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19
Green Tomatoes - two ways
September 19, 2007 |
A world devoid of tomato soup, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup and tomato paste is hard to visualize. Could the tin and processed food industries have got where they have without the benefit of the tomato compounds which colour, flavour, thicken and conceal so many deficiencies? How did the Italians eat spaghetti before the advent of the tomato? Was there such a thing as tomato-less Neapolitan pizza?
- Elizabeth David in An Omelette and a Glass of Wine
Too much of a good thing - that’s the case right now, with all five of our tomato plants bursting in profusion before succumbing to the cold.
Most of the tomatoes ripen before we get to them.
The varieties we have are Cherry tomato, Husky (the larger variety of cherry tomato), Beefsteak (the green one), and two Roma tomato plants.
Recognise that beautiful plate? It’s a precious gift from the friend who created it. Thank you. We’re honoured to receive it.
Dealing with mountains of ripe tomatoes
1. Fill a five-liter pressure cooker three-quarters to the top with chopped tomatoes. Cover, put the weight on and cook on medium-low for 30 minutes. Do not add any water as the tomatoes will release enough liquid on their own. Take a big bowl, place a strainer over it, and put the whole tomato mixture into it. Let the juices drain into the bowl. Set it aside for atleast four hours or overnight. If it has cooled sufficiently, place it in the refrigerator.
Three quarters of a 5-litre pressure cooker usually gives us about 4 cups of liquid and 3.5 cups of tomato pulp.
Use the liquid to cook lentils/chickpeas/rice. (For 1 cup toor dal, use 2 cups water and 2 cups tomato liquid). Just cook the lentils/dal, rice for a few minutes extra, since the tomatoes may slow down the cooking time. Or just spice up the tomato liquid with some cumin and black pepper, chill and drink for a vitamin boost. Or add it to soups.
As for the concentrated tomato pulp, puree it. Use it in regular cooking, or convert it into chutneys or salsas.
2. Halve or quarter the tomatoes depending on their size. Prehat the oven to 400 degrees F. Layer the tomatoes on the tray, drizzen with a dash of olive oil, sprinke with salt, cover loosely with foil, pierce the foil in a couple of places, and bake 45 minutes to an hour. You can also cut the top third off a head of garlic, put a tsp of oilve oil on it, wrap it in foil, and place it next to the tomatoes to roast.
After the tomatoes are cooked and cooled, puree the whole thing in the food processor (optional additions: olives/chipotle sauce/herbs/nuts/parmesan). This is a great pasta sauce and also a good pizza base.
ROASTED GREEN TOMATO, POBLANO AND AVOCADO SALSA
Green tomatoes have a tart-sweet flavour, and are a perfect substitute for tomatillos in a green Mexican salsa (salsa verde).
Spread 2.5 cups chopped green tomatoes and 1 halved poblano pepper (or chilli of your choice) on a baking sheet, drizzle 2 tsps olive oil and sprinkle some salt.
Broil the tomatoes and peppers on high for 4 minutes or until you see dark spots on the tomatoes, and the pepper skin looks charred. Take the baking sheet out of the oven, let the mixture cool. Skin the pepper, and chop half the mixture into bits. Puree the other half with 1 clove of garlic to a fine paste. Add it to the chopped mixture.
Add 1/4 cup chopped red onion, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1 cup skinned and cubed Hass avocado, salt and 1 tsp lime juice (or more depending on the tartness of the tomatoes) and mix. Check the seasonings, refrigerate covered for 30 minutes, and serve.
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
Cut green tomatoes into rings about 1/2 inch thick. Dip into a mixture of cornmeal (or semolina), chilli powder (cayenne) and salt. Shallow fry in a cast iron pan with 2 tsps oil for a few minutes on both sides until the coating is crisp and the tomato has begun to soften.
This can also be done under the broiler.
Avocado, Chillies/Peppers, Cilantro/Coriander Leaves, Cornmeal, fried-green-tomatoes, GARDENING, green-tomato-salsa, poblano-pepper, Tomato, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
Bee how did i miss this post till now??
what an amazing snaps and those dishes are so incredible!!
I just put my favorite recipe for green tomatoes on my site. Please do check it out. Also how about substituting chilli flakes in place of cayenne and adding a pinch of dried basil to the cornmeal? Also if you’re going to broil it, then add a spimkling of some soft cheese (mozarella) on it just before putting it under the grill?
[...] Green Tomatoes - two ways [...]
Beautiful green tomatoes! I’ll be bookmarking this post for some of my own green babies
Hi,
Your site is impressive! The photos, the details, the recipes, the design…Congratulations - amazing work.
[...] We had a huge tomato harvest this year. We made this chutney with a combination of the four varieties we grew - Beefsteak, Husky, Roma (pictured above) and Cherry. (See Green Tomatoes - two ways.) [...]
Can anyone get more artistic than this? You 2 r just SUPERB!!
Too good. I came to see guacamole recipe and found this.
You should try green tomato chutney maharashtrian way. Yumm it tastes.