Here come the tomatoes

[dcarch]

Thank you Shelby. You should try to grow all those colorful varieties . A green Bloody Mary can be interesting, or yellow ketchup.

 

Thank you Huiray and Anna N. Ananas Noire is the name of that amazing multicolored one. Tastes just as amazing as it looks.

 

dcarch

Edited September 1, 2014 by dcarch (log)

[ElainaA]

The weather here was not good for tomatoes - cool and wet. This is what I picked today - from 30 plants - not so good. Most of my plants succumbed to septoria. I gave in and bought a bushel of tomatoes at the local farmer's market. So far I have canned tomato chutney  and salsa, frozen pseudo V8 juice ( another batch to be done tomorrow). Then I will start canning tomatoes, probably buying another bushel.

However I had lots of cucumbers (mustard pickles, 2 kinds of dill pickles (fresh and fermented) and 3 kinds of sweet pickles), lots of fennel, radicchio, beans, cabbage and lettuce (12 varieties) and other salad greens. 

i become obsessive about preserving - 8 kinds of preserves plus various other chutneys and pickled vegetables.

I give most of this away as Christmas presents. 

And I just love looking at all those pretty jars of delicious stuff.

Elaina

[CatPoet]

How the heck to I get my tomatoes to turn red?  Been a few  weeks of just green blobs and it isnt growing bigger.

[dcarch]

They are coming fast and furious. Tough keeping up with the garden. 

 

How much tomato sauce can you make and keep? How many tomatoes can you dehydrate?

 

How are you dealing with the Solanum lycopersicum onslaught?

 

 

dcarch

 

With sous vide chicken breast

 

 

With center of watermelon

 

 

With watermelon rind

 

 

 

[btbyrd]

I sadly don't have that problem, but I am __ loving __ the way you've been plating these tomatoes recently.

[CatPoet]

I have 3 ripen tomatoes!!!!

[Martin Fisher]

Looks great dcarch.

Sadly, our tomatoes have been ravaged by severe blight this year.

[sparrowgrass]

Plenty of tomatoes so far, but no glorious pictures like yours!

[Wayne]

Great photos.

Lots of tomatoes for the last 6 weeks. Besides eating fresh they are frozen, roasted then frozen, dehydrated then packed in olive oil and canned as salsa. End of season green tomatoes go into green tomato relish and as an experiment fermented green tomato pickles.

Also had to write off 3 out of the 8 varieties I grow because of severe blight this summer.

[Alex]

Do you grow Roma tomatoes? I buy a bunch of them, usually #2s, at a farmers market at the end of the season, then vacuum pack and freeze them whole. When they're defrosted, the skins (usually) slip right off.

 

Like everyone else here, I love your presentations. What sauce is on the chicken breast? What's on the tomato-watermelon salad (crispy onions?)? What's the squiggly line around the circumfrence of the watermelon rind place? Is that daikon in the middle?

[naguere]

I have lots of tomatoes , unfortunately they are in tins.

[CatPoet]

You could make salsa, ketchup,  chutney and marmalade out of the tomatoes.

[Lisa Shock]

You might want to look into canning, if you can find shelf space for them, quarts of sauce can be useful and can be good gifts or part of gift baskets. Pints of ketchup, the same. Realistically, a family could easily use a quart of sauce a week and a pint of ketchup a month.

 

I am very fond of this 2008 Washington Post Top Tomato Recipe Contest winner, Mato Sammidges. I follow the contest every year, even though I cannot enter, it's interesting to see what people come up with.

 

It won't be tomato season here in Phoenix until it cools down a bit. When daytime temps are over 100, tomatoes don't ripen.

[dcarch]

Thank you very much everyone. It is fun to play with food.

 

Looks great dcarch.

Sadly, our tomatoes have been ravaged by severe blight this year.

Interesting that I don't have the space to rotate crops, and I am too lazy to keep the planting area clean, dead deceased plants piled on the growing area. So far I am lucky.

 

Do you grow Roma tomatoes? I buy a bunch of them, usually #2s, at a farmers market at the end of the season, then vacuum pack and freeze them whole. When they're defrosted, the skins (usually) slip right off.

 

Like everyone else here, I love your presentations. What sauce is on the chicken breast? What's on the tomato-watermelon salad (crispy onions?)? What's the squiggly line around the circumfrence of the watermelon rind place? Is that daikon in the middle?

I grew Roma last year, not this year. The sauce on the chicken is bell pepper, onion with leftover pineapple salsa. The squiggy line is red wine vinegar dressing thickened. Yes pickled daikon.

 

 

dcarch

 

[Martin Fisher]

The been the perfect storm for disease here this year, powdery mildew has gone crazy too.

[Wayne]

The been the perfect storm for disease here this year, powdery mildew has gone crazy too.

It's been the same on my side of the border in Niagara. Blight on the tomatoes and a very poor to zilch harvest of cucumbers, summer squash and melons thanks to the powdery mildew.

On the other hand it's been a great summer for lettuces.

[Martin Fisher]

...a very poor to zilch harvest of cucumbers, summer squash and melons thanks to the powdery mildew.

 

Yep, they're basically "toast" this year.

[SobaAddict70]

Tomato confit (from page 266 of "Buvette").

I wish you could smell this.

Will be using these in various preparations this week.

For those of you who don't have the book: have some ripe tomatoes on hand. Make a small incision at the base, then plunge in a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds, then dunk into an ice water bath. Peel the tomatoes, then cut in half and scoop out the "jelly"/seeds with a teaspoon. Lay in a shallow baking dish; cover with olive oil. Roast for 6-7 hours in a pre-heated 250 F oven. Cool. Transfer confit to a jar, cover with olive oil and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Use as desired.

[dcarch]

Sorry to hear all the troubles you guys have been having.

 

dcarch

 

Yesterday's dinner

 

 

[LindaK]

dcarch, beautiful. It looks like you peel your tomatoes, yes?  Do you use the quick dip in boiling water method?  When I do that, it always makes the flesh a little soft--fine if you're going to cook the tomatoes.  Yours still look very firm. What's your secret?

[dcarch]

dcarch, beautiful. It looks like you peel your tomatoes, yes?  Do you use the quick dip in boiling water method?  When I do that, it always makes the flesh a little soft--fine if you're going to cook the tomatoes.  Yours still look very firm. What's your secret?

 

Thanks!

 

I have been told by others too. This year for some reason, all tthe tomatoes are very thick skinned. Still tasty, but annoying. So I peel them.

 

This is the way I do mine:

 

Put tomatoes in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.

 

Boil water.

 

Next to the boiling water, a pot of ice water.

 

Dip chilled tomatoes in boiling water for 5 to ten seconds.

 

Immediately drop tomatoes in ice water.

 

And peel.

 

dcarch

[Smithy]

What did you put under the tomato squares, dcarch? My best guess is an oil and balsamic dressing with a comb dragged through it, but it could just as easily be part of the plate. ;-D

We've had our first frost warnings. Mr poor leggy cherry tomato is finally loaded with green fruit, and just about to lose it all.

[dcarch]

What did you put under the tomato squares, dcarch? My best guess is an oil and balsamic dressing with a comb dragged through it, but it could just as easily be part of the plate. ;-D

We've had our first frost warnings. Mr poor leggy cherry tomato is finally loaded with green fruit, and just about to lose it all.

 

That is my special black garlic sauce.

 

dcarch

[lesliec]

Thanks!

 

I have been told by others too. This year for some reason, all tthe tomatoes are very thick skinned. Still tasty, but annoying. So I peel them.

 

This is the way I do mine:

 

Put tomatoes in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.

 

Boil water.

 

Next to the boiling water, a pot of ice water.

 

Dip chilled tomatoes in boiling water for 5 to ten seconds.

 

Immediately drop tomatoes in ice water.

 

And peel.

 

dcarch

 

From my experience, the key is the '5 to ten seconds'.  Any longer and they start to cook, which translates to the softness.

 

And yes, straight into ice water to stop them cooking.  I haven't tried 'pre-chilling' mine.

[vipulpatel]

sliced fresh mozzarella and sliced fresh tomatoes, sprinkling of basil and olive oil but I like the focus to be on the tomatoes