Tag Archives: cooking

How to Pickle Green Cherry Tomatoes

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Just a couple of weeks ago I was commenting on how unseasonably warm it was. Since then we’ve gotten colder with most nights below freezing and the ground feels hard under my feet. Neil wrapped the chicken’s run with plastic to protect them from the cold wind and they are spending a lot of time in their little hoop house instead of the larger (un-wrapped) enclosure.

I had many green cherry tomatoes left on the vine, which I didn’t want to go to waste. I did some searching online and found a few pickle recipes. I decided to make a recipe that didn’t use water-bath canning techniques, which just means that I need to eat them up sooner.

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Adapted from John Kessler’s Pickled Green Cherry Tomatoes (or tomolives)

1 quart green cherry tomatoes or quartered large green tomatoes

1/2 bunch of dill (about 6-8 stems)

1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

2 t salt

1 t freshly cracked pepper

5 large cloves of garlic, peeled and thickly sliced

Optional: 1-2 hot peppers. I chose not to put them in because of my daughter, but I think it really would help the flavor.

Pierce the tomatoes all the way through with a skewer and then place in a clean quart-sized Mason jar. Add the dill sprigs and pepper.

Bring 1 1/2 c. water to boil with the remaining ingredients. Pour liquid into the jars and cover the tomatoes. Stir the dill and garlic into the tomatoes. Cover and bring to room temperature. Let the tomatoes absorb the flavor overnight in the fridge.

What I would do differently: The original recipe just said to pierce the tomatoes in the stem end. This made 1/2 of the tomato taste pickled and 1/2 taste like a sour un-ripe tomato. After piercing them all the way through, I let them sit another day. I think the longer they sit, the better. These aren’t “officially” canned, so they will go bad. Don’t let them sit around too long. I also thought they could use a little more flavor, so will experiment with the hot pepper next time. I thought they were interesting and definitely a good use for what would have just gone to waste. There are also recipes for friend green cherry tomatoes (cut in 1/2, dip them in some sort of flour or corn meal and then fry), but it seemed as though the breading just wanted to slip off the smooth tomato skins.

Actually I’m really getting jazzed to learn about canning, pickling and fermenting, so I think I’ll try some different pickling techniques next time.

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Homemade Ravioli

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Back in July, my husband gave me a KitchenAid stand mixer for our 10th anniversary. I know most people get one of these when they first get married, but back then I couldn’t imagine having such a huge appliance in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen.

I really love baking, so I’ve been having fun kneading bread dough and mixing batter for cupcakes. We decided to get a pasta rolling/cutting attachment, which has turned out to be a lot of fun. There is something so satisfying about feeding dough into a machine and having flattened sheets come out. Then you feed the sheets in and long strings drip out. I pretend I’m very sophisticated making pasta, but the reality is that I’m just playing with the grown-up version of a playdoh extruder.

Although I’ve been really swamped with work for the past 2 weeks getting ready for a photo shoot, I decided that I absolutely had to make ravioli. We had some extra ground beef/ground turkey mix from dinner, so I flipped through my book The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles for a recipe. I chose to make meat and ricotta with basil filling.

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Meat and Ricotta with Basil Filling based on recipe from The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles by The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine.

1 T olive oil (evoo)

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 lb of ground meat. You can use different combos such as ground beef with pork. I had beef/turkey mix on hand.

1 c. ricotta

1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese

1 large egg yolk

1/2 c. minced basil leaves (I used the last basil I had growing in a pot)

1/2 t salt

freshly ground pepper

Heat the garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add the meat and cook on med-high until the meat browns and the liquid evaporates. Break up the pieces as it cooks. Drain off the fat and let cool a bit.

In a medium mixing bowl, add the cooled meat and the rest of the ingredients. You can keep the mixture in the fridge overnight if you like.

I made a basic pasta dough of 3 large eggs mixed into 2 cups of flour. I always try and sneak some whole wheat flour into my cooking. I only added about 1/4 cup because I didn’t want the dough to get too heavy. You can  mix your dough in a food processor, by hand, or with the dough hook of your stand mixer. If the dough looks crumbly, add water 1 T at a time until it comes together. You don’t want to add too much in case it gets sticky. I made the dough before the filling because it needs to rest for about 1/2 hour before you start rolling it out.

Now comes the fun part. When the dough is ready, you roll it out in thin sheets. Drop teaspoonfuls of the filling about an 1-1 1/4″ apart on the dough, fold over and seal. It took me a couple of tries to get my technique down. At first I was getting a lot of air trapped in with the filling, but then figured out how to press it out before I completely sealed the raviolis. I trimmed them into squares using a pizza wheel. I’m pretty darn happy with how they turned out. I’m going to experiment with different fillings, because really, how can anything surrounded by dough be anything but tasty and satisfying?

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Much needed rain

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oatmeal-cookieWe’re getting rain after about a month of dry weather. I’m happy about it because I planted some seeds (lettuce, spinach, kale and *gasp* grass seed) and I don’t really like to water the garden. It’s getting cold here, so I have to cut down the basil and make batches of pesto to freeze. I can’t remember what temperature kills basil, but it’s somewhere above freezing. We’re down to the 40s at night, so it’s cutting it close.

I bought some organic garlic and am going to plant some this fall. I’ve never planted garlic before, so don’t know whether to believe or ignore the hype about buying seed garlic. I’m choosing to ignore the hype and just got plain old regular organic garlic. I think I need to wait a little longer to plant it, so it’s in the fridge right now. I’ll probably put it in after I chop down and prune my plants. Goodbye tomatoes. How I loved you!

I also saved some tomato seeds from my plants. I didn’t really research the proper way to do that. I just put a bunch of seeds on a paper towel to absorb the pulp. Now they are a part of the paper towel, so I’m not sure if I should pry them off, or just cut up the paper towel and plant it along with the seeds in the spring.

With the cooler weather has come more baking and knitting. I just made nutty oatmeal cookies from Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters. I didn’t use the vegan options and used butter and eggs. The book is interesting (think Omnivore’s Dilemma lite) and offers weekly menus and recipes. I seem incapable of menu planning, so I’ve decided to try some of his menus. The book emphasizes healthy, mostly plant-based dishes, so I wasn’t sure if the cookies would be good or taste like particle board. I was pleasantly surprised. They had chopped up dried apples in them instead of the usual raisins that my family doesn’t like.

As for the knitting, I am making a raglan sweater for Neil from wool I spun ages ago. I’m crossing my fingers that I have enough wool to finish it. This weekend we are joining our friends for a weekend in Woodstock, NY and a visit to the NY Sheep and Wool festival on Saturday.

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