If like me, you’ve grown tomatoes this year, we all get those that don't ripen & since discovering a great way to use green tomatoes I’m excited when they don’t ripen! Traditionally we boil said green tomatoes with vinegar and sugar, a few spices and claim it as green tomato chutney as if it's a thing.
If I’m honest, it’s not the nicest, most identifiable thing I’ve ever eaten. It’s just sweet and sour mush.
Some years back on a trip to Romania I discovered gogonele and became addicted to these slightly salty preserved tomatoes. Still identifiable & retained their texture so you could slice, dice, chop and enjoy them as an actual thing.
The little ‘uns are great as a snack, bigger ones of course with cheeses, rich cured meats, sliced into a salad or diced to perk up an omelette, you get the idea. I’ll post what I’ll call the base recipe, the key thing being the quantity of tomatoes to the slightly salty brine and the method, but you can see from the picture I like to add other stuff.
Woody herbs like rosemary and thyme look great, cloves of garlic and chilli’s which make additional tasty treats to look forward too. If you have got fresh horseradish that’s traditional but carrot & parsnip look great too, let me know what you think!
Begin with:-
1K Tomatoes
1L water and 40g salt
Main thing here is that you wash the tomatoes, dry them and gently heat the salt and water up to dissolve the salt to create the preserving the brine. Sterilise a 500ml Kilner (or similar repurposed jar) ready to accept them.
Now, let's make that jar look interesting and add some extra preserved treats!
Woody herbs like rosemary and thyme look great, cloves of garlic, cabbage leaves and chilli’s which make additional tasty treats to look forward too. If you have got fresh horseradish that’s traditional but carrot & parsnip look great too, let me know what you think!
Then find a way to weigh everything down under the liquid, you can buy glass weights, plastic covers, little glass dishes and even cocktail sticks just make sure everything is submerged. Pop the jar in a cool, dark place...in other words a cupboard overnight, then the next day close the lid and wait a month or two, just let it do its thing.