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Yes, because there is such a thing as British Tomato Fortnight, and luckily for us nowadays we have some amazing British Tomatoes (The Tomato Stall's Isle of Wight Tomatoes - I am looking directly at you here!) that beat most of the watery insipid imports available...
Long gone are the days of the tasteless anaemic tomatoes that many of us grew up with. Just look what happens when someone knows how to grow them properly - and not all that far away from here!!
There will be no more tomato shaped imports for this household (for the first time ever we own a green house so we are also trying to grow our own. Who knows how that's going to work out!)...
As I have mentioned previously, you can also find The Tomato stall as part of Hampshire Markets in Winchester, and we found them at the Alresford Watercress Festival (more on that soon!) last weekend in many a guise, such as sandwiched between this amazing Hampshire Table sourdough toastie with Lyburn cheese and Watercress pesto (naturally for such a festival!)! It's also British Sandwich Week. I am not making it up...
And here's something else that we like to make with these gorgeous tomatoes, because as is the case with many of these things, fresh is best (plus, have you seen the colour of the "salsa " and "guacamole" that comes in the jars in the "Mexican Food" section of the supermarket?
So here you go, make this for the long weekend ahead to go with all the barbecues that you are going to have. You can make it as fiery or not as you like!
Fresh Tomato Salsa 250g really nice fresh tomatoes; One big bunch of coriander chopped finely; One medium Spanish onion – finely diced; Four cloves of garlic crushed; One chilli pepper – heat level of your liking!; 1 Tsp Salt flakes and Freshly ground black pepper…
Chop the tomatoes finely and tip them into a large Kilner jar (obviously it doesn't HAVE to be a Kilner jar, just one with a lid!) . Add the coriander and the onion to the party, together with the crushed garlic. Slice the chilli pepper into the tiniest slivers possible – discarding the seeds if you don’t like things too fiery (make sure you wash your hands straight afterwards or sods law will dictate that you rub your eyes shortly afterwards). Add a good grinding of pepper and a teaspoon of salt flakes. Put the lid on, give it a good shake – then leave it in the fridge for at least ten hours to get the very best flavour... Enjoy!
