Tomato Season!

Every year around May I start highly anticipating my favorite product of the summer...Tomatoes. One of natures most perfect foods I believe. Last year Tom and I grew 3 varieties: Cherokee Purple-his favorite, Cosmonaut Volkov-my favorite, and Heinz Paste. I think we just about hit the nail on the head as far as what I need out of a tomato.

Cherokee Purple is an ugly, juicy, but very flavorful tomato. Great for salads, and making tomato juice. You have to pick it when the bottom is deep pink and the top is still green and then wait a couple of days for it to ripen. It does look purple.

Cosmonaut Volkov is a beautiful tomato that slices nicely and has an excellent flavor. Great for sandwiches or salsa, and putting up as diced tomatoes.

While you can make sauce from any tomato, a paste tomato greatly reduces the amount of cook time. For starters, most of them won't have blemishes so the blanch and peel is really all you'll need to do before putting them through a food mill. I like to puree them in a food processor first then put them through the mill to extract seeds. Here again, the paste tomato won't have nearly the amount of seeds as a salad or slicing tomato. The difference in reduction time of Cherokee Purple (juicy) and Heinz paste was 7 hours. And even then the Cherokee Purple was no where near as thick.

Even as diced tomatoes the Cherokee Purple yields more than 50 percent juice to tomato chunks. Not a problem for me because I love the juice for drinking, making a Bloody Mary, or in soup.

This year we've added 3 more varieties, though I'm beginning to wonder if we need bother.

Principe Borghese is another paste variety, very small but I imagine it has a big flavor with minimal liquid. I've been told to not bother with blanching and peeling but just go for the food processor/mill.

Oregon Spring was terrible early on, but may have become another good sandwich tomato. It holds up very well to slicing though does not have as good a flavor as the Cosmonaut Volkov. But some fruits are huge.

Finally no garden is complete without the Cherry Tomato. Say what you want about grape tomatoes but they aren't as flavorful and can be quite mealy. Gardner's Delight is bright and juicy. And if you have more than you need, cherry tomatoes are excellent halved and cooked with Okra. Okra is typically something we also have more of than we need. See recipes for Stewed Okra and Tomatoes, and Pickled Okra.

But my favorite ways to eat a Cherry Tomato 1.) halved on top of a cucumber slice with my green onion cream cheese schmeer, 2.) with a basil leaf wrapped around it warm from the sun. See also Caprese Kabobs recipe.

Challah French Toast

Lots of RiverSong Farm customers tell me our Challah makes excellent French toast. I've never had the opportunity to try it until yesterday. Here is the recipe we used:

1 loaf of RiverSong Farm Challah, sliced on the bias (diagonally) into 10 slices
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
Cinnamon

Place the slices of bread on a cookie sheet in the oven and toast both sides till crispy but not brown.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, add the remaining ingredients and beat. Pour the mixture into a small deep dish. Place the slices into the dish and let soak 15 seconds per side. Then transfer to a buttered medium hot skillet and cook till browned, then flip. As I explained to my kitchen accomplice, French toast like pancakes needs to cook on one side for a long time and the other side for a short time. Alter the heat as needed to prevent burning. As you remove pieces, add more butter and soaked pieces. Place the finished toast back on the cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven till all the pieces are finished.

Enjoy with RiverSong Farm maple syrup or powdered sugar and fresh fruit.

Midnight Salsa

As a pre-teen/teen, one of my summertime rituals was to stay up later than anyone else and sneak into the garden after dark to pick ingredients for a late night salsa snack. Usually this snack was enjoyed while watching Dirty Dancing and/or Jack Horkheimer's "The Star Hustler" (later to be called "Star Gazer").

1 huge, ripe, juicy, flavorful tomato
1 fresh Jalapeno
1 small onion
salt
I don't think I liked Cilantro then, or we didn't grow it, but I might add some now if it hasn't all gone to seed by this point in the summer.

Chop everything into a bowl, mix and eat with tortilla chips. Commence watching the movie Dirty Dancing and "Keep Looking Up."

My Favorite Tomato Sandwich

Few things make me miss gluten but this sandwich is one of them. It just isn't the same without the bread. When I could eat gluten, I'd eat this on crackers, but mostly in whole wheat pita pockets while hanging over the kitchen sink. Anyone who loves Tomato sandwiches knows what I'm talking about.

2 Whole Wheat Pita Pockets
2 medium-big juicy, flavorful, vine ripened, from your own backyard, summer tomatoes
Mayonnaise, not light-and nothing with junk, I'm talking about 5 ingredients or less
Ground Cayenne Pepper (You can make your own! Harvest your Cayennes when red and
string them by the stem, hang dry. When dry, blitz them to a
powder in a food processor or coffee grinder.)
Fresh Parsley, chopped, ideally also from your backyard
Salt

Start by toasting the pita. While hot, spread a dollop of Mayo inside the pocket and sprinkle liberally with Cayenne pepper. Add a small handful of chopped parsley. Slice the tomatoes and stuff as many as you can into the pita. Salt as you go.

I don't think you'll be able to eat more than two. And you really need to assemble and eat, over the sink. I can't really explain how this sandwich came into being but I'm sure it had something to do with my Hummus toppings. Long ago I began topping my Hummus with Olive oil, cayenne pepper, chopped parsley and Tomatoes (and sometimes cucumber), and eating with toasted whole wheat Pita. So, if you're not a Mayonnaise fan, try making Hummus sandwiches. See my previous recipe for Hummus. For me this sandwich is my favorite way to enjoy the summer crop of tomatoes. Also read my latest post, Midnight Salsa.