The Organic Farm

Tomatoes, Green

Fried Green Tomatoes

Slice tomatoes crosswise and dust with flour, salt and pepper. Sauté in hot oil, turning once, like pancakes. Let them cook through a bit, but not mushy. Start early and warm them in oven until you have enough. You will need seconds!

Those of us from the southern U.S., where green tomatoes are a regular feature on ethnic menus, use white cornmeal instead of flour, and sometimes they are dipped in eggs beforehand. (We bring back white corn meal from Tennessee on a regular basis. My dad used to grind his own. Melba Rabinowitz.)

Green Tomato Mock Mincemeat

(From the Joy of Cooking. Makes about 10 pints. This can be frozen instead of canned and is wonderful for making cookies, pies or eating with sour cream as an after dinner compote. Melba Rabinowitz.)

Sprinkle 1 Tbsp salt over 20 small cored and chopped green tomatoes and let stand for 1 hour. (Can also use 40-60 cherry-sized tomatoes; it is not necessary to core cherry tomatoes.)

Drain tomatoes, cover with boiling water and let stand 5 minutes before draining. Grate the rind and chop the pulp of 1 orange. Mix the orange and tomatoes in a large saucepan and add: 12 medium pared, chopped apples, 1 lb raisins, 1 ½ cups suet (or a couple of tablespoons of oil), 3 ½ cups firmly packed brown sugar, ½ cup vinegar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp each of cloves and nutmeg and ½ tsp of ginger.

Cook mixture like a compote, until it thickens a little. If you plan to can it, be sure it is boiling hot. Pour into hot sterile jars, leaving 1-inch headroom. Process pints for 25 minutes in a pressure cooker at 10 pounds.

Mincemeat Cookies

From Melba Rabinowitz.

½ cup butter or margarine softened ½ cup granulated sugar
1 medium egg 1 cup mincemeat
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (you may need 2 ½ tsp baking powder
more flour if mincemeat is juicy)

In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mincemeat. Stir to blend using a fork or wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients and continue blending until dough is stiff. Using a heaping teaspoon, drop the cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 400°F oven for 12-15 minutes.

Green Tomato Curry

From the Harrowsmith Tomato Handbook, contributed by Judy Lien. Serves 6.

To make base:
Sauté a large minced onion in 2 Tbsp butter. Add 4 large green tomatoes, chopped (or about 30 cherry-sized tomatoes). Cover and simmer until tomatoes soften.

Sprinkle approximately 4 Tbsp flour and 2 tsp (or more) curry powder, salt, pepper a pinch of sugar and cardamom (optional) over the partially cooked tomatoes. Stir thoroughly. Add 2 cups water (or broth) and simmer until thick.

Taste and adjust spices as necessary. Add any of the following and heat through: cooked, cubed lamb, beef, pork or chicken livers; sliced hard-boiled eggs; shrimp. Serve with steaming rice and condiments or on toast.

Csalamade

Contributed by Kathy Mackey.

Take equal amounts of green tomatoes, red and green peppers, white onions, cabbage and cucumbers. Wash all veggies but do not peel. Slice them paper thin (important to slice them very thin).

Put all into a large bowl (or large clean salt meat bucket. Add a handful each of salt and sugar for each 5lbs. of veggies and mix well.

Cover and let stand in a cool place for at leasr 10 hours (overnight is better).

Get clean, wide mouthed jars ready. Squeeze vegiies with your hands a handful at a time (to get rif of the "wild" juices, as my grandmother used to say) and put into jars. Di not press too hard into jars.

Mix water, vinegar and sugar to your taste. Make sure the mixtue is a little more vinegary to allow for vegetables to take up some of the flavor. Pour over veggies in the jars.

Poke with a knife to get rid of as many bubbles and air spaces as you can. Fill jar to the top with vinegar liquid. Put on lids and refrigerate.