Stout Oak Farm heirloom tomatoes

Day 10 of 10 days of tomatoes…

Heirloom tomatoes are plants whose seeds have been passed down for many generations. They tend to have stronger, sweeter flavors, and come in many sizes, colors and shapes, unlike hybrid which all tend to look alike and are grown more for shippability and storage than taste. (i.e. they need to survive the road trip from California without getting bruised or mushy.)  

The Chefs Collaborative, through a program to renew America’s food traditions (RAFT),  is trying to help heirlooms make a comeback in New England, including the Trophy tomato. Don’t be scared off by heirlooms which don’t look as “perfect” as the commercial tomatoes, and which may be green, pink, yellow or even purple when they’re ripe.  The heirloom varieties work well on small farms because unlike hybrid, they’re not all ready for harvest at one time.

With heirlooms, all you really need to do is slice them, drizzle on a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some balsamic vinegar, sprinkle some salt and pepper and you almost have a meal.

For more on “tomato week” check out Maria Rodale’s blog for some more easy recipes and planting tips:

http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/tomato-week-easy-tomato-recipes-tomato-plant-harvesting-tips/comment-page-1/#comment-15591

I appreciate the feedback I got this week and all the wonderful tomatoes I bought from local farms.  I also really enjoyed the gazpacho from the Soup Guy at the Barrington Agricultural Fair which was made with tomatoes from Warren Farm. He also uses Clementine oranges in his gazpacho. He said this was very popular in Spain where they would serve gazpacho as a small side dish to help cleanse the pallet during the meal. Keep an eye out for him at the winter markets.  Meanwhile must figure out what to do with the 10 lbs of tomatoes I got from my CSA, Willow Pond Farm today… maybe in October I’ll feature six days of squash…

See you at the market…

I’ve been wanting to try some stuffed tomatoes so instead of searching for a recipe, I decided to use what was fresh in the frig.  I kept the recipe simple; some rice (I used wild rice) along with whatever veggies I had which turned out to be some onion, zucchini and yellow squash, some kale, and fresh herbs.  I decided not to add any meat and instead made this as a simple side dish but you could definitely add some ground hamburger or pork and make it the main course. I sauteed the veggies, added the rice and then carved out the tomatoes and stuffed them.  Add some cheese, like feta or mozzarella or change up the spices and add some curry or turmeric to give it more of an Indian theme.  This version would also do well with some jalepenos.

We served the tomatoes with some grilled chicken, sliced cucumbers and a few leftover green beans.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Summer

4+ medium-sized tomatoes (you could do more tomatoes as I had some leftover rice mixture which will be leftovers tomorrow.  I added the inside of the tomatoes that was scooped out to the rice.)
1 cup rice (wild or brown) (plus two cups water, wine or chicken broth)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 onion, diced
½ small zucchini, diced
½ small yellow squash, diced
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper
2 handfuls chopped kale
fresh herbs
1-2 tablespoons crushed almonds
Grated parmesan

Directions:

Saute onions for 4-5 minutes in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then add zucchini, yellow squash and garlic. Cook for another 4-5 minutes then add the rice and liquid.  Cook down till just a little liquid remains (about 30 minutes) and then add the kale and let it cook down for another 4-5 minutes.  Meanwhile cut tops off tomatoes and carve them out with a spoon or melon ball scooper without puncturing the sides.  Add the almonds and herbs in right before you stuff the tomatoes. The rice should be al dente (just about done, but a little firmness to the rice). Stuff the tomatoes and top with grated parmesan cheese (or feta would be nice too).

Bake in oven at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes until tomatoes are soft, but not mushy. Serve warm.

One of our summer favorites is a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, or the BLT.  Five ingredients (including the mayo and bread). We don’t try to dress it up too much, just stick to the basics. A nice light (gluten-free) bread, a dollop of mayonnaise, the best tomato you can find, and some crisp lettuce. (Udi’s Gluten Free bread.) We’ve tried other lettuces, like arugula and other mixed greens, but Romaine keeps the sandwich nice and crunchy.

If you haven’t had your BLT yet this summer, make sure to enjoy one before the good tomatoes are gone as it’s just not the same with a bad tomato.

Mackenzie gets up the courage to pick up a baby chick!

My daughter and I went to the Barrington Natural Heritage Agricultural Fair today at Warren Farm.  We were taxied in by two mules on a hay ride, had a wonderful lunch and tasted some roasted pig, held some baby chickens (her very first time!) and saw some pigs, cows and alpacas. It was a beautiful day to be out on a farm. We also picked up some heirloom tomatoes from Stout Oak Farm which I’ll feature tomorrow…

It started out with a link to a Food TV tomato tart recipe from a friend from the farm who told me about a tomato tart.  When she sent it to me she said she replaces the crust with pizza dough. Seeing how she is French, I thought this would be okay…I took it one step further and checked out a few other French tart recipes including  one from David Lebovitz’s blog and then came up with my own version.

It incorporates a little bit from both recipes including some Dijon mustard spread on the crust. I added caramelized onions sautéed with garlic, and used parmesan and Manchego cheese (sheep’s milk) instead of the goat and mozzarella recommended in the other two recipes. My friend said she uses fontina. I used gluten free pizza dough which my husband thinks is crispier than a whole wheat crust. I don’t eat much cheese so this was a special treat! 

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
2 tomatoes
Herbs – I went with fresh Thyme and Oregano this time..Basil would be great..
Parmesan cheese (about ¾ of a cup)
3 or so ounces Manchego cheese
 1 onion, or more..
1-2 cloves garlic

Saute chopped onions for about 15 minutes until soft and caramelized. Roll out the dough and place it in a pie pan. Trim and pinch the edges like a pie. (Put a splash of olive oil to keep it from sticking).  Spread the mustard on the dough and let it sit for a few minutes. Layer in the tomatoes, onions, herbs and cheese and leave enough to lay some cheese on the top. Bake at about 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. I didn’t cover the pie/tart crust, but it did get pretty golden brown..you may want to cover it with tin foil.

Let me know how you like it! I hope your family likes it as much as mine!

Sun Gold tomatoes are bursting with flavor this time of the year!

Today was only a two-meal day: brunch and dinner with a few nuts in between. Tomatoes took a back seat to lobster dinner which was definitely the highlight of my day along with a few hours at the beach with family.

I did manage to pick some cherry tomatoes and Sun Gold tomatoes from our garden for breakfast.  I thought I would share with you one of my favorite breakfasts, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions (and usually chard or kale) with some guacamole on the side. Guacamole goes so well with eggs and really helps fill me up in the morning. Fresh salsa also goes well with eggs.

For the scrambled eggs I just sauté some onion for a few minutes until soft, then add some chopped tomatoes and whatever other vegetables I might have like spinach, chard, kale or peppers. Sauté the tomatoes for just a couple minutes then throw in the scramble eggs and cook until light and fluffy. (Low and slow is the key to good scrambled eggs.) Don’t overcook the tomatoes or they get mushy.

My guacamole consists of avocado, chopped tomatoes, small bit of diced onions and a few squirts of lime (or lemon if that is all I have) and a few tablespoons of chopped cilantro. You can also add jalapeño or garlic. Avocados are not exactly local, but I really enjoy them so I treat myself to a couple each week to go with my eggs, salads, or a Mexican meal. If I don’t have all the ingredients, I just use what I have, or slice up the avocado and serve it with the eggs. Parsley or basil can replace the cilantro if that is all you have.

Some tips for storing your tomatoes
Store your tomatoes at room temperature out of direct sunlight. They should keep up to about 10 days.  Do not refrigerate tomatoes, it will destroy their flavor and make them spongy!! If they are really ripe, you can put them in the frig to stop the ripening but you risk losing flavor.  If one tomato gets to ripe and starts releasing juices, you will get fruit flies so make sure to keep them dry and use up the really ripe ones first.

La Tartine Gourmande Gazpacho

Today I’m featuring a gazpacho recipe from La Tartine Gourmande one of my favorite blogs by Béa, a French expatriate living in Boston.  She is a professional photographer and her wonderful recipes will also soon become a book.  My photo is a shabby comparison so make sure to go to her sight!

I’ve tried making several gazpacho recipes and also just “winged” it a few times, but really enjoyed this recipe for a very creamy soup and the suggestions for toppings which really made the dish a meal: avocado, corn, shallots, cucumbers, some cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of crumbled hard boiled eggs. The toppings added some nice texture and something and flavors to complement the tomatoes.

Rather than typing it out, I’m referring you to her web site:
http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2010/07/15/tomatoes-rhyme-with-gazpacho/. (copyrighted La Tartine Gourmande)

I loved it and so did my husband, but I’m not sure all the teenage and 4-year-old dinner guests did…some tried it, some did not…they just don’t know what they’re missing.  Nothing against “this” gazpacho, they just didn’t have an interest in a cold tomato soup I guess.

Anyone else have any recipes they want to share??  I’ve had several people contact me about tomato tarts..so that might be next in line. I also chatted with two friends at the farmers’ market today who made homemade ketchup..maybe I’ll tackle that over the weekend.   

Thanks Béa.

Tomatoes with Curry Powder - the perfect appetizer!

Rain, rain, rain. And, more rain. Spent the day sitting in traffic to get in and out of Boston, but luckily in between got to see the big fish tank at the Aquarium and check out the U.S.S. Constitution with my family from Michigan. The cool rainy weather was a nice change, but I’m looking forward to few more hot sunny days before summer ends.

A late dinner meant that tomatoes were not the featured item, but they added a nice touch to top off the burgers, along with some baked beans and fresh corn.  We also ate a few sliced tomatoes with a really nice balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

The featured appetizer was some cherry and Sun Gold tomatoes with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a generous sprinkle of curry powder. Sounds simple but it is one of the tastiest ways to enjoy tomatoes. If you haven’t had the Sun Gold tomatoes you must find some before summer ends. This is a super appetizer to serve and is great on its own. I keep the little stems on so that they are easy to pick up, or you can just grab ‘em with your fingers.

Enjoy. Looking forward to trying some new tomato recipes in the days to come.

The "salsa" girls!

What’s your pleasure – chunky or smooth?

I love to make a fresh chunky salsa and planned on sharing my recipe this week, but my friend Audrey from Pickpocket Farm pond gave me a recipe for roasted salsa from the Joy of Cooking. I tried that tonight and am a bit torn between which I like , the chunky fresh tomatoes, or roasted and pureed so I’m giving you a twofer today. You be the judge.  The roasted takes a bit more work, but it’s not difficult.

Chunky Fresh Salsa

The best part was making it with a little help from my daughter and my two nieces who are in town visiting.  We served this with some homemade chili and tacos with all the fixins’ and of course homemade guacamole.

Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa

Ingredients

1 lb tomatoes
2 large fresh jalapeno peppers
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
¼ teaspoon salt
½ small white onion, finely chopped, rinsed and drained

Roasted Salsa

Directions:

Heat the broiler. Arrange on a baking sheet: 1 lb red, ripe tomatoes. Broil 4 inches from the heat until they blister, darken and soften on one side, about 4 minutes; turn them over and broil the other side until blistered and darkened, 5 to 6 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a dry cast iron griddle or skillet over high heat, and add: 2 large fresh jalepeno peppers and 3 cloves garlic, unpeeled

Shake them in the pan until their skins are soft and charred here and there, 5 to 10 minutes for the jalepenos, about 15 minutes for the garlic. Let cool, then peel the tomatoes, reserving the juices, pull the stems off the jalapenos, and peel the garlic. Place the jalepenos and garlic in a food processor or blender with ¼ teaspoon salt.

Process to a coarse paste. Add the tomatoes and process a few times until you have a coarse-textured puree. Stir in: ½ small white onion, finely chopped, rinsed, and drained and 1/3 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro and about ½ teaspoon cider vinegar (optional).

Add 2-4 tablespoons water, if necessary to give the salsa a fairly thick but easily spoonable consistency. Taste and season with salt. (Joy of Cooking)

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

2-3 ripe tomatoes (or lots of cherry or sun gold tomatoes)
2-3 tablespoons of finely minced onion
1-2 tomatillos (optional)
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, or to taste
1-2 tablespoons Jimmy Nardello peppers (A sweet heirloom pepper) (optional)
jalepeno peppers, to taste (just 1 teaspoon or so if it is very hot!)
Lime juice (couple squeezes)

Instructions:

Chop up tomatoes and tomatillos and combine with onion. Add in cilantro, jalepeno and lime to taste. I added in the Jimmy Nardello sweet red peppers my last batch. They’re sweet and give it a little crunch. Enjoy!

Oven-roasted chewy tomatoes

I’ve roasted and dehyrated about 10 lbs of tomatoes and have about 10 to go. They really cook down so I’m sure I’ll be replenishing this week. It’s nice to have some cool weather while we have the oven going.

We’ve decided so far that we like the roasted ones better than the dehydrated because of the olive oil and garlic. I’ve been roasting them for about 4-5 hours with olive oil and also adding minced garlic.  The Sun Gold tomatoes are really sweet.  I found this recipe below on the Willow Pond Farm web site from Molly Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven – since I’m still a novice, I’m featuring her tried and true recipe. I also cut my tomatoes in half and then turned them cut side down – she says to keep the cut side up…not sure how much of a difference it makes.. Another recipe said to put a slit in the back so I’ve been doing that as well. I also did not use tin foil, but some tomatoes did stick.

These are the most wonderful little treats. I plan to roast as many as I can for snacks, and also to save for sauces and stews over the winter. I’m going to store some in the frig and the rest in the freezer.

I’m calling this tomato candy as it is so sweet.

Cherry Tomato Chewies
Yield: 1 1/2 cups
 
Olive oil for the baking tray & 1 pound cherry tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking tray with foil and brush generously with olive oil.

Cut the tomatoes in half, and arrange them cut side up in a single layer on the prepared tray. (It’s okay if they are touching.) Bake for 2 to 6 hours, jostling them loose and moving them slightly every half hour or so, so they don’t stick and/or burn. Don’t actually turn them over. They come out best if left facing up for the duration of the baking.

Transfer the tomatoes to a platter lined with a double thickness of paper towels and cool for at least 30 minutes. Store them in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for softer, moister Chewies, or leave them uncovered and out of the refrigerator, and they will dry out a bit more and become somewhat crispy. They’re lovely both ways.

(Serve Cherry Tomato Chewies as a garnish, for snacks, or on sandwiches or grains. Float them in soups or sprinkle them on top of a platter of roasted vegetables.)

From Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven

Stout Oak Farm cherry tomatoes

I love tomatoes, in August.  Forget about getting tomatoes the rest of the year, they’re just not worth buying. So, I try to get my fix in the summer when they are fresh and sweet and and not pasty and flavorless.

As a tribute to the wonderful taste of good summer tomatoes, for the next 10 days, I will feature recipes using cooked and raw tomatoes along with ways to store or preserve with some other tips and tidbits. I will use locally grown, vine ripened, fresh tomatoes which cannot be compared to commercially grown tomatoes that are picked when they’re still green and then exposed to ethylene gas to make them red when they are ready to sell. So don’t try these recipes with supermarket counterfeits! Get to your local farmers’ market or farm stand! (Or hopefully you have some growing in your yard.)

Kate with her tomatoes!

I picked up about 20 pounds of tomatoes today from my friend, Kate, who runs Stout Oak Farm in Epping. She gave me some tricks for dehydrating and roasting tomatoes so I’ll be able to enjoy them for the coming months.  Keep an eye out here for some ideas for preserving tomatoes.

A little history about the apple of love: The tomato originated in what is now Peru although the Peruvian Indians (Incas) did not really cultivate it. The Spanish explorers brought the tomato seeds from Mexico and Peru back to Spain.

As little as 200 years ago the Europeans and Americans thought that the tomato was poisonous and it was merely used as an ornamental fruit. The Italians were the first to finally figure out how wonderful it was starting in the late 1700s. As it made its way through Europe, the French called the tomato the “Apple of Love,” and the Germans referred to it as the “Apple of Paradise.” I agree.

The tomato settled in the Americas in the 1700s and although it is botanically considered a fruit, because of its savory taste and use in a meal instead of as a desert, in 1893, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that it was legally considered a vegetable and would be imposed a tariff along with other vegetables. (Every wondered about that?)

My daughter loves sun golds and cherry tomatoes!

In the 1920s the government included the tomato as part of an “ideal” healthy diet and encouraged citizens to eat 55 pounds of tomatoes annually per person!!  Unfortunately now, aaccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Americans consume only around 23 pounds of tomatoes every year – more than half of which is attributed to ketchup and tomato sauce.  (Mostly from fast foods restaurants!)

I figure we get about 7-8 weeks of really good tomatoes so to get in that 55 pounds of tomatoes, I’ll need to eat just about 7  pounds per week or nearly a pound a day or one large tomato per day – easy!

Fresh tomatoes over warm pasta! My favorite summer dish!

My absolute favorite summer dish is fresh (raw) tomato sauce which is tossed with warm pasta. I had it for the third time this summer at our friend’s house at their lake house to top off a perfect day. You will love this!Use the best tomatoes you can find and serve this with some fresh corn on the cob. It is delightful!

Ingredients (Serves 6 as side dish or 4 as main)

3- 4 tomatoes chopped into small pieces (about the same size you would for salsa) (You can also add cherry and sun gold tomatoes)
a handful of fresh basil cut into ribbons and then loosely chopped
about half a small sweet onion, minced
garlic – as much as you can take!  At least 1-2 cloves, minced
a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive (little more than 1 tablespoon)
a drizzle of the best syrupy Balsamic Vinegar you can find (little less than 1 tablespoon
salt and pepper
Parmesan (optional)

The colors of summer.

Mix everything together and let it sit on your counter for half hour or so. Serve over a warm pasta, like angel hair, and top with some parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

See you tomorrow!