Nuages

It was cloudy again this morning with rain threatening. We had one errand to go out for - our regular wine run the few kilometres through vineyards of ripening grapes to Domaine Estève at Roquessels for our favourite Faugères red wine, but the rest of the morning seemed a good time to do some more preserving.

Dried cherry tomatoes

Several blogs recently, including Jardim com gatos in Portugal and MaryAthenes in Greece, have suggested drying cherry tomatoes rather than larger ones as they take less time to dry. Last year I sundried some of our tomatoes, but they need 3 - 4 days of strong sunshine. Since the sun isn't reliable at the moment, I dried some cherry tomatoes in the oven yesterday:

Halve the tomatoes and put in an oven-proof dish or tray. Sprinkle with salt and chopped thyme. Leave in the oven at 100° C for 2 ½ - 3 hours. If you use bigger tomatoes, quarter them and leave them for longer in the oven. When they are very dry - they will have shrunk to about half their original size - leave to cool. Put the dried tomatoes in a sterilised jar and cover with olive oil.

Griddled aubergine slices

Thinly slice 3 (or more) aubergines. Sprinkle with salt and leave in a colander to drain off some of the liquid for 20 minutes or so. Brush the slices with olive oil and griddle until lightly browned. Allow to cool for a few minutes. Layer them with fresh mint leaves in sterilised jars. Cover with olive oil. We did this last year and during the winter, during an aubergine-drought, we fried the slices again to eat as a tapas or meze. They were deliciously crispy with a wonderful mint flavour.

oven-dried tomatoes and griddled aubergine

in olive oil