An absolutely irreplaceable type of homemade preparations are tomatoes for the winter. There are a lot of ways to prepare them, you can easily choose a recipe to your taste, from sun-dried tomatoes to complex snacks from several components. In winter, blanks save any housewife from thinking about how to diversify the diet of her family, or what to serve on the table for suddenly arriving guests.
Nature, creating tomatoes, was in the best mood. She endowed these fruits with the properties of both a vegetable and a fruit, painting them in different colors, and how many nutritional properties and vitamins she put into them. And what a taste! And all these positive qualities are combined in them - in tomatoes. It is not surprising that tomatoes and their preparations are everyone's favorites. More than ever, it's time to talk about how to preserve the tomato harvest until next summer.
Dried (sun-dried) tomatoes
One of the most interesting blanks for the winter. Dried tomatoes have an extraordinary taste. If tomatoes are treated with spices during drying, then you get a culinary masterpiece. For this type of workpieces, fleshy fruits are suitable, which contain little juice. The most ideal option is plum tomatoes.
For sun-dried tomatoes, slice the fruit sideways or lengthwise into small rings or quarters. Do not remove the skin of the fruit.
- The first way to dry tomatoes is in the sun, outdoors. Place the tomato slices on a wooden or plastic surface, sprinkle with coarse salt to saturate the entire surface. Cover the product with insect repellent gauze. Turn the tomatoes several times a day to dry completely. Natural drying is a lengthy process that lasts 5-10 days (depending on weather conditions).
- The second way to dry a tomato is in the oven. Salt the cooked slices, add spices if desired, put on a baking sheet, having previously spread parchment paper. Place in a preheated oven heated to 80 degrees and dry for 5-10 hours. Turn the food from time to time until it is dry.
Store sun-dried tomatoes in a glass container or cellar. Pour sunflower or olive oil over the finished dish. Add spices to taste if desired. Such a dish can be stored for 6 to 9 months. Freeze the slices if you want to extend the shelf life. If the product is very dry, soak it in water for 30 minutes before use.
Frozen tomatoes for the winter
There is no trick in preparing this blank. This method is easy, so feel free to entrust freezing a tomato to your growing child. Tomatoes are perfectly stored frozen; when defrosting, the taste, smell and color of the product are preserved.
- The first way to freeze is in slices. This method is simple and requires little effort. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and place them on a plastic board and place them in the freezer. Place the slices in plastic bags when they are frozen.
- The second way of freezing is with tomato figurines. Peel the tomatoes by soaking them in boiling water. Pass the fruits without the skin through a blender, pour the resulting mass into different molds and place in the freezer. Such preparations are useful in winter for making sauces, gravies and borsch dressings.
Pickling tomato
A classic dish for winter preparations. Tomatoes in sweet and sour marinade are an indispensable attribute of any feast. The secrets of pickling are passed down from generation to generation by families. Each housewife has her own recipe, with its own proportions and with its own ingredients, which is written down in the family chef's notebook. Here is one of the simple recipes from grandma's chest.
Ingredients for a 3 liter can of tomatoes:
- Medium-sized carrots - 1 pc.;
- medium-sized onions - 2 heads;
- celery - 2 sprigs;
- garlic - 5 cloves;
- allspice - 3 pcs.;
- hot pepper peas - 5 pcs.;
- granulated sugar - 3 tablespoons;
- salt - 2 tablespoons;
- cloves - 2-3 pcs.;
- table vinegar 9% - 2, 5 tablespoons (1 tsp 70%).
Preparation:
- Place the spices and tomatoes in the jar. Pour boiling water over for heating for 10-15 minutes.
- Drain the liquid into a container and bring to a boil adding sugar, salt and vinegar.
- Pour the marinade over the jars with a slight overflow.
- Roll the cans tightly and flip them onto the lid.
- Wrap the blanks with a blanket for long cooling.
Salted tomatoes
The most traditional homemade preparation, in which the tomatoes are interlaced with spices, are kept in a salty solution. Salting is a simple process that every housewife can understand. A step-by-step recipe will help you easily cope with this type of blank.
- Wash the tomatoes, selecting fruits of the same ripeness (red, brown, green).
- Place the tomatoes together with the spices (dill, horseradish leaves, bay leaves, currant and cherry leaves, garlic) in a container (wooden tub, enamel bucket or saucepan, glass jars).
- Pour the workpieces with brine (for 10 liters of water 600-800 g of salt) and leave in a cool place for 50 days to completely salt the fruits.
Pasta, mashed potatoes, tomato juice
For this type of workpieces, tomato mass of different concentrations is used. For these dishes, fruits of a non-standard shape or with slight damage are suitable.
- Juicing - Wash the tomatoes, remove dents and boil them well in water. Wipe the boiled mass through a sieve and evaporate over medium heat for 30 minutes. Pour the finished product into sterilized jars and roll up hermetically with lids. To facilitate the process, you can use a juicer.
- Pureeing - Prepare the tomato mass in the same way as for juice. Evaporate the product from the moment when the product boils down 2-3 times. Transfer to a jar and sterilize in a water bath for 15-20 minutes.
- Preparation of pasta - for preparation of pasta, evaporate the product until the mass is reduced by 5-7 times. Place the finished paste in jars and steam in a water bath for 30-40 minutes.
Red tomato jam
Such jam differs from berry jam and is served with meat and fish dishes.
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes - 1 kg.;
- sweet bell pepper - 300g;
- vinegar (wine, apple) - 50-60 ml;
- granulated sugar - 600 g.
Preparation:
- Cut tomatoes and peppers into slices and cover with sugar, pour in vinegar and bring to a boil.
- Turn off the heat and leave the mass for a day. Repeat this procedure 3-4 times and each time leave the jam to infuse for a day.
- Place the prepared jam in jars and roll up the lid.
