Thread: Pickling

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Ketchup?

Lol. Nope, not ketchup.

Tomatoes were P30/ kg during the weekend, so I bought 2 kg to cook/ preserve them. Next weekend, I'll probably buy more and cook/ preserve them again.

The way I preserve tomatoes is similar to the tomato base for shakshuka (a Turkish or Mid Eastern dish) or the sambal from Indonesia.

I minced onion, garlic & ginger, then sautéed them. Added the tomatoes (which have been cut as wedges). Added salt & pepper to let the tomatoes "sweat". You may add spices too - I added some curry powder (mix of celery, cumin, etc). Then I also added chopped herbs towards the end - I added fresh oregano leaves since we have loads of oregano, but you can add rosemary, basil, cilantro, etc - up to you. I added a bit of sugar (1/2 tbsp) and 1/4 tbsp Magic sarap seasoning (it has MSG). This is for 1 kg of tomatoes (and my pan can only fit 1 kg).

Then I put the cooked, sautéed tomatoes in plastic food containers and keep in the fridge or freezer. They're nice to eat with eggs (like a semi shakshuka), anything fried or topping on rice or addition to any tomato based dish (instead of using Del Monte tomato sauce).

That's just my (and my family's) style of preserving tomatoes for the "leaner" months. I've seen some Italians (or Italian-Americans) "can" their tomatoes on YT. Some of them made tomato puree - they had this machine which separates the skins & seeds from the puree. Then they can/ bottle the finished product.

^

I do something similar for freezing, though I soak the tomatoes in boiled water for a minute then once cool, slip the skins off before chopping/cooking, and yes, remove the seeds at the same time.

Originally Posted by katie23

Tomatoes were P30/ kg during the weekend, so I bought 2 kg to cook/ preserve them. Next weekend, I'll probably buy more and cook/ preserve them again.

you make a passata ?

@PAG - nice to know that you do something similar. We don't remove the tomato skin & seeds - we include them all.

@malmomike - had to Google what passata was. According to the interwebs, passata is uncooked tomato puree that has been strained of skin & seeds, while tomato sauce is the cooked version. What I do is neither a passata nor tomato sauce. It's more like chunky softened, cooked/ sautéed tomatoes. Kinda like the base for shakshuka (Google is our friend). And oh, my chunky tomato preserve is good with SPAM, egg and rice. (just had to mention the lovely SPAM, lol!)

@topper - sorry for derailing your thread. Tomatoes are cheap now at P30/ kg, onions at P100p/ kg and garlic P90/ kg. Better stock up... Hope you had a good holiday in Mactan!

Originally Posted by katie23

@PAG - nice to know that you do something similar. We don't remove the tomato skin & seeds - we include them all.

Apologies to Topper also. No problem with whole tomatoes cold in salads etc, but cooked their skins always plaster my teeth (I still have my own!)

Ah, there is now an actual thread. I seem to recall some posts from a couple of years ago, amazing what you find when delving into 'The Kitchen' forum: Getting into a pickle.........

Originally Posted by katie23

@PAG - nice to know that you do something similar. We don't remove the tomato skin & seeds - we include them all.

@malmomike - had to Google what passata was. According to the interwebs, passata is uncooked tomato puree that has been strained of skin & seeds, while tomato sauce is the cooked version. What I do is neither a passata nor tomato sauce. It's more like chunky softened, cooked/ sautéed tomatoes. Kinda like the base for shakshuka (Google is our friend). And oh, my chunky tomato preserve is good with SPAM, egg and rice. (just had to mention the lovely SPAM, lol!)

@topper - sorry for derailing your thread. Tomatoes are cheap now at P30/ kg, onions at P100p/ kg and garlic P90/ kg. Better stock up... Hope you had a good holiday in Mactan!

Well thats an eye opener. I mistakenly bought a litre of passata thinking i could take the easy way out and cook a spag bol for the kids. but i fucked up.and still wondering what this passata in a big bottle can be used for. Maybe pag will know?

passata is fine for spag bol

Originally Posted by BLD

Well thats an eye opener. I mistakenly bought a litre of passata thinking i could take the easy way out and cook a spag bol for the kids. but i fucked up.and still wondering what this passata in a big bottle can be used for. Maybe pag will know?

Think of passata as a tomato stock. If you were cooking a meat stew, once you'd browned the meat you would add some flour to it, then some stock to make a sauce. A passata is thick enough on its own to make a sauce, so no flour needed.

Use it in a bolognaise. Fry some onion, chopped garlic and if you have some, chopped celery. Once they're softened, add you minced meat and brown it. If you're adding wine, put it in at this stage and cook until the liquid has disappeared. Add the passata (and some tomato paste if you have it), give everything a good stir, bring to the boil then simmer for an hour or so. For extra richness, a spoon of cream and grated parmesan doesn't go amiss. I make my own passata by putting tinned peeled plum tomatoes in a blender (maybe a 400g tin per half kilo of mince). Also add dried herbs such as oregano and/or basil to the passata.

Cheers