You say tomato... Tasty tips and recipes
Chef Kathleen Daelemans shares food facts and easy-to make meals
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Tips on cooking with tomatoes Aug. 9: Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Chef Kathleen Daelemans tells TODAY's Al Roker and shows him a few recipes. Today Show Kitchen |
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Tomatoes — some consider them fruits, others say they're vegetables — but no matter what you call them, this time of year, tomatoes are delicious. Chef Kathleen Daelemans, author of “Cooking Thin With Chef Kathleen,” has some mouth-watering tips and recipes.
Is the tomato a fruit, a vegetable or a berry?
Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary. Holding the seeds of a flowering plant, it is a fruit, or, more precisely, a berry. As far as the government is concerned, tomatoes are vegetables. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. In 1893 the U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy, declaring the tomato a vegetable. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304).
Tomato tips
- Tomato season is different for everyone across the country. The season starts earlier for those in the South and the West Coast than for those in the North and Mid-West. Pay attention to what's happening in your markets, watch the prices, and make friends with the produce guys.
- Tomatoes shouldn't be refrigerated or stored above or below about 50 degrees. According to Penn State, a refrigerated tomato will loose its aroma and flavor in as little as 40 minutes! Tomatoes will get mealy and become unsuitable to eat.
- Not sure when it's tomato season for you? You'll start noticing them more when they move to the front of the store. Also the prices will drop, you'll see them on menus more, as well as at farmstands and fruit markets.
- Beefsteak: Is great for burgers and anytime you want a large, firm and perfect slice of tomato.
- Roma: Is excellent to use in sauces, soups and stews.
- Cherry: Good for salads, roasting, pastas and baking.
- Heirloom: Best eaten raw with olive oil, vinegar and a sprinkle of salt or cracked black pepper. Or you can eat it just the way Mother Nature hands them to you ... off the vine.
- Vine-ripened: Locally vine-ripened are especially sweet and delicious. They are best eaten raw in salads, sandwiches or plain.
- Hydroponic: These are seasonal tomatoes and are best when ripened on the vine and purchased locally. Try to purchase them from a nearby farmer’s market so you can ask questions and become familiar with the varieties available to you and how they they are best used.
When tomatoes taste so good you can’t bear to think of their season coming to an end is when you want to start thinking about making this sauce. Rainy days are perfect for making tomato sauce, since no one wants to waste a perfectly good day that could otherwise be spent in the garden or at the beach. I can usually buy a bushel of Roma tomatoes from the Italian deli near my house for about 10 bucks once a summer. They prices drop toward the end of August. The price is low because you get what you get. Some of the Romas are so juicy-sweet they can be eaten like an apple in the car on the way home, which is why I never wear a shirt I like to the Italian deli. And some are perfect for eggplant sandwiches the next day. But most are destined for tomato sauce. In terms of making this sauce, it's really no recipe at all.
INGREDIENTS
Wash the tomatoes, cut them into quarters and then place them into large microwave-proof bowl in batches and cook them for 25 minutes, or until they’ve softened and are saucy enough to pass through a food mill to grind.
Once the seeds and skin are removed, all that’s left is a very pristine sauce that can then be stored in individual containers and frozen to be turned into more flavorful sauces for pastas, pizzas, soups and stews throughout winter.
MANAGE YOUR RECIPES
Serves 4
I was hesitant to write this up into a recipe because it’s not really a recipe. I don’t coat the tomatoes in flour or cornmeal. I don’t dip them in egg or milk. I’ve tried dipping them, coating them, frying them and baking them. And I thoroughly enjoyed Fried Green Tomatoes dipped, coated, fried and baked. But it’s a lot of work, and for the most part I’m always in a hurry or I’m tired. So I don’t have time to dip, coat, fry and bake. Besides, I like fried green tomatoes plain. They’re delicious. Only I don’t consider not dipped, coated, fried or baked plain. Plain is a flavor, too. It’s plain and simple, good and delicious. And I’m all about plain and simple.
INGREDIENTS
Cook bacon according to package instructions. Set aside.
Pre-heat heavy bottomed nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Using a pastry brush and working quickly, coat the tops and bottoms of each tomato with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add to pan and cook, turning once, until tomato slice are cooked evenly, start softening and begin to turn golden caramel-y brown. Remove to cooling plate.
Place 8 slices of bread on broiling pan and “toast” until done. Make sandwiches with toast slices, bacon, mayonnaise and piles of lettuce and tomatoes, slice in half and eat right away.
MANAGE YOUR RECIPES
About chef Kathleen Daelemans
Kathleen Daelemans took herself from a size 22 to a healthy size 8, and is the author of the best-selling cookbooks “Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen, 200 Easy Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss” and “Getting Thin and Loving Food, 200 Easy Recipes to Take You Where You Want to Be,” published by Houghton Mifflin. For more info, visit kathleendaelemans.com.
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