with knife and fork » tomatoes

Heritage tomato salad

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:11:00 +0000

On Tuesday this week a box arrived packed with heritage tomatoes and other goodies.

Its came courtesy of Westlands in Worcestershire (and Carol of Growing Direct)

I decided to do the tomatoes justice I would start by making a salad with them.

Gorgeous looking and gorgeous tasting. Particularly loved the effect of the radish flowers spinkled on top.

Tomato harvest

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:49:00 +0000

I’ve finally harvested the tomatoes as the plants were looking rather sad.

Collected a real mix of green and red.

So what to do with them…not sure there is enough for chutney.

Suggestions welcome.

Nubbly green tomato

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:25:00 +0000

This year the tomatoes have been very slow to flower, set and ripen. We have had some red ones (like about 5) but most are still green.

They aren’t all nubbly like this one though (seeds courtesy of @josordoni)

Nubbly or not they are destined for green tomato chutney or pickles. Which are at least as delicious as having ripe tomatoes.

WIn-Win

Spicy sour green pickles

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:50:14 +0000

So the tomatoes should have been ripe ages ago but mine still look like this:

Which means I’ll be making batches of green pickles again this year. But that’s okay because I rather like the green pickles. I made them first with under ripe plums that I collected in deepest Suffolk with Vivia of Grethic’s Grethica. She also tracked down some recipes which she posted links to here. Its worth watching the you tube clips because they are a bit bonkers but to make it a bit easier I’ve given the recipe the way I did it here.

You need:

Lots of unripe tomatoes or plums

Sour pickle:

1 quantity (see note) each of fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, red chilli flakes, cumin seeds, coriander seeds

½ quantity of salt

¼ quantity of tumeric

rapeseed oil

Sweet and sour pickle:

8% salt

4% tumeric

50% sugar

rapeseed oil

In both cases the quantities take a bit of guess work. In the second one I assumed it meant use 8% of the weight of fruit you have etc. In the first one it was harder so I just did what looked like a sensible quantity for the fruit I had the get a good level of spiciness.

This is what you do:

Cut the tomatoes (or plums) into quarters. Discard the stones if you have plums. I usually make one batch of each type so I split the total fruit in half then carry on.

Sour pickle:

Mix the spice and salt together in a bowl. Add the fruit and coat with the mix. Cover with cling film and leave somewhere light and warm for 3-4 days. Pack tightly in sterilised jars and cover with rapeseed oil. Leave it to mature for at least a month. This one is quite like lime pickle so is great with curries. I use any leftover spicy oil for cooking curry as well.

Sweet and sour pickle:

Mix the salt and tumeric together and add the fruit. Coat. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a bright warm place for 2-3 days. Add the sugar and leave for a further 3-5 days. Pack into sterilised jars and cover with oil. As this one is sweeter it also works well with cheeses or cold meats.

Here is what you end up with: