Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Heirloom tomatoes are worth inheriting

While dodging the almost unbearable Christmas shopping crowds on Saturday, I popped into the Westfield Sydney food court for some sustenance in the form of parmesan truffle fries from Charlie and Co - with extra cheese, pleese!

Then strolling over to the Quarter 21 shop afterwards, I noticed they were having a 'farm gate' event with trestles set up and produce from suppliers for sale. It was a bit unsettling, given that it's held inside a glossy shopping centre rather than, er, at a farm gate, but the quality of the fruits, vegetables, cheese, jams and oils on display were of the highest quality.

I picked up a punnet of baby heirloom tomatoes from the stall, and some lamb shanks from inside the Q21 shop.

Beautiful, jewel-like baby tomatoes

A salad of heirloom tomatoes, simply dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
The yellow tomatoes were the sweetest, although they were all juicy and luscious.

The lamb shanks are anointed with olive oil and thyme, and come vacuum-wrapped in plastic, and were the most fragrant things ever! I don't know how they can get so much flavour with just oil and thyme. Anyway, the shanks were roasted for 45 minutes and served with the tomato salad and some rocket leaves. Delicious.

13 comments:

  1. Delicious! I had a caprese salad on the weekend with heirloom tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. Was so fab! Love the flavours :)

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  2. I ALWAYS splurge on heirlooms in the summer! They make every meal so much more delicious!

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  3. The Q21 shop is awesome. I have to be careful about going there too often as I will spend all my money! Wow! I wish I had known they about the farm gate event, these tomatoes look so beautiful!

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  4. Wowzas we do not have food like that in our foodcourts here in New Zealand. There wouldn't be such a thing as a foodcourt snob if there were truffle fries! The heirloom tomatoes are gorgeous. I've planted 3 varieties of tomatoes this year. I've found plants never fruit the way the do in the photos but fingers crossed I get some interesting ones. I've got cherries, beefsteak and some funk yellow ones. They're fruiting but still green at this stage.

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  5. Oh man how could I have missed this event! Nice shanks you've got there lady! I'm desperately trying to find some tomatoes that taste like real tomatoes. I wonder if Q21 shop has any in today? May have to pop upstairs and take a gander at lunch

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  6. I was just thinking how pleasantly full I am from my buttery lamb steak...but now I am feeling hungry again:) Looks delicious! The tomatoes are so pretty and happy looking:)

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  7. Baby heirloom tomatoes are just so colourful and cute to serve!

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  8. Love the variety of shapes and colours in those tomatoes!

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  9. These cuties are always welcome! Just love the colors.

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  10. They look so gorgeous, I love adding this sort of thing to salads, you get such a lovely variation.

    I have 3 different colours of beans growing in my garden, purple, green and white and they look awesome in salads. I just lightly fry in garlic and olive oil YUM!

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  11. Hardly 'just' tomatoes! Heirlooms are so perfect, especially when they're sweet as candy in summer. Love how bright and sunny your photos are.

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  12. thanks for sharing the recipes. i love to try it.

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  13. Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin Revathi

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