Another Way to Freeze Tomatoes

Each year I keep experimenting with freezing tomatoes, trying to find the best balance between effort and usability of the final product. Canning, of course, produces a result that is very high quality with very easy usability - but it's quite a lot of work up front. Freezing is quicker up front no matter how you do it, and it's also easier to do in small quantities - for example if you have just a couple pounds of tomatoes that will go bad if you don't do something with them.

So here's another method: This will work best for paste tomatoes (juicier ones will be too watery on thawing). Core and seed the tomatoes, then chop or dice. If you want a very finely chopped product, you could even do this with a few pulses in a food processor. Then package the tomatoes in quantities of 1-2 cups in quart freezer bags. Squeeze out the air, then spread the tomatoes out flat in a thin layer. Stack the bags in the freezer. Then, when you want to toss some chopped tomatoes into something you're cooking, you can thaw a bagful in a bowl of warm water in 10 minutes or so.

Potato Salad for a Crowd

This is a pretty basic, traditional potato salad, elevated from the humdrum by excellent ingredients and homemade mayonnaise. Use some of the incredibly delicious new potatoes available at farmers markets this time of year - fingerlings would be perfect, but any waxy type would work well. Red potatoes with the skin left on are nice visually, too. Feel free to halve or quarter the recipe if you're not making this for a party. The proportions for the mayo come from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Salad
6 lbs potatoes, cubed (peel or not, your choice)
3 shallots, minced (about 1 cup)
8 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/2 cup snipped chives
1 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Mayo
1 uncooked egg
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp spicy mustard
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

You can make the mayonnaise while the potatoes cook (see below). To make the mayo, crack the egg into a blender, then add the lemon juice, about 1/4 cup of the canola oil, the mustard, and cayenne. Blend briefly, then slowly add the remainder of the canola and olive oil while the machine is running. The mayo will thicken and turn light yellow. Taste, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water until they are just tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Combine the potatoes with the shallots, hardboiled eggs, chives, and parsley, then stir in the mayonnaise until everything is well coated. Refrigerate the salad until ready to serve.

Don't leave this salad out of the refrigerator for more than an hour.

Serves about 20.

Summer Stir-Fry with Peppers and Green Beans

It was a little bit of a thrill to make this dish, full of garden veggies but without a tomato or zucchini in sight! I made this with chicken, but it would work with whatever protein you like - beef, pork, tofu, tempeh, etc. Serve this over rice.

1 lb protein of your choice
Canola oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced ginger root
2 medium sweet onions, sliced lengthwise
1 lb green beans, cut into 1-2-inch lengths
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1-2 jalapeno or other hot peppers, seeded and minced (optional)
1/4 cup soy sauce, or to taste
1 Tbsp corn starch (optional; for thickening)
6-10 scallions, chopped
1/2-1 cup Thai basil leaves

Cook your protein in a wok or large skillet, then remove from heat and set aside.

Heat a bit of canola oil in the pan, then add the garlic, ginger, and onion and stir-fry over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, peppers, and hot pepper (if using) and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender.

Stir the corn starch into the soy sauce, then add the soy sauce, scallions, and Thai basil to the pan and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Serve over rice.

Serves 4-6.

Freezing Tomatoes

Since I seem to be on the subject of tomatoes lately...

Freezing is also a great way to preserve the overflowing tomato harvest for later in the year. Frozen tomatoes work well in soups, stews, casseroles, etc., and can also be made into soup or sauce. There are several ways to do it, depending on how much work you want to put in up front versus later.

1. Easiest up-front, more work later: Remove cores and freeze whole tomatoes in freezer bags. Later, you can take them out and run them under warm water, which will help the skins slip off. Thaw (in microwave or on counter) and cook (chop first if needed). This is a good option if you are overwhelmed now and think you might make sauce or tomato soup or that sort of thing later in the fall or winter.

2. More work now, easier later: Core the tomatoes, blanch in boiling water, then peel. Squeeze out seeds and excess liquid, then freeze in freezer bags (squeezing out excess air). To use later, just thaw, then chop and cook.

3. Even more work now, easiest later: Proceed as in option number 2, but add the step of chopping before packaging in freezer bags.

Particularly important for #2 and #3: package tomatoes in single-meal quantities. So, if you often add 2 cups of chopped tomatoes to a soup or chili, pack that amount in each bag. If you need more, you can thaw multiple bags, but it's very hard to use a partial bag.

You can thaw frozen tomatoes in the microwave or on the counter. For options #2 and #3, you can also place a frozen bag in a bowl of warm water for an hour or so.

Drying Tomatoes

It has been a bumper crop of tomatoes so far this year, and it's only early August. It has been so hot, everything is early this year.

One of the things I've been doing with all these tomatoes is drying them. We have a home dehydrator (this inexpensive model, plus two extra trays), which makes it easy.

Cherry tomatoes work especially well for drying. Just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and place them skin side down on the trays. I find they usually dry in 9-12 hours (I generally run the dehydrator overnight, and try to pick dry days to improve the efficiency). Paste tomatoes are also good for drying. You can likewise cut them in half and seed them, but they take longer to dry because of their thicker walls. Slicer type tomatoes can work, too, though it's a bit more work. Cut them at least 1/2-inch thick and try to get out what seeds and liquid you can.

We have tomatoes in many different colors in our garden, and I enjoy looking at the pretty mix of dried ones that results - bright red, dark red, yellow, green, orange. Packaged in small jars, they also make nice gifts.

Garlicky Lamb and Tomato Stew with Chickpeas

This year's tomato growing experience couldn't be more different from last year. Where we had cold, wet weather and a plague of blight, this year has been hot and mostly dry - perfect tomato weather (as long as you water sparingly at the base).

I used lamb sausage for this stew, which was delicious, but stew meat would work well, too. You can absolutely skip the Parmesan rind, but if you happen to have one lying about, do use it - it adds a nice flavor.

1 lb lamb sausage
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups chick peas
1 1/2 - 2 lbs tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 4 cups)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Parmesan rind (optional)

Brown the meat in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Pour off most of the fat, then add the garlic and onion and saute over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the chickpeas and tomatoes, along with some salt and pepper. If you are using the Parmesan rind, give the stew a few minutes to turn more liquid-y before adding. Simmer the stew over low heat for 20 minutes or so (longer if you're using stew meat). Serve hot.

Serves 4-5.

Requested: Greens

Thanks, requesters - keep 'em coming! This is fun.

I actually don't tend to cook a lot of greens during the height of summer because there are so many other tasty summer crops available right now that have a much shorter season. Local greens are available nearly year round at this point, so I tend to cook them more often in the spring and fall, and winter when I can get them. What that means if you're looking for recipes is that you should try the search box at the top left corner of the page, or cruise through the archive listings. You can also try clicking on the tags (Blogger calls them labels) below each post: clicking a tag will bring up all posts that have that tag attached to it. For this one, I've tagged greens, chard, kale, spinach, arugula, bok choy, and sorrel.