Greenhouse spruce up

I grow most of my tomatoes in the greenhouse. Having had a year when we lost all the plants to mildew in the garden (being left with no tomatoes was awful, watching the plants rot away before your eyes), so now I don't take any chances.

I do still put a few in the garden but tend to just grow what I consider sauce tomatoes like moneymaker outside, and these are from seeds collected from shop bought tomatoes.

In the greenhouse I grow cherry and plum tomatoes for eating, and these are from purchased organic seeds, although this year I have a lot of 'rogue' tomato plants that have self seeded from last years spill of fruit on the ground.

This morning I gave the greenhouse a spruce up - removed the planting table and pulled all the stray weeds coming in at the sides.

As you can see I use growbags. We decided that this was the best way to preserve the soil in the greenhouse floor.

I grow through the grow bags, they have a long split underneath to allow the roots to push through into the soil below, but it means when I add my nettle fertiliser it is concentrated into the grow bag and not just dispersed throughout the soil so the plant gets a better hit. At the end of the year when the plants are done, the grow bags are split open and the soil dispersed, manure added and a fresh batch of compost starts to mature, keeping the soil in the greenhouse rich and healthy.

In one corner is my 'nursery' plot, with the last few pots of toms for growing on, as well as some basil and chili peppers. In the other far corners are my aubergine plants, and a lemon tree.

But the best thing of all this morning, was finding the first couple of cherry toms ready for eating.  Not exactly a standard breakfast but very yummy non the less.

Day 5 - Open Lattice Mediterranean Tart

Been another busy busy day here, found out today as well that one of my contracts has been extended - which in theory is great, but in reality I was looking forward to reclaiming some of my afternoons for myself and the garden, or my studio,which is calling and calling me.

Still at least this is the weekend, and I can relax and have a glass of wine or two - except of course then my teen tells me she is off out on Saturday night and I have to drive around town as a taxi fetching her home!  No rest for the wicked or so they say.


So onto tonight's recipe

Open Lattice Mediterranean Tart

The base is a (slightly) out of date pre-rolled flaky pastry sheet that I found in the back of the fridge.

( I don't even recall why I bought it, perhaps to make some buffet sausage rolls for a dinner party, or some spicy pastries, anyway there it was, and not even green and furry so by my standards perfectly edible.)

I trimmed it to fit the oven tray, then piled on mozzarella cheese, a thinly sliced red onion, some red pepper,  some chorizo sausage, then some more mozzarella, sprinkled a bit of garlic salt on top, black pepper and some dried basil, then laid over the left over pastry sheet cut into strips to create the lattice.

Once cooked in the gas oven at number 6 for 20 minutes, I drizzled a bit of garlic and chili olive oil over to serve.

What would have been extra nice to finish it off with would have been some tomatoes, but as there are none left in the larder, under the self-imposed rules I was not going to go out and buy any.

Once we had eaten the tart I remembered that I still had some frozen cherry tomato slices in the freezer for just such an occasion - typical to remember it too late, but maybe now I will remember to use them on something else.

Day 4 - Stuffed Tomatoes and Ras El Hanout Rice

It was actually dry today so I managed to get some long over due gardening done.

I weeded the greenhouse, and around the outside perimeter too, then transplanted some grown on tomato plants, my two not very happy looking aubergines, and my sprightly pepper plants.  I am so glad we have the greenhouse, it has proved it's value and was well worth the effort of hunting it down in the UK and bringing it with us, even though we did stress over the poly getting damaged before it was erected.

I also managed to plant out my spinach, my purple sprouting boroccoli, and my broad beans.  I did make a start on the weeding, but found that the hunger pangs drove me inside before the storm did.

Tonight's offering is actually a family favourite, another one pot dish (I am such a lazy cook).

Whilst generally I find supermarkets to be akin to the outer rings of hell, I do enjoy specialist shops, and one of my favourites is the North African supermarket in Clermont Ferrand.  This little shop of treasures has all things weird and wonderful, some larder staples and a good range of herbs and spices, one of which is a prepared Ras El Hanout mix for rice.

I have tried to make my own mix, but it can be so difficult to find uncommon herbs and spices in France that it is a false economy to make your own especially as at a bare minimum it needs at least 12 ingredients.

For my stuffed tomatoes then you need some good sized ripe tomatoes, for a main course I serve 2 per person, just 1 for a starter.

Cut the top off and scoop out the centre into a bowl and chop finely, add some minced meat, not much, you only need about 150g for 4 decent sized tomatoes and preferably a drier mince like beef or chicken, add salt, pepper, a chopped garlic clove and a generous dash of paprika and mix together.

Spoon the mixture back into the tomato, top with a slice of mozzarella, and put the tomato lid back on.

Place the stuffed tomatoes in a shallow oven proof dish.

Into the dish add 2 heaped tablespoons of basmatic rice per person, and a teaspoon of Ras El Hanout spice mix per serving of rice, then pour over boiling water until the rice is completely covered and the water level is at least 2 cm above the level of the rice.  Try to use a shallow dish, so that the water does not get deep enough to enter into the suffed tomatoes but sits sort of half way up them.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour covered at 200°C, then uncover and cook for a further 15 minutes.  If your dish is deeper you may need to check halfway through for liquid levels for the rice.

We ate our dinner on our laps in front of the TV, watching Shrek (again), and yet another storm rolled in, and now it is raining again.

Recipe for Ras el Hanout
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Ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

I teaspoon turmeic

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves