We've had a bumper crop of roma tomatoes this year, though the recent cool temperatures seem to have put an end to that for the season. Last year, we tried to eat the romas fresh. Not so good. Romas tend toward the mealy side, their intrinsic tomato-i-ness obscured by their
relatively dry flesh. Then we stumbled upon the idea of freezing the little bastards in small batches as they ripened and later simmering them down into a tasty sauce. And let me tell you - it was great. Concentrated fresh tomato goodness. We've used it on pasta, for soup, basically anywhere you could use tomato sauce. We're doing it again this year. We'll probably simmer them down during the winter, when filling the house with the smell of hot tomatoes seems like a great idea, instead of just a good idea. But this past weekend, I decided to try another tomato preservation method, sun-drying! Except late summer near Lake Michigan tends to be cool and damp. Not your optimal sun-drying weather. The weekend was no exception. Temps dipped into the 50's, and it rained pretty much constantly. So... oven-drying! Trim and halve the romas, then bake on a wire tray about 10 hours at 170 deg F. And the results? Well, the only thing I can say is that they're bloody delicious! I mean, just look at that picture. Quite frankly, I'm rather proud that I managed to freeze any of these, rather than just gobbling them down.
They're chewy, sweet-tart, and loaded with tomato glory. I'm storing them in the freezer, since I'm not entirly convinced they're dry enough to store at room temp. And I can't wait until some blustery winter day when I stumble across them while rooting around for one more burger bun- a little bit of concentrated summer.
PS: I'm using this post as my late September entry to Grow Your Own.
Chez Us is hosting this time around. Check out
Andrea's Recipes for a list of who is hosting the next round!
pecan pie. Full instructions, from building the pans, to baking the pie sections, are available here. The recipe isn't included int he instrucitons, but there are a variety to select from in the sidebar on the site.
relatively dry flesh. Then we stumbled upon the idea of freezing the little bastards in small batches as they ripened and later simmering them down into a tasty sauce. And let me tell you - it was great. Concentrated fresh tomato goodness. We've used it on pasta, for soup, basically anywhere you could use tomato sauce. We're doing it again this year. We'll probably simmer them down during the winter, when filling the house with the smell of hot tomatoes seems like a great idea, instead of just a good idea. But this past weekend, I decided to try another tomato preservation method, sun-drying! Except late summer near Lake Michigan tends to be cool and damp. Not your optimal sun-drying weather. The weekend was no exception. Temps dipped into the 50's, and it rained pretty much constantly. So... oven-drying! Trim and halve the romas, then bake on a wire tray about 10 hours at 170 deg F. And the results? Well, the only thing I can say is that they're bloody delicious! I mean, just look at that picture. Quite frankly, I'm rather proud that I managed to freeze any of these, rather than just gobbling them down. 
They're chewy, sweet-tart, and loaded with tomato glory. I'm storing them in the freezer, since I'm not entirly convinced they're dry enough to store at room temp. And I can't wait until some blustery winter day when I stumble across them while rooting around for one more burger bun- a little bit of concentrated summer. 
I picked up a jar of harissa at Woodman's last week. It's a red pepper paste used in Tunisia, Morrocco, and probably loads of other places, as well for all I know. After I got it home, I thought - shit, what am I going to do with that? I dug out the cookbooks, but came up empty, save a recommendation to use it as a condiment. But surely, there must be recipes that use it, right? What do I do with harissa? Well, thanks to the internet (all hail, mighty tubes), I have my answers. (anyone know where I can pick up some pickled lemon?)
