The BFT.... the Big Friendly Tomato!

Now I don't usually like tomatoes, and can't seem to eat tomato-based dishes without serious issues, but this one seems to have escaped internal and external criticism!

My cousin Joanne and her husband Kent gave Pete and I an Australian recipe book called Surfing the Menu in which the authors travel around Aus and create recipes in various top locations. Many a night we found ourselves curled up in bed on the cold UK nights reading this book together and dreaming of days in the sun, cooking up Morton Bay Bugs and fresh salt and pepper calamari. I was instantly drawn to this recipe though as I thought the presentation was really neat. I wish I had of read that it required a large (deep) round cutter though, but never mind, I proceeded anyway!

We had Julie and Neil around for dinner recently and I thought I might try a few new things out on them. Considering both Neil and I who don't like tomatoes, it was perhaps a risky audience to experiment on! But, as the tomato is blanched (I like saying blanched and think I might try using it more in every day language), it really takes on a different flavour and texture, and I have always suspected the skins were the unfriendly part anyway.

It was useful to prepare the layers ahead of time so that it could all be put together quickly and be fresh. To prepare the crab, I was only able to source some from a tin from my local Tesco, but everyone back in Aus, feel free to get a nice fresh one from the fish mongers! I mixed a little chilli, mayonaise and salt and pepper and let it chill for a little while. The next thing to prepare is guacamole, which I just used a ripe avocado and mashed with a little lemon juice and some harissa paste. The lime mayonaise is delicious and really is the key part of this dish that pulls it all together. I think I put the recipe for the lime mayo on here under the post for the Chicken Peared with Halloumi.....

To blanch the tomatoes, you need one pot of boiling water and one bowl of ice cold water. Firstly you need to core the tomatoes and then cut a cross on the bottom of the tomato that hasn't been cut away at. Place one tomato in the boiling water and leave for only 15 or so seconds. Then remove carefully and place it in the ice cold water. This is blanching! You then peel the skin off, starting at the cross, as it should easily come away from the indentation.

Slice the blanched tomato's in half and ideally use a round cutter to carefully pile in the next layers, but I just carefully placed them on top and hoped for the best!! Here is the result, not quite as neat as it could be, but about the only way you're going to get me to eat a tomato!!!