Yesterday I preserved the last of my plum tomatoes. I only had about a dozen but I wanted to try an idea I saw in a book on preserving. I cut the tomatoes in half and placed them on a wire rack on a cookie sheet lined with foil. I then sprinkled them with kosher salt, a bit of sugar and a drizzle of olive oil. I set the oven to 200 and forgot about them for 8 or 9 hours. When they were just about done I sterilized one jar and one lid. I cut some fresh rosemary from the backyard and placed it in the bottom of the jar, along with a small clove of slivered garlic. I then placed the warm tomatoes in the jar and then covered them with olive oil. Voila! Dried tomatoes in olive oil! How pretty are they? (Keep in mind I'm still working on the ol' photography...thoughts of white balance and ISO are running through my head.)
As I thought about this project I thought that it would probably be more beneficial to dry the tomatoes in my dehydrator next time. And I would also make sure I had other foods to dry, as well...to make the use of energy worth it. For this particular batch I ran my gas oven all day on low...and it wasn't even full. Next time...no matter how I do it...I'll dry more items at once. Maybe more tomatoes...some figs...maybe some apples and orange peels...and whatever other great recipes I come across in the meantime!
2 comments:
I haven't done this yet because I'm worried that the tomatoes will disintegrate and the oil won't stay clear. When you open them up, let us know how they tasted, too. I may do it next year... It's certainly beautiful, that's for sure.
If you had a toaster oven, you could put it out on your front porch, and do small batches that way for pennies in energy costs.
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