To Every Thing There is a Season... Abundance - Part 2

We are just having the first rains of the fall season. Days in the garden are now limited and the plants know it - things are ripening at an alarming rate. Getting things harvested and in the house before they are overripe is a job that leaves no slack. Do it now or lose your food. The same goes for getting the food processed before it rots or the fruit flies get to it. It is harvest season and that's all there is to it - no matter what else is on the schedule. It makes for late nights and/or early mornings.

While we preserve a lot of food every year, we wanted to really fill the pantry in this year of economic uncertanties. On top of that, to compensate for a possible early hard freeze, we planted three small greenhouses with extra vegetables... just in case. The surprise dip in temperature we had last year in September killed all our basil, squash (summer, winter, melons, cucumbers - all of it), and most of the tomatoes. Well, the early freeze did not happen this time and we are swimming in vegetables. Currently it is tomatoes.

Thankfully we love tomatoes, and they are possibly the most versatile vegetable for storage. They can be made into a vast variety of sauces and condiments, can be dried, frozen, or canned and, picked end of season green, will ripen slowly in a cool dark, place giving you fresh eating tomatoes into the winter months. We prefer drying and canning over freezing as neither requires energy for storage.

We do not dry many tomatoes, usually only cherry tomatoes and, this year, a variety called Principe Borghese. I learned about these reading Barbara Kingsolver's fine book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". These tiny, paste-type tomatoes dry readily when sliced. I look forward to trying them out this winter. The cherry tomatoes we halve and dry, cut side up. We call them "tomato raisins" as they are sweet eaten out of hand. A treat in salads, especially grain based salads, we like to toss them in casseroles and cooked vegetable dishes. No pre-soaking required.

But the bulk of the crop goes into jars. I originally canned only plain peeled tomatoes and plain tomato sauce that could be seasoned any way I liked and otherwise added tomatoes into the vegetable medleys we use for soup. Over time it dawned on me it was actually easier to have my own "fast food" by seasoning the sauce when I made it. This was even more versatile as I could add other ingredients which may not be available to me mid-winter. So we make onion-herb tomato sauce that is good for spaghetti or other Italian-style dishes. To this we occasionally add the end of a bottle of red wine for a ragu-style. I make a smooth enchilada sauce with Mexican seasonings and a chunky style Mexican sauce to add to chili. The main difference is whether I run it through a food mill or blender or a plain old meat grinder. We add peppers. onions, garlic to all of these. Herbs and spices as desired. The Italian style sauce may get the addition of everything from eggplant to zuchinni, the Mexican variation - chili peppers to tomatillos. Anything available seems to find its way into a jar. Then there is thicker sauce for pizza, catsup (when we really have more tomatoes than we know what to do with!), tomato juice and soup.

Then we do the condiments. There are many salsa variations we play with, but we always make a basic red hot sauce and a green hot sauce (which uses green tomatoes and tomatillos). Temperatures vary depending on which chili peppers did well that year. We also make sure to have a chunky style salsa to be used to dip chips or added to layered dip. A large part of our pantry is devoted to tomatoes - that's for sure!

As I write this there is a stock pot of red hot sauce simmering in the kitchen. Not just for Mexican style food, this is a favorite on rice dishes, casseroles and eggs around our house.
Here is the recipe for those of you who may enjoy this savory to spicy condiment. This is a sweet/hot sauce, almost chutney-like in flavor.

Red Hot Sauce
8 cups chopped, cored, tomatoes
1 - 1/2 cups seeded chopped red peppers, varying degrees of hotness!
(Use hot peppers as desired for your preferred degree of heat in the finished sauce.)
1 quart cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
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Combine tomatoes, peppers and 2 cups vinegar in a large saucepan until soft. Let cool, then blend in blender until pureed and return to pot (I generally use a second pot).
Add sugar and salt. Tie spices in cheesecloth or place in clean, small, muslin bag and secure top and add to sauce. Simmer until thick. Stir as needed to prevent sticking or scorching on bottom of pot. Add remaining 2 cups of vinegar. Simmer to desired thickness.
Ladle hot sauce into hot, clean jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust lids and process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Note: Remember that rubber/latex gloves are good when cutting and seeding hot peppers. At the very least, wash hands immediately afterwards with (Simmons) soap and water.
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I end now to go put my red hot sauce into the bail clamp beer bottles that we use to keep it. It will process, as any normal jar, in the canning kettle. Here's to a future spicy winter meal!