Summer Tomato, Basil and Feta Salad

After a slow start our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. You can not beat home grown tomatoes - they just taste and smell incredible. A tip I have been told  is to not put tomatoes in the fridge as they loose their flavour. I'm not too sure how scientifically based this is but through trial and error this seems to be true.

The best salad I have come across to accentuate the tomato flavour is also one of the easiest and tastiest salads I make. This is the salad that we take 10mins to make, take to everyBBQ and get the most comments about. You can adjust the amounts of ingredients according to the amount of tomatoes you have.

Summer Tomato, Basil and Feta Salad

approximately 1kg of tomatoes - we used a mixture of our own and some fancy heirloom cherry tomatoes from the grocery store

zest of 1 lemon

handful of basil leaves

enough olive oil to coat the tomatoes

salt and pepper

approximately 200g of feta

Chop the tomatoes as chunky or as fine as you would like. Place in your salad bowl. Add the lemon zest. Coat the tomatoes and lemon zest with the olive oil. Mix in salt, pepper and basil. Top with crumbled feta.

Its also the perfect salad for a summer picnic!

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

Today we went strawberry picking at the local orchard just up the road. Its one of those things that is so close and easy that you often forget to do it! With such a perfectly sunny day we had no excuse not to go today.
The orchard is beautiful and you can pick all sorts of fruit there - but today strawberries were our target.

The Local Orchard

The strawberries have been a bit hammered lately by the crazy, hot weather we are having at the moment in Melbourne. But despite that they are still juicy, sweet and full of flavour. Not to mention they are cheap as chips!

Strawberries!!

So what to do with so many strawberries - something that highlights their delicious flavour. 

Below is a very easy summer berry tart. You can substitute the berries for any berries.

Squashed Raspberry, Strawberry and Mint Tart

x2 sheets of pre-rolled puff pastry

1 egg white

1T caster sugar

1 punnet of raspberries

an equal amount of strawberries (or a bit more if you want to load the tart up!)

1T icing sugar

1cup sour cream

1/4 cup cream

1/3 cup brown sugar

mint for garnish

Preheat oven to 200C. Lay x1 sheet of of baking paper on a square of non-stick paper. Cut the other sheet of pastry into 2cm strips. Layer up the strips on all 4 sides of the original sheet of pastry to make edges.

Brush the whole pastry case with egg white. Prick the pastry case base all over with a fork. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30minutes.

Take pastry out of the fridge and sprinkle with the castor sugar.

Place pastry in the oven for approximately 20minutes.

Remove and leave to cool.

Place sour cream, cream and brown sugar into a bowl and mix until smooth.

Place the raspberries and icing sugar into another bowl. Using a fork squash the raspberries until you get a consistency you like. Make sure you mix in all the icing sugar as you go. Slice the strawberries and add to the raspberries.

Place the cream mixture into the pastry case, top with the berry mixture and then place mint on top.

Enjoy!