Tomatoes - My Favorite Food

The tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, be glad we don't have to list that name in a recipe, is a wonderful thing. We have Cherry, Grape, Roma, Beefsteak, Plum, well you get the idea. Either way we dice, slice, roast, and puree this wonderful vegetable. In the world of botany it is a fruit, but for those of us who cook it is vegetable and one of my personal favorites.

Open a cookbook,or go online and Google tomatoes. It is amazing how many cultures use or grow tomatoes. In fact the largest producer of the tomatoes we get from the grocery store is China. Remember that if you play Trivial Pursuit.

Tomatoes are nightshade vegetables and actually a perennial in warm climates. Like potatoes, peppers and eggplant, tomatoes grow at night. Does that mean anything? Probably not for most people but some are sensitive to them. For the rest of us they are a great source of Vitamin C and a good source of Vitamin A. My research for this blog also tells me that this wonderful little vegetable can provide some powerful protection from many types of cancer due to something called lycopene. What do you know, tastes wonderful in so many things and good for us too. If you want to read some of the scientific stuff check out Dr. Edward Giovannucci from Harvard Medical School. He has done a lot of research on the subject.

I love tomatoes. Give me a hearty grain bread, some well aged cheddar and a good beefsteak tomato, preferably one grown locally and lunch is served. Speaking of locally, since tomatoes are definitely seasonal for us, unless you have a craving for tomatoes in the winter, indulged during the local summer growing season and have your tomatoes canned or frozen the rest of the year. If you have to have fresh, make sure they are vine-ripen from a greenhouse. For canned, always get the whole tomatoes, the rest are usually culls.

But I have a reason for my blog and that is the pile of green tomatoes that lots of people who have rescued their precious crop from the frost now have in a bowl on the kitchen counter. Besides making fried green tomatoes, which are delicious, did you know you can make mincemeat from them? Yup that wonderful mixture we of Maritime heritage inhale at Christmas can be made without any meat in sight and vegan if you leave out the butter.

All you need is a good sized heavy bottomed stockpot and a big wooden spoon. Chop up about 8 cups of green tomatoes, fairly fine; 5 or 6 good sized cooking apples, finely chopped; a small bag of golden raisins,about 3 cups; 1 cup of mixed candied peel; 1 cup of dememara sugar; 1 cup of white sugar; 2-3 tsp cinnamon; 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg; 1/4 tsp allspice; 1 tsp of cloves; 1/3 cup white vinegar and 1 cup of water. You can also add 1/4 cup of brandy, but don't tell my Mom. Some people add suet to their mincement but I just add 1/2 cup of butter.

So the method, melt the butter in your stockpot and add the spices, sugars and the vinegar. Do not answer the phone at this point or you will have caramel followed immediately by smoke. When the sugar is dissolved, add all the rest of the ingredients. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, for at least an hour until you have a tender, flavourful mixture. Feel free to tweak the recipe at this point, adding a bit more sugar, spices and possibly a bit of salt to taste. At this point you can bottle following the directions for your canner or you can do what I do, and bag it in heavy freezer bags in quantities for a dozen or so tarts and freeze.

Don't want to do any of that? Come visit me at the Bistro. We'll be making a big pot.