Tomatoes!

On Friday, our farm share box contained a ton of beautiful heirloom tomatoes. Some of them were really ripe, so I wanted to use them quickly. Food and Wine had a good looking recipe in their July issue, which focused on local produce, so it seemed like a fitting way to use them up.

The recipe comes from Brian McBride of the Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to try it while I was living there, but I may have to try to put it on my agenda for my next visit back.



Pickled Farm Stand Tomatoes with Jalapenos

Ingredients
1 cup rice vinegar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

* this seemed like a lot of liquid, so I reduced them each to 3/4 cup

1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of cayenne pepper
6 tomatoes (1 1/2 pounds), each cut into 6 wedges




* I used the six tomatoes shown, plus a handful of the cherry tomatoes cut in half
4 scallions, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced
2 jalapeños, thinly sliced into rings and seeded

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring the vinegar, brown sugar and salt to a boil, stirring. Remove from the heat.

In a medium skillet, heat the oil. Add the garlic, grated ginger, mustard seeds, black pepper, turmeric, ground cumin and cayenne pepper and cook over low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

At this point, your kitchen will smell amazing.

Carefully pour the hot oil into the vinegar mixture. Tumeric can stain, so you want to be careful when you pour to avoid splatters staining your clothes.



In a large heatproof bowl, combine the tomatoes, scallions and jalapeños. I didn't follow directions and diced my jalapeno instead of slicing it.

Stir in the hot pickling liquid and let stand at room temperature for 4 hours or refrigerate for 8 hours, then serve.

The magazine suggests serving it with fish or steak, but I ate it with a simple lunch of bread, cheese, and olives. Absolutely wonderful!

And, even with my reducing the liquid, it created a lot. I wound up chopping additional tomatoes and throwing it into the mix after eating some.