Fresh Produce of the Month #3 - Roundup!

The deadline has expired and I'm free enough to post the longed for roundup of.. the Fresh Produce of the Month! This month the theme was tomatoes, and you'll see - we have an amazing collection of recipes!!!

Namratha blogs about 'Finger Licking Food' and shares with us a finger licking Tomato Dum!. It's a great looking tomato curry, and she suggests to decorate with eggs and eat it with nan, chapatis or kulcha. She also tells us that 'it preserves for a long time so it makes a great dish to carry while traveling'.. Mmm.. maybe I should make some for lunch tomorrow. :)




Happy Cook posting from 'My kitchen treasures' prepared Spaghetti with Aubergine. An authentic Italian recipe also known as Spaghetti alla Bellini or Spaghetti alla Norma. Happy Cook started her blog recently, so she dedicates this recipe to Sharmi, who's the first person who left a comment for her! How sweet - so go check out her newborn great blog!




Ruth from the famous 'Once Upon a Feast' gives us a recipe for a beautifully colored Tomato and Bread Salad, which she serves with Grilled Tilapia. This salad looks delicious and it's a great way to use stale bread! I love this type of recipes. :)





Ferdzy has a wonderful blog called 'Seasonal Ontario Food', where she posts recipes made with local and seasonal food. Perfect match for the spirit behind the 'Fresh Produce of the Month' event! She gives us a recipe for Green beans in tomato sauce. Hear what she tells us: 'Versions of this dish are found all around the Mediterranean, as well as in many other places... I'm classifying this as a side dish, although we are inclined to serve these over brown rice and call it supper.' Sounds like a great supper to me!


Asha posts delicious foods with great 'Aroma!' :) - and her Tomato, Fennel Bulb, Basil-Walnut Pesto Pasta is definitely a great example of it. Not only is her pasta mouth watering, but moreover, her tomatoes are home grown!! What can be more fresh than that? Check out the pictures of her harvest this year. They are a joy for the eyes.



Meeta from the amazing blog 'What's for lunch honey?' shares with us another of her masterpieces: Caramelized Homegrown Tomatoes on Homemade Gnocchi. As Asha did, also Meeta uses homegrown tomatoes.. But in this case, she didn't grow them herself - rather, they were given to her by a fascinating neighbor that she has the luck to know. :) Go check out her post - not only does the food look delicious and beautiful, but also, the post is really funny :)


I'm so happy that for this roundup we have many Indian recipes. I love Indian food and I want to learn how to cook it. So I really appreciated when Praveena from Simply Spicy sent me a recipe for Tomato Pachadi. It's a delicious mixture of tomatoes, spices, buttermilk and yogurt, to eat with rice. Praveena tells us that it's very easy to make.. so I'm going to try it!




Another terrific Indian recipe is given to us by Aarti from 'Aarti's corner'. It's called 'Green Tomato Sabji'. Listen to her explanation: 'Hirvya Tomatochi Bhaaji is a maharashtrian vegetable prepeared using raw tomatoes.. This is my mom's recipe and she made it a point to bring these tomatoes whenever they were in market just to make this sabji or chutney!' I'm so honored she shared it with us for this event. Another Indian delicacy to try.



Viji from Malabar Ruchi shares with us the purest tomato-centered recipe: Tomato Soup! I'm glad she sent this recipe, we would be really missing a classic, otherwise! And I'm looking forward to trying it myself. :)






Then, here is my contribution: Torta di pomodori e carciofini (Artichoke and Tomato Tart). I found the recipe from the great cookbook 'San Francisco Flavors', and I used heirloom tomatoes. It was quite good, it would be nice to serve it as appetizer at a dinner.





Last but not least, we have another great contribution from Nags at 'For the cook in me'! I'm really sorry I missed her emails, but I'm glad we got in touch in the end, so we can all appreciate her wonderful Pacha Thakkali Thoran. She explains that this version is a bit different from the usual versions, because of the presence of the green tomatoes. It looks delicious, and I'd really like to try it! I don't think I ever had anything similar and I cannot imagine the taste... Mmm.. Nags, could you send me some over? :) :)



I'm SOO happy about the outcome of this event. It's a collection of amazing recipes, with a great variety of flavors centered on one of my favorite summer produces. So, I'm hoping that we'll have a similarly great turnaround for the next event, which I'm going to announce now...............................Fresh Produce of the Month #4 will be focused on.................Grapes!!
Typical of the end of the summer, grapes also come in a number of variety. Of course, the fact that wine comes from grapes should be enough to show the importance of this fruit. :) But there are also many delicious foods that are made with grapes - jams, chutneys, breads, cakes, tarts, desserts of every kind.. and I'm sure your fantasy will inspire you something super good! I'm already looking forward to the roundup. If you're interested in participating, follow these simple rules:
1) Put a post on your blog with a recipe involving grapes. If you live somewhere where grapes are not in season, raisins are acceptable too! Add a link to this post on my blog and mention that it's an entry for the 'Fresh produce of the month' event. If you like it, feel free to place the logo of the event on your post.
2) Send me an email with a link to your post, your blog homepage and your name. My email address is chemcookitATgmailDOTcom. Specify 'Fresh produce of the month' as subject.
3) If you don't have a blog just send me an email with your recipe and if you have a picture of the food you made, that's even better. I will add it to the round-up as well.
The deadline for this event will be October 15th... (why so late, you may wonder? I'll be in Italy for 2 weeks, before then!) I will post the round-up the weekend after. I'm looking forward to your entries!!

Important note: if you send me an entry and I don't reply to your email or leave a comment on your blog, it means that I didn't get it.. in that case, just leave a comment anywhere on the blog and I'll definitely see it!! Thanks and sorry about this in advance.

This month's logo:
Feel free to use it on your posts if you like it!