Category Archives: Tomatoes

Tapatio Style Hot Sauce

Posted on January 25, 2010 by | 5 Comments

Ingredients:
6 jalapeno peppers from Tonnamaker Farms
1 gallon peeled, seeded tomatoes
3 onions
4 bell peppers from Billy’s
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup canning salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 cup Rockridge Orchard apple cider vinegar

Technique:
To peel tomatoes follow these directions then slice them in half and clean out the seeds, or if you use a Roma Mill like the one in this post you just need to run the tomatoes through the hopper and they magically come out without peels and seeds. How cool is that?

Chop all the ingredients, combine them with the peeled and seeded tomatoes and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Use an Immersion Blender, food processor or blender to create a nice sauce-like texture. Fill half pint canning jars and process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Sauces, Snacks, Tomatoes

Tagged

You Say Catsup, I say Ketsup

Posted on September 26, 2009 by | 12 Comments

Either way you put it it’s tomato time. I picked up my 25 pounds of romas today and set to work tonight after the littlest one was in bed. I ended up using about 18 pounds worth to make ketsup since my pot could only hold 2 gallons of liquid at a time. From this I got 3.5 quarts of glorious ketsup – not too sweet which makes it the perfect base for bbq sauce without the long simmer time since that has already happened.

The remaining tomatoes will probably become either tomato juice, roasted tomato soup or red chili sauce to can.

Have you ever seen a roma mill? It’s a magical creation with a large hopper into which you stuff all kinds of softened things like steamed apples, grapes or tomatoes. You turn the crank and the wonderful part of the fruit that you want comes out a strainer and into your bowl. The part you don’t want – the seeds and the skin head out the other end into a separate bowl. It’s pure genius.

I quickly washed & halved the tomatoes then threw them in the hopper and let my six year old take it from there. In no time flat we had 2 gallons of tomato puree simmering on the stove. You can also do this without a roma food mill but if you cook things like tomato sauce or applesauce it’s worth it’s weight in gold. Just imagine making applesauce and not having to peel or core the apples!

If you don’t have a roma you can simply cut up the tomatoes and cook them for about 45 minutes with the onions then run everything through a food mill or force it through a sieve with the back of a wooden spoon. Return the juice to the pan and cook with the spices, sugar & vinegar until it’s the thickness you want.

Homemade Tomato Ketsup

  • 16 pounds organic saucing tomatoes such as Romas
  • 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
  • 1 clove garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 cups evaporated cane juice
  • 2 cups Rockridge Orchard cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/8 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1 pinch allspice
  • pinch crushed red pepper
  • 1 pinch celery seeds

Simmer for several hours until desired thickness (mine took about 4.) You may want to put the spices in a spice bag so that you can take them out during cooking if you decide the flavors are getting too strong. In fact, I recommend not adding them until your ketsup is starting to get thick because the spices can get way too strong as the volume reduces and then the sauce can tend to get bitter. If you have an immersion blender you can give it a good whiz to be sure any onions are broken down and make the texture nice and smooth. One other thing I considered doing but didn’t – if you want super thick ketsup you can add a little pectin to it. I use pomonas pection that you can buy from PCC and that will thicken it up and redice the simmer time. I wanted to be sure mine would pour out of a bottle so I didn’t do that this time. Ladle into jars and process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

This ketsup will be going into a large batch of maple baked beans that I plan on making next week when the weather switches from freak summer to early winter. I am already dreaming of stuffed cabbage rolls smothered in ketsup sauce and ketsup glazed meatloafs. The flavors of winter sound so good as I face taking out the last of the summer fruits this weekend!

→ 12 Comments

Posted in Preserving Food, Tomatoes

Tagged ,

Canning Frenzy

Posted on August 26, 2009 by | 14 Comments

Saturday was the day I had signed up for 36 pounds of peaches from Rama farm and while I was at the market I thought it would be a good idea to pick up peppers to pickle. A peck of course. Then when I got home I realized we still had rat issues and I would have to pick as many tomatoes as possible which meant processing them. Boy did I bite off a bit too much this week!

se-canning-kitchen

You are just seeing the top layer of peaches, in the top box. We ate as many as possible, I dried slices, made fruit leather, peach jam, froze several gallons and canned them. I meant to make peach chutney but the peaches were heading south by the time my counter freed up so I had to can the last of them pronto. I have another round coming in a few weeks so I’ll get my chance then. Of course Chicken Little has already eaten all the fruit leather so I’ll be making lots of that and hiding it this time.

The two stainless steel salad bowls you see full of tomatoes are but two of four I had to process over the weekend. I’m down to one but the vines are full of tomatoes for me to pick yet again tomorrow. They seem to be exhibiting signs of blight so maybe this will be the end of tomatoes. Like the zucchini, I think I’ll be ready to be done with them before they are done with me.

se-canned-peaches

On either side of the peaches you can see jars of hot sauces I made up. One was like a tapatio and the other was supposed to be like a tobasco that I made using cayenne peppers only I seeded them so it turned out no hotter then the jalapeno/tomato based sauce. They both came out great and we’ve been eating them all week on cheese quesadillas made with Wardeh’s spelt tortillas that I had in the freezer. It’s been great not cooking while I’m busy cooking!

se-veggie-juice-ingredients

Then I had a brilliant stroke. I’ve been working on taking things out in the garden to make room for the fall crops that have been sadly neglected and are woefully behind schedule. I pulled out the last of the carrots and beets and remaining Swiss Chard that there wasn’t room for in the whisky barrel that had recently housed several bags worth of yukon gold potatoes over the spring and summer, picked some celery, parsley, basil, kale leaves a few shakes of crushed red pepper, salt and worscestershire sauce and used a few cloves of my garlic. I had to use a purchased onion for this since I didn’t plant enough last spring to even make it through summer. Then I rounded up a few gallons of tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter evading the rat.

I simmered them all for about 40 minutes then ran it through my roma mill. It was delicious. I drank a glass around 11 p.m. when it finished and then had so much energy I buzzed about the kitchen, finally realizing it was 1:30 and headed to bed. Drat!

In the morning I gave some to Chicken Little who loves virgin bloody marys so much we call them bloody Max’s in our household. He gulped it down and asked for more. I made a few more gallons the next day then canned it all in the pressure canner which sadly turned it from beautiful ruby red to dull orange, just like V-8. But it’s safe in the cupboard waiting for winter. It will make fabulous soup or stew base should we not drink it all.

se-tomato-jam

Ever curious I made a small batch of 1948 Tomato Preserves which I promptly tried over homemade vanilla bean ice cream. It was really interesting and I liked it a lot but it was something you only wanted a small portion of – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

se-pickled-peppers

Did I mention I just canned pickled jalapenos and pepperocini, corn relish and salsa? In fact I’m so giddy from canning that I had to look at this picture to remember everything I had done after putting the kids to bed.

se-eggplant-parmeson

Tonight’s dinner was rat-nibbled eggplant parmeson from housemade tomato sauce, Rubiano parmeson from California and housemade queso fresco.

se-granola

And lastly, while the water bath was processing I whipped up a batch of my granola with one of my favorite non-local must have items – coconut oil and coconut flakes. This will go fabulous with house made yogurt and dried sour cherries, peaches, blueberries or strawberries that we have in jars filling the breadbox along with a cup of coffee from Small COG Coffee.

Now, time to start dehydrating another round of zucchini…

→ 14 Comments

Posted in Growing Groceries - Plants, Seeds and Growing Tips, Preserving Food, Tomatoes

Tagged , ,

Canning Tomato Sauce

Posted on August 17, 2009 by | 6 Comments

Have you ever seen Willi’s gardening blog?

It’s a great local blog with some terrific recipes for eating local produce. I was perusing one night since my friend Justine wrote a post on her prolific honey bees which are in next year’s plans for me. I scanned the recipes and the Red Gravy one caught my eye, or more technically speaking, caught my stomach.

With a crazy bounty crop of saucing tomatoes this year I was on the hunt for a good tomato sauce recipe. I tried out the one for DiAgostino’s Red Gravy over the weekend and it was amazing. I did make a few adjustments to it (doesn’t every cook?) and everyone swooned when they tasted it.

se-roma-press

The tomatoes are so fresh, the flavor is so pure, that it’s like eating a sun-kissed tomato fresh from the garden, even after 2 hours of simmering. I used it to sauce some fettucine noodles from Azure Standard’s organic Oregon-grown durham wheat then topped it with fresh chiffonade of basil and grated parmeson from Rubiano in California. It was crazy good.

se-tomato-sauce-cooks

Here is the link for the recipe for DiAngostino’s Red Gravy.If you can’t get that link to work click on “recipes” then “main dishes” and it’s in the top right hand corner. I’m not sure why that link isn’t working.

The only changes I made, knowing we would eat it fresh rather then can it, was the addition of one finely chopped carrot for sweetness. I won’t make that change next time since I’ll be making several gallons of it to can and I don’t want to change what I know to be a safe canning recipe.

I’m pretty adventuresome where food is concerned but botulism is not your friend under any guise.

se-jars-of-tomato-sauce1

Now that I’ve broken down and started purchasing dried pasta I have another quick option to get dinner on the table – in the form of spaghetti sauce with noodles. Because this tomato sauce is so simple you could also use it to make a quick tomato soup or add it to any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. If you want to spice it up you can easily do that by adding more dried herbs or other vegetables then simmering for 30 minutes just before you serve it.

Just don’t change the original recipe if you plan to can it using a water bath process. And when water bath processing tomatoes, you should always use heirloom varieties. The new hybrids may not contain enough acidity to give you the correct pH to stave off botulism. You should always purchase heirloom varieties anyway, grown sustainably by someone who cares.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Preserving Food, Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Tomatoes

Tagged

Canned Homegrown Tomatoes

Posted on August 17, 2009 by | 6 Comments

Just about every recipe I use in the winter seems to include a can of tomatoes. Since taking our locavore pledge on January 1 the only canned food I’ve purchased, and by the case I might add, is tomatoes. Tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Granted they are organic tomatoes but I don’t know a thing about where they are grown or the condition of the soil (if any since many winter produce is grown in water with liquid fertilizer boosters.)

The whole point of this experiment is to improve our nutritional intake by ensuring our food is grown in real dirt with real nutrients, and that I steward that dirt by returning nutrients in the form of compost.

Just because I’m crazy and we eat more tomatoes year round then any other thing (which makes no sense whatsoever in Seattle) I planted 30 tomato plants. Most of them were “saucey” so that I could can them. Last weekend I started that process.

First I scored the bottom of the tomatoes with a shallow “X”.

se-scored-roma

Then I dropped them into boiling water for about 30-60 seconds until they began to peel and put them in an ice bath to shock them.

se-peeled-roma

When they were cool to the touch I peeled them. The skins should slip easily off if the tomatoes are ripe.

I cut the tomatoes in half, filled sterilized quart sized mason jars and packed them in as tightly as possible. I filled the jars up to within 1/2″ of the tops with a small amount of boiling water and sealed and processed them in a water bath for 40 minutes.

They looked beautiful on my counter but due to lack of space I had to move them downstairs into my pantry where they look equally beautiful and out of the way. And next winter they will look even more beautiful in the dead of winter as we once again eagerly await something besides the overwintered kale and collard greens to eat.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Preserving Food, Recipes for Seasonal and Local Foods, Tomatoes

Tagged