too many tomatoes - what can i do with them?

[lisab]

Hello all,
I have loads of tomatoes and dont know how to keep them.
So far i have made tomato soup (and frozen some!) we have also made some salsa - which was good but didnt keep for long. what else can we do with them? Also, how do you make sun-dried tomatoes - i have a feeling if i tried it they would go mouldy!
thanks x

[Comfreyfan]

My all time favourite is to roast them (with herbs, garlic, peppers etc) then blitz them down so you have a really lovely concentrated tomato paste. Freeze it in portions, (doesn't take up too much space) then use it for anything you want! Lovely in spag bols etc, or mix with some stock for a smashing soup.

[smallblueplanet]

Couple of HFW recipes:

Tomato ketchup

Roast tomato puree

[Alison]

I've made about half a dozen jars of tomato and chilli dipping sauce, do it every year and it's OH's joint favourite preserve type thing (he also loves strawberry jam but not with the tomato and chilli)

[taff]

have you got a recipe for that alison? please.

[TEB]

Hello all,
I have loads of tomatoes and dont know how to keep them.
So far i have made tomato soup (and frozen some!) we have also made some salsa - which was good but didnt keep for long. what else can we do with them? Also, how do you make sun-dried tomatoes - i have a feeling if i tried it they would go mouldy!
thanks x

We make Passata, tomato chutney, batches of green bean and tomato (we use runner bean glut). We made sun dried tomatoes by quartering and then placing on baking trays in the oven for hours on a low temperature with the oven door slighty open, then store in jars with olive oil with a few slivers of garlic, etc.

[sbeneli]

My favorite thing to do with excess tomatoes is to slow roast on a really low temperate (drizzled with good olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper), then I cook chicken and fettuccine, mix them up with pesto and the roasted tomatoes. Top with lots of Parmesan cheese. Heavenly.

[Snadger]

We've had very little sun but here I am sitting munching my own sun dried tomatoes!

Drier is buzzing away merrily in the garage (it's a noisy git) and I keep popping down and relieving it of the nice chewy ones.

Because the olive oil and sea salt make a heck of a mess of the drier I've left them out this year. Toms taste fine to me!

Tried an experiment and put all but the beefsteak toms in whole. As they start drying the three tiers come together.

Must go and check to see if any more are ready.........TTFN!

[Alison]

have you got a recipe for that alison? please.

Lent the book to my friend the other day but will post when she hands it back in the next few days. Basically it involves tomatoes, vinegar, chillies, onion seeds and sugar but can't remember the proportions.

[Mrs Dobby]

Sweet Chilli Sauce (borrowed from Galloping Gourmets)

1 kg of peeled chopped de-seeded tomatoes - brilliant if you have a glut, as we have!
A head of garlic - from the garden of course
8 large red chillies - ours were 'hot cayenne'
About two table spoons of grated fresh ginger
4 Tbs of Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce - available in most supermarkets)
600g sugar
200ml or vinegar (I used red wine vinegar for this but apparently any works)

First put your tomatoes in a blender (after peeling, deseeding and rough chopping)

Then take a sharp knife and peel your ginger. It should be juicy and moist not hard and woody.

Grate or finely chop the ginger

Take the garlic and peel all the cloves. Put the garlic and ginger in the blender

Chop up the chillies, seeds and all, leaving the stalks - make sure you wear gloves for this!

Add all this to the tomatoes and blitz to a puree in a processor -
Add the 4 tablespoons of fish sauce

Then add all this mixture into a big pan

Then add 600g of sugar and 200ml red wine vinegar

Stir well and bring to a boil

Lower to a simmer. A small froth or scum will form - skim this off and discard

Maintain the simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put 6 half pint jars in the oven to warm for another 15 minutes - keep stirring and skimming the sauce

When the sauce has thickened and reduced, pour into the jars; seal and label.
This sauce is hotter than the commercial stuff so adjust to your taste. Leave for a month to mature - be ready for Christmas in plenty of time and will keep for at least six months.

[taff]

Thanks Alison

Suzanne, I've had the page open with all the recipes on there all day yesterday, I kept flitting between them to choose one to do I have enough tomatoes to make two lots of everything so i was going to try two different types

[rogesse]

Snadger - a home drier for tomatoes - I've got to have one! Are they readily available or am I being a bit thick!

[Mrs Dobby]

Taff, I just made a 2 litre batch of the sweet chilli sauce, my gods, tis gorgeous!! I didnt have the Nam Pla sauce, so I left it out and added a bit of balsamic vinegar to the mix, seemed to work fine!

I also made 2 1/2 litres of ketchup and a gallon and a half of pasta sauce!

And for an encore Im making a gallon of the roast tomato soup now!

Feeling like a domestic goddess atm! Lol!

[smallblueplanet]

Taff, I just made a 2 litre batch of the sweet chilli sauce, my gods, tis gorgeous!! I didnt have the Nam Pla sauce, so I left it out and added a bit of balsamic vinegar to the mix, seemed to work fine!

I also made 2 1/2 litres of ketchup and a gallon and a half of pasta sauce!

And for an encore Im making a gallon of the roast tomato soup now!

Feeling like a domestic goddess atm! Lol!

Oh MrsD might try the sweet chilli sauce w/ balsamic vinegar (as a veggie).

What's your ketchup recipe - just made some & not 100% convinced by the recipe...

[taff]

hee hee!!!
I am coming up behind you at speed.
Made the piccalilli recipe form the waitrose page [going to try the cottage smallholder one next week], should have made double, only got 3 big jars out of it.
Scaled up the above recipe 2 1/2 times, got 11 little jars, no idea what that equates to...didn't have nam pla either so used dark soy...don't think it's hot enough either, so I'll make the next one with more chillies
Making passata tomorrow with black tomatoes to see if there's any difference between them and the normal ones.
We certainly are domestic, and it's something I never thought I'd be doing, but it's such a shame to waste anything that's grown isn't it?