June 12, 2008
Save the Tomatoes Recipe: Tomato Jam
This tomato jam is adapted from a recipe for a Moroccan chicken tagine. Sweet and savory, this jam is best served with hearty entrees. It is not suitable for home canning, so please don't use this recipe to preserve your gorgeous summer tomatoes without adapting it to make sure the acidity level is high enough to keep it safe.
Speaking of safety concerns, don't let the salmonella outbreak scare you away - this is a perfect way to cook and eat all those tomatoes that aren't safe to eat raw.
According to the USDA salmonella fact sheet, you can kill salmonella and render infected food safe to eat by cooking it to a sufficiently high temperature. Right now, you shouldn't eat raw tomatoes because of the risk of infection. But this tomato jam is boiled for almost an hour, which will destroy any salmonella that might be present. Don't waste those tomatoes - cook them!
Tomato Jam
(adapted from Couscous by Paula Wolfert)
5 lbs. tomatoes
A pinch of pulverized saffron
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1/3 C grated onion
1/4 C olive oil
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
Salt to taste
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp dark honey (something like bamboo honey, maybe buckwheat, but nothing as bitter as chestnut)
2 C water (you can substitute vegetable or chicken stock for added complexity)
Blanch the tomatoes by dropping them into a pot of boiling water until the skins split. With a slotted spoon, transfer them to a bowl of cold water. This will make it easy to peel off the skins. Remove the seeds as well, then chop the tomatoes coarsely.
Place the tomatoes in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan along with the onion, cilantro, garlic, saffron, black pepper, ginger, salt, olive oil, tomato paste, water, and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes cook down and the water is completely evaporated. Once this happens, the tomatoes will thicken drastically and begin to fry in the oil.
Stir in the honey and remaining 1 tsp cinnamon and cook for a few minutes more.
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Right now, you shouldn't eat raw tomatoes because of the risk of infection.
Nice. Now even Gothamist is on the bandwagon spreading misinformation and adding fuel to the fire. The FDA says only certain kinds of tomatoes are a danger and of those, only if they come from certain states. Get your facts straight before you post garbage like this. Do you have any idea what kind of damage you can do to tomato growers and distributors in unaffected states by making unfounded blanket statements? Is responsible blogging too much to ask for?
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Perfect timing for this recipe.
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Now come on. The problem here is industrialized production, particularly runoff from industrialized meat agriculture. Buying locally-grown tomatoes is fine, as is growing tomatoes from the east coast areas not implicated in the FDA warning.
I haven't seen Gothamist recommending people stop eating beef after the various ground beef recalls of the past few years!
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Then you make this delicious recipe, #3. Tell us all how it came out.
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This sounds incredibly fabulous. I love Moroccan chicken recipes too (and just got a tangine a couple of months ago! - haven't used it yet though) so I will definitely be trying this out as soon as the local tomatoes are in. I love this site! As an ex-pat NYer, I am SO glad I found you. I miss New York! Down here the Chinese restaurants close at TEN O'CLOCK - can you imagine?! I've lived here since 1980 and I STILL haven't adjusted. And thank God I live down the street from the only decent bagel place (as rated by the Washington Post) in all of Northern Virginia!! What's it called? Brooklyn Bagels, of course!