Fresh Tomato Recipes Rochdale
Fresh Tomato Recipes
These fresh tomato recipes are great for when you face a tomato glut.
With the difficulties faced by many amateur tomato growers in countries where conditions are not-so-perfect, you might be forgiven for thinking this will never happen to you! Growing tomatoes is not so easy.
But, sooner or later, if you carry on growing your own organic tomatoes, (despite the trials and set backs) everything comes good and you get a decent crop.
A few summers ago the growing conditions for tomatoes were good and we had planted a lot of the variety Moneymaker, which lives up to its name by being a heavy cropper but is a bit lacking when it comes to flavour.
We had more tomatoes than even we could cope with, even after giving loads away, so we searched for a decent soup recipe which was suitable for freezing.
Here's what we found and adapted to our own tastes.
This fresh tomato recipe is very easy and you can vary it by adding garlic, herbs or by using dry white wine or sherry in place of vinegar.
for some tips on how to succeed with homegrown toms.
Easy Tomato Soup
Basic ingredients
tomatoes,
cider vinegar or wine vinegar
Optional ingredients
garlic - makes it very tasty indeed!
onions - chop fine and sweat in a tablespoonful of oil for five minutes before adding the tomatoes.
olive oil or butter - good if you are using garlic or onions and produces a richer soup.
tarragon and basil both go well - add a chopped handful of either at the start.
Method
Take a kilo of ripe tomatoes.
Pierce the skins so that the juice will run out easily as they heat up.
Add two tablespoonfuls of cider vinegar.
Add salt and ground pepper if you like.
Heat the pan gently for five minutes or so. Let the contents cool and then liquidize everything. That's it!
Notes: Don't remove the skins as this is where a lot of the flavour is. If you have a reasonable food processor the skins should not trouble most people. Otherwise, you can fish them out just before serving if you wish. The easiest method is simply to sieve the soup or pass it through a fine mesh net.
You can also carry on reducing this preparation until it is thick and creamy and use it as a stock or sauce.
It can also be frozen once it has cooled.
You can serve it as soup with a swirl of fresh cream. Fresh toasted croutons are very good too.
Picture above:Tomato salad with cucumber and basil
Fresh tomato recipes for that glut!
Tomato Salads
Tomato salads are very easy and of course there are any number of variations.
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