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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Heritage Tomato Salad with Sea Purslane and Hedge Garlic

First of the french Heritage Tomatoes have just arrived, though very expensive I couldn't help myself. All winter I've been dreaming of tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes! Not the dreadful grainy, cloudy, watery, pale and almost artificial Tesco's Finest substitute I've had to put up with every week since September.
Also on the market are some wonderful new cress the first is Hedge Garlic which has an extremely peppery taste followed by a intense garlic flavour. However my favourite new discovery is Sea Purslane which is grown in the sea marshes and picked during low tied. Wonderfully salty leaves that actually taste of sea air and pair's nicely with ripe tomatoes and hedge garlic.

800g heritage tomatoes
100g watercress
100g hedge garlic
100g sea purslane
Cracked pepper

DRESSING:
small bunch of basil
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 red jalapeno
1 teaspoon sea salt

METHOD:
First make the dressing by placing all ingredients into a food processor and blending together for 1 minute, put the dressing to one side and start preparing salad.
Wash watercress, hedge garlic and sea purslane and gently pat dry with a tea towel or paper towels. Pick off the leaves from hedge garlic and sea purslane, discard the stalks. Mix watercress, hedge garlic and sea purslane together in a large bowl. Wash tomatoes and cut into uneven bite sized piece', lay half the green leaves over a platter followed by half the chopped tomatoes and lastly drizzle with the desired amount of dressing and cracked pepper. Repeat the layer and serve as soon as possible.

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