Processing/Storage
Tomato Jam
A nice use for overripe tomatoes. We've always made it with big slicers; if you used paste tomatoes, I imagine you would need less cooking time. If you wanted to, you could run it through a food mill afterwards and turn it into paste. It's great spread on fried eggplants, crackers with chevre, or stirred into scrambled eggs.
Based on a recipe from thekitchn.com.
4-5 ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 HEAD of garlic, slivered
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Heat the oven to 325°F. Generously oil the bottom of a rimmed cookie sheet or lasagne pan.
Fill the pan with tomatoes, cramming as many as possible in (this helps it not to burn later on). Scatter the garlic on top and sprinkle on the spices. Drizzle with more olive oil - be generous, as it carries the flavors and makes the whole thing come together.
Bake at 325°F for about 3 hours, or until the tomatoes are very soft and there is little visible juice when you stir. I mash them around after the first hour and then every half hour thereafter.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Mash to an even consistency, if necessary. Keep refrigerated - should keep for 2 or more weeks, though you'll probably eat it all before then, or you can freeze it for later.
Salad Cukes
This is from The Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Food at Home by Janet Chadwick, which is a great book that gives several different options for preserving each kind of food, with good instructions and illustrations.
Wash 6-8 cucumbers. Slice thinly with a food processor. Peel and slice thinly a medium onion. Measure out 2 quarts of sliced cucumbers. Mix with onions and 2 tablespoons of salt in a large bowl. Let stand 2 hours.
Drain vegetables well. Rinse thoroughly with cold water. Drain well again. Return drained vegetables to the rinsed bowl. And 2/3 cup each oil, vinegar, and sugar [we use half sesame oil, half olive oil and only 1/3 cup sugar]. Add 1 teaspoon celery seed. Mix well.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Pack in freezer jars or containers. Leave 1-inch headspace. Freeze.
To defrost, place in refrigerator overnight.
Kimchi
From Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Kimchi definitely falls into the “art” rather than “science” category – feel free to adjust ingredients to taste. You’ll want to keep the salt ratio about the same, though, as that’s what makes the environment right to support lactobacteria rather than other, uninvited, bacteria.
For one quart:
Sea Salt (non-iodized)
1 lb Napa cabbage, chopped
1 daikon radish, sliced
1 or 2 carrots, sliced
1 or 2 onions and/or some scallions
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 hot chiles (or to taste)
3 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1. Mix a brine of 4 cups water and 4 tablespoons salt. Stir to dissolve salt.
2. Soak the veggies in the brine, covered with a plate or weight to keep them submerged, a few hours or overnight, until soft.
3. Mix the spices into a paste.
4. Drain and reserve the brine. Taste the vegetables for saltiness – you want them to taste decidedly salty, but not unpleasantly so. If they are too salty, rinse them. If you cannot taste salt, add a couple teaspoons and mix.
5. Mix the vegetables with the spice paste. Mix everything together and stuff into a clean quart-sized jar. Pack tightly, pressing down until brine rises. If necessary, add a little reserved brine to submerge the vegetables. Weigh the vegetables down with another jar or zip-lock bag, and cover with a clean cloth to keep out flies and dust.
6. Ferment in a warm place, checking every day. When it reaches your desired level of sourness, put in the fridge. It should keep for at least a month, but will get softer and more sour.
Tomatillo Salsa
Vary the proportions to suit your taste. You can also roast or grill the tomatillos first, or add a tomato. The tiny husk cherries are a nice addition, too! This makes a good canned salsa, but for that you should add a teaspoon of lime juice or vinegar to each pint to make sure the acidity is high enough to be safe.
- 1 pint tomatillos, husked and quartered
- 1/2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 bunch cilantro, long stems removed
- 1 or 2 hot peppers, chopped (if you like hot peppers, that is!)
- salt
- lime juice
Blend it all together in a food processor, or chop finely. Adjust seasoning to taste – the tomatillos are pretty tart, so you may not need much (or any!) lime juice.
Dried Tomatoes
This is a simple way to preserve tomatoes – they can be added to soups as is, or soaked for a little while in hot water and then added to scrambled eggs or pasta or salad cukes. A dehydrator is another great investment for local eating in the winter, but the oven works, too. We’ve found a few dehyradors at garage sales over the years – they don’t have to be fancy to work (though the fancy ones do work really well).
Slice tomatoes into ¼ inch slices, removing cores. For cherry tomatoes, cut in half.
Sprinkle with salt, if desired.
Dry in the dehydrator at 120º overnight, turning and drying for another several hours in the morning, or dry on a lightly greased baking sheet in the oven on its lowest setting – it may take up to 24 hours. Rotate the baking sheet occasionally and flip the tomatoes at least once in that time.
Let them cool, then pack in glass jars.
If you want to store them in the pantry, dry them until they are brittle-crisp. If you prefer them chewier, I recommend storing them in the freezer.
A nice use for overripe tomatoes. We've always made it with big slicers; if you used paste tomatoes, I imagine you would need less cooking time. If you wanted to, you could run it through a food mill afterwards and turn it into paste. It's great spread on fried eggplants, crackers with chevre, or stirred into scrambled eggs.
Based on a recipe from thekitchn.com.
4-5 ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 HEAD of garlic, slivered
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Heat the oven to 325°F. Generously oil the bottom of a rimmed cookie sheet or lasagne pan.
Fill the pan with tomatoes, cramming as many as possible in (this helps it not to burn later on). Scatter the garlic on top and sprinkle on the spices. Drizzle with more olive oil - be generous, as it carries the flavors and makes the whole thing come together.
Bake at 325°F for about 3 hours, or until the tomatoes are very soft and there is little visible juice when you stir. I mash them around after the first hour and then every half hour thereafter.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Mash to an even consistency, if necessary. Keep refrigerated - should keep for 2 or more weeks, though you'll probably eat it all before then, or you can freeze it for later.
Salad Cukes
This is from The Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Food at Home by Janet Chadwick, which is a great book that gives several different options for preserving each kind of food, with good instructions and illustrations.
Wash 6-8 cucumbers. Slice thinly with a food processor. Peel and slice thinly a medium onion. Measure out 2 quarts of sliced cucumbers. Mix with onions and 2 tablespoons of salt in a large bowl. Let stand 2 hours.
Drain vegetables well. Rinse thoroughly with cold water. Drain well again. Return drained vegetables to the rinsed bowl. And 2/3 cup each oil, vinegar, and sugar [we use half sesame oil, half olive oil and only 1/3 cup sugar]. Add 1 teaspoon celery seed. Mix well.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Pack in freezer jars or containers. Leave 1-inch headspace. Freeze.
To defrost, place in refrigerator overnight.
Kimchi
From Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Kimchi definitely falls into the “art” rather than “science” category – feel free to adjust ingredients to taste. You’ll want to keep the salt ratio about the same, though, as that’s what makes the environment right to support lactobacteria rather than other, uninvited, bacteria.
For one quart:
Sea Salt (non-iodized)
1 lb Napa cabbage, chopped
1 daikon radish, sliced
1 or 2 carrots, sliced
1 or 2 onions and/or some scallions
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 hot chiles (or to taste)
3 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1. Mix a brine of 4 cups water and 4 tablespoons salt. Stir to dissolve salt.
2. Soak the veggies in the brine, covered with a plate or weight to keep them submerged, a few hours or overnight, until soft.
3. Mix the spices into a paste.
4. Drain and reserve the brine. Taste the vegetables for saltiness – you want them to taste decidedly salty, but not unpleasantly so. If they are too salty, rinse them. If you cannot taste salt, add a couple teaspoons and mix.
5. Mix the vegetables with the spice paste. Mix everything together and stuff into a clean quart-sized jar. Pack tightly, pressing down until brine rises. If necessary, add a little reserved brine to submerge the vegetables. Weigh the vegetables down with another jar or zip-lock bag, and cover with a clean cloth to keep out flies and dust.
6. Ferment in a warm place, checking every day. When it reaches your desired level of sourness, put in the fridge. It should keep for at least a month, but will get softer and more sour.
Tomatillo Salsa
Vary the proportions to suit your taste. You can also roast or grill the tomatillos first, or add a tomato. The tiny husk cherries are a nice addition, too! This makes a good canned salsa, but for that you should add a teaspoon of lime juice or vinegar to each pint to make sure the acidity is high enough to be safe.
- 1 pint tomatillos, husked and quartered
- 1/2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 bunch cilantro, long stems removed
- 1 or 2 hot peppers, chopped (if you like hot peppers, that is!)
- salt
- lime juice
Blend it all together in a food processor, or chop finely. Adjust seasoning to taste – the tomatillos are pretty tart, so you may not need much (or any!) lime juice.
Dried Tomatoes
This is a simple way to preserve tomatoes – they can be added to soups as is, or soaked for a little while in hot water and then added to scrambled eggs or pasta or salad cukes. A dehydrator is another great investment for local eating in the winter, but the oven works, too. We’ve found a few dehyradors at garage sales over the years – they don’t have to be fancy to work (though the fancy ones do work really well).
Slice tomatoes into ¼ inch slices, removing cores. For cherry tomatoes, cut in half.
Sprinkle with salt, if desired.
Dry in the dehydrator at 120º overnight, turning and drying for another several hours in the morning, or dry on a lightly greased baking sheet in the oven on its lowest setting – it may take up to 24 hours. Rotate the baking sheet occasionally and flip the tomatoes at least once in that time.
Let them cool, then pack in glass jars.
If you want to store them in the pantry, dry them until they are brittle-crisp. If you prefer them chewier, I recommend storing them in the freezer.