This year the caterpillars let me have a lot of tomatoes before it got too hot, so I was presented with a question better gardeners have to answer every year: "how do I preserve these tomatoes? They are coming in faster than I can eat them." I based my answer off of Olia Hercules'. Her book, Mamushka, was really helpful for my Red Soup pop-up, and now these tomatoes have found their way on to every menu I do. They are the centerpiece of the Florida Man Tomato Salad, and look for them next month at Atlantic Avenue. They'll be the impossibly red and delicious things that look like tomatoes.
Yields 1/2 gallon jar
Ingredients:
aprox. 1 qt water
2-3 pounds fresh tomatoes
2 T kosher salt
2 bay leaves
1 bunch dill
3-4 scallions (scapes if you can get them)
1 T honey
1 t white vinegar
Clean the jar really good, and scrape off the old label best you can. Use hot water. Put some sprigs of dill and scallions around the jar. Pack the tomatoes in there gently but firmly. The goal is to fill the jar up as much as possible without bruising the tomatoes too badly. Cut some of them in half if you must. Poke holes all the way through the rest of them with a skewer. Keep a couple tomatoes (the "ugliest" or ones with bad spots) off to the side as sacrifice. When the jar is all the way full, fill it with cold water. Now pour the water out into a measuring cup so you know how much it is and can adjust your amounts. Put the water, sacrificial tomatoes, remaining dill and scallions, bay leaves, salt, honey and vinegar in a pan and bring to a simmer. Remove form heat and allow to cool completely, don't be impatient or the finished product will be mushy. Don't ask me how I know that.
Taste it to make sure it's delicious then strain the cool pickling liquid back into the jar so the tomatoes are covered. Screw the lid on tight then flip the whole thing upside down and set it on the counter overnight. Make sure it's not leaking. The next day, flip it rightside-up, unscrew the cap and see if it is bubbling. If it is, you're done. If not, leave it another day or two until the fermentation starts and then you're done. Here in New Orleans it takes me like 36 hours. Store them in the fridge for months and months or eat them all with a fork right there. Save the brine for the next round, or use it to garnish a bloody mary, or a bowl of borscht.
