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applestar
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What to do with too many cherry tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are great because they are forgiving and easy to grow, but they can also be too much of a good thing when they pile up in the kitchen faster than you can eat or give away.

In the past, I always just froze them whole to use during the winter as special treat, but they do take up a lot of space. So I decided to take hint from what I did with the sauce tomatoes below, and made some tomato juice and tomato soup with some of the bounty.


Today, I just picked out all of the butter yellow/“white” Coyote and Champagne Cherry (a few of my own crosses, too). Just enough water to cover the bottom of the sauce pan, all the cherry tomatoes with just the stem/calyx removed, a bit of sea salt and about 1 Tbs per quart of lemon juice to keep from oxidizing. Once they released liquid and rapid boil, I mashed them up with a potato masher, then strained the juice through a fine mesh strainer into a clean canning jar, wiped the rim, and put on a lid and a ring — this will vacuum seal enough to prolong storage in the refrigerator.

I puréed the remainder and strained through the mesh strainer to remove skin and seeds, pressing through all soft stuff, then added this to a vegetable broth DH made. Served with a whole boiled potato, a pat of butter, some home made rice milk and fresh dill greens as garnish, it was fantastic.


Ref —

Subject: What are you eating from your 2019 garden?
applestar wrote:We are enjoying the ripened to perfection “sauce tomatoes” — Cow’s Tit and what I believe are Canestrino della Garfagnana. 3-5 days after harvesting on the kitchen counter, they turned as red as they were going to get, and the just-picked “green” taste (that had been present in the fruits that had to be eaten right away due to splitting) has mellowed to straight up blast of sweet front-end flavor with building rich umami, and lingering tangy acid. Combined with my Shimofuri F6 determinates which are also “floaters” — tomato fruits separate into fruits that float in a bucket of water and fruits that sink. (Cow’s Tit and Canestrino della Garfagnana(?) -which are paste and stuffing varieties- float as expected.... Actually, Cow’s Tit is as dry as can be, but Canestrino della Garfagnana(?) is juicy and meaty enough to eat sliced in a sandwich — DH had some with his hamburgers the other night.)

Shimofuri F6 that don’t immediately get sunken spots within 3-5 days develop rich umami and, while not in same class as the other two, are more juicy and add to the liquid volume.

I cut out the stem end and pithy core as needed, and then roughly cut up the bigger fruits, put them in a pot sprinkled with sea salt, and just enough EVOO and water to keep from scorching. Heated to simmering with lid on, mashed with potato masher, and then just straight forward strained through fine strainer for tomato juice/broth (no more mashing or pressing/squeezing). I heated this juice/broth up with some rice milk, pats of butter and a glug of EVOO, and sprigs of fresh oregano and basil, freshly ground black peppers... added some cooked brown sweet rice and white rice, then poured over cheese of choice for nice “cream” of tomato soup. I had mine with extra cooked rice and Hatch/Cheddar cheese, DH had his with Wisconsin Cheddar curds, and DD had hers with extra cooked rice and mostly Cheddar Curds + a surprise chunk of Hatch Cheddar. :D

I reserved the remaining hot pulp, skin, and seeds by pouring into a hot quart jar and sealing with canning lid and seal, cooled until the lid pinged and then put in the refrigerator. 3 days later, I opened the jar — the lid was vacuumed shut but openable by hand so not a super tight seal, and taking inspiration from Gary350’s enchilada sauce recipe, added chopped onions, garlic, green Doux Long d’Antibes (sweet pepper), pale green Aji Dulce Amarillo (seasoning/sweet habanero ripens yellow) as well as green and red DK Snacker and ivory colored/“green” Pale Rider (these are test trials of no-heat jalapeño), honey, sea salt, lime juice, garden harvested and dried oregano, cumin, coriander, my own chili powder and hot pepper paprika, plus a bit of commercial Hot sauce (Red Hot) to deepen the flavors. Fitted the Oster blender rubber gasket and blade assembly onto the regular mouth quart jar and puréed the lot. Poured the puréed contents in a pot and heated to boiling with lid on, tasted and added a little more lime juice, sea salt, and some of my hot pepper jelly.

I’m not sure what you would call this sauce — maybe closest to taco sauce or something between taco sauce and salsa? Whatever it is, it’s very good and neither DH nor DD think anything more needs to be added or adjusted.

I’ve rinsed out the quart jar with hot water and filled with the sauce from the pot, and then re-“sealed” with the lid to keep in the fridge for now. If necessary, I’ll re- heat one more time and then distribute in smaller jars and hot-water bath at least before storing in the fridge. (the recipe is too random/doubtful this will keep in the room temp. pantry).

pepperhead212
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I make salads with halved cherry tomatoes as soon as they start ripening up. I just made another one today! They usually have some pasta and beans, or some lentils and grains, plus the basic flavors, and often some other vegetables from the garden. I also froze a couple gallons of them.

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digitS'
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If cherry tomatoes are to be eaten with a fork, they should be halved :wink: .

I learned in recent years that summertime tomato soup is the best. Usually, I would be making soup from counter-ripened fruit, after frost. Flavor is steadily lost as time passes and green tomatoes ripens.

Homemade soup from garden tomatoes is good! And, I don't remove the skins - just run things through the blender before cooking awhile. The skins add texture that I appreciated.

Today, I can say that I made pasta sauce and froze it. Various ingredients can be added and I write those on the bags. Really, the simple combinations could still be used for a soup with, maybe, the addition of some broth. Over pasta, I will likely want to add some things, anyway.

Any size tomato can be used this way. DW freezes whole cherries for salsa-making during winter because she prefers that size. She also has a preference for fresh green onions and cilantro so those must come from the grocery store during those months.

Once again, the blender does the work and the tomatoes are not peeled although everything has some time under the broiler.

Steve

PaulF
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Remember for next if you have to grow cherries only do one plant. Then when you harvest give most of them away or dump them into the compost. Like a foolish person this year I did a cherry and a couple of saladettes for my wife since she is the only person I know who will eat them. Now a whole table is full of small tomatoes with no one eating them.

imafan26
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The birds usually take care of the tomatoes that are allowed to ripen on the plant. I do have some Charger tomatoes on my counter and I also need to figure out what to do with them before I have to toss them out. I have made beef tomato and added them to salads. I should think about maybe drying the tomatoes or making salsa. My friend used to make tomato sauce with her left over tomatoes.



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