Cooking Green tomatoes?

[MazdaUK]

My MIL gave me loads of tomato plants she grew from seed - but the seed was from a supermarket tomato and they're Italian, struggling to ripen here I can make green tomato chutney, but none of us eat it really and everyone moans at the smell What else can I do with them?

 

[shalom]

Can you stretch the season a bit by covering them with weighted down old sheets at night for a while? Hubby used to grow ours a month past the first freeze doing that, which would get most of them close enough to ripening they'd finish off inside. There are also those plastic tube things you fill with water; we've never tried them but know some gardeners who say they're terrific.

Too many green tomatoes was never an issue with us, since back when hubby grew tons of tomatoes, second son would happily eat the green ones. But my grandpa G always swore the best pie he ever had was a Green Tomato Pie - lots of recipes on the Internet if you want to give that a try.

 

[MazdaUK]

I'll look for that recipe Its the lack of sun that will be the problem I think.

Also, some of them have sort of gone flat at the end away from the stalk and then gone black and rotted inwards (sounds weird, I know!) what might cause that? COuld it be becvause it was too damp/cold in that site? (It mostly affected one set of plants in a particular location, where some of the courgettes also sort of went yellow and rotted from the end).

 

[shalom]

Also, some of them have sort of gone flat at the end away from the stalk and then gone black and rotted inwards (sounds weird, I know!) what might cause that?

Sounds like blossom end rot, which is caused by a calcium deficiency but in our case was usually solved by watering less often but more thoroughly. So maybe your top layer of soil is damp but the deeper roots aren't getting enough water? If you google "Blossom end rot," you can read stuff by people who know what they're talking about. I just remember what we did to resolve it, which may or may not apply.

Good luck with your tomatoes and your pie!

 

[MazdaUK]

Someone else said that. We're in a very hard water area so there's plenty of calcium in the water. I've been watering them daily, using old soda bottles as a reservoir to make sure the water soaks well in - its not affected the pots, just one of two growbags. Maybe that position doesn't dry out so much/so quickly and they're getting too much water, or maybe because its on a slope the water was draining away/colecting at one end

I've still got plenty of green tomatoes though so not a huge problem I'll know for next year.

 

[redlawyer]

Make fried green tomatoes!! They are delicious and I've enjoyed them this summer. You can find recipes all over the internet, try food network. My biggest recommendation is to soak the sliced tomatoes in white wine vinegar for several hours in advance and to use panko breadcrumbs instead of regular breadcrumbs.

If you care to make a blue cheese dressing to serve along side, I don't think anyone would complain. Yum

 

[MazdaUK]

Doesn't sound very diet-friendly and my family hate the smell of vinegar, so I'd be eating the lot!! The one's I've had in the window are ripening quickly, so hopefully they'll redden enough for pasta sauce

 

[disykat]

We're having that problem here too, not enough sun this year for the tomatoes. The Seattle Times ran a story that said anything you can do with a tart apple you can do with a green tomato. Then it suggested either eating the raw (chopped up in salads or tossed with pasta etc.) OR cooking it down - nothing in between. They ran a recipe for green tomato jam. I don't know how to link it here but I found it easily on by googling. A coworker and I were just talking about green tomatoes earlier today.

 

[MazdaUK]

I've managed to ripen quite a lot by bringing them inside and putting them in an ice-cream container (2 litre size) near a sunny window. As long as one of them is starting to turn they should all catch up - I've got a load roasting in the oven for pasta sauce

 

[RumpleMom]

We bring in the green tomatoes and wrap each in newspaper. Put them in a warm place like a heated room, not an unheated garage. Check every few days for a ripe tomato and rewrap the green ones.

 

[MazdaUK]

Mine are just in empty ice-cream boxes - I pick out the ripest each day and put them in the fridge til I have enough (and time!!) for sauce