A bit about train smash, the recipe

The tomato glut continues. Sadly, I wasn't organised enough to get the new plants in on time. I now fear a looming tomato deficit, sort of a culinary fiscal cliff.

The last recipe I gave you in  Another simple meal at Astrolabe Road was actually a variant of train smash. I came home tonight to find that eldest's friend who is sharing with me until she goes to France had never heard of train smash. That was what we called it, and it was a favourite of my girls. G. is a vegetarian, but I normally served it with bacon.

Now what I did this time was chop some onion, a little garlic and the toms, Olive oil in the pan, heat, add the garlic, pepper and salt. Then add the onions. You need to give them a little time to soften.

While all this was going on, I kept a bit of an eagle eye on my main meal. G was going out, so I train smash was just a snack.

After the onions had softened, I added the tomato and turned the heat down. I put on some bread to toast, buttered it, and then poured the train smash over it. Not to shabby, actually.

Being insatiably curious, I looked up train smash on the web. Here are a few recipes:

•  http://www.goodrecipes.com.au/index.php/browse?func=detail&catid=7&id=8289. This one looks a lot more colourful than mine, I have to say.
• Here is another more complex recipe - http://juliewashere.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/train-smash.html
• And here is a completely different variant http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-mealie-pap-train-smash
• yet another  http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Sauces/Train%20Smash%20HT%20ACC%20South%20African%2020mins.htm

Here is my variant in the pan. 

I really had no idea that there was so much connected with the idea of train smash. Its like when I found out that the variant of French toast I cooked was actually a specific New England variety - Belshaw's World - New England masterchefs ponder regional dish!

Now all this has sidetracked me very badly. I was actually going to write tonight on a bit of bull, Oops! Okay, maybe all this is in fact a bit of bull.

Still reeling from the idea recorded in comments on my last post that kvd hates lemon, including lemon tarts,  I must move on. Bulls call. But I still struggle with the idea that a sensible man (and kvd is most sensible) could hate lemon. Aunt Kay, a country cook, cooked the most wonderful lemon tarts balancing the sweet and sour. Mum was pretty good, too.

I must move in the direction of bulls. More later.   

Postscript

Ramana kindly provided me with this Indian version, Tamatar Ka Salan, of the type of dishes we have been talking about. This, Ramana suggests, is a good dish for tiffins. India has added many words to English. I was surprised to learn that tiffin actually derives from an old English slang word, so here we have an English word added to Indian English. Put that way, the comment actually sounds a bit silly since Indian English is, after all, English. But you know what I mean.