Dry and freeze tomatoes for the winter
Most housewives only recognizethe only way to harvest tomatoes for the winter is to preserve it in its various forms (pickling, marinating, etc.). However, there are other ways to prepare tomatoes for the winter - not so famous, but also effective.
Here you, for example, knew that you can dryTomatoes for the winter? Dried (sun dried) tomatoes are a very popular appetizer in Italy. If you put them in a jar, pour oil and put in a cool place, they can be stored for six months or a year (provided that the bank is tightly corked).
The easiest way to dry the tomatoes in the oven. Ripe, fleshy tomatoes of a small size (ideally suited variety "Cream") should be thoroughly washed and dried. Cut the tomatoes into two or four pieces, remove the stems and seeds. Only the pulp with the skin should remain.
Cover the baking tray with culinary parchment andspread the tomatoes on it. You can put quite tightly - when drying they are still "skukozhatsya." Salt, pepper, if desired, sprinkle with dried herbs. For each slice of tomato, drip some refined vegetable oil.
Dry the tomatoes in an oven heated to60-80 degrees. It is desirable to keep the door slightly ajar, so that moisture evaporates faster. Drying takes approximately 5-8 hours. Properly dried tomatoes should be easy to bend, do not dry them until the moment they break.
Read also how to salt tomatoes for the winter in a bank.
How to close sun dried tomatoes for the winter? At the bottom of a clean sterilized jar pour a little refined vegetable oil, put a layer of tomatoes, pour more oil and so alternate the layers until the pot is completely filled. Tomatoes should be completely covered with oil, otherwise they will start to deteriorate. If desired, you can add to the tomatoes spicy herbs and garlic.
Closing cans with clean lids, remove them incellar or refrigerator. An open jar can be stored only in the refrigerator. Sun-dried tomatoes can be added to pizza, pasta, soups, used for salads. And the spicy oil left from them is a perfect dressing for salads and other dishes.
Another way to prepare tomatoes for the winter isfreezing. The advantage of frozen tomatoes before canned food is that they retain most of the vitamins, which, alas, you can not say about marinated and salted tomatoes.
Frozen tomatoes - "cream" can becomefine "half-finished products" for preparation of stuffed tomatoes. Wash the tomatoes, cut the "ass" and free from the juice and seeds (the core can be used to make the sauce). Put the tomatoes in one layer in a vacuum bag (make sure they do not deform), close the bag and put it in the freezer.
Small tomatoes (not more than 5 cm in diameter)can be frozen entirely. The main thing is that they are perfectly dry. Large tomatoes can be cut into slices or circles and frozen in small portions. They are good to add to pizza, scrambled eggs, pasta. Unfortunately, after defrosting, tomatoes lose their shape, so they will not work for salads.
You can also freeze the flesh of tomatoes forcooking borscht and sauces. Fresh tomatoes scalded with boiling water and remove the skin. Cut the flesh into small pieces and use a spoon with holes to transfer into vacuum bags (a spoon is needed in order to shift only the pulp, without juice and grains). Do not fill the bag too tightly. From the filled bag, squeeze out the air, close it and put it in the freezer.
If you prefer to prepare tomatoes forwinter in more traditional ways, we offer you recipes for canned, pickled and salted tomatoes. We are sure that you will find among them one that you will like.
