Tomatoes and Tomato Water: The Fruit that keeps on giving
A few years back after I took a couple canning classes I decided to take preserving the insane summer bounty of SoCal tomatoes seriously. Now every summer during the hottest weather possible I stew in my own juices as I can enough tomato products to last me the rest of the year. How much could that possibly be you ask? Over the course of a couple of months I usually process anywhere from 500 to 1000 lbs of tomatoes. And miraculously every year when I start canning I’m usually down to my last four jars or so of sauce. I mean we use tomatoes in everything, right? Not just pasta sauce. And since I don’t drink wine my go-to gift for everything from birthdays to bringing something to a friend’s house is a jar of sauce or crushed tomatoes.
machine does 800 lbs/hr
salt + citric acid
ready for boiling
Here are some images from my latest session in Altadena with my pal Kazi Pitelka, the most serious hobby cook/food producer/home preserver I know. (She’s an orchardist and garden consultant too, but that’s another conversation). Another nutball preserver, DIY fanatic (and bestie talked about amidst these pages) Delilah Snell gave me the best birthday gift ever several years ago, a tomato mill that can process 800 pounds of tomatoes an hour. What is a tomato mill? Well you know those hand crank jobs that you attach to the side of the counter and puree pours out the sprout while seeds and skin go another way? That’s exactly what this is only with a motor. Personally, I haven’t (as yet) had access to 800 pounds of tomatoes in one convenient place but I regularly feed 200+ pounds through the thing in less than 20 minutes. It’s so much fun. Which is good, since what follows pureeing is the slog of preserving. Making sauce, preparing jars, boiling water, and all when the temperatures hover around 95 degrees. So I decided that this is definitely a better activity to do with a friend and brought the machine over to Kazi’s house in Altadena where she had 200+ pounds of tomatoes from her garden waiting for us to do the work of preservation.
The best thing about working with a friend is that you always learn something. For example, did you know that you can freeze whole tomatoes until you can get around to canning them? Kazi had some ripe tomatoes ready for processing that wouldn’t last until our date so she filled one of those two feet long zipper bags with fruits of her harvest and put the bag the freezer. Now this is the fantastic part. When the tomatoes defrost the tomato water just oozes out, without the need to boil the tomatoes first. And by ooze, I mean cascade, pour, whatever other word that means an onslaught of liquid. And why is this so great? Well, hold on and I’ll tell you. First of all the tomatoes, free of much of their liquid, once pureed turn into sauce much faster. Less cooking means a sweeter, lighter sauce. More summertime flavor is preserved.
Secondly, TOMATO WATER IS AWESOME. Think of lemonade but tomatoey. It’s nearly clear, has a great acid-sugar punch and is wonderfully refreshing on a hot summer day with a smidgen of extra sugar added then poured over ice. I also use it for a clear tomato “borscht” with chopped raw vegetables and a drizzle of creme fraiche. It’s also the perfect complement to that hit of fish sauce you add to soups, braised meats, or vegetables. While the fish sauce adds a salty, deep meaty underpinning, the tomato water lends bright acid, rounded sour and barely sweet notes to nearly anything you’re cooking. And then there are the cocktails. Imagine a clear take on a Bloody Mary made with tomato water, lime juice, salt and a float of Sriracha. I call it The Canning Season and it’s stunning, strange and delicious.
tomato water