For those of us that make our own preserves, it's that time of year again for making canned and pickled foods. Tomatoes are an excellent choice since you can make all sorts of dishes with this canned vegetable.
Sterilizing them is easy. Some recipes call for adding more products such as onions, parsley or some other spice.
For those who aren't such devoted fans of spices and onions, there are of course recipes that contain tomatoes only. What also matters is whether you would like peeled or unpeeled tomatoes - actually the peeling process is not complex at all, as long as you're not making too many cans of them of course, in which case it will definitely slow you down. Here's how you can make canned tomatoes at home:
Sterilized Peeled Tomatoes
Ingredients: 11 lb ripe tomatoes, 5 celery leaves, 3 onion heads, salt.
Preparation: First pick out the softer tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Then salt them and leave them in a pot on the stove to saute.
Add the finely chopped onions to them, as well as the celery leaves. Leave them for 10 min. on the stove, then mash them so they turn into a puree.
Peel the rest of the tomatoes - the best way to do this is to blanch them. Put them in boiling water for a few seconds, then take them out and soak them in cold water. This makes peeling them very easy.
Next, arrange them tightly in suitable jars and pour on the hot tomato paste - the liquid needs to fill the jars up to 1/2″ (1 cm) below the rims. Close with caps and turn the jars upside down for about 15-20 min.
If you don't like celery or it doesn't seem like a suitable ingredient, you can substitute it with parsley. If using it, there's no need to saute it with the onions and tomatoes. The next recipe uses parsley but no onions. Here's what you need:
Sterilized Tomatoes
Ingredients: tomatoes, salt, parsley.
Preparation: Grind some of the tomatoes, cut the others into quarters. Put the tomato pieces into jars and pour on the tomato juice on top. Then close the jars and boil 10 min.
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