Quelle semaine!

Pants, painting, tomatageddon and a near coup. That's quite a lot for one week.

The pants were the easy bit. Superman has been rolling up his right trouser leg when he's out on his bike. Ah, yes, he has a bike. It took quite a bit of finding to source a hybrid road-mountain bike here, let alone one that was big enough for all 190cm of him. But thanks to a lovely Belgian woman, we did. It was his birthday present and he's thrilled to ride it to and from work each day, and for longer rides, early mornings, on weekends. Most roads here are sand, and the traffic on the few tarmac'd surfaces can be nuts, so he has to pick his time and route carefully, and getting a trouser leg caught up in the chain is something Best Not Contemplated.

'Couldn't I get a pair like yours?', he said, pointing to my crop trousers. A trip to le Petit Marché produced two pairs of pants for 5000CFA - about €8. But he couldn't try them on, and they turned out to be copiously large. He has many skills, but sewing isn't one of his superpowers, and I wasn't in the mood for tailoring, but I had an idea. Several times each day I hear - from behind the high wall of the garden - 'ching, ching, ching'. It's always a man with a sewing machine on his head, clinking his scissors to advertise his trade.

Next time he came by, he was invited in, and through mimes (him not speaking French and we not knowing even which language he spoke), demonstrated the excess girth and length of the pants. He nodded, offered a price which, when I asked again, reduced this to 500CFA (80 euro-cents) a pair! And actually I have two pairs of trousers that have become too large, so I brought these out - wearing them and grabbing at the waist to demonstrate. He nodded and the trousers were added to the pile.

His old sewing machine purred away for 10 minutes, and he was done. Just like that. No measuring, no trying on - just done! And everything fit us perfectly. He was kind enough to allow me to take photos, I found his facial scars (tribal markings) really beautiful. Job done, he returned to the sandy street, and we heard 'ching ching, ching ching' fading away.

There's been progress and pretty-fication inside the house too. When we arrived, the living room was full of brown furniture, the walls were dingy yellow and the curtains were apparently bought second hand from a funeral parlour. Added to the dark tropical wood ceiling and the brown and orange floor tiles, the effect was not exactly uplifting.

Over the past few days the walls have been repainted, and I've sewn new curtains with fabric from the market. The excess sofas have been removed, and I covered as much orange as possible with a €10 mat.

Ta da!

Pretty cushion covers still to come.

And we almost had a coup d'état. The disputed election results were declared final, attempts to get permits to protest were turned down, and at 3am one night what seems to be a faction of the military tried to storm the Presidential Palace. After about half an hour of gunfire, both ways, including heavy weaponry, the attempt was quashed. Two days later the President was inaugurated, amid a strict lock down on most of the paved roads in the city. With that event and Easter weekend - the Monday being a holiday here - behind us, things may settle a little. Once again, those willing to take action against the new President do not seem to have sparked a mass movement. But it seems to me that in this country you never quite know.

What I do know is that it's tomato season! For most of the past week we've been getting 3kg/day or more, some days close to 5kg.

We think there are at least 5 different types. And we are eating them 100 different ways, as well as giving them away by the bowlful. I don't have a blender here, only a mini food processor, and I hate peeling tomatoes, so I look for recipes where the tomato skin is not an issue.

We've had tomato salad, Greek salad, tabouleh salad, tomato and egg salad and panzanella salad (also good for using up stale bread, and the basil plant that's currently going nuts), tomato, sweetcorn and onion salad and tomato, parsley and white bean salad.

I already mentioned fish with Chermoulah, which uses tomatoes. But we've also eaten fish greek-style with onions, feta cheese and - yes! - tomatoes. Tonight it will be fish with a tomato, caper and lemon sauce, topped with that crispy briq pastry.

I've made tomato curry, tomato soup, roasted tomatoes with dark green vegetables. Of course I had to make that Tik Tok sensation - tomatoes with feta cheese, slowly cooked in the oven until oozing tomato-cheesy meltedness (I added baby leeks, too), and served over pasta. Pasta puttanesca was another hit, with tomatoes spiked up by olives and capers. Tomato-corn chowder was a great lunch and I froze half, which made a second great lunch. Tomato and cheese quiche. Tomato tart tatin, served with local brie (I made my own rough puff pastry!). Tomatoes have made their way into stir-fries, and I even managed to get some into my vegetable pot-stickers.

But two people can't consume 3 - 5kg of tomatoes a day, so there's been some preserving going on.

Two kinds of tomato sauce -- one cooked long and low in the slow cooker, with celery, carrots, onions, garlic and herbs. Sieved, and some of the vegetable content pureed and re-added, then cooked again to reduce to a velvety texture, and the whole thing balanced with balsamico, salt and sugar.

For the other sauce, I halved tomatoes and roasted them slowly, face down, on an oven sheet with a glug of olive oil, I tucked garlic cloves between so they are - as Nigella might say - 'nestled like pockets of snow between the rosy tomato hills'. After 45 minutes everything was squishy soft, and the skins slipped off the tomatoes with a little pinch. The whole skinless lot was then pureed (seeds and all, I'm not fussy), bagged and frozen.

And two kinds of chutney - Tomato Achar - a condiment from Nepal with tomatoes cooked to a creamy consistency, flavoured with bright spices, and Tomato Chutney - a sweet-sour pickle with rounded, mellow flavours and a kick of heat. I went a bit free-form on the spices, as I have a limited range here.

Having cooked tomatoes all morning, I was in no mood to fuss about lunch. I simply cooked basmati rice with lentils, tucking in a few eggs to be pulled out at the 10 minute mark when they are perfectly hard boiled. The eggs were served on top of the rice/lentil mix, with a good dollop of tomato achar, and a large spoonful of chutney glistening in the middle. A crispy popadom gave just the right crunch.

Tomato Achar

Put into a pan:

About a kilo of tomatoes, chopped into small pieces, seeds removed.

Cook them over low, slow, heat, stirring occasionally until you have a thick tomato paste - about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Add:

2 teaspoon ginger and garlic paste (I used minced garlic and ginger, whizzed up in my mini food processor)

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

2 teaspoons turmeric powder

salt, to taste

and cook further, still stirring occasionally until you see no more liquid - this takes another 30 minutes or more.

In another small pan, heat

2 tablespoon neutral oil such as canola

and add

10 garlic cloves

3 or more dried whole chili

2 teaspoon cumin seed (whole)

2 heaping teaspoon coriander seed (whole)

Stir constantly - keep an eye open until the seeds start to pop and dance in the pan, and take off the heat immediately. Add to the tomatoes, stir through.

Keep in a jar in the fridge.

Tomato Chutney

1 kg onions, chopped small

3 kg tomatoes, deseeded and chopped small

1 tsp chilli paste

5cm piece ginger, grated or finely chopped

150 ml vinegar (I used 100ml white, 50 ml balsamico)

250g sugar

2 tbs Coriander seed (whole)

2 - 4 oz raisins (optional)

Put everything into a pan, season to taste (salt, more/less sugar). Cook over low heat 30 - 45 minutes, stirring often, until jammy. Keep in sterilised jars in the fridge, for up to 4 weeks.

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If you're really bustin' to make any of the other tomato dishes, drop me a message in the comments, and I'll pop the recipe into a reply.