Purple Cherokee Heirlooms

[Varmint]

Damn, a co-worker just dropped a boatload of fully ripe purple cherokees on my desk. She's leaving for Seattle for a couple of weeks and needed to get rid of these.

I'll be sure to grab some local goat cheese, basil, and eat like crazy with EVOO, but what else can I do with them? She's also invited me to help myself to her garden while I'm gone. Do these make a decent sauce? I have only eaten them raw.

It's heirloom madness.

[Jason Perlow]

tomato and mayo sandwiches. BLT's.

salt, pepper, onion and tomato sprinkled with Peter Luger steak sauce as an appetizer

Basically, dont screw with these too much, eat them effectively plain.

[Toby]

Heirloom tomatoes make a great sauce, but because they're so juicy it can take a long time for it to cook down to a thick consistency. They have very thin skins, so just passing them through boiling water for a second should be all that you need to peel them, or leave them unpeeled. I saute some onion and garlic in olive oil, add some wine and let it cook down a little, and then add the whole tomatoes, thyme, basil (purple basil is nice with cherokee purples), salt, pepper, and a piece of parmesan rind. Let simmer at very low heat, covered for about 2 or 3 hours, then uncover and cook for another few hours (this depends on the tomatoes and how meaty they are; some give out a huge amount of liquid). Put through a food mill and then cook for another hour or two until the sauce is quite thick. (Sometimes I added some plum tomatoes just to make the sauce meatier.)

[Varmint]

I often make a ridiculously simple tomato soup. Saute onion, then garlic, basil and perhaps a touch of some chili pepper. I then cook down the tomatoes -- skin, seed and all. Run through a food mill, salt, pepper, EVOO, and usually some type of good vinegar to taste. I assume this'll work with the Cherokee Purples.

[Brad S]

For me less is best.

Toby,thanks for the info.

Also if you have time check out this site.

http://tomatofest.com/

[Varmint]

Great site. Thanks.

[Toby]

The Great Tomato Book is really good.

Less is best. Last night, I just sliced up three different varieties and we ate them absolutely plain. The sauce is nice because you can freeze it and eat it when the heirlooms are all gone for the year.

[Varmint]

I plan on eating quite a lot of the tomatoes tonight, but Mrs. Varmint and I will barely put a dent on what's on my desk right now.

[cabrales]

Varmint -- Apologies for my having no knowledge specific to the type of heirloom you reference. However, members have been documenting recent NY tomato menus in this thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...f3aac0acfea93db

[Varmint]

Thanks; and geesh, no apology is needed.

Anyhow, I needed to do something with the 'maters tonight, so thus the reason for the new thread.

[CathyL]

Heirloom tomatoes make a great sauce, but because they're so juicy it can take a long time for it to cook down to a thick consistency.  They have very thin skins, so just passing them through boiling water for a second should be all that you need to peel them, or leave them unpeeled.  I saute some onion and garlic in olive oil, add some wine and let it cook down a little, and then add the whole tomatoes, thyme, basil (purple basil is nice with cherokee purples), salt, pepper, and a piece of parmesan rind.  Let simmer at very low heat, covered for about 2 or 3 hours, then uncover and cook for another few hours (this depends on the tomatoes and how meaty they are; some give out a huge amount of liquid).  Put through a food mill and then cook for another hour or two until the sauce is quite thick.  (Sometimes I added some plum tomatoes just to make the sauce meatier.)

If the tomatoes aren't too soft, no need for the boiling water. Draw the back of a small knife firmly down the skin, from stem end to blossom end. The skin should slip off easily.

Once when I had VIPs coming for dinner, I decided to make a tomato tartare recipe I found in the Times - finely chopped raw tomatoes seasoned with hazelnut oil, chives, tarragon, shallots and I forget what else, chilled and served with toasted baguette slices.

The local Greenmarket had gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, so I bought several pounds, took them home, peeled, seeded, chopped and turned the pulp into a strainer to drain. The yield was oh, about 1/4 cup. Back to the market I went for several more pounds, and selected what looked like a meatier variety. Yield: another 1/4 cup. After going through this exercise a few more times, I'd chopped about 12 pounds of tomatoes to get not much over a cup of pulp.

The tartare was delicious, and the juice from the strained tomatoes was even better. But now I make the tartare with beefsteaks not heirlooms.