DIY sun dried tomatoes?

[Mofassah]

I just love sun dried tomatoes. They are pretty darn expensive though, but fresh tomatoes are not, and since it's summer and the sun is hanging up there, warm and nice, I was thinking there might be a way to make those red wrinkly lumps of luxury myself. I have no clue on how to do it though. Anyone?

Edited June 9, 2013 by Mofassah (log)

[dcarch]

" -- The sun will come out, tomorrow, tomorrow---"

But you can't count on that. It takes more than a day to sun dry.

If you don't have a dehydrator, get one.

If you don't want to get a dehydrator, you can make nice "sun dried" tomatoes using your oven.

dcarch

[Plantes Vertes]

Cut them in half, sprinkle lightly with salt, place in oven preheated to the lowest setting for 6-12hrs depending on size.

They should remain flexible, not get brittle.

Store in airtight container or oil.

[Keith_W]

I have been making my own "sun dried tomatoes" for a long time. As dcarch says, do it in the oven if it is too cold outside. These are some cherry tomatoes, cut into 1cm slices resting on basil, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, sugar, and pepper:

You can sort of see what they look like on my Margherita pizza:

[Mofassah]

Well, I'll be damned. I was sure those things had actually been laying around in the sun for a week or a month. I am a tad bit disappointed right now, but I'll try the oven method as soon as I get over it. Thanks.

[Dave Hatfield]

Keith is right. Do them in the oven.

1) Set oven temperature to 140 C. You may have to slightly prop open the door.

2) Cut tomatoes in half & remove the seeds. I find that Roma tomatoes work best.

3) sprinkle with a bit of salt, some Herbs de Province or thyme or whatever herb you like best.

4) put them onto a baking tray. Flat with no overlap.

5) bake. Usually 3-4 hours, but the key is to dry them until they feel 'leathery'. Dry, but still flexible.

I like to then put them into canning jars with olive oil, a bit of garlic & some more herbs, but that's just my preference. They will keep pretty well sealed in ziplocks & kept in the proverbial cool dry place.

I made lots last year & sold them at a charity auction my wife was running. Made nearly $200.

[Syzygies]

There is a continuum ranging from the sun dried tomatoes one sees prepared out in the sun in Sicily, to the "tomato conserves" featured in books by Colicchio, Keller, et. al. One should find one's way along this range, taking into account changes in available preservation technology, and the actual intended purpose as an ingredient. I've made many experiments along this range, and I believe that it is a mistake to slavishly produce a result others can identify, at the expense of the best flavor outcome.

A dehydrator is a fantastic tool. I've tried both indoor and yard ovens (Komodo Kamado). Particularly over a fire, one can add complexity such as a roasted flavor using an oven. But one can easily process thirty pounds at a time with dehydrators. This is a necessity at peak garden harvest time, or after one brings an early September box home from an Italian market such as Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Friends got me started using a dehydrator to make classic sun dried tomatoes. They taste best if one stops short of drying them to the degree one finds in Sicily, and then jars them in olive oil, as they are often sold at a premium. The classic full dry is for preservation convenience at the expense of flavor. A partial dry radically intensifies the flavor. One wants to find the sweet spot, without regard to convention. Same with salt.

Now, I haven't opened a can of tomatoes in close to a decade, and I generally can't order tomato dishes in restaurants. My wife and I process our entire crop for the year, by skinning, salting, partially drying in dehydrators, and freezing in packets in a chest freezer. After drying, we press into a bowl in the fridge overnight, and there is just enough liquid to force the air out of chamber vacuum bags, sealing with a simple impulse sealer. Faster, less mess and more satisfying than any powered vacuum machine. At first we just used ziplock bags, which don't work as well.

This is tomato as an ingredient, the flagship application of course being pasta sauce, but in fact anywhere one would have used a can. I have experimented with recovering a similar product by rehydrating the best available Sicilian sun dried tomatoes, and the results were unacceptable. Again, this is about finding the sweet spot for the intended purpose, taking advantage of modern aids such as chest freezers.

While I love sun dried tomatoes as an appetizer, or discrete ingredient such as on pizza, they're a novelty act, not tuned for most applications of preserved tomatoes. If the same home methods apply either way, one should tune to one's needs.

[Baselerd]

What I like to do (confit cherry tomatoes, heavily inspired by the Modernist Cuisine):

-cut a small "x" at the bottom of each tomato

-blanch, shock, and peel the tomatoes

-place on an oven sheet, brush each tomato with simple syrup and olive oil

-Sprinkle with salt and fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc)

-Set oven to 225-250 F and cook for several hours until dark red

-Flip tomatoes and continue to cook until dark red

-Store submerged in olive oil.