Tomatoes

Whole Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients:

•  6 fresh whole tomatoes
• 6 teaspoons vinegar
•  6 whole cloves
•  6 teaspoons brown sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Leave skins on tomatoes; core. Put 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and one clove in each cored tomato. Place tomatoes in a baking dish and bake for 35 to 45 minutes at 350°. Tomatoes should be slightly browned.

Serves 6.

Stuffed Tomatoes With Spinach

Tomatoes are stuffed with a mixture of spinach and bacon, along with sour cream and seasonings. A stuffed tomato recipe, topped with cheese and baked.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 8 ounces fresh chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
• a few dashes Tabasco sauce or other hot pepper sauce
• 4 medium firm ripe tomatoes
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

In a heavy skillet, cook onion in baking drippings or butter until tender. Stir in spinach; cover and continue to cook for about 4 minutes, until tender. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

Cut off tops of tomatoes; scoop out centers, leaving shell intact. Sprinkle tomato shells lightly with salt and fill with spinach mixture. Place tomatoes in a lightly greased baking dish; bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Top each tomato with Mozzarella cheese and continue baking just until cheese is melted.

Makes 4 servings.

Fresh Tomato Soup

Tomato soup with fresh tomatoes, rice, and onions. Feel free to replace 1 to 2 cups of the chicken broth with tomato juice or V-8 Vegetable Juice for even more flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 8 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chop
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons uncooked long-grain rice or rice blend
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon or dried leaf thyme, or to taste
•  freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:

In a saucepan, sauté onion, celery and carrots in butter until softened but not browned. Add tomatoes and a small amount of chicken broth. Simmer for 15 minutes. In a Dutch oven or stock pot, combine sautéed vegetables, remaining chicken broth and rice. Season with salt, thyme and pepper. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes. Serve garnished with parsley. If desired, blend a few cups of soup and add back to the mixture for a thicker soup.

Serves 8 to 10.

Basic Guacamole Dip

• 4 ripe avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashe
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced onion
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Thoroughly mix together the avocado, tomato, onion, and lemon juice in a bowl. Serve immediately. Store unused portions in refrigerator.

Tomato Salsa

• 5 pounds Roma tomatoes
• 3 green bell peppers, diced
• 8 stalks celery, chopped
• 8 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 (4 ounce) cans diced green chiles
•  3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 3 onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1.    In a six-quart pot of boiling water, blanch tomatoes, drain and cool under cold water. Peel and coarsely chop. Return chopped tomatoes to pot, bring to boil and reduce heat. Skim juice from top of tomatoes and reserve, if you'd like, for another use. Do not overcook and allow tomatoes to remain chunky.

2.    In two quarts of boiling salted water, add chopped bell peppers, celery, jalapenos, garlic, green chilies and cook until all ingredients are tender. Drain and add vegetables to tomatoes.

3.    Add salt, oregano, black pepper and cilantro. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

4.    Hot pack the salsa in clean pint jars. Follow manufactures suggestions on preparing the lids and jars for proper sealing.

Fried Green Tomatoes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 5 green tomatoes, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 cup crushed saltine crackers
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup butter

1.    In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt and pepper. Place the crushed saltine crackers in another bowl, and the beaten eggs in a third bowl.

2.    Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Dip each tomato slice in the egg to coat, then in the flour mixture. Dip the floured tomato slice back into the egg, and then into the cracker crumbs. Place the coated tomato slices in the hot skillet, and fry until golden brown on each side, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Add more butter to the pan, if necessary. Serve hot!

"Sundried” Tomatoes

From CSA member Elana Richman

We realize the last tomato harvest is a bad time for this recipe, but print this and keep it with other recipes for next year!

• Any tomatoes you have, cut in half
• Sea salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F., or the lowest setting possible.

Trim and discard the stem ends of the tomatoes. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, side by side and crosswise on cake racks set on the oven racks. Do not allow the tomatoes to touch one another. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Place in the oven and bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and feel dry, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Check the tomatoes from time to time: They should remain rather flexible, not at all brittle. Once dried, remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow them to thoroughly cool on cake racks. (Smaller tomatoes will dry more quickly than larger ones. Remove each tomato from the oven as it is dried.)

Transfer the tomatoes to zipper-lock bags. The tomatoes will last indefinitely.  Or freeze and they will last even more indefinitely.