“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Is There Anything More Beautiful...

                                                             at this time of year other than a tomato?

I think not.

My Homegrown Tomatoes
We have been feasting on tomatoes the past couple of weeks. Eagerly waiting for them to get completely ripe before we pick them. This has definitely been a test of our patience!

First we started with the BLT sandwiches and then the tomatoes went  into basic lettuce salads. Of course we both love the caprese salads, so we had to have those. Then it was back to more BLTs. After I thought we better cut back on all the pork, I also made a pineapple-tomato salsa that was excellent on some grilled salmon. Eating them plain with just salt and pepper is great but I wanted to add a few new recipe ideas to my cookbook folder.

Hunting through Pinterest for fresh tomato recipes, I came across the one below. It was still very refreshing and the grilled onions gave it a unique and interesting flavor. I will be making this again soon. I changed the recipe slightly for my own taste and ingredients on hand, if you would like the link to the original recipe, click on the picture below.




Fresh Tomato Salad with Grilled Onions
A summer side dish with grilled onions adapted from a recipe by chef Rob Rainford.
Yield:
6 servings

Ingredients:
1 red or yellow onion, sliced into 1" rings
2 tbsp canola or grape-seed oil
salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
6 medium homegrown tomatoes

Vinaigrette
1/4 cup grape-seed oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Step 1: Two hours before grilling, whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a bowl and add onion rings, tossing to coat. Marinate at room temperature.

Step 2: Fire up your charcoal or preheat your gas grill. Grilling temperature should be around 325°F to 350°F. Prep the grill for cooking over direct heat.

Step 3: Core the tomatoes and cut them lengthwise into quarters. You want large, chunky pieces for this rustic grilled salad.

Step 4: Remove the onion rings from the vinaigrette, reserving the vinaigrette. Brush the onion rings lightly with a little oil and season them with salt and black pepper.

Step 5: Place the onion rings on the grill and cook until lightly charred, 6-10 minutes per side on medium-high heat.

Step 6: Remove onion rings from the grill and set aside to cool slightly. Whisk the vinaigrette until nice and thick.

Step 7: To assemble the salad, combine the tomatoes, cooled onion rings and vinaigrette in a bowl and you're done. Serve this salad buffet-style or in individual salad bowls.

For more check out my pinboard....









Have you tried any new fresh tomato recipes this season?


Tuesday, July 31, 2012

For the Love of Tomatoes


The best reason for a home garden is the delicious flavor of a summer tomato
picked fresh from your own vine.




 
There is a mysterious thing about a homegrown tomato that is different from the store-bought versions.  It is that special aroma and taste that occurs only when the fruit is picked and kept at the plant's ideal growing temperature.   The perfect temperature to keep a tomato living so that it sweetens and continues to ripen is 65°F to 85° F in an open oxygen-rich location.

Commercial tomato growers have tried to convince us that the red balls that appear in most grocery stores are "fresh" tomatoes. Often they are picked while still green and tasteless. Usually packed in plastic and cellophane and gassed with ethylene gas to redden their skins on their trip to the northern markets.

Now we have greenhouse-grown fruit that has been raised under grow lights so they will turn color and are left on the vine in clusters.  This again is an illusion to convince the buyer that this is a vine-fresh product.  Better, but still missing something.

Now that genetic engineering has improved the shelf  life of tomatoes, they can remain in a kind of suspended animation for several weeks or even up to a month without turning to mush.  However.....they're still missing something. That something is aroma, flavor and nutrients!

I  have to admit that some of the grape tomato varieties are sweet, but they still don't have that elusive taste of a homegrown tomato.  In the winter I buy them and dream of summer when I can have a truly delectable tomato right off my own tomato plant. 

This year with our hot weather, the tomatoes have done well.  I was very stringent about keeping them watered and they are looking wonderful.  As you see in the photos below, my tomatoes are planted in large pots. I decided that since sunlight is at a premium and the tomatoes could not compete with my five foot tall Bee Balm (monarda) that this would give them a better chance of survival. This places the plants about two feet higher than the surrounding flowers. So far, so good! We should have some ripe ones in just a few days.  I can't wait for a good old fashioned BLT sandwich!






A "Traveling Onion" (on left) tries to plant it's new bulbs in the tomato pot. A baseball size tomato showing color!

This year the varieties I am growing are Celebrity and Better Boy. Last year I grew an heirloom Brandywine and while they were really delicious, I ended up with less than a dozen tomatoes.  This years harvest is going to be much better! I usually use them up fresh, but occasionally I will freeze them whole.  I just throw them in a plastic zip bag and they go right into the freezer.  I use them within a few months to make  pasta sauce.

While I was reading up on tomatoes for this post, I found the cute quote below.




 
"Only two things
that money can't buy:  
That's true love 
and
homegrown tomatoes." 
                   Guy Clark