I just picked up a new cookbook (for free! Well, OK, I traded another book for it. Anyhow…) with wonderful fish recipies. HOWEVER –
I have this little problem. I am horribly, violently allergic to tomatoes. And anything WITH tomatoes. Like ketchup. Shrimp cocktail sauce. Etc. Etc.
And so MANY fish recipes have tomato in them!
Now, in the past, I have occassionally had some luck substituting cucumbers in place of diced, raw tomatoes, but I don’t think they’d work that great hot dishes or some of the other things. So…
Suggestions for things to replace tomatoes in soups and sauces and such? Obviously, some experimentation will be required, but c’mon, most of the world didn’t hear about tomatoes until after what, 1600? 1700? Something like that. So tomatoes obviously aren’t essential for a lot of this stuff, ‘cause folks have been eatin’ fish since waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.
(Actually, the cookbook has a couple other flaws - the author also clearly had a thing for sour cream and curry as well, but I’m used to working around that sort of thing. Also suffers from the “too many ingredients” flaw as well, but again, I can deal with that already)
Peppers and potatoes are just fine - I don’t have a problem with the whole Solanaceae, just tomatoes.
Although those tomatillos looked darned suspect to me - I’m wondering if they’re the reason salsa verde doesn’t agree with me…
I think the roasted red peppers have merit.
It’s not the flavor I’m interested in - heck, it’s been over 30 years since I even attempted to eat a tomato, I have no recollection of the flavor, just the subsequent vomiting, wheezing, and bloody rash - I’m sorry, was that too explicit? As I said, it’s not the flavor I’m interested in, but more something with similar bulk or texture or moisture content. So, for instance, where a stew might call for tomato paste I might substitute mashed potatoes.
Well apart from the peppers I would try zuchini, eggplant and miniature squash woth perhaps a small squirt of lime juice, a dab of honey and some pepper 'cos I thing of tomatoes as sweet,acid and spicy.
Now that I think about it, some years ago I had a big bottle of some Romanian or Hungarian sweet paprika relish which was so bloody good that we ate it all on toast, mostly on its own sometimes with cheese. It was basically nothing but semi-mashed paprikas. It would be wonderful in any recipe. I’m sure I’ve seen it in a deli recently so I will try to dig up the name.
You know how stuffed bell pepper recipies always call for tomato sauce/paste?
What would work as a substitute?
Heavy gravy? Condensed mushroom soup? A cheese sauce of some sort? Something else? Something you can bake, will hold the stuffing together, and taste good.
I’ve never seen a stuffed bell pepper recipie that called for tomatoes. I’ve always had stuffed bell peppers that had mostly cooked ground beef, minced onion, and seasoning mixture put into a cleaned out pepper, and baked gently until the peppers are soft. It doesn’t need tomato at all IMO. You might try zucchini or some kind of squash, or heck even a fruit as a substitute in the fish recipies.
Just remember to keep the peppers moist when you bake them, put a bit of water in there, with the peppers on racks to steam them and keep the moist. You can use the tops as “lids” or not, it’s optional. (Though they are “prettier” if you can manage to keep the tops as lids, cut out the stem though.) Start browning the meat, then after it’s not so pink, add the onions/seasoning, (whatever your whimsy/taste calls for, usually it’s a bit of salt, maybe celery salt when I make it) and when they start to go a bit clear, dish up the mixture, drain it, and spoon it into the cleaned out peppers. Put them in a Dutch Oven, or what have you, and bake for a bit until the peppers are tender and the meat is done. It’s my mother’s recipie, that’s how she makes them. She loves fresh green peppers, for most of her life she’s had them available fresh from the family garden, so of course she’d want to taste the peppers.
I’m still wondering if maybe fish with a mild cranberry “chutney” instead of tomato would be ok, or maybe a little bit of pineapple, (slices or maybe just juice?) or slices of butternut squash? Carrots might work too, if they are fresh, maybe with some celery. You might even try frozen corn (or cut fresh off the cob if you can) in a recipie to see if it works. Orange or lime would probably be good, just cook it with fresh slices over the fillet, but you’d have to use some water or butter to keep the fish moist, or just seal it up in foil and “steam” it. Maybe try some mandarin orange slices and a bit of lemon juice as a substitute in a recipie?
Fish is pretty flexible really. I like it with lemon, peppercorns, and onions myself, and many other ways. Heck, even just a steamed fish with lemon slices and fresh herbs over it is wonderful. You don’t need to smother the meat to make it taste good, you can accentuate the main dish with the other things you serve with it. I love tomato, but I don’t have to use it in everything I make.
Oh, it sounds like you’re thinking of something similar to ajvar, a Balkan specialty. It’s a relish made with roasted sweet red peppers, eggplant, some olive oil and sometimes a bit of garlic. (Occassionally, some varieties do have tomato in them, but most don’t.) You can find them in a lot of ethnic Eastern/Southern European groceries. It’s wonderful stuff, and would work well in a lot of those fish recipes. It’s easy enough to make on your own, too. Just google “ajvar” and you’ll find a bunch of recipes.
I was going to come in here and suggest roasted (then pureed) sweet red peppers, but I see I’ve been beaten to it by Glory and others.
IMO, anything calling for a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste could handle the substitution of a couple of tablespoons of sweet red pepper paste, and it would taste great!
I’ve never tried this, you must understand, since I love tomatoes. However, I believe red peppers are a common substitution for people who are allergic to tomatoes (as well as for people on one of those crazy-ass diets - it doesn’t allow any of the nightshade family. Macrobiotics or something.) If you only need a little to bind something together, as in the peppers, I would think anything thick would do, provided it sounds good to you. Maybe a dab of peanut butter?
Going to have to go with everyone else and say red peppers…roasted, or just chopped up fresh, depending…would probably be great most cases.
And looking into chutney and other perserves would probably be useful. Maybe if you looked at Indian and other cusines that haven’t been as infiltrated by the tomato you might get some other ideas.
And speaking of which…there was a thread recently about foreign foods other people can’t understand that mentioned the Australian custom of eating their hambergers with beets. Well, I had some pickled beet relish handly and tried it and it’s pretty good. No, really. I can’t see it with fish but if you need a ketchup substitute I recommend it.
I’ve always had stuffed bell peppers that had mostly cooked ground beef, minced onion, and seasoning mixture put into a cleaned out pepper, and baked gently until the peppers are soft. It doesn’t need tomato at all IMO. You might try zucchini or some kind of squash, or heck even a fruit as a substitute in the fish recipies.
Just remember to keep the peppers moist when you bake them, put a bit of water in there, with the peppers on racks to steam them and keep the moist. You can use the tops as “lids” or not, it’s optional. (Though they are “prettier” if you can manage to keep the tops as lids, cut out the stem though.) Start browning the meat, then after it’s not so pink, add the onions/seasoning, (whatever your whimsy/taste calls for, usually it’s a bit of salt, maybe celery salt when I make it) and when they start to go a bit clear, dish up the mixture, drain it, and spoon it into the cleaned out peppers. Put them in a Dutch Oven, or what have you, and bake for a bit until the peppers are tender and the meat is done. It’s my mother’s recipie, that’s how she makes them. She loves fresh green peppers, for most of her life she’s had them available fresh from the family garden, so of course she’d want to taste the peppers. 