Put Up or Shut Up Episode 6: Tomatoes

Where did the locavore pirate purchase his vegetables?

 

Straight from the fAARRRRHHmer.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

I'm sorry I've been absent for so long.  I didn't even realize that it had been so long.  Canning season is in full swing, and it takes up a lot of my free time.  On top of that, my dance troupe has our "big show" of the year coming up this weekend, so I've been busy crafting things to sell.  (Yes, in addition to being a tremendously talented cook and witty blogger, I'm also quite handy with a crochet hook.  I am a woman of many talents - none of them exceptionally marketable...).  Make sure you come check us out at Tribal Union this Saturday.  It's going to be a sweet show.

Technically Fall starts on Saturday, but the chill of fall has been in the air the past few nights.  I woke up with cold toes this morning.  I like summer, and I like being warm, but fall is by far my favorite season in terms of both clothing (I love me a sweater dress!) and food.  There is nothing like a warm stew that's been in the crock pot or oven all day.  The oven now makes me even happier, since my wonderful mother got me one of these for my birthday:

Everything I make in it is automatically fancy.

And, with the end of summer and the start of fall, sadly and naturally comes the end of tomato season.  It's been a good year for tomatoes for me.  When we reach this point in the year, however, tomatoes start to turn a little ugly.  They get spots, or end up oddly shaped, or just don't taste as great as they did in the middle of the summer.  They tend to get soft spots easier.  They don't seem to last as long on the counter.

While sad, all of these things are good for you - the industrious, over achieving, borderline food hoarding, obsessive compulsive canner.

Oh, wait, that's not you, that's me!

Anyway, you should now be able to find a 10 or 20 lb box of tomatoes at your local farmer's market for far less than the normal price.  Some farmers also offer "seconds," which are those ugly tomatoes that you probably don't want to put on your BLT.  Okay, so you'll need to cut a few bruised spots off.  They're still good!

I do a few things with my tomatoes.  The first and easiest is to freeze them whole.  Just wash them and stick them into the freezer.  Once you've got a stack of them, I'd recommend putting them into freezer bags for long term storage.  Once you're ready to use them, just thaw them enough to cut them (I would cut them before they thaw all the way though, because they'll get mushy) and then use them in any recipe that calls for cooked tomatoes.  You don't want to eat them raw though - again when they thaw all the way they get really mushy and weird.  You can't tell the difference when they're cooked, though.

You can also use these tomatoes anywhere it calls for canned tomatoes.  And the skins remove really easily, too.  Just throw them into a pot of boiling water fully frozen, and the skins pop right off on their own!  This also helps thaw them out enough to cut them too.

I tend to save tomatoes all summer this way.  When I've got a big stack, and one or two looks like it's going to get old before I can eat it, I just throw it in the freezer.  I'm up to about 3 and a half gallon freezer bags.

This year, for the first time, I've also canned whole and diced tomatoes.  I haven't done this in the past because it seemed like a waste of canning time - since the frozen tomatoes can be used in place of both of these items.  But, I found the frozen tomatoes were taking up too much room in my freezer.  And, on top of that, when I'm making something in the crock pot in the morning before work I don't always have time/want to make the time to be dealing with frozen tomatoes.  It'll be nice to just dump a jar of tomatoes into the crock pot and go.

Spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, and salsa rounded out my "regular" tomato canning.  One thing I did this year that I didn't do last year was I saved all the skins from all the tomatoes I canned, and threw them into the pot when making my tomato sauce.  I really felt it thickened the sauce up and gave it an extra tomato-y texture.  It also made me feel good to think I was getting as much as possible out of all parts of the tomato.

I say "regular" tomato canning, because this doesn't include the green tomatoes.  Green tomatoes are, in my opinion, highly undervalued.  Fried green tomatoes are not even close to being the best thing about green tomatoes.  First off, you can pickle them. Pickled green tomatoes are an amazing treat.  I've made a winter caprese salad (that's your tomato, mozzarella cheese, and basil salad) using pickled green tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes.  They're also good for just eating.

But maybe you don't like pickled things the way I do.  That's fine (you're wrong, but it's fine).  Here's another suggestion.  This may be hailed as food blasphemy, but you can also can whole green tomatoes and substitute them for canned tomatillos.  They're not going to be exactly the same - they're not as tangy or as acidic.  If you are going to substitute them, I would recommend adding a good amount of lime juice to up the sass, but I can't find local tomatillos for less than $4.99 a pound, and that's far too much when I need a bunch for my famous green pork chili.  So I'm going to substitute green tomatoes, and it's going to be amazing.  If you've got a problem with that, you don't get any chili!

So pick up some tomato seconds at the farmer's market, and get canning!

Canned Whole Tomatoes - Red or Green (or yellow.  Or orange.  Or whatever)
For each Quart of Tomatoes:

• 3 pounds tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice 

 Remove the skins from the tomatoes by boiling briefly and dipping in ice water.  (We've been talking about this for a year now - do I really need to explain it to you?)

Put 2 tablespoons lemon juice into a one quart jar.  Pack the tomatoes into the jar one at a time, pressing firmly enough to compress the hollow core and release enough juice to cover the tomatoes, but not enough to crush the fruit.  Continue to pack the tomatoes in this manner, pressing out any air pockets.  Tomatoes should be covered by 1/2 inch with their liquid.  Leave 1/2 inch of headspace between the top of the liquid and the lid.  Top with a little boiling water, if necessary, to achieve the proper headspace.

Use the boiling water method and process jars for 85 minutes.  Turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and let jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.

If you are using green tomatoes to substitute for tomatillos, consider replacing the lemon juice with lime juice.

Canned Diced Tomatoes
Same as above, but dice the tomatoes instead of pushing them into the jars.  Save the any tomato juice to cover the tomatoes in the jar.

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce
Makes about 8 Quarts

• 20 lbs of tomatoes (preferably plum or Roma)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb onions, diced
• 1 head garlic, peeled and minced
• 4 large carrots, diced
• 4 large green peppers
• 1 cup fresh oregano
• 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice per quart
• 1 tsp salt per quart
• 1 bay leaf per quart

 Blanch and shock tomatoes to remove peels.  Dice into about 1 inch cubes, and set aside.

In a large pot, sweat down onions over low heat until soft and translucent - about 15 minutes.  Raise heat to medium, add garlic, carrots, and peppers, and saute until veggies are soft, about 10 minutes.  Add tomatoes and oregano and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a low and simmer for 1 hour.  The sauce should be reduced and slightly thickened.

Ladle into jars (adding lemon juice, salt, and bay leaf), leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Process using the boiling water method for 45 minutes.  Turn off heat, remove the lid from the canner, and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.

Tomato Basil Sauce
Makes about 6 pints

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb onions, coarsely chopped
• 1 head garlic, chopped
• 10 lbs tomatoes, cut into large chunks (don't worry about the skins this time)
• Any skins you have from other tomatoes you've canned (you can freeze these to use later, too)
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

In a large pot, warm the oil over low heat.  Add the onions and sweat until soft and translucent, about 15 minutes.  Increase the heat to medium, add the garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes longer.

Add the tomatoes, skins, and wine and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until reduced and thickened - about 1 hour.

Pass the tomato mixture through a mesh sieve set over a clean, large pot.  I like to really work the remaining solids to work out any pulp in order to get a thicker sauce but that is your choice.  Bring the tomato sauce back to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.  Stir in the basil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

Ladle the sauce into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Process using the boiling water method for 30 minutes. 

Tomato Basil Sauce (front) and Chunky Spaghetti
Sauce (back) in progress.  I need bigger pots...

Heirloom Tomato Salsa
Makes about 7 pints
Using a variety of tomatoes in different colors creates a pretty salsa, but isn't necessary.

• 1 cup white viegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 3 lbs heirloom tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1/2 pounds onions, diced
• 1 to 2 hot peppers of your favorite variety, diced
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Bring the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil in a large, nonreactive sauce pan.  add the tomatoes, onions, and peppers, and return to a boil for 5 minutes.  Add the cilantro and remove from the heat.

Ladle into clean hot pint or half pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Process for 15 minutes.  Turn off heat, remove the canner lid, and let rest in the water for 5 minutes.

Pickled Green Tomatoes
Makes 6 pints (use pints or half pints)

• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 12 bay leaves
• 24 cloves garlic
• 3/4 tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp dried oregeno
• 1 small yellow onion cut into thin slices
• 12 small hot peppers (optional)
• 6 cups green tomatoes, cut into large chunks or slices (or use whole cherry tomatoes)

In a large pot, combine the vinegar and salt.  Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the salt.

Meanwhile, divide bay leaves, garlic, spices, and onion amongst jars.  Pack tomatoes tightly into the jars, within one inch of the rims.  Ladle the boiling brine into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Wipe the rims and seal tightly.  Because of the high level of acidity, these pickles do not require a boiling water bath - but make sure the brine is boiling when you ladle it in so they seal properly.

Let the jars sit for at least two weeks for flavors to develop.

Spaghetti Two Ways

Happy almost Thanksgiving blog friends!

Not sure if I will have time/will/desire to post tomorrow whilst in the depths of my food coma, but I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.  Strangely, Thanksgiving is not one of my favorite holidays.  I do adore eating, but I also love cooking and Thanksgiving is all about the cooking.  I have been watching cooking specials on Food Network almost non-stop since last weekend (Thanksgiving Live, Good Eats Thanksgiving Specials, Iron Chef: Challenge Thanksgiving...), which really makes me want to cook up a bird of my own.

The problem?  My house holds MAYBE 12 people.  My kitchen table holds 6.  I don't have a dining room - just an eat in kitchen... Not so much a good spot for a family gathering.  I would love to have a turkey related dinner party but, again, not so much room.  Also, between my husband and my busy schedule, the next weekend day we have free is after New Years.

So I have to sit, and pout, and not be the highly praised Thanksgiving mastermind that I know I could be if given the chance.

Oh well.  The next house will have a formal dining room.  And a butler's pantry.  And a library room with one of those slide-y ladders to hold all my cookbooks that I love to collect but never use because it's so much easier to just find things on the internet!

I am bringing a sweet potato/butternut squash cheese dip and a cranberry and apple chutney to Thanksgiving this year.  Or at least I plan to.  Hmmm... now if I screw it up and it's inedible (or if it's so delicious I eat it by myself in the corner) there's evidence.

Anyway, so I've been trying to make non-Thanksgiving dinner-ish food, like Spaghetti.  I also made my famous green pork chili, which BTW won my place of employment's Annual Chili Cook-Off.  Go team me!

Spaghetti is, in my mind, one of those quintessential fall/winter meals.  I never make it in the summer, I think because it's a good place to put vegetables that are about to go.  I used a can of my chunky tomato sauce, but also threw in some additional items (all of these are local).  I started by chopping up a medium yellow onion, and mincing 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  I cooked the onion over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, then  added the garlic and cooked for two more minutes before turning the heat up to medium high.  I added a pound of ground beef, seasoned the whole thing with salt and pepper, and cooked - stirring regularly and breaking up the beef - until the beef was browned.  Then, I added about 1/2 lb of wild mushrooms, and seasoned again with salt and pepper.  I added the can of spaghetti sauce, along with about 2 cups of chopped tomatoes that were at the end of their useful life, a chopped green bell pepper that was about two days from going into the compost pile, and two chopped anduille sausage links that I was sick of staring at in the freezer.

Cover, and let the whole thing cook for at least an hour.  The longer it cooks, the better it tastes!

I also have just about mastered my pasta making.  I use one cup of flour per egg, a pinch of salt, and a drizzle of olive oil.  I put the whole thing in my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and let it kneed on a low setting for about 30 minutes, taking it out every ten minutes or so to kneed by hand.  Depending on the size of the eggs, I sometimes need to drizzle in a little water to get the dough to come together into a ball, and I sometimes need to add a little more flour to keep the dough from being tacky.  After it's well kneeded, I let it rest for about 10 minutes before rolling into pasta.

Or, you could just buy pasta.  You know, if you're feeling lazy.

The above recipe made a whole bunch of spaghetti.  Way more than two people's worth.  We had dinner and lunches, and I froze some, but I also got to make one of my favorite leftover meals.

Spaghetti Frittata.

Spaghetti = awesome.  Frittata = awesome.  Spaghetti Frittata = one of the best foods ever invented.

I was actually getting my hair done the other day, and was telling my stylist about the joys of breakfast for dinner.  My favorite part of breakfast for dinner is how well eggs pair with a nice red wine.  She was not convinced.  This might be a good starter recipe for those of you who fear eggs for dinner, since spaghetti is clearly a dinner food.  But, I kid you not, there is nothing better than a nice over-medium egg, some bacon, some pancakes with REAL maple syrup, and a nice spicy Zinfandel.

Spaghetti Frittata uses all of your leftover spaghetti ingredients.

Spaghetti Frittata:

• About 2 cups leftover spaghetti sauce - with or without meat depending on your preference
• About 8 oz cooked spaghetti noodles (about one normal to small sized serving)
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk, half and half, or heavy cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large, flat sided frying pan, warm spaghetti sauce.  Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, milk, cheese, salt, and pepper.  Once the sauce is warm, remove from heat and stir in the noodles. Pour the egg mixture into the pan with the spaghetti sauce and pasta, and stir to combine.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until just set in the center.

Spaghetti and Sauce in pan

Egg mixture

Everything together in the pan before baking

I served this with a salad, which I topped with some of my pickled beets.  I thought the beets were great.  Jeff was not totally convinced:

Preserving Experiments 3 and 4

Okay, my two not quite normal preserving experiments were both, in my opinion, a big success.  Pickled watermelon rinds and zucchini relish may not be the most useful things to preserve for the winter, but they were both tasty which has increased my confidence.  And, almost all of the jars sealed properly (I missed one) which made me feel like this really is something I can do.  Also, hearing the jars close is fun, which is enough motivation for me!

Time to make something useful.  Also, I purchased a giant canning pot.  Time to make something in mass quantities.

To be fair, I'm not 100 percent happy with how either of these recipes turned out.  I started with the tomato-basil sauce, because I have a lot of basil and because it is out of my preserving book, so I trust it.  I'm always a little nervous pulling canning recipes off of the internet - because I'm never sure that the person writing the recipe knows what they're doing (pretty sure you should be concerned about that too... maybe you should wait until next year before trying any canning recipes off of this site.  I promise to report back if I get the Botch.)

Also, unfortunately, I do not have pictures of finished products.  I will be sure to get that as soon as I eat some spaghetti!!

I did not (shockingly) (<- Sarcasm) read the recipe well enough before starting to realize that this is not a spaghetti sauce.  The recipe says tomato sauce.  But for some reason, in my head, I read spaghetti sauce.  I like a chunky spaghetti sauce, and this is not.  This is, consistency wise, exactly what you would get if you purchased a can of tomato sauce from the store.   It tastes better than that, and is no doubt better for you, but not at all chunky.  I wouldn't change the recipe, necessarily, I just feel it's important to know what you're getting.  And I don't trust people to read a recipe because, well, I don't.

So, I after that I found a recipe for chunky tomato sauce on the internet.  Or, more specifically, I found about 10 recipes and combined them into one I liked.

My only regret on the spaghetti sauce is that it's too dry.  It could really stand to be mixed with a half pint of the tomato sauce.  SO, if you make both of these, put the tomato sauce into half pint jars.  I have a few half pints, but mostly I put it into pints which I think would give me too much when mixed with the spaghetti sauce.

Anyway, next time I think I won't remove the seeds and juice from the peeled tomatoes in the spaghetti sauce recipe.  It takes too long and I think the recipe needs the extra juice.  This was my first experience peeling tomatoes with the boiling water/ice water method.  I have seen method described on many a cooking website and cooking show, and have ignored it in countless numbers of recipes because it seems like WAY too much work, and I don't mind tomato peels in my food.  But, I wanted to do it here because the recipe called for it, and, as I've said many times, I am terrified of messing with canning recipes at the risk of making everyone I know sick.

I'm glad I did it.  It was SO easy.  Not at all the extensive project I imagined.

Take your tomato and cut a small "x" into the bottom.  It doesn't have to be neat, or perfect, you're just telling the skin where you want it to split.  It didn't seem to matter if I slipped and cut deeper into the tomato, either.

Get a large pot of water boiling, and place a bowl (or in my case I used another large pot) next to it, full of ice water.  A few at a time, drop the tomatoes into the boiling water, and allow to boil for 2 minutes.  Fish the tomatoes out, and transfer to the bowl of cold water.  Allow the tomatoes to sit in the ice water for a few minutes.

At this point, directions say that the peel will just slide off.  Yeah, right (I always thought).  No, really.  That is right.  My thought was sarcasm, but the reality is that they DO slide right off.  You can easily see where you sliced the bottom, because the skin has started to peel back, and if you hold it at the other end and squeeze gently, the tomato pops right out like a banana in a cartoon!  It's fun.  I'll do it again, mostly just because it's fun.  If you have kids, this would probably be a good job for them - as long as you don't mind some of the tomatoes rolling around naked on the floor.
 
I did not use my tomatoes for either of these recipes.  The cold weather has made my garden really slow down, so while it's full of tomatoes, they are all green and show no sign of ripening any time soon.  I did, however, buy a HUGE box of less than pretty tomatoes from the farmer's market for cheap.


Tomato-Basil Sauce
From The Art of Preserving 

Makes 6 pints.

There is no need to peel these tomatoes, as they are being pushed through a sieve.  Or if you're fancy use a food mill.  If you're extra fancy (and nice) you could buy me a food mill too!!

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oli
• 4 yellow onions, coarsely chopped (L)
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed (L)
• 10 lbs tomatoes, cut into chunks (L)
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 cup finely chopped basil (L*)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (5% acidity or higher)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Have ready hot, clean jars and their lids.

In a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 5-7 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes longer.

Add the tomatoes and the wine.  Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half.  (The book said this should take 1 hour.  It took me 3.5 hours.  So... be prepared for that!)

Pass the tomato mixture through a coarse-mesh sieve set over a clean, large nonreactive saucepan (or pass it through a food mill).  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.  Stir in the basil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Tase the sauce and adjust the seasonings to taste.

Ladle the hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Wipe the rims clean and seal tightly with the lids.  

Process the jars for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath.  Sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to one year.  If a seal has filed, store the jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce for Canning
Makes 12 pints.

• 15  lbs Red Tomatoes (L)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 medium onions, chopped (about 6 cups) (L)
• 2 bulbs garlic, cloves smashed (L)
• 1/8 cup kosher salt 
• 5 cups green bell peppers chopped (L)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (L*)
• 2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped (L*)
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped (L*)
• 4 whole bay leafs
• 2 tsp fresh ground pepper
  

Have ready hot, clean jars and their lids.

Remove tomato skins through method described above.  If you want (I don't recommend it) remove the seeds and squeeze out some of the juice.  Chop the tomatoes coarsely.

In a large, non reactive pot, heat olive oil.  Add onions and saute over medium low heat for about 15 minutes, or until onions start to caramelize.  Add garlic and cook an additional 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine, and turn heat up to medium high.  Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and continue to simmer for 1 hour.

Ladle scalding hot sauce into hot sterilized pint canning jars, clean rims of jars and seal according to manufacturer's instructions. Process jars for 35 minutes for quarts and pints in a boiling water bath.