Domatokeftethes

Hey you!?

Yeh you!

The one with the pink bikini on, lying on a Greek island beach

somewhere and pretending to act like you do this effortlessly,

every Greek summer…..

Unless you can feed me Greek summer tomatoes via a Facebook

portal, go away.

I don't want to see your pics on my feed.

Nor do I want to read about how awesome your life is at the 

moment.

I already know.

I've been there, too.

Numerous times.

I get it.

It sucks to not be there every year 'cause if you think you are

eating amazing summer tomatoes in oz each year, you need your

head read; the ripe tomatoes of high summer in Greece are out

of this world!

Travel to Santorini or Chios, for example, and take a bite out of

those dry farmed ones hanging for months against a stone

wall, that are still plump and juicy.

The experience is intense.

It's so intense that you will risk it all at Australian Customs

to smuggle a few of those seeds in.

Anything to recreate the experience at home.

But it won't happen.

For the following reasons:

a) we get way too much rain here in the summertime; these babies need a REAL summer.

b) we get too many summer temperature fluctuations, and if you are as unlucky with summer in Melbourne as I am, a mid-season cold snap will bump your crop production into the next millennium.

c) it is not Greece and the sound of the word 'malaka' and a donkey's 'eee-awwwhhh' is very, very far away; yes, they need Greek swear words and donkey songs to grow well.

d) c, again.

So for the time being, I will sit here and punch away and this keyboard and pretend, that I too, get to eat Greek tomatoes each year, effortlessly.

500g ripe tomatoes

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 cup fresh mint, chopped

1 cup sundried tomatoes, cut into small pieces

1 tspn tomato paste

3 slices bread (about 2 cm thick each), crusts removed

400 gr plain flour

2 tspn tablespoons balsamic vinegar

200 ml whole milk

salt and freshly ground pepper

olive oil for frying

Soak the bread slices in milk and then squeeze well.

Cut tomatoes in half and grate flesh into a large bowl.

Add the sundried tomatoes, tomato paste, bread, onions, mint, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Slowly add the flour (you may not need all of it) and stir until the mixture resembles a thick batter.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan.

When oil is hot, dip a tablespoon into a cup of olive oil then scoop out some of the batter.

Slide the batter off the spoon into the hot oil and fry on both sides until golden, about 2 ½ minutes on each side.

Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels.

Serve them as they are warm and accompany with steamed green beans or salad of boiled wild amaranth (vlita) dressed with oil and vinegar.

This recipe was translated from Gastronomos online. 

For pics of the finished product, go to recipe by Dina Nicolaou; I ate all of mine before I remembered to take a shot.

Aug 2011, Pyrgi Chios. Dry farmed tomato-styling.

The image of summer market tomatoes that always make me want to jump onto the next flight to Greece

 I would happily tomato-slap