Hounds In The Kitchen » tomatoes

Summer Solstice Garden Update

Rachel — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:09 +0000

After a spring devoid of garden success (sparrows ate the peas, springs crops like radishes bolted too quickly, lettuces were slow to grow), I welcome summer. Warmer temperatures and less torrential rain will surely help our sustainable garden grow.

Grapes, tomatoes, and peppers bend with fruit and hope for autumn harvest.

Greens and herbs grow by inches overnight.

Insects exchange flower dust for nectar in the symbiotic relationship that creates so much of our food: pollination. Thank you, bees and butterflies, for this gift.

Beans climb and slowly reveal their flowers.

Cucumber and squash plants also hide petals under their shady leaves.

We pick small handfuls of warm, soft ripe raspberries daily, coveted by child, chickens, and hounds alike.

How does your garden grow?

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Summer Solstice Garden Update is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Meal Plan February 21, 2011

Rachel — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:07:16 +0000

The formidable Joan Dye Gussow finished the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference with a speech that included a personal history of the food movement and rabble rousing call to action. “We are well overdue in this country for a revolution!” she incited.

I happen to agree though I am not the revolutionary type. I prefer to work at the ground level, tending my small plot of land, eating food from reliable sources, and making sustainability a priority in my life. Hopefully I can inspire others to make similar small changes that can rock the world though my workshops and writing.

Other words in Gussow’s speech, about eating seasonally and what that looks like, spurned me to make changes this weekly Meal Plan. From now on, I will share with you some of the inspiration and ingredients that drive the meal plan.

It isn’t just about putting food on the table, after all. Meal planning for local sustainable eating calls for using seasonal ingredients, eating from pantry stores, exciting the palate with new recipes and paying attention to the weather. I will try to share bits and pieces of those thins that influence our meals.

Inspiration and Ingredients:

President’s Day Monday
Overabundance of pantry tomato sauces
Fresh sausage made at OEFFA workshop in the fridge
Snowville whipping cream in the house
Several aging oranges in the fruit bowl (We buy Florida citrus this time of year, as local as one can get for citrus)
Moderately cold weather with snow possible Tuesday, rain possible Thursday
One conference presentation, one cooking class, and one Broadway show at week’s end

Meal Plan:

Monday – I’ll make hoecakes for breakfast, the preferred meal of George Washington and other early presidents. Thomas Jefferson is reported to be one of the first to grow an embrace the growing of the tomato, a fruit many other gardeners considered toxic. In his honor on President’s day, we will have tomato bisque and muffins or biscuits.

Tuesday – Toad in the hole using homemade sausage, cranberry orange sauce

Wednesday – Lentil chili and cornbread for family with a side of chorizo for the charcuterie fans

Thursday – Roast chicken and root vegetables for friends

Friday – Chicken and bean burritos with rice

Saturday – Speaking at Beyond Social 101, spaghetti and tomato sauce before Madagascar Live! (Only 12 hours left to enter my contest for four tickets!)

Sunday – Teaching Family Style Soups at Franklin Park Conservatory, Alex will make something for family dinner hosted here

PS. If you missed my interview with Joan Dye Gussow, you might want to click the link. She reveals a trick to longevity and fascinating information about growing sweet potatoes.

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Meal Plan February 21, 2011 is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

How to Make “Sun” Dried Tomatoes

Rachel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:29:30 +0000

A carefully dried tomato can carry the taste of summer’s sweet abundance through many seasons. Dried tomatoes provide a distinct chewy texture and richness to pan sauces and stews. They can be eaten as is for a quick burst of vitamin C. Making your own during is not hard at all.

Equipment

Dried tomatoes are generally made in one of three ways:

in a solar cooker or sun dehydrator
in a very low temperature oven
in a dehydrator

A solar cooker is great because it saves energy. You can find simple plans to build them at Mother Earth News and elsewhere. The downside is that they take more monitoring, including bringing in at night if the temperatures drop and cause dew.

Sliced tomatoes can be dried in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a very low temperature oven (125 deg F maximum). This temperature is best achieved by leaving the door shut with a gas pilot oven lit. Unfortunately many modern ovens do not keep the pilot light lit and do not allow such a low temperature setting.

A home dehydrator is the more reliable method for creating great dried tomatoes. We use an American Harvest model scavenged from my parent’s basement. We set it at 125 deg F and leave for approximately 24 hours.

Method

Slice your tomatoes in half or in 1/2 inch to 1 inch slices, depending on your preference and equipment.

Remove the core and at least some of the liquidy pulp. I don’t mind the taste of a few dried seeds so it doesn’t bother me to leave some in.

Place tomatoes in a single layer in your desired drying apparatus. It is not necessary to leave much space in between tomatoes because they will shrink significantly.

Start drying. Monitor regularly, especially with a solar dryer or oven.

dehydrating tomatoes after 5 hours

Test for doneness by breaking a tomato in half. You should see no beads of liquid.

dried tomatoes after 18 hours

When tomatoes are done, remove them from the drying apparatus and allow to cool to room temperature.

Package in an airtight container. You can store at room temperature, in the fridge, or freezer. Because they take up so little room, I place mine in small plastic bags in the freezer until ready to use.

To cook with dried tomatoes, rehydrate them for 15 – 45 minutes in water, red wine, or broth. Chop if you wish and toss in a sauce. If using for a stew, cut dry tomatoes with scissors and then add to your recipe.

Keys to Great Dried Tomatoes

Use a fully ripe paste tomato. The variety pictured in this post is Amish Paste, one I grow at home.
Be sure they are fully dry before storage. Nothing breaks a cook’s heart like finding a moldy batch of preserved food!
Prepare for shrinkage. Tomatoes lose approximately 75% of their volume when they are dried. Approximately 10 pounds of tomatoes will dry down to 4 cups of dried tomatoes.

This post added to Two for Tuesdays.

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How to Make “Sun” Dried Tomatoes is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Sexy Homegrown Tomatoes Bare All

Rachel — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:58:37 +0000

Oh, Julia Child, you dear pink tomato. Your blushing beauty covers your spicy inside, tempting gardeners for decades.

Cherokee Chocolate, dark enchantress of the bunch. That Christmas colored skin of yours yields to a dark juicy flesh, dripping with sunlight transformed to sweetness.

Then there’s you, Rutgers. Your pleats, your bulbous inundations, inspire a thousand delicious thoughts.

(top) sweet 100, clint eastwood, cherokee chocolate, amish paste (bottom) julia child, rutgers, tomatillo

All together, you are a brothel of diversity, a color, size, and flavor for every preference.

Sliced raw, you bare your internal beauty, solid flesh giving way to juicy pulp and life renewing seeds. Your eclectic flavors and textures are inspirational, a summer sensual feast.

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Sexy Homegrown Tomatoes Bare All is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Canning Vegetables

Rachel — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:48:47 +0000

In Canning Week 2010 day 3, I share a bit about canning vegetables. View a lesson on pectin and recipe for peach jam from earlier in the week. Tomorrow I’ll discuss pickles.

The massive harvests are starting, and they aren’t limited to sweet fruits. Something has to be done with mountains of tomatoes, corn, green beans, and more.

Canning is one useful option to preserve the harvest. Vegetables are a bit more tricky to can than fruits because they often contain less acid, so one has to rely on recipes.

Low acid vegetables must be canned in a pressure canning system. As I’m a bit afraid of my pressure cooker and I don’t like the texture of most canned vegetables, I don’t have experience pressure canning. There are recipes on Fresh Preserving to can fresh low acid vegetables including green beans, carrots, corn, and onions.

If your four year old picks an underripe tomato, place it on the window sill for a day or two.

Tomatoes, high in acid, are commonly canned in a water bath. You can can them whole or in pieces. I prefer to can much of our harvest this way because it is most adaptable.

If you follow a recipe to maintain the correct acidity, you can also make and can pasta sauce, pizza sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salsa or paste. We usually make a large batch of spaghetti sauce and several smaller batches of other tomato products throughout the late summer. I wrote about some of these options for the tomato tonnage last year.

I will be making a basic tomato sauce and canning it next Wednesday, August 11, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the North Market Dispatch Kitchen. For $12.99 ($8.99 for Slow Food Columbus members), participants will go home with a jar of sauce and confidence to preserve their own at home. Buy a ticket today and join me!

Basic Water Bath Canning Method

Use for tomato pieces, whole, or tomato-only sauce.

1. Blanche tomatoes by dipping whole tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute and then immediately transferring to an ice water bath.

2. Remove skins from tomatoes. (Skip the blanching and removing skins if you don’t mind them.)

3. Chop into desired pieces or use a food mill to make sauce.

4. Pack into sterilized jars.

5. Fill jars to exactly 1/2 inch of the top of the jar.

6. Use a thin knife or chopstick to gently release any air bubbles. Add a bit of extra tomato juice to top off the jar if necessary.

7. Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice per pint to adjust acidity and preserve color.

8. Top with sterilized lids and rings.

9. Place in boiling water bath for 40 minutes for pints, 45 minutes for quarts.

10. Remove from the water bath and allow to cool thoroughly before storing in a cool dark place.

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Canning Vegetables is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Stewed Chicken with Tomatoes

Rachel — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:19:07 +0000

Dear chickens,

I know our tomatoes are delicious. Or rather, I would know, if you didn’t keep hen-pecking them before they are fully ripe.

Gardeners should never count their eggs before they hatch with regards to tomatoes, and I did initially believe the dogs or squirrels were stealing the fruit. I was walking on eggshells waiting to witness something eating the ‘maters and suddenly there you were!

I fenced in the tomato plants, but you cocky girls nibbled right through my barrier. I’m not sure who is the bird brained one now.

I have no choice but to assert myself at the top of the pecking order again. This poppy cock has to stop. You are heretofore banished to the back of the yard for free ranging. A fence that will last until you are old biddies will be installed soon.

The chicken scratch is on the wall: Leave the garden alone or you’ll be cooped up forever. I rule the roost now!

Mad as a wet hen,

Rachel

PS. I make a mean poultry stew with tomatoes. Don’t play chicken with me.

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Stewed Chicken with Tomatoes is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Garden Garlic Scape Gazpacho

Rachel — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:48:33 +0000

Rising temperatures find home cooks looking for low-heat meal options. Gazpacho is a refreshing choice that requires only the use of your blender.

This version was made with what I had on hand during late spring: last year’s home canned home grown tomatoes, garlic scapes, fresh cilantro, and store bought jalapeno. Later in the season, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh peppers would make great ingredients.

The process couldn’t be simpler: blend together clean vegetables and chill. The key is a balance of salt, acid, sweet, and spice. In this case, the acid comes from lemon juice in the canned tomatoes, sweet is from the carrot, and spice from the fresh jalapeno pepper. If you substitute ingredients you might want to add balsamic vinegar, honey, or hot chili powder if your gazpacho is out of balance.

Garden Garlic Scape Gazpacho

2 cleaned and trimmed garlic scapes
1 qt home canned tomatoes
Handful of cilantro, two springs reserved
1 inch piece fresh jalapeno
1 large carrot
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Puree all together in a blender until smooth, adding salt and pepper to taste. Chill for 1 hour minimum. Garnish with reserved cilantro just before service.

I served this gazpacho with some fresh made cornbread (baked in the toaster oven to save heating up the house with the big oven) and some skillet cooked Blue Jacket Gretna grilling cheese. It was a quick light meal prepared without heating up the house.

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Garden Garlic Scape Gazpacho is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Baby Vegetables

Rachel — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:51:43 +0000

Many of our plants have set flowers and baby vegetables are beginning to appear!

This is an exciting time to be a gardener. All the work starting the seeds, prepping the soil, planting the seedlings, and weeding are starting to pay off.

There is anxiety too. I am struggling to keep something (a squirrel I think?) from eating the flowers off the zucchini plant. I have seen it send out flowers many times but none stay around long enough to go to fruit.

My peas are a lost cause this year, it seems. Despite being covered in bird netting, sparrows have mowed down the leaves such that they never climbed their beautiful trellis. Only the peas in Lil’s garden have set out a few pods.

What’s going on in your garden?

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Baby Vegetables is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Ideas for the Tomato Tonnage

Rachel — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:22:03 +0000

After you have made tomato sandwiches, salads, stews, and more, it is tempting to just toss the rest of you CSA or home garden tomato harvest in the compost heap. Preserving tomatos is not that hard and you will thank yourself in the fall for putting up farm fresh goodness. Here are a few ideas for easy preserving:

Make pseudo sun-dried tomatos: Halve and dry in a dehydrator or low temp (as low as you can get it, ideally 145 deg F.) oven for 12 – 24 hours. They will be ready to store at room temperature when you can break one in half and see no beads of moisture.

Make easy sauce: Most tomato sauce recipes call for blanching the tomatoes, which is the most time consuming (and burn inducing) part of the work. It is easier to just skip the blanching and puree the whole tomato. Freeze your sauce for less work than canning.

Make ketchup: Ketchup (catsup?) requires a tremendous amount of tomatos. Just yesterday I made a batch with about 15 pounds of tomatos and ended up with a meager three half pints of ketchup. Homemade ketchup is fabulously delicious, making it worth the effort. These are basic directions, which I modified by substituting molasses and honey for sugar and juniper berries for aromatics. If you aren’t obsessed with canning like me, just freeze in small containers.

brought to you by the ketchup advisory board

Freeze: As a last resort, throw your maters in the freezer. Whole is fine. Put them in a container to reduce freezer burn. When you thaw frozen whole tomatoes, the texture will be completely broken, but they are still useful to add to stews and sauces.

Even if you do compost rotten tomatos, all is not lost. Our compost heap volunteers have turned out to be fabulous producers!

check out this volunteer fivesome

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Ideas for the Tomato Tonnage is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!