Summer tomato salad with curry leaf butter
The HOTTEST gurl in town
Soph here.
Wow it’s been a hot minute. Thank you for bearing with us - June was a mad one.
Back to back catering jobs, regular recipe commissions and trying to do up a house (lol) left us with very little time for you lovely lot.
Thankfully we have regained our energy, namely through the magical microcosm of Glastonbury (sorry not sorry). A prescription of dancing, hand holding and friends has sorted us right out.
The power of people should never be underestimated and June showed us how very grateful we are at Scramble to be surrounded by some proper legends. Our freelance team have been beyond amazing and it has been a real pleasure working with everyone.
Weddings are our jam and this year I’m particularly buzzing because my uncle, Marcus, has made us these fantastic food-safe wooden oak boards which we use for wedding cake, late night food and decadent cheese boards!
These cheeseboards are from the wonderful Rosie and James’s wedding and feature all locally made cheeses which is pretty epic.
Right - onto the recipe.
This tomato salad is actually our starter for an upcoming July supper club at Oxmoor farm that we thought you’d want to make at home.
Side note. If you’d like to come eat this along with BBQ hot sauce chicken main & a honey butter brioche fire roasted strawberry pud, there are a HANDFUL of tickets remaining…
Summer tomato salad with curry leaf butter
This recipe may seem more cheffy than our usual fare because it features a few harder to get ingredients. Sometimes it is nice to push the boat out, espescially when the technique itself is incredibly simple and a celebration of summer produce.
On that note. NEVER KEEP YOUR TOMATOES IN THE FRIDGE. You know those banging tomatoes you taste on holiday? Those ruby red ones sat in the sun outside a grocers in *insert Meditterrean country*. Well, UK tomatoes can also taste that good. Leave them on the vine, in a sunny patch in your kitchen and do not dull their wonderful flavour by putting them in your cold unforgiving fridge. Trust us, a lil bit salt and they’ll transport you to sunnier climes.
Serves 4-6
Takes 20 mins
1kg tomatoes (if you can get some different colours and sizes here then ideal)
1 small white onion or 2 banana shallots
handful of chives and coriander
4 fat garlic cloves
handful of salted peanuts
100g salted butter
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp gochugaru chilli powder (this is a Korean red chilli powder and milder than chilli flakes, but swap out for 1/2-1 tsp of dried chilli flakes instead if easier)
handful of fresh curry leaves (you can get these in BIG SAINOS!)
1-2 limes
flatbreads, to serve
Cut the tomatoes into random shapes, slicing up any big guys and halving the smaller ones. Lay out on a beaut serving platter and sprinkle with salt.
Very finely slice the white onion or banana shalllots into rings. You can do this with a sharp knife or a mandolin if you have one. Once sliced, chop up the chives and coriander and mix with the onion in a bowl with a pinch more seasoning.
Finely slice the garlic cloves. Roughly chop the peanuts.
Melt your butter over a medium heat in a frying pan. Once melted, add the garlic and cook for a few minutes, stirring, until soft but not coloured.
Add in the fennel, cumin, coriander and mustard seeds, cook, stirring for 1 minute more, then tip in the chilli flakes.
Strip the curry leaves from their stalks straight into the frying pan (being careful as they may splutter slighty). Cook, stirring regularly, for a couple of minutes until the leaves shrivel and turn vivid green, then add in the peanuts. Give everything a good mix, turn off the heat and squeeze in the lime juice to taste.
Top the tomatoes with a pile of the herby onion then spoon this unreal curry leaf/peanut/spiced/limey butter all over and serve at the table with flatbreads for mopping.
If buying the flatbreads, go for a fluffy pillowy variety (you can warm them in a 180C oven, sprinkled with a splash of water and covered in foil) or if you’d like to go the whole hog and make your own the recipe is in Sundays on p. We added chopped chives & coriander to the dough.
ENJOY - and, as always, if you make it - shout us!
We’ve been loving
The weather might be a bit hit and miss but its summer so its mandatory to eat ice cream and these Haagen-Dazs salted caramel sticks are the tits.
Think magnum chocolate with little salted caramel brittle bits + legit ice cream. Revelatory. Just like the Waitrose own Vinho Verde which if you haven’t bought yet GO GO GO. It’s £6.99, people!