Sunday, February 28, 2010

Beans and chutney

I intended to wait until Em arrives before harvesting any beans. They were planted, afterall, so she and I could share them. However, the little buggers are growing too fast and producing lots of lucious beans. To wait another week and a half would result in the loss of the beans that are ready now. Fortunately there are lots still growing so Em and I will have beans to share.

Here's the first of the crop:
I had a hankering for a Rivers steak sandwich with their signature tomato chutney. My mouth waters just to think of it. Em found me some chutney recipes online and I picked the one (see: recipe) that looked closest to what I craved. Because I didn't have 3 pound of tomatoes, I adapted the recipe. Well, adapt maybe isn't the right word because I didn't amend the measurements according to scale, instead I noted each ingredient and threw in what I thought might be about the right amount given how many tomatoes I had. Then, to really mess up things, I tossed in a bag of stewed apricots.

This is the end result after 2 hours of reducing and simmering:
And, yes, it is as delicious as it looks! And I have leftovers. I figure I'll freeze some to share in two weeks time! Hmmm... beans! 

Oh, and I cut into the Green Zebra (correction to yesterday's post where I said it was a Tigerella) tomato. This is what it looked like inside:

and another:
I took a bite, expecting it to be tasteless or worse, inedibly tart, and instead tasted the most delicious tomato I have ever eaten! I kid you not! It boasted full flavour from beginning to end, starting out sweet, rich and smooth and ending with a delicious subtle tartness that enlivened the tastebuds.

Doesn't it sound like I'm describing wine!? But, seriously, this is one amazing tomato! I can't believe I harvested only one. Though, I don't think I've uprooted the plant yet. Maybe I can coax another fruit out of it before the summer is officially over.

For dinner proper, I went all out with grilled steak (my secret is a burning hot grill pan and a smoked out kitchen. If the smoke detector doesn't go off, the steak won't be tender) on a bed of lettuce and rocket (home grown of course), sweet potato fries, steamed green beans (yes, from the garden), tomato/apricot chutney and because I didn't have bread I used a GF wrap instead.

I admit, it's not quite Rivers, but it was still pretty damned nice. I ate it all while Paddy stood beside me on the couch, drooling. :-)
Now I'm so stuffed full of food that I need to go sleep it off.

1 comment:

  1. Holy Shit--I can't hardly believe that's NOT takeout!! WOW!! Look at your fries, and those lovely grill marks, and those MONSTER beans, and that delicious-looking chutney! I can almost taste it! I can imagine the smoke!! :D
    What a FABULOUS spread, I'm so jealous!! And I think you've found a new striped staple in your garden... :)
    YUM!!

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