Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Stir-fried Cherry Tomatoes with Basil

This must be one of the quickest - and most colourful - side dishes I've made in a while. Having spent all day at yet another cookery course today, testing several sweet Christmas tarts and fancy cakes, I needed something savoury and easy tonight. I went for one of my stand-bys - battered and pan-fried white fish (I used a pangasius filet, which I dipped into a mixture of egg-flour-milk), and chose this colourful recipe I spotted in a Finnish magazine yesterday. It was a success - quick, different, slightly tangy, slightly sweet, and very beautiful.

Stir-fried Cherry Tomatoes with Basil
(Vokitud kirsstomatid basiilikuga)
Adapted from Suomen Kuvalehti Gourmet 4/2008
Serves 4

4 Tbsp (olive) oil
500 g cherry tomatoes
1 garlic clove
handful of fresh parsley
20 large fresh basil leaves
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp caster sugar
coarsely ground black pepper

Rinse the tomatoes and dry thoroughly. Chop the garlic, parsley and basil finely, place into a small bowl.
Heat oil in a wok or frying pan until very hot. Add cherry tomatoes, season with salt, sugar and pepper. Reduce the heat and stir-fry the tomatoes for a couple of minutes, shaking the pan every now and then.
Sprinkle the garlic and herb mixture on top, give the tomatoes another stir and serve at once.


Laurie Constantino said...

Your pictures are so compelling, I know exactly how this would taste. In fact, I CAN taste it and it's wonderful. And so simple.

vernanda said...

nii nunnud ja värvilised!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Ah, tomatoes in wintertime -- a sight for sore eyes. Feels like ages since we had beautiful tomatoes here.

Jenni said...

Hi! I'm Jenni from Finland and my question doesn't involve food.

I've been wondering for a while now how much you Estonians understand Finnish. If a Finn speaks Finnish to an Estonian, it looks like the Estonian understands everything. (At least in Tallinn.) But when I hear someone speaking Estonian, I don't understand a word! Well, actually I understand a word here and another there, but I can't combine those words into a decent sentence. Have you Estonians got some kind of magic translators in your ears?

Lovely pictures again, I'll have to try that dish some day!

Anonymous said...

am an estonian from tallinn and yes, i do understand most of spoken or written finnish. it all started with finnish tv with its subtitles in finnish back in soviet times. you see, finnish tv was received in northern estonia and back then it was our very precious view into the western world. 'dallas', 'dynasty', 'knight rider' - damn right i watched them all! and long enough to start understanding finnish :) but having never taken one single finnish class, all the grammar is pretty much guess-work, so speaking myself is much harder.

Jeanne said...

I've thought of roasting them but never stir-frying them - d'oh! Bookmarked :)

Pille said...

Laurie - thank you!!

Vernanda - eks ole? :)

Lydia - cherry tomatoes are the only tomato-tasting tomatoes we can get here during winter. I wonder what they do to them??

Jenni - I think we've tuned our ears to Finnish by watching Finnish TV (less now, but we did watch it during the Soviet time).

Jeanne - stir-frying's quicker :)