I’m not quite sure why I think this method of cooking tomatoes is Palestinian… but in any case it is a very good one – it’s the charred garlicky-ness that makes it.
It goes particularly well with Indian guinea fowl.
Recipe for Palestinian tomatoes
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 6 large (about 1 kg/2 lbs) flavourful (ie from a hot, sunny country) plum tomatoes
- 1 tsp sweet, smoked Spanish paprika…or if you want them a bit hotter, byadgi chilli, or Aleppo pepper.
- bunch of parsley, chopped – or you could use coriander
- 4 tbsp olive oil – some for frying, some for making the paste
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp textured salt
- Indonesian long pepper
Method
- Cut the tomatoes vertically in half and core them. Fry, or, even better, griddle them in hottish olive oil, on the cut side, until they start to caramelise and char.
- In the meantime peel and crush the garlic with the salt. Mix this with the parsley, the salt, the paprika and the pepper, together with a little oil to make a paste.
- Turn the tomatoes over, and top with the garlicky-herby paste. Take off the heat immediately – don’t let them go mushy. Keep warm and serve.