Festive snacks

Last night at a pre-Christmas gathering with friends, almost all my favourite snack temptations were on offer: potato chips, a board full of cheeses plus a selection of crackers; dips and flatbreads… and I tucked into all of them. But there's another festive snack that I'm enjoying yet again around Christmas time, and it's home-grown cherry tomatoes.

Whenever I water the garden in the
mornings I snack on one or two of
these little beauties. When you bite down
on the firmish skin of each little red
globe they explode in your mouth with
one of the most intensely tomatoey
flavours you can find. Delicious.

I have just two pots of these guys
growing here; that's enough to provide
a glut for two people when they get
into serious summertime production.

I grow them from seed sown
in September or October
(whenever I get my act together).
I find it's getting harder to find
dwarf tomato plants either in
seed or seedling form. Most
grow too big for my little garden.
These Yates seeds are the only
ones I can easily find, and while
they aren't heirloom toms, I
don't really care. They've done
 a great job for me over the years.

Tonight I'm going to harvest a punnet's worth of our cherry toms, chop them in half and toss them with some already cooked, still warm asparagus to make a warm red and green salad. Dressed with a splash of olive oil and Vino Cotto (think 'balsamic', but it's not; Vino Cotto is made from grape must and red wine vinegar, and is a pink colour and has a light, sweet flavour all its own that's not really anything like dark and sweet balsamic vinegar). Grilled salmon steaks go with the warm salad, but I know it's the cherry toms that will probably be the star of tonight's quick little meal.