Oven dried cherry tomatoes in olive oil.

I am a big fan of dried tomatoes which can be dehydrated under the sun or in the oven. Sun has remained quite strong and persistent in the last couple of days here in Ljubljana. 36 degree Celsius is an ideal temperature to dry tomatoes. But I am not patient enough to wait for a few days to dry my tomatoes. So I dry them in the oven under low temperature. I better call them oven dried tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes.

I mix oven dried tomatoes with a few cloves of crushed garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary from my little garden, some olive oil and a pinch of sea salt according to my taste.

I love sweet and juicy flavor of dried tomatoes. I serve them on thin crusty bread or a bruschetta, sprinkle them with fresh mozzarella or mix with simply cooked pasta.

Ingredients

20 -30 cherry tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
100ml olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt according to your taste

Wash and half the cherry tomatoes. Since cherry tomatoes are small, no need to clean the seeds.

Put tomatoes cut-side up in the oven tray.

Dry in the preheated oven at 100 degrees Celsius for 4-6 hours. Time and temperature may vary depending on your oven, the size of the tomatoes and of course your preference.

Pour 100ml of olive oil into a bowl and add rosemary, thyme, crushed garlic, sugar and salt.

Then add dried tomatoes and toss well. You can keep them in refrigerator for up to a month. But mine never last a month, we eat them very quickly because they are so delicious!

On my several candles birthday.

I am getting one year older. But I had very special memory on my birthday.
I went to Germany and drove around on the romantic road and visited nuoishwainstine castle. The castle is really like a fairy tale to me.

Fried Squash Blossoms

Yesterday I was in Lucca,Tuscany,Italy. While I was walking along a street,I saw these fresh squash blossoms at the local vegetable store. The weather was very hot,around 33 degree centigrade,and I still needed to drive 6hrs more to reach home. But these yellow coloured very fresh squash blossom were begging me to take them with me. So I bought and wrapped them with paper to prevent desiccation.



1. Trim the blossoms.

2. Prepare the batter lightly.
Mix well 2 eggs, 2 table spoons of flour, 1 dl of cold milk, a pinch of salt and pepper.

3. Heat oil in the frying pan.

4. When oil is hot,dip the blossoms into the batter, one at the time. Fry them until they become golden on both sides.





5. Drain well on the paper towels. Serve immediately while it's hot and crispy.