JULY

July…
is definitely the month for soft fruit.


CHERRIES 


This fruit lines the A2… the villages from Teynam through Faversham to Canterbury. The story goes the pilgrims on horse back would be eating the fruit and spitting the seeds out along the road to Canterbury, which is why we have so many cherry trees along that road. Don’t know if it is true, but it is a nice story.

I have eaten loads of cherries and have also added it to a chicken noodle dish with Thai flavours. This is my take on the Thai plum sauce.

cherries.jpg
Ingredients:

300 gms diced Chicken Thighs

2 Tablespoon Oil
1 Onion
3 to 5 cloves Garlic – if you like garlic use 5 cloves
¼ Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Wine or Cherry Juice
½ Teaspoon Chilli powder
1 Red Pepper
1 or 2 large pungent Radish
½ Teaspoon Palm Sugar
100 gms halved Cherries
1 Teaspoon Tamarind
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
Water as required

300 gms ‘Ready to Wok’ noodles

Method:

Dice the chicken.
Slice the onion and garlic.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the onion for a couple of minutes.
Add the chicken, garlic, chilli powder and salt and stir fry for 5 mins. 
Add the wine or cherry juice (water if preferred) and cook for about 3 minutes.
Slice the pepper and radish and add them to the pan.
Stir fry until the chicken and peppers are cooked.
Then add palm sugar, cherries, tamarind, fish sauce and a little water (if necessary) and cook until the sauce is thick.

Mix in the noodles and cook for 2 minutes until the sauce combines with the noodles.
Serve hot for a simple supper.
And just enjoy!

TOMATOES
I think that we do not applaud this fruit enough! We (I) use it every day and I take it for granted. But at this time of year the tomatoes are so deliciously sweet and we are able to get lots of varieties of this lovely fruit. I get the small mixed tomatoes and keep popping them into my mouth like sweeties! Lovely.

They are the base of so many sauces and my Mum even used to make jam with them!
Here is a nice vegetarian starter that everyone will love.

tomato.jpg

AUBERGINE BRUSCHETTA
Slightly misleading, as I will use aubergine instead of bread as the base of the bruschetta.

TOMATO SAUCE INGREDIENTS
500 gms Cherry or other fresh sweet tomatoes
Glug of Olive Oil
1 Onion – finely chopped
5 cloves garlic finely chopped or ground
Pinch of sugar
Sea Salt to taste
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Tsp Chilli Flakes – optional
1 bunch Basil chopped

Heat oil. Add the onion and garlic. Fry gently for about 5 minutes without browning.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the basil and bring to the boil.
Lower the heat and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.
Add the basil and remove.
Bottle and keep in the fridge if you wish for a few days.
The sauce can be frozen for up to 6 months.

AUBERGINE
1 large Dutch Aubergine
Olive Oil
Salt
Parmesan Cheese

Slice the aubergine fairly thick – about 1 cm thick.
Rub the oil on the aubergine and sprinkle on the salt.
Heat a pan and fry the aubergine on both sides until brown.

Heat the grill
Place the cooked aubergine on a baking tray and spoon on some of the tomato sauce.
Sprinkle the parmesan over the tomato and toast until the parmesan melts and browns a bit.
Serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar if desired.
Simple and easy!



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