Category: Tomato

Tomato Salad 2

  • This is a variation on my tomato salad, which my friend told me about.
  • Like my tomato salad but with soured cream dressing.
  • Mama never made it like this – maybe it is from a different part of Poland?
  • It tastes very nice.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 large ripe tomatoes – home grown are the best
  • 1 large onion
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 125 – 250ml of soured cream
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Chopped chives or garlic chives to garnish

METHOD

  • Slice the tomatoes thinly.
  • Slice the onion thinly.
  • Mix the tomatoes and onions together.
  • Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Arrange on a dish.
  • Cover with lemon juice.
  • Cover with soured cream to taste.
  • Garnish with chopped chives or garlic chives.
  • Mix the soured cream with the salad as you serve it.

Fish Soup with Tomatoes

  • Here is another recipe adapted from some of my Polish soup books.
  • It is a very filling chunky soup – nearly a meal in itself.

INGREDIENTS

  • 350g of white fish (cod, haddock or pollock)
  • 1 large onion – chopped
  •  2 -3 tablespoon sunflower oil to fry the onions
  • ¼ of a large celeriac or 4 stalks of celery – chopped into small pieces.
  • 1 leek – the white part – chopped into rings
  • 1 carrot – coarse grated.
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 ½ to 2 litres of vegetable stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 peppercorns
  • Salt & Pepper, if needed, to taste
  • *
  • 75 g macaroni or other small pasta – cooked.
  • Large handful of chopped flat leaved parsley to serve.

METHOD

  • Gently fry the onions in the sunflower oil without browning.
  • Add the celery, leek and carrot, mix and fry a little longer.
  • Add the vegetable stock, bay leaf and peppercorns.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer gently until the vegetables are soft.
  • Add the can of tomatoes and simmer a little longer.
  • Add the pieces of fish and simmer for around 10 minutes.
  • Break up the cooked fish into smaller pieces.
  • Add the cooked macaroni and heat for another minute or two.
  • *
  • Season if necessary (might not be needed)
  • Serve with chopped parsley of top.

Royal Doulton Carnation soup plate.

Lazy Goląbki – 2

  • I love goląbki – but must admit they are time consuming to make.
  • I came across this idea of using all the ingredients and making them into large kotlety( meatballs) cooking them in stock and then adding a tomato sauce.
  • They are called goląbki leniwe – lazy goląbki.
  • I made them with steamed cabbage as in  lazy goląbki – 1. 
  • Now I have  made kotlety with shredded fresh cabbage .
  • Here cooked rice is used as well.
  • No bread is added but semolina is used to help bind the ingredients.
  •  
  • This time I made them with fresh cabbage.

Ingredients

  • 500g minced beef
  • 100 – 150g boiled rice
  • ½  head of a small cabbage or a whole sweetheart cabbage
  • 2 egg – beaten
  • 1 teaspoons of salt
  • Ground black pepper
  • *
  • Semolina
  • Sunflower oil for lightly frying.
  • *
  • 750 ml vegetable stock
  • Several tablespoons of tomato purée 
  • *
  • Soured cream – optional

Method

  • Shred the cabbage and then chop into small pieces..
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 160°C
  • Mix the cabbage, meat and rice together until well mixed.
  • Add the beaten eggs.
  • Add the salt and pepper.
  • Mix everything together.
  • Add a little semolina if needed.
  • Using your hands make large oval shaped balls.
  • Roll then gently in the semolina.
  • *
  • Fry lightly on both sides.
  • Place tightly packed in a large roasting tin.
  • *
  • Mix the vegetable stock and tomato purée and pour over the goląbki.
  • Cover the dish with a sheet of baking foil.
  • Cook for around 2 hours.
  • *
  • Stir some soured cream into the sauce and serve.
  • *
  • TIP
  • I think it is best to make this the day before and then make up more vegetable stock and and tomato purée.
  • Pour this over the goląbki and heat again for at least an hour.
  • Add soured cream to the sauce and serve.

  • Option – not tested.

  • Add some grated cabbage to the mixture.

VERDICT

  • All my testers like the fresh cabbage version best.
  • These are meant to be lazy but they still required a lot of work.
  • Mixing the ingredients together took time.
  • I would find it easier to make my kotlety with cabbage  or even with sauerkraut and make them in tomato sauce and serve them with boiled rice.

Tomato & Pepper Soup

  • The idea for this soup came about from a salad with vinaigrette that was left over.
  • The vinegar gives the soup a tangy taste and the chilli flakes a little ‘heat’ 

INGREDIENTS

  • 500g tomatoes
  • 3-4 Peppers – red, orange or yellow – not green
  • 1 -2 tablespoons wine or cider vinegar
  • 1 litre of vegetable stock 
  • ½ – 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  • Skin the tomatoes in boiling water.
  • Chop the tomatoes into quarters and fry gently in the sunflower oil.
  • Cut the peppers into medium sized chunks and add to the tomatoes and stir.
  • Add the vegetable stock and the vinegar.
  • Add the chilli flakes and simmer gently until the peppers are soft.
  • Take the pan off  the heat  and purée the contents with a stick blender.
  • Season to taste.
  • Reheat before serving if necessary.

Meakin – Spanish Garden Soup Dish

Tomato Sauce – Summer

  • This is best made in the summer when you can get very ripe tomatoes.
  • Ones from the garden or the market, which are so full of flavour.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 large ripe tomatoes
  • ½ small onion
  • 250ml vegetable stock
  • 125ml soured cream
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1-2 teaspoons of sugar – optional
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  • Skin the tomatoes using boiling water.
  • Chop the tomato up into small pieces.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Simmer the tomatoes and onion in the vegetable stock until soft.
  • Add the lemon juice.
  • Season to taste.
  • Adjust sweetness with sugar to taste.
  • Stir in the soured cream and serve.

Sos myśliwski – Hunter’s Sauce

  • Sos  myśliwski  – this translates as Hunter’s sauce.
  • I can understand the name if wild mushrooms are used but otherwise I do not know why it gets this name.
  • Gherkins are used in the sauce and this addition verges on “magical”.
  • I had never made this before but will now be making it often as it is so delicious.

Ingredients 

  • 2 slices of smoked bacon – chopped
  • 100g of fresh mushrooms – sliced
  • 2 large gherkins – chopped into cubes
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour.
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
  • 1 onion – chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic – chopped
  • Large pinch of allspice
  • 1 teaspoon of of ground paprika
  • 1 teaspoon of hot ground paprika
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon of made mustard.
  • 500ml of vegetable or chicken stock.

Method

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan.
  • Fry the mushrooms, onions and garlic.
  • Add the bacon and fry together for a few minutes.
  • Add the flour and stir and cook for a few minutes.
  • To the stock add the tomato purée, allspice, both paprikas and mustard. 
  • Stir it all together.
  • Slowly add this to the fried ingredients and stir whilst it thickens. 
  • Add the bay leaves and gherkins.
  • Simmer for around 20 minutes till the ingredients soften.
  • Serve the sauce hot with roast meats.

Tomato Sauce – Winter

  • This is a quick and easy sauce that can be made at all times of the year.
  • In olden times this could have been made in the winter when fresh tomatoes were not available.
  • This sauce is served hot.

    Ingredients

  • 50g tomato purée
  • ½ small onion – chopped
  • 250ml vegetable stock
  • 125ml soured cream
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1-2 teaspoons of sugar – optional
  • Salt and pepper to taste

    Method

  • Simmer the onion in the vegetable stock until it is a pulp.
  • Blend with a stick blender.
  • Add the tomato purée, stir and simmer for a few more minutes.
  • Stir in the just of 1 lemon.
  • Adjust the sweetness with sugar.
  • Season to taste.
  • Stir in the soured cream just before serving.

Option

  • Add some paprika or mixed herbs to the sauce.

Hungarian Sauce

  • This sauce has its origins in gulasz, a much loved Polish dish of Hungarian origin.
  • This is good served with pan fried meats or kotlety-mielone – Polish large meatballs.

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour
  • 250-300ml of chicken stock (can be from a cube or concentrate)
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato purée 
  • ½ teaspoon of paprika
  • ½ teaspoon of sugar
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 125ml of soured cream or thick yoghurt
  • Salt & pepper to taste 

Method

  • Chop the onion up into small pieces.
  • Cook gently in the butter – do not brown.
  • Cook until the onions are soft.
  • Mix together the stock, tomato purée, paprika and sugar.
  • Add the flour to the onions and cook gently whilst stirring.
  • Slowly add the stock mixture, stirring all the time.
  • Cook till the sauce is thick and uniform.
  • Add extra stock if it is too thick.
  • Stir in the lemon juice.
  • Season to taste.
  • Stir in the soured cream or yoghurt.
  • Mix well and serve.

Black Bean Soup

  • This is a soup I make regularly and I love the colour contrasts.
  • It is a vegetable soup with black beans.
  • Black beans are also called turtle beans and are a variety of the common bean.
  • You can make it slightly different every time by altering some of the vegetables.
  • I use tinned black beans, which is easier but you can always cook them from dried beans – just takes longer.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 sticks of celery
  • 1 onion
  • 2 -3 carrots
  • 1 courgette 
  • 3 -4 tomatoes
  • 1 tin of black beans
  • 1½ litres of vegetable stock
  • 1-2 tablespoons of butter
  • ½ teaspoon of paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon of chilli flakes
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Chop the celery into fine slices.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces
  • Chop the carrots into small cubes.
  • Place the tomatoes into boiling water to remove the skins.
  • Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.
  • Chop the courgette into small pieces. 
  • In a saucepan melt the butter and gently cook the celery and onion for a few minutes.
  • Add the carrots and tomatoes and the stock.
  • Add the paprika and chilli flakes.
  • Mix well together.
  • Bring the soup to the boil and them simmer with a lid on the pan for around 20 minutes. 
  • Drain the beans from the tin and add these to the soup.
  • Season to taste,
  • Simmer for another 15 – 20 minutes.
  • Royal Doulton – Burgundy 1959 – 1981

Gypsy Soup

Zupa cygańska is Gypsy soup and is so called  because it contains red peppers.  I think the smoky meats may also evoke the idea of camp fires.

Ingredients

  • 4 large tomatoes
  • 2 red or orange peppers
  • 1 large onion
  • 4 medium potatoes
  • 100g smoked bacon – chopped into small pieces
  • 200g of Polish sausage – sliced and chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2-3 grains of allspice
  • 3-4 peppercorns
  • a little sunflower oil for frying
  • Chopped flat-leaved parsley to serve

Method

  • Use boiling water to skin the tomatoes and leave to cool.
  • Chop the tomatoes into quarters.
  • De-seed the peppers.
  • Chop the peppers into small pieces.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Fry the onion gently for a few minutes in a large frying pan.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes & peppers.
  • Fry gently for a couple of minutes.
  • Add the bacon & sausage and mix.
  • Cover the mixture with water and cover with a lid.
  • Cook gently for around 10 minutes.
  • Transfer the ingredients to a large saucepan.
  • Add the bay leaves, all-spice and peppercorns.
  • Add around 1.5 litres of water and bring to the boil.
  • Cover with a lid and simmer gently for around 30 minutes.
  • Peel the potatoes and cut them into large “cubes”.
  • Add the potatoes to the soup and cook gently until the potatoes are cooked.
  • Serve with chopped flat-leaved parsley.

Note

Do not let the potatoes disintegrate into a pulp.

 

 

Served in Royal Stafford – Blossom Time from the 1950s.

Note

If you do not have the fresh ingredients  you could use tinned tomatoes and bottled peppers.