Yum!

Work took me into our old stomping ground of Walthamstow briefly this morning, so while I was there, and once I'd done what I was being paid for, I set off to the Market to see what the fruit & veg stalls had to offer. We know the market well - I lived in Walthamstow pretty much all my life until we moved out to Essex in 2003, and Ben & I lived within a short stroll of the market from 1998 - 2003. Our regular saturday morning routine for most of that time involved getting our weeks shopping from there - in between those fruit and veg stalls, Ian, who specialises in salad stuffs and herbs, and the butcher (A fabulous independant butchers - Parsons, who have been there for years) and bakers it was possible to do the majority of it without needing to go near a supermarket. It's one of the few things I miss about living in that area.....

Todays haul was yellow peppers, leeks and lots of garlic, plus two bags of the lovely little cherry tomatoes you see above. Whenever I can get these as a decent price I do so, and then roast them very very slowly with olive oil, Maldon salt, pepper and some dried basil. It turns fairly ordinary imported tomatoes into perfect little bursts of flavour - they can be eaten as they are with pasta, or (our favourite) blitzed down into a roast tomato sauce.

The garlic was also destined for a similar treatment too...



...the method for this was courtesy of Jayne over at Barefoot Kitchen Witch - I've been reading her blog for years now, it's always entertaining and educational too - you learn stuff like the best way to roast garlic! Thanks Jayne! Currently the flat smells glorious - I'm about to go and squeeze the gorgeous squidgy cloves into a bowl ready for pureeing up tomorrow and freezing. I suspect I'm going to go to bed tonight with my fingers smelling quite strongly garlicky!

Robyn