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Silence.

Sometimes it's golden, but lately it's just been because of insane busyness. The busyness of the holidays coupled with the fact that we haven't had internet at our place for over 3 months now is definitely to blame. I've been wanting to blog about the MST3K I've been watching and all the great recipes/food we've been making but there has been no time.

Hopefully, some free time will free up along with an internet connection at our new place we're going to move into, whenever we get one. And then of course, there's the baby, which has taken up a huge chunk of my life (lovingly so, I might add). I've also really been wanting to blog about my nursery ideas for the baby, which we found out a couple weeks ago that it's a girl! Yay! So anyway, in the mean time, check out this recipe.

It's a Gordon Ramsay recipe I found on-line and I've been making it for the wife lately. WOO WOO!

Gordon Ramsay's Roasted Tomato Soup

4 tbsp olive oil
1kg plum tomatoes, halved
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 fat garlic cloves, halved
Small handful of thyme sprigs
1 tsp caster sugar
Small handful of basil sprigs
1l chicken stock or Vegetable Nage
3 smoked sun-dried cherry tomatoes in oil, drained (or 2 semi-soft sun-dried tomatoes and 1 tbsp barbecue sauce)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

2 tbsp olive oil
200-300g baby cherry tomatoes on the vine
Small basil leaves

1 Preheat the oven to 220C, Gas 7. Pour the olive oil into a roasting tin and heat in the oven until almost smoking. Carefully tip in the tomatoes, onion rings and garlic, then toss to coat in the oil. Scatter over the thyme sprigs, sprinkle with sugar and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until nicely caramelised, stirring once or twice and adding the basil towards the end of cooking.

2 Tip the roasted tomatoes and flavourings into a saucepan, discarding any woody thyme stalks. Bring the stock to the boil in another pan, then pour over the tomatoes. Bring
to the boil, add the smoked tomatoes (or semi-soft sun dried tomatoes plus barbecue sauce) and cook for 5 minutes.

3 Strain the stock, reserving the tomato mixture. Tip the tomatoes into a blender or food processor and whiz, gradually adding the stock back in until smooth and creamy. Pass the soup through a sieve into a clean pan or bowl, rubbing with the back of a ladle. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

4 For the garnish, heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Snip the vine tomatoes into four clusters and fry them on the vine for about a minute.

5 Reheat the soup if necessary, but it’s best served warm rather than piping hot. Pour into warmed bowls and top with the pan-roasted vine tomatoes. Drizzle the pan juices around the tomatoes and scatter with basil leaves.