Christmas is a time to exercise some ‘fine dining’ culinary skills. It’s become a habit to organise every year’s pre-, post- christmas dinner with my best friends who were in Leeds but now in edinburgh. It is just pure bliss to plan for what I am going to cook for the christmas period every year. Totally enjoy doing this.
Christmas last year, I decided to attempt Gordon ramsay chef’s secret ‘my roasted tomato soup’ recipe. It was not too difficult to attempt and the tomato soup taste pretty good as well. Would love to make it again someday.
I love Gordon ramsay’s chef secret cookbook. Recipes are fairly easy to follow and ingredients not too difficult to source.
‘My roasted tomato soup’ by Gordon ramsay Chef’s secret:
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1kg plum tomatoes, halved
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 fat garlic cloves, halved
small handful of thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon caster sugar
small handful of basil sprigs
1 litre chicken stock or vegetable nage
3 smoked sun-dried cherry tomatoes in oil, drained (or 2 semi-soft sun dried tomatoes and 1 tablespoon barbecue sauce)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
to serve,
2 tablespoons olive oil
200-300g baby cherry tomatoes on the vine
small basil leaves
Serves 4
1. Preheat the oven to 220 celcius, Gas 7. Pour the olive oil into a roasting tin and heat in the oven until almost smoking. Carefully tip in the tomatoes, onion rings and garlic, then toss to coat in the oil. Scatter over the thyme sprigs, sprinkle with sugar and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until nicely caramelised, stirring once or twice and adding the basil towards the end of cooking.
2. Tip the roasted tomatoes and flavourings into a saucepan, discarding any woody thyme stalks. Bring the stock to the boil in another pan, then pour over the tomatoes. Bring to the boil, add the smoked tomatoes (or semi-soft sun-dried tomatoes plus barbecue sauce) and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Strain the stock, reserving the tomato mixture. Tip the tomatoes into a blender or food processor and whiz, gradually adding the stock back in, until smooth and creamy. Pass the soup through a sieve into a clean pan or bowl, rubbing with the back of a ladle. taste and adjust the seasoning.
4. For the garnish, heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Snip the vine tomatoes into four clusters and fry them on the vine for about a minute.
5. Reheat the soup if necessary, but it’s best served warm rather than piping hot. Pour into warmed bowls and top with pan-roasted vine tomatoes. Drizzle the pan juices around the tomatoes and scatter with basil leaves.
Stephylicious 