The reason we were there!

Us! L to R: pepino, Adam, Raymondo, Spatz, finbar, Craig (in white), Patrina, Bronwyn.

Raymondo, Julie, Spatz and pepino resting between tastings.

And Mrs finbar resting between tastings!

The restaurant - Pickled Sisters - was of mixed quality. A polite complaint about the overly-salty, undrinkable broth under Adam's fish was shrugged off by the kitchen. The chef said he didn't add any salt to the broth so the problem must have been with the stock which he didn't make. Thus we learned that the chef doesn't taste the food he's preparing. Cardinal sin.

Here's a photo to prove we were there:

Much local wine was sampled at cellar doors and quite a deal was bought. There were some mighty fine drops on offer. Rutherglen remains one of the top wine-producing regions in the country.

Any incriminating pics?

BTW: I'll be posting a large seed offer on this page in weeks t/c for whoever is interested.

Craig, Raymondo and Patrina eager to sink their teeth into the beauties:

Mr and Mrs Finbar are gonna be missed bigtime next year. Hopefully the Grubs and others who weren't able to be there will come along to ease the pain.

PP

The Orange was horrible. It looked perfect, great colour, and when cut the texture looked fantastic - but the taste was yuk. The only tomato that got a 0 rating from me.

I think I tasted 28 varieties. This was the absolute limit.

I thought I would not be able to eat another tomato for a while but I did have a few slices of bruschetta with thinly sliced tomatoes for tea last night.

This is Big Rainbow.

"I won't smile", thinks finbar. Friday night.

Schnitzel orgy. Sunday night.

The Spread 95k image
A selection of the prettiest ones 160k image

And (da da)...

finbar, would you be so kind as to share your lemon tart recipe? A perfect follow-up to the tomato overdose.

I'll post the recipe for the Lemon & Lime Tart later this arvo.

I wasn't impressed with Manyel, pepino.

Happy to see that Pale Perfect Purple is first. :)

and thanks heaps, finbar.

(a bit irritating losing a post because it has the same subject)

These ingredients will produce a tart of the size we had on the weekend. It serves 10 to 12 in a 12" fluted flan tin with a loose base. For smaller, just scale down the ingredients appropriately.

Sweet Pastry

350g plain flour
Pinch of salt
175g unsalted cold butter, cubed
100g icing sugar
3 egg yolks

Pulse the flour, butter and salt in a food processor until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and egg yolks. Pulse again until the mix combines. It won't take long. It's ready as soon as the mix leaves the sides of the processor. The key to the softness of the pastry is not to overwork it either in the processor or, afterwards, by hand. Tip the mix out of the processor, pat it together into a ball, then wrap it in GladWrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you come to use the pastry, it should be pretty firm. Firm enough to grate. Use the side of the grater with the largest holes to grate the pastry into the bottom of the loose-bottomed flan tin. Grate piles of pastry all around the bottom of the tin. Then, with your fingers, flatten out the piles, pressing the grated pastry to form a thinnish base. The warmth of your fingers will soften the pastry to make it workable. If it's too thin in places, grate some more pastry over the thin spots and press it into place. For the fluted sides, break off pieces of pastry from the ball and press it around the sides of the tin, making sure there's a secure join to the pastry base.

Bake blind at 180C for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is light golden colour.

The Mixture

175g caster sugar
Finely grated zest and juice of 5 lemons and 3 limes
6 whole eggs
9 egg yolks
300g softened unsalted butter, cubed

See what I mean about the eggs and butter! Put the zest, juice, sugar and eggs into a large saucepan over low heat. Whisk until the egg yolks have broken up and the sugar has dissolved. Add half the butter, stirring all the time. The mixture will thicken as the eggs start to cook. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon, add the rest of the butter. Never stop stirring. Keep stirring until the mixture is very thick. Remove the saucepan from the heat and continue to stir until the mixture's temperature drops to lukewarm.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pastry case (in its flan tin) to just below the top of the fluted edge. Put the flan tin into a 230C oven for 8 to 10 minutes. If your oven is hotter at the back than the front, rotate the tart 180 degrees halfway through in order to keep the colour of the pastry even.

Just to increase the chances of a heart attack, I serve it with whipped vanilla cream!

PP

And no worries, Patrina. Since I arrived tomato-less it's the least I could do.

Okay, now I'll HAVE to add Patrina Pepperina's Pale Perfect Purple to my 2005 grow list!

I think we should start creating tomatoes with names like

Adam's Ambitious Amber
Bron's Bountiful Black
Craig's Capricious Caper
Finbar's Festive Fanfare
Jason's Juniper Jaunt
Ray's Royal Ruby
Spatz's Spring Spectacular

D'ya need seeds for PPP Ray?

PP

I just sent off seeds for 13 varieties to the owners of the B&B where we stayed. I offered to send some seeds, they enthusiastically accepted. They'll be sorry!