3 years and 3 months ago we packed up all of our belongings and traded life in the little seaside village of Devonport in Auckland for life in a similarly small town in rural Taranaki called Inglewood. I was 33 weeks pregnant with our third baby when we moved and 6 weeks later I gave birth to her right here at home. Such a gift to have a wee girl (our first two are boys) bless our family and to finally have a home of our own with a garden full of fruit trees, vegetable gardens and a wee stream babbling away on our western boundary. It took a good two years to adjust to this new place we call home but now I can’t imagine living anywhere else and feel grateful everyday for the four walls that shelter us and the earth beneath our feet that feeds and nourishes both our bodies and souls.
We have almost 60 fruit trees here, a handful of berries and ever-expanding vege gardens. Since we got here I have dug 6 additional beds (there were 4 here when we arrived) and this summer the majority of the vegetables we ate were out of our garden. I remember the feeling of overwhelm when we first got here, not really knowing where to start in the garden. How was I meant to raise seeds and where? What should I grow and how do I beat the birds to all our fruit?! I spend a lot of time in the garden now, as do our kids, and I feel deeply connected to it. What a joy and a privilege it is to be able to be the guardians of this wee patch of earth.
One of the crops I’ve finally succeeding in growing this year is tomatoes. Our location part-way up mounga Taranaki has a significant impact on our growing season, making it shorter than it would otherwise be if we weren’t to live here. With this in mind, I have taken a rather experimental approach to the way I grow our food, simply planting whatever I fancy, stepping back and waiting to see whether it thrives or dies. I’m happy to say that at last I’ve planted a crop of tomatoes which have thrived! I’ve beaten blight and hungry birds and we have been enjoying a variety of beautiful heritage tomatoes which have mostly ripened on the windowsill (that’s the beating the hungry birds bit). It is a wonderful feeling – I’m turning them into pasta sauce, chutney, eating them on toast and in salads, and have also turned them into this delicious tomato tarte tatin that I recommend you try. If you aren’t too keen on making the pastry yourself, then use a good quality store-bought flaky one instead.
Tomato Tarte Tatin
Serves 6 as an entree or light lunch
100g butter, wrapped in tin foil, frozen
170g flour
75ml water, chilled
3 tablespoons ghee (or olive oil)
1 onion, quartered, finely sliced
5 cloves garlic, finely sliced
500g tomatoes, halved, seeds scooped out
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
125g feta cheese
3 tablespoons yoghurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons herbs (I used a combination of parsley and basil)
1 small clove garlic, finely grated
Put the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl and remove the butter from the freezer. Peel away a bit of the foil so that what remains in your hand is still wrapped (to keep it from melting as you grate it) and grate the butter into the flour. Use a butter knife to stir it in as you go. Once it is all grated stir in the chilled water using the butter knife then tip out onto a clean surface, shape into a disc, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and over a medium heat fry the onion for 15 minutes or until it begins to caramelise. Add the sliced garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Tip this mixture out into a small bowl and do no clean the pan. Add the remaining tablespoon of ghee to the frying pan and add the tomatoes cut side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes over a medium-high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. Turn over the tomatoes and sprinkle with the sugar and balsamic (avoid pouring it into the tomato halves) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Take the pastry out of the fridge and divide in two (the second piece can be frozen for another use). Roll out to about 3mm until it is just bigger than the diameter of the frying pan (my frying pan is 25cm). Carefully lay the pastry over the top of the tomatoes and tuck in the edges. Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Remove from the oven and immediately turn out onto a serving plate. While the tarte tatin is cooking put the feta, yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice, herbs and garlic into a small pyrex jug and blend using a stick blender until smooth. Serve this with the tarte tatin alongside a green salad.
Originally published on The Spinoff right here.