A surfeit of tomatoes. Ideas? Want some?

Cafe Society
21

If you were my neighbor, I’d take all you cared to give away. There is no such thing as “too many tomatoes” in my world!

Why not just can them up? They keep much better for much longer and the flavor stays true if you do that. You can also make ketchup. Dehydrating is also fantastic, as has already been suggested – you can throw them in almost everything. :slight_smile:

22

Just sliced, and dressed with a little oil, vinegar, salt and pepper or whatever seasonings you like.

23

Oh, here’s another I forgot, tomato kasundi. It’s an amazing oil pickle, fantastic on cheese sandwiches.http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6482/tomato+kasundi

24

When you get fed up with processing them, toss the big ones, unpeeled, into big freezer bags (or grocery bags, for that matter) and freeze them. At chili making time, run them under warm water, watch the skins peel away with zero effort, and chop them up for your soup.
I always start out stewing and canning and making sauces, but by the end of the season I’m just throwing them willy-nilly in the freezer. It’s a nice surprise when late fall rolls around.

25

My mom makes an amazingly good jam from tomatoes. She calls it “Garden Marmalade”. I can ask her for the recipe, if you want.

Oh, and there’s also green tomato relish, but we usually save that for the end of the season, when there are tomatoes still on the vine that are likely to frost before they have a chance to ripen.

26

I am so, so envious. That is all.

27

I’ve always wanted to try this Moroccan tomato jam.

28

Yum!

Two ideas:

  1. Five-pound tomato soup. Saute some scallions in a few tablespoons of butter in a big pot. Roughly chop five pounds of tomatoes and add them to the pot with a cup of water. Cook on low for about three hours, adding a cup of water if necessary. When it’s done, put it through a food mill to remove seeds and skins. Salt to taste. The resulting soup is the distilled flavor of summer. You can add some cream if you like your tomato soup that way, but usually we eat it straight.
  2. Oven dried tomatoes. Chop small tomatoes in half and remove seeds. Drizzle generously with olive oil, and maybe some salt and dried herbs if you’re all schmancy. Bake at 300 until they’re starting to get brown and crispy. Eat like potato chips, although if you eat too many (and you will, you’ll eat the entire tray because they’re so good), your intestines will hate you.
29

So many good ideas, I love the idea of the Moroccan tomato jam (possibly similar to the tomato marmalade Chronos mentioned?) And the kasundi…I have just about every ingredient for that right now. May try it tonight.

papergirl - I do that as well, so easy and tastes much better than canned tomatoes in winter stews. I tried canning one year, but honestly I don’t have the time and patience for canning.

Dingoel, my inner 8-year-old boy is amused by the idea of dropping them on cars from a freeway overpass. But that would be wrong, and illegal, and a very silly thing for me to do!

I’m definitely doing oven-dried tomatoes. How long will they keep - can I freeze them?

30

Fresh tomato slices go great next to eggs. Sunny side up.

31

** Tomato Cake**

Ingredients

Dry

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp cinnamon
A pinch of salt
¾ cup white/brown sugar
Wet

1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Blanch the tomatoes, skin them and deseed them. Chop them finely. Make sure you drain most of the water from it. Too much water might make your cake too soft.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients well.

Dry the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix till combined. Don’t over mix or beat it. Spoon into a greased pan. I used a 9 ½ inch round pan. Bake at 190°C for 25 to 30minutes or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

32

Nonsense. You can take a pile of money and stick it in a cupboard or sock drawer for a few years, and when you pull it out it will still be as good as when you put it in. Tomatoes, not so much.

33

If you have a spicy tomato sauce, you can make shakshuka for breakfast

And no-one’s suggested Bloody Marys yet? I am disappoint.

34

Doesn’t look like it. Mom’s garden marmalade is tomatoes, garlic, and basil, is sweetened with sugar instead of honey, and has a much more gelled consistency.

35

A tip for making gazpacho that you might find helpful; put the “stock” together in the blender, then drizzle the olive oil in while it’s running at high speed. Helps keep it from separating if you’re not consuming it immediately. Then add the chopped veggies.

I usually blend some or all of the chilis into the stock - personal preference.

36

Chow chow for the green tomatoes. Pico de gallo for quick use and tomato salsa to put in the freezer.

37

chiroptera, this is a recipe we used when we had a HUGE overabundance of tomatoes one year. It tends to work quite well.

  1. Acquire a dog. Preferably a wonderful, sweet, yet not very bright dog.
  2. Go into the yard with the dog.
  3. Throw tomatoes right off the plant to the dog as if playing fetch.
  4. Laugh hysterically when dog bites into it has she catches it and freaks out and spits it out.
  5. Wait a few minutes. The not very bright dog will forget steps 1 - 4.
  6. Lather, rinse and repeat. It will be a new experience each and every time for the dog. AND a never ending source of hilarity for those throwing the tomatoes. It helps if your husband who is throwing the tomatoes is somewhat like mine - about as bright as the dog. :wink:

This recipe works better if you add beer to it. Just so’s you know. :smiley:

38

Shaksuka looks incredible and right up my alley! Saved.

Tomato cake - ditto!

Chronos, feel free to share your mom’s garden marmalade; I did google it but didn’t find anything that really stirred my loins.

Missy, ha! None of my three dogs are interested in tomatoes. At all. And two of the three are actually very intelligent. The Labradork isn’t, plus he has never quite gotten the hang of the “retriever” part of Labrador retriever. He gets very excited and jumps around like a mad thing if I throw anything, but I think he is just excited because I figured out how to throw something. However, he utterly doesn’t get the part where he is supposed to run and grab the thrown thing. I could probably throw a T-bone steak and he’d be like “Cool, you threw that thing!” <bounce bounce bounce in place>

Little Nemo, I did your Marcella Hazan buttery tomato sauce tonight, for ravioli. It was silky-good, thank you!

39

Shakshouka also makes great breakfast for dinner, particularly with some nice crusty bread to dunk in the sauce.

40

Ratatouille! Tomatoes (3-4 cups, cut in chunks or slices), onion (half and slice one bulb), garlic (slice up a few cloves), summer squash (about equal to the tomatoes, slice at about a quarter inch), butter, olive oil, Parmesan cheese. Get you a chunk of French bread to soak up the juices. Basically, you saute the garlic on med-low, add the onions and saute until they’re transparent, then add the rest of the ingredients (except the bread) and simmer it all for about a half hour. Salt and pepper. Even kids like this dish.