I adapted Mum’s recipe as a savoury breakfast dish and it was very popular. Here’s my recipe which Alan and I now enjoy for a quick tea every now and again. Savoury French Toast for One
3 pieces French stick cut diagonally about 2cm thick 1 lge free range egg an equal quantity of milk salt and pepper 1 /2–1 spring onion, depending on the size of the spring onion olive oil and/or bacon fat for frying Place the pieces of bread in a shallow container just big enough to contain them. About 15 minutes before you want to serve the French toast add the egg, milk, salt, pepper and bits of spring onion to a food processor and whizz until the spring onion is very finely cut and the mixture is pale green. Pour the egg mixture over the pieces of bread, turning a couple of times to ensure that the liquid absorbs evenly. The bread will be soggy. Heat the oil and add the bread. Cook till just browning, then turn. I cook it twice a side. You need to watch it as it burns easily. We served ours with bacon, cooking the French toast in the bacon fat, to which I’d added some olive oil. You need enough fat to generously cover the base of the pan, but not too much or the French toast will be greasy. Homemade chutney was its other accompaniment. As I’m sure everyone knows, bread freezes well. Because we made this dish most mornings, I used to buy a French stick, cut the whole loaf into 2cm pieces, package them in threes, wrap and freeze. No waste and always there to use. For those preferring a sweet version we omitted the pepper and the spring onion, adding a pinch of cinnamon instead and cooking it in a mix of butter and canola oil. This was served with slices of pear cut lengthwise and cooked very gently in butter till just softening and heated through. To serve we sprinkled the French toast with cinnamon sugar and added a dollop of Greek yoghurt. This sweet version is delicious too. Other fruits which worked well were slices of apples or nectarines when in season with a small drizzle of local honey. Being new to Midway Point we joined the local Garden Club in the hope of learning what plants do well here. In late March our President David hosted a tomato tasting get-together. We all brought along samples of the varieties of our tomatoes we thought had the best flavour, cutting them up for a tasting. Interestingly everyone agreed that a tiny sweet bite tasted best, while last year’s G R A S S
winner seemed less flavoursome this year, suggesting that flavour must somehow be effected by the season. Over afternoon tea we chatted about what we all do with our tomatoes and David showed us his frozen tomato passata – stored in ziplock bags. Here’s his incredibly simple recipe. When my husband came in from the garden with a small bucket full of rather tatty end of season tomatoes yesterday, I thought I’d give it a go. As I don’t have a mouli I gave my cooked tomatoes a whirl with a stick blender then used a large sieve to remove the skins, which worked well. While this isn’t a traditional passata recipe, if you are making a smallish amount it’s very successful. Give it a go if you too have some scruffy end of season tomatoes to use up. Roasted Tomato Passata
about 2kg tomatoes 4 med onions 6 cloves garlic 1 tbsp coarse salt 1–2 tbsp brown sugar black pepper to taste 2 tbsp olive oil Wash then roughly chop the tomatoes, removing any bruises or bits where slugs have chomped. Skin and roughly chop the onions. Flatten the garlic cloves then skin and roughly chop. Mix in everything else then tip into a large baking dish. Bake for 90 minutes at 180°C or 160°C fan forced. Pass the mix through a mouli, discarding the skins. Cool the purée for a while then package in ziplock bags in amounts to suit your future uses. Freeze. Margaret & Alan Morgan, Midway Point, Tas.
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