Pickled pear tomatoes: Little Darlings

My parents have always subscribed to the cocktail as part of a civilized existence.  It was a pre-dinner ritual at our house that included a Manhattan for my Lovely Mother, and a Martini for Papa Ron.   The Lord of the Manor is also a Martini man, so despite the fact that they have always been a little, ah, medicinal for me I know from gin!

Frickin' Oreo martini?

Nowadays, a martini has come to mean anything liquor served up in a stemmed cocktail glass including abominations like the birthday cake martini, the bacon martini, and the no-joke-it-really-exists deep fried Oreo martini.

Oh.
My.
God.

A Martini is made with gin and vermouth and garnished with a twist or an olive.  That's it.  A vodka martini is always referred to as a vodka martini--but at least it is still the bracing palate cleansing, appetite piquing, relaxing drink as sure as god made juniper berries and herbs.

So, bearing that in mind, according to Papa Ron, it is acceptable to substitute any small savory pickled vegetables without losing the spirit of the drink (get it?  spirit?  drink?  anyone?)

Last year I found myself with an abundance of green tomatoes from my garden.  While the larger varieties work well in chow chow and fried, the little midgets were a puzzle.  But I hate to throw food away, so I looked for a way to pickle them (when in doubt, add vinegar and spices, amirite?)  The results were not only the cutest little jars you've ever seen, according to The Lord of the Manor they are just aces for Martinis.  Papa Ron seems to agree.  I have added them to my Bloody Mary's (breakfast in a glass!) to good effect as well.

Yes, Virginia, there are ripe tomatoes here too.  Separate them!

To make the little darlings you will need:

~4 C green pear or grape tomatoes without stems and well washed
1/2 C white vinegar
1 qt water
1/3 C kosher or canning salt
1 t celery seed
1 t mustard seed
1 t peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Hot chilis (fresh or dried) to taste
2 pint jars, lids and rings

In a large nonreactive pot, add vinegar, water and salt and bring to a boil stirring to make sure all the salt is dissolved.

Spice it up!

Sterilize the jars and fill with hot water while the pickling solution cooks.

Pour out the hot water and divide the spices equally between the jars.  Fill the jars with the tomatoes, shaking down to pack relatively tightly.

Pour in the hot pickling solution leaving ~1/4 inch (2mm) headspace.  Wipe off jar rims and place sterilized lids and rings.  Tighten gently and leave to cool.

Hi, I'm adorable.  And delicious.

Once cooled, place the jars in the refrigerator where they will keep for at least 4 months.

The classic Papa Ron martini:

2 parts gin
1 part dry vermouth
serve over ice cubes in a double rocks glass
Garnish with multiple olives, gerhkins, cocktail onions (yes this is a Gibson), or baby pickled tomatoes.

The author and Papa Ron ca.1994.  Martinis in the background.

Sunshine in wintertime

Canning tomatoes

Tomatoes are a good mid level canning project--post jam/relish and pre canned tuna.  Tomatoes are very acidic so you can preserve them without using a pressure canner and they are just so darn useful!  At our house we use canned tomatoes at least twice a week.  In winter our usage ramps up, because of the use in stews and chili.

Canned tomatoes are also very forgiving.  You can mush 'em and mash 'em and no one cares. 

You can also pre-process them into salsas (as we've already seen), sauces and pastes.  With all of those changes, however, you may need to change your canning technique.  Particularly with a marinara sauce there can be a loss of acidity than will doom the canning to failure.

Certain tomato varieties are more acidic than others.  If you have any questions about the acidity of your tomatoes add lemon juice, 1 t per pint. 

To can tomatoes, you will need:

Tomatoes

Not the prettiest, a mixed bag of end of season fruit.

(and sterilized jars, rings, lids, a non reactive pot and a canning pot...)


Wash and pick over the tomatoes, discarding any mushy or cracked fruit.  Peel the tomatoes, core and quarter them. 

To peel tomatoes you will need a pot of boiling water, and a bowl of ice water (the ice water will need to be changed/replenished several time during a session). 

Ow!  This is hot!

Dammit!  I told you this was hot!  Now I'm cracked!

...And now this crazy lady has skinned me!  And so easily too!

Dropped washed tomatoes into boiling water and cook ~45sec or until the skin cracks.  Remove and immediately place in ice water bath.  Core the tomato and the skin will "slip" off. 







This works by cooking the tomato immediately under the skin and therefore breaking the seal between the skin and the meat.  The ice bath prevents the tomato from cooking further and preventing loss of flavor.





Heat the prepared fruit in non reactive pot until boiling.  Ladle tomatoes and juice into jars (I use pints).  Add 1 t lemon juice per pint if necessary (I'm a coward, I use it every time).  You can also add  1/2 t kosher salt per pint.  Wipe rims and place lids and rings and tighten gently.

Process 10 minutes (15 for me) in a boiling water bath.

Now you have a glorious reminder of summer when the weather goes south.

Delicious!

Forgive me...

I apologize for my absence.  August exploded and I've just begun piecing it back together.  Thing 1, my daughter, just started kindergarten (yea her!) and myself, the master of the house and Thing 2 have all had the creeping crud.  After 3 weeks I can't hear my lungs when I breathe at night.  This is a good thing. **
Basta!  Enough!  How about some canning?

Pick your own!

Today Thing 2 and I went to Gilcrease orchard, our local pick your own farm.  This place is amazing!  We got 20# of apples (Granny smith this year), 10# of pears, 10# of pickling cucumbers, 5# of ripe tomatoes, 1 gallon (and one pint for the Thing) fresh pressed apple cider, 3# of zucchini, and one giant zucchini suitable for self defense.  This haul cost all of $50 and is much fresher and tastier than the junk produce at the grocery store.  And we supported a local business (eat local!)

Well, what am I going to do with all this goodness?  The cucumbers are going to be made into pickles--some more of the garlic dills, but also some processed pickles that can be stored in the pantry.
The tomatoes will be turned into salsa (with a little help from my own garden) and I plan on a couple quarts of processed tomatoes to give us a little sunshine this winter.

The pears and apples will be made into butters and some applesauce.  The apple butter is my pride and joy; an old, old, oooold family recipe.  My first canning project was apple butter and I have made it every year for the past 20 or so.  So please wait patiently, I promise at least a half dozen new posts in the near future.

Farm life was hard...until it was soft.

**Thankfully we were not ill in any way that would have been helped by this ancient recipe found in Leta's collection to treat "running off of the bowels" [diarrhea]. 

SSSSalsa!

The Black River

Back in the halcyon days of my youth (the late 80s) I spent a couple of weeks with my sister Petunia at her house in (very) rural southern Missouri.  Its a great place;  the Black River runs through it and all summer you can enjoy nature at its Ozarkian finest.
That year Petunia and her first husband had a garden with a capital G.  The produce produced.  And produced.  And produced.  Everything went to zucchini level.  There were midnight runs leaving watermelons on neighbors porches because no one wanted them.  And my god, the tomatoes!

TOE-MAY-TOES.

We picked a gallon or more a day, and after quarts of gazpacho, oodles of marinara, and salad after salad after salad, we decided to make salsa.

Now neither of us (at the time) had anything but a decent sense of taste and a love of cooking under our belts. So we did what we thought would taste good and it did...but...

At that time in (very) rural southern Missouri there was no source for hot peppers unless you grew them yourself, and Sheri hadn't.  So we bought pickled banana peppers by the jar, and they aren't very hot.  We cooked the tomatoes, pickled peppers, onions and assorted spices and let it cool.  It was a bit, let us say, juicy.  Neither one of use thought to drain it.  And very, very mild.  But still quite tasty, and Tabasco goes a long way.  We didn't jar it, we put it in ziploc bags and froze it (which by the way is a great alternative preservation method to canning for most things).  

Petunia and I August 1971.  She's the tall one.

So this post is dedicated to my sister and the glorious summer of watermelons.











This recipe is my own and makes a great chip salsa.  It doesn't use any cilantro, which has unfortunately become ubiquitous in salsas here on the western front.

All the produce is from my garden!

You will need:

~3 qt of tomatoes (mine are yellow pear, Roma and some rather weedy looking Better Boys the master of the house grew)
~2 large onions
2-3 bell peppers
hot peppers to taste (I used 12 Anaheim, 3 jalapenos and 4 dried habaneros)  I didn't seed the peppers to give them more kick
3 cloves garlic
3T kosher salt
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/3 C white vinegar

1 large non reactive pot to cook the salsa, one large pot with a canning rack, and sterilized jars, lids and rings.

Wash and rough chop the tomatoes and onions and put in the non reactive pot.

Wash the bell peppers, remove the stems, seeds and ribs and rough chop the meat.  Add to the pot.
 Wash and dice the hot peppers.  Remove the seeds and ribs if you don't have a taste for spice.  I recommend ALWAYS using gloves to handle hot peppers and I use a designated cutting board for them as well.

Note the VERY IMPORTANT gloves

If you don't wear gloves while handling hot peppers, eventually you are going to wish you had.  Eyes, nostrils and other "sensitive" areas will burn burn burn like a burning ring of fire if you touch them even after multiple hand washings (not that it has ever happened to me, ahem.)

Dice the garlic and add the garlic and peppers to the pot.

Pour in the vinegar, sugar and salt and cook over medium high heat stirring every few minutes until the onions and bell peppers  are translucent ~20 minutes.

Drain the mixture.  Drain it as if your life depends on it (ok, hyperbole.)

But seriously, this is 2 1/2 cups of liquid you don't need!

Take the immersion blender to the drained mixture and blend to your desired texture.

Place in sterilized, heated jars.  Wipe the rims, place the lids and rings and tighten gently.  Process as directed for salsa.

Finished product!  This recipe makes just over 3 pints of deliciousness.

This is an honest-to-god thing!

*To go to zucchini:  When one's garden produces so much of anything one cannot eat it or give any more away.  In extreme cases of zucchini, friends and neighbors actively avoid you because they don't want anymore damn vegetables and you are reduced to midnight runs to drop of produce at peoples' doors.  The problem arises that if your garden is this productive, so is everyone else's and you come home to bags of "goodies" on your porch too.

Gardening in the desert: An overview

The harvest 8/13/12; cucumbers, yellow pear and Roma tomatoes and a few Anaheim peppers.

I've briefly mentioned my garden here.  As you know, I live in Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada!tm  which is located in the center of the Mojave desert.  Desert, as in dry and hot desert.  Dry. And. Hot.   Right now its been ~110F in the shade during the day and cooling down to a chilly 89F at night.  So it may come as a surprise that I have a booming fruit and vegetable garden.  
 
Most fruits and vegetables do very well here in the heat of summer, particularly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons.  Root vegetables such as onions, turnips, carrots and potatoes do well early in the year and the cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage grow over winter.  Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach and all of the hard greens (kale, mustard, endive) can be grown in the early spring.  Fruit and nut trees are also successful--we have a dwarf lime and an apricot tree, and as previously mentioned, my parents have a very productive fig.  If nothing else, herbs can be grown year round;  people use rosemary bushes for landscaping!

30% shade cloth

Of course there are a few tricks to make a garden successful.  While we have no risk of flooding, drought and heat are an intrinsic part of life here.  What's the secret?  Irrigation of course.  But very frugal irrigation; in the heat of the summer we water for 3 minutes at 7am, 1pm, and 7 pm using a low water drip system.  Another necessity is shade cloth.  Here in the valley a 30% shade weave is recommended--you can buy it precut or in bulk.  I'm cheaper than lazy, so I buy in bulk and cut to fit.

The western half of my raised garden in our backyard with shade cloth in place.  From left to right you can see Roma, bush beans, cucumbers fining, bell peppers, more beans, Brandywine and finally the massive yellow pear tomato falling over the wall.  In the far right is my dwarf lime tree.  And yes, it's 110F right now.

It is also very important to choose the vegetable and fruit varieties that are suited to hot dry weather.  For example, while very meaty dense varieties of tomatoes are high producers (Roma, pear, cherry and grape), Beefsteak varieties wither and don't produce worth a darn. 

Earthworm romance

Fertilizing the very alkaline soil of the desert isn't too difficult.  The most magic ingredient is epsom salts used judiciously.  We also have a home composter (I'll talk about this in another entry) that doubles as an earthworm farm.  I can't tell you how excited I was this spring when we were tilling up the soil and discovered several earthworms (and a few earthworm pieces--oops) in the garden bed.

I'm going to sign off for now and go for a swim.  Next time well make use of some of those tomatoes, peppers, herbs, onions and limes in a bruschetta
topping and some homemade Pico de Gallo relish.

Farming in Iowa is an entirely different endeavor from desert gardening,   Harry Meyers (My Great Grandfather) and the mules.

Chicken legs on the grill

Huzzah!  I get 8$ and a tip for cleavage!

Anyone who has been to a fair (county, state, Renaissance--whatever) has seen the succulent turkey legs.  This year I resolved to make them at home because, well, 8$ a turkey leg!

Thank you, Mr Hill.

I found several suggestions how to mimic the flavor, but they all required woodsmoke and we grill with propane (and propane accessories).

A gas grill is a treasure beyond price for we meat eaters.  In the summer in particular, it is no trick to light it and have a cooking surface in under 5 minutes--without heating up the house.
But gas grills have a downside--no flavor from the fire.  Though the charred surface may cause cancer (what doesn't?), the flavor woodsmoke imparts to meat can't be beat.  This year I resolved to find a way to add smoke to the meat that didn't include a new wood burning grill.

Here's the trick:  wood chips, aluminum foil and water.   I use commercial mesquite chips you can buy at the grocery store but you can get all fancified and use home dried fruit wood chips.  Place a double handful in the middle of a square of aluminum foil, place some ice chips on top, and fold the aluminum into a squarish packet.  Poke a few holes in the packet and place on the grill.  With the grill on the lowest heat, the chips will start to smoke in about 20 minutes and will continue for a few hours, plenty of time for cooking your poultry.

Being lazy at the farm.

.

Now I first did these with turkey legs, and they are easy enough to do, but chicken legs only take about 90 minutes, and turkey legs take at least 3 hours.  And as has been established, I'm lazy and sustained effort tires me.


You will need:

Chicken (I like legs or hindquarters for grilling--much juicier than white meat)
Salt, brown sugar, spices to taste for brining (I use garlic powder and red pepper flakes)
Olive oil
Soy sauce
Apple cider vinegar
Spice rub (I use kosher salt, turmeric, garlic powder, paprika, and ground pepper)
Sweet jelly or honey for glaze (I use my homemade rosemary-jalapeño jelly *)

Incredibly creepy brining chicken.

First, brine the meat.  I take gallon plastic storage bags and add a generous amount of salt, brown sugar, garlic and pepper flakes, then I put about 8 chicken legs in the bag and fill with cold water.  Mix well by squishing the chicken brine balloon and refrigerate overnight.

Legs, spice rub and baste.

Drain the chicken and pat dry.  Place on a clean grill after the woodsmoke has been going for a while.  I recommend placing the chip packet(s) over to one side of the grill over a low flame, and turning off any other burners--in other words, the chicken will be smoking, not grilling.

Note the wood chip packets.

You will need to rotate the legs though the cooking process to ensure good browning of the skin and appropriate cooking to eliminate risk of bacterial contamination.

After placing the chicken on the grill, brush copiously with the olive oil, soy sauce and vinegar mixture.  Sprinkle lightly with the spice rub.  Close the grill cover.

This has never happened to me.

Check back in 30 minutes or so (but be mindful of the cry "Honey, there's a LOT of smoke coming from the grill"--the Lord of the Manor is very helpful).

Halfway done.

At 30 minutes, turn over and rotate the chicken (from low heat areas to higher heat).  Brush with the olive oil mixture and sprinkle again with the rub.  Repeat every 15-30 minutes.  The more loaded up your grill, the longer this will take.  The batch in the photos was 24 chicken legs and took about 2 hours all told.
When the legs are cooked through (the meat should be165 F with a meat thermometer, but a more telling sign is when you pick up the leg, the meat stays behind--falling easily from the bone) it is time to add a glaze--if you want.

Glazing.

Brush the glaze over the meat, close the grill.  Wait 5 minutes.  Turn the meat and repeat.

Remove, cool and enjoy! 

Too good to be believed.

These can be frozen and reheated for future enjoyment.  I made the double batch for a party next week when the grill will be otherwise occupied by pulled pork in the morning and roasted veggies and veggie burgers at the time of the party.

Hi there!

A side note on poultry vs pork.



My sister quit eating pork--she says she feels pigs are very close to humans.

They took ma legs!

Poultry, however, is just fine.

*If you're lucky, I share the recipe sometime

Tomato....butter?

Living in a frigid wasteland does strange things to your head.  At least that's what I thought when my friend Martin (from frigid Regina Saskatchewan) was ecstatically describing tomato butter.

Fruit butters are preserved fruits that are sweetened, spiced, pureed and cooked to a thick buttery consistency.  I make apple and pear butter every year, but had never heard of the tomato variety.

Crazy and violent!

Crazy Canucks.

Of course, tomatoes are a fruit.  And I have a lot of tomatoes from the garden this summer--many more that can be eaten fresh or even given away.
So tomato butter it is.


The basis for this recipe is from Martin's Great-Granny Stewart:

Thanks to Martin's mom for sharing

.

You will need:

10# ripe tomatoes skinned and cut up
6 C malt vinegar
 1T whole allspice
1T whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
2 T coarse salt
1T red pepper flakes

Cover skinned and diced tomatoes with 2 C malt vinegar and stand [covered] overnight.  Drain and reserve liquid.

To the drained tomatoes add 4 C malt vinegar and 1 C reserved liquid and boil for 10 minutes [in a non-reactive pot].  Place spices in a mesh bag and add to pot.  Boil [gently?] for 3 hours the add sugar.  Boil [gently?] for 30 minutes and bottle [fill sterilized hot jars with the hot tomato butter, place warmed lids and rings.  Tighten rings gently and process.]

I have modified the recipe to accommodate the pear tomatoes I have in overabundance.  Some of the changes are gleaned from a tomato jam recipe I found(1), some from my 20 years of making pear and apple butter(2), and some from sheer laziness(3).

The modified recipe is as follows:

You will need:

This is gonna be great.

5# ripe whole tomatoes (pear or grape preferred)(1,3)
3 1/2 C  granulated sugar
6 T freshly squeezed lime juice (1,2)
2 T balsamic vinegar (1,2)
2 t finely grated ginger root (1)
1 t ground (2) cinnamon
1/2 t ground (2) cloves
1 T kosher salt
2 T finely minced hot peppers (I used Anaheim peppers fresh from the garden)(2)
This yielded 2&1/2 pints of butter.  Yield will vary with the liquid in the tomatoes.

This looks great.

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot(2,3).

This smells great!

Using a hand blender, puree until chunky(2,3).  Cook uncovered on high, stirring when you think of it(2,3), for at least 6 hours.  Reduce heat to low and continue overnight (~10-12 hours)(2).

Use the hand blender again to puree to a smooth consistency(2).   Cook until the butter mounds up when dripped from a spoon(2).

Pour cooked tomato butter into sterilized and heated jars.  Wipe off jar top, place sterilized and heated lids and jars.  Place heated rings and tighten gently.
Process as for a cooked jam (15 minutes for me).  Let cool, listen for the pop! and store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

As always, if a canned product smells off or has any mold or growth when opened, DO NOT EAT IT!



Fruit butters are delicious as a spread for toast, over cream cheese, as a glaze for meats and even on ice cream.

This tastes great!!11eleventy!!!

I think it tastes pretty darn good.  A jar is winging its way to Martin right now and I will ask for a report and let you know (or maybe he'll let you know himself...)



And speaking of tomatoes...

Brandywine heirloom tomato in my garden