Tips, Tricks 'n Recipes From the Garden

I just finished harvesting the last of our eggplants. We've been enjoying fresh ones. I do love them! We recently started growing white eggplants and I have to say that I like them better. They take less time to bake, are sweeter and have less seeds. And we get a better yield per plant.

I put up several quarts of eggplant puree in the freezer, which will be made into Baba Ghanoush later on in the year. To make the puree, I slice the eggplants lengthwise and roast, cut side down, on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until I can easily pierce them with a fork. Cool, peel, puree in blender and pack into freezer containers. To use: thaw and continue with your recipe of choice.

One thing that I am going to try this year is freezing eggplant slices to use in Eggplant Parmigiana. For those I'm going to peel the eggplants (or not), slice 1/2" thick rounds, dredge in flour, dip in a mix of 2 eggs/1T olive oil and dredge again, but this time in breadcrumbs. I'll arrange those on a baking sheet, freeze and pop in freezer bags. This 'should' work. I guess time will tell.

Until next time.....

Tips, Tricks 'n Recipes From The Garden

Tomato Paste:

The Roma tomatoes are coming in now. Time to start making pasta sauce, tomato puree and tomato paste. Thought I'd pass along my tomato paste recipe. Tis very easy and oh, so good~

I quarter raw Roma tomatoes and put them in a large pot. I bring them to a slow boil and heat them up just enough to get the juices flowing. As I'm doing this, I mash them slightly. I then run the puree through a food mill to separate the skins and seeds from the meat.

Now, I ladle some of the puree into a metal, mesh colander. The colander sits above a large bowl or pot (this catches the tomato water). Ladle the puree in the colander slowly. At first some pulp will wash through, but eventually the puree will stay in the colander, with the water draining to the bottom container. I add all the puree and let it drain for several hours or until there is no more water draining out. At this point, I spoon the tomato paste into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, pop them out into freezer bags.

You can also freeze the tomato water, if you have freezer space, to use in soups, etc.

Until next time.....