Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

Send me some! They are way expensive in the grocery store. How about those big ugly ones! Freaks of nature. What kind do you grow?
Suggest taking them to work & sharing excess. My aunts used to can them w/ spices.

 

One of my most favorite foods... here goes:

Tomato carpaccio & Parmesan cheese crisp salad:

3-4 # of fresh tomatoes:
core out the tomato's and make a small x on the opposite end of the tomato ( just a small 1/8 Inch x cut)

Bring large pot of water to boil -
have a large ice bath to hold your tomatoes:
dunk the tomatoes into the boiling water for 1 min then take out and dunk in the ice water.

when all tomatoes are done drain from the ice water. You will now be able to peel the skin from the tomatoes - SAVE THE slimy tomato skin... gonna make great stuff with that:

Next:

Olive oil,
Fresh Thyme
Fresh garlic
Salt & Pepper

once you have peeled all the tomatoes cut into half, and squeeze all the water & seeds out - dont worry about what it looks like, but I save the tomato juice & seeds too...

once they are all drained of juice, toss with olive oil, s&p, thyme. get them good and coated. add in the crushed garlic cloves - optional if you like.
then put in a 250F oven for 1-2 hours. what you want is a drying out tomato - you are making kind of a sun dried tomatos... they are done when they are thick,and sweet...

take them out let them cool - then rough chop into a lumpy paste, and put in the fridge to get cold.

For the tomato skins:

Take a dinner plate and place parchement paper shiny side up, and cover the entire plate. spread out the skins in a single layer on the parchment covered plate. put in the micro wave on high for 25- 30 min. I like to get them charred, so when they get black looking that is what you want.
take them out - watch out they are hot, let them cool then put in a coffee grinder, and turn into dust.... then taste!

you can use this tomato dust on lots of stuff...its great on chicken, on bread with butter ... anything.

back to salad:

Take parmesan cheese - grate and put on a Silpat or non stick baking sheet in little round circles.. I use a cutter to control the shape. you want a thin layer.

i make 3 per person... bake in 350 untill cheese is melted and getting brown on the bottom... take out and let cool - they will get crispy / crunchy.

I then get some fresh basil, and some baby arugula...

assemble the salad:

on a plate - put a spoon full of tomato carpaccio... then top with crispy parmesan circle, and repeat till you have 3 layers - on the top I put a small bunch of arugla and basil - I put it in my hand and roll it up like you are making a meat ball...

dressing - you can use your favorite ranch or make one / or both below:

1st. :
1 cup heavy cream
red wine vinegar 1/3 cup
salt & pepper to taste

mix cream & salt & pepper in a bowl... then drizzle in the vinegar and whip up till you start to see the cream getting slightly thick... then drizzle over the "salad" .... and dust with tomato powder....

or:

Juice from squeezed tomatoes
Olive oil
coarse sea salt
coarse sichuan black pepper
tbsp champage vinegar
add everything but oil in a bowl.. then drizzle in the oil, to make an emulsion - serve.

Sorry for the long post... tried to make it as clear and easy as possible.

 

Also my other favorite is very simple:

loaf of good crusty baugette bread
cut tomatoes into 1/8's
salt & pepper
olive oil

salt the cut up tomatoes and put in fridge for 20 - 30 min... then add a bit of olive oil...

take out and eat with the bread... Beer is GREAT with this. you could add a cheese, but really nothing else.. spoils the tomato flavor. I like them salty... you could also drizzle some honey on them once they are salted...

 

We used to have this all the time as a kid and we would almost literally fight over the juice. Soaking it up in some great bread was the best part!! I like to add a little bit of fresh basil sometimes too. Good stuff!!

I never thought about saving tomato skins and making a powder out of them? That's pretty wild. I have a bunch of green tomatoes I'm getting ready to make into relish. Made some a couple years ago that came out great. Going to try spicing this one up with some hot peppers!!

 

make up a batch of gazpacho and throw it in the freezer

 

Slice Baguette for crostini's lightly spread some good olive oil over top and brown



dice a few tomatoes - small chop

dice Garlic clove - extra small chop

chiffonade cut - a few leaves of basil

salt pepper

olive oil - few tablespoons

mix all ingredients well in a bowl with fork

open bottle of wine - taste wine


place mix on Crostini and eat!



Sungold and San Marzano tomatoes with a few New Mexico chili's
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