Topic: Passata@home

[moonbells]

Hee :)

I must chip in here, and say that if you grow paste tomatoes like San Marzano, when you pop them through the passata machine (and in my case, I put them through raw before the boil!) then the resulting puree is pretty much solid and you don't have to boil like crazy to evaporate the moisture you've been watering your tomatoes with all summer...

I follow the recommendations of the Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0112428649/026-6138154-7567612
and always sterilise by water bath for 20 mins or so. For peace of mind if nothing else!

moonbells

ps yes, those passata bottles look good. Might have to have a trip out to Harrow this lunchtime and buy a case...

[supersprout]

Go on SS, own up -- you didn't really manage all that cooking and bottling and not even end up with a splash on the counter?!  ;D

this is my living room today triffid - will get vac out later! ;D

[Common_Clay]

ps yes, those passata bottles look good. Might have to have a trip out to Harrow this lunchtime and buy a case...

Where in Harrow sells them?!

[supersprout]

Lucky moonbells! ;D
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/
I'd love to know what their shop is like ::)

[Common_Clay]

Ah, well, there you go! Learn something new every day... I live in Harrow, hadn't a clue this shop was here!

[moonbells]

Lucky moonbells! ;D
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/
I'd love to know what their shop is like ::)

It's a warehouse - stacked boxes, racks of seeds, all behind a dodgy steel door which sticks :) people lovely!

Seeds they sell at 4 packs for £5 if you buy there (as against £1.50 each normally) which makes them even better value (though of course petrol costs make them dear again!)

moonbells

[supersprout]

thank you mb - I'd be like a kid in a sweetshop :-[ did you manage to restrain yourself? ;)

[moonbells]

haven't got to lunch break yet!!!! And I have to hope nobody's hemmed my car in...
moonbells

[Jitterbug]

Thanks for the recipe Supersprout.  Tried to make some on Friday and then disaster struck.

I first submerged the San Marzano tomatoes in hot water and then peeled their skins off (your recipe did not mention whether the skin was on or off - so I did not fancy having bits of skin in the passata).  Then I cooked them with a little water until they were soft and emptied all the pulpy tomatoes flesh into a sieve to let it drain into a bowl.   Then............... and this is when disaster struck - I started boiling the remaining water to reduce it and fell asleep.  :-[

Well -- needless to say the smell of burning tomatoes woke me up with a start! :o 

Well to end a sad story - I was so disguested with myself I just plonked all the left over remains in a plastic container and froze it after all.  My pot was burnt pitch black (still sitting out on the back step) - I don't have the stomach to clean it yet. :-[  So all I got was the pulpy flesh and a little clear liquid that had drained out.  I had barely closed the freezer door when the doorbell rang and guess who - but some elders from my church just popped in to say hello.  I can tell you I was so embarrassed by the smell.

What I wanted to ask anyway ---- because in one of your later posts you say that this thick clear liquid that drains from the tomatoess is the juice that you should drain and reduce - (I had such a little bit) and even if I had boiled it and added the pulpy tomatoe flesh, I would never have got it as red as yours.  Do you add some puree or anything??

Sorry to sound so dumb but I have never made this before and was as mad as a rattle snake about ruining my saved San Marzano's.  They grew very badly this year and a lot of them got bottom end rot even though they were all in the same greenhouse and my other toms were fine. 

Oh well, I'll remember to set my timer just in case I nod off!!  At least I managed to a bottle of 'sun' dried tomatoes as they are almost fool proof to dry in the oven and they thankfully did not suffer any harm from my tardiness ;D

Jitterbug

[supersprout]

ohhhh what a sad story jitterbug :'(
it's happened to everyone I bet (even church elders ;)) they will have been impressed by your industry :D
posted a reply last night but it went awol in the upgrade grr :(

will do my best again now!

CLEAR LIQUID STORY

When experimenting with different methods of making passata I was trying to
a) reduce time it took to boil down
b) find a way for it not to catch on the bottom or sides of the pan when reducing
c) save fossil fuel!

One day I had a LOT of toms and used every available pan, including the pressure cooker, to cook them in. When cooked under pressure, the toms exuded a LOT of yellowish water separate from the pulp (about two thirds of the volume is liquid, one third pulp). The toms boiled normally don't do this, the excitation of boiling and stirring mixes the juice and the pulp.

So now I always pre-cook in the pressure cooker in batches, to get maximum clear juice. The boiled contents of the pressure cooker go into a seive, and the clear liquid is set to boil down fiercely. Because the juice is clear, it doesn't stick or need much watching (as it gets thicker it can 'boil up' like jam) and boils down to a syrupy consistency. When this liquid is reduced to about an eighth of the original volume, then add it to the pulp. When this separated clear liquid is boiled down it's a translucent reddy browny marmalade colour. When you add it to the pulp, the whole lot goes a lovely red colour!

No need to peel your toms before boiling, just cut off all the BER, sluggy or mouldy bits and chop in half (quarters for big uns). Pips and skin get removed when the boiled pulp goes thru the passata machine.

Don't laugh jitterbug, I have just acquired 'Canning and Preserving for Dummies' and wish I'd bought it ages ago - the step by step instructions and tips are a revelation, can recommend it if you want to do more!

Good luck cleaning that pot :-\ hope your next batch is all you could wish :)

[moonbells]

I'd just pop the pulp in a jelly bag if there's a lot of clear juice - that way you get the water out while leaving the pulp and red bits, with no use of fossil fuel.

Jitterbug - I'm sorry for you. The first time I did marrow and ginger jam I incinerated the marrow by not watching like a hawk...

But get some bio washing powder (the cheap stuff from Tesco works well!) and put some in your pan, and add boiling water. After a few hours of soaking it will be dead easy to clean.

moonbells

[plot51A]

Absolute total novice, but here's my thoughts on this!
On the box that my new beautiful red passata maker came in the recipe says:

Cut the tomatoes and scald them without adding any water for 5/10 minutes. Put the tomatoes into the mill and pulp them quickly. Fill the tomato pulp into the bottles adding a few leaves of basil. Wrap the bottles in cloths and heat them in a double saucepan for about 15 mins.

Nothing about reducing the pulp further
Not having a pressure cooker I've been doing a sort of mixture of methods! I find when I boil them up there is some watery liquid - the first time very little, last time a big panful there was quite a lot. I just used a sieve and the watery stuff just drains out. Was reducing it like you said SS - then adding pulp and reducing a bit more then doing the bottles bit - loads of fossil fuel. :(
I suppose perhaps the italians don't get much water as they're using paste tomatoes. Mine is a motley collection of all sorts - was just trying to grow any sort of tomatoes at all after last years blight disasters!! Next year it is just possible htat I might be more "focussed." :-\
Have got more to process. Think I shall just discard the watery stuff but do the bottles in the water bath.

[supersprout]

I'm sure you're right about the concentrated goodness of italian plum toms periwinkle, my toms are probably extra watery because they're allsorts - including watered ones from the greenhouse (note, NOT for next year)

passata is definitely 'horses for courses' - mine is concentrated to start with because son of sprout hates raw toms but loves the cooked and concentrated taste of passata ??? If I don't make it quite jammy, he will boil it down when he cooks with it and there will be splops everywhere ;)

thanks for the pan-cleaning tip MB, noted! :D

[Common_Clay]

haven't got to lunch break yet!!!! And I have to hope nobody's hemmed my car in...
moonbells

Hi Moonbells, are you in Harrow? I thought from your blog you were in the Chilterns... bit of a far away place to go to in your lunch break!

[moonbells]

I work in Northwood. (Can't afford to live there!)

Harrow's not far once I'm at work :)

moonbells

[Common_Clay]

Very close then Moonbells! How on earth do you manage to keep up with your lottie though? Mine's a mess and I live a minute away!  ;D

[moonbells]

ah this is the post I replied to and got chucked off the server...

I spend hours there in winter and spring prepping the ground, and try and get it weed free by the start of June (which is coincidentally when our lottie inspections are!) and then it sort of looks ok till autumn again. And I've got raised beds made in the past two winters, so hopefully that will save me work for a couple of years.

see diary for gory details!

moonbells

[Jitterbug]

Thanks for the tips Supersprout and Moonbells.  I feel a lot better now and am going to try the curried plum chutney and a spiced damson chutney that I found on Delia Smith's website.

Will remember to set the timer this time ;D

Will report back on success later.

Jitterbug

[lilylover]

 :-[ Don't worry jitterbug. I left my juice boiling and went to the greenhouse for 2 mins (like you do) and have come back 4 pots of cuttings later to a burnt pan too. Doh!!!!  :-\

[moonbells]

:-[ Don't worry jitterbug. I left my juice boiling and went to the greenhouse for 2 mins (like you do) and have come back 4 pots of cuttings later to a burnt pan too. Doh!!!!  :-\

:-(

One of the best things is one of the wind-up eggtimers with a loud bell... pocket sized!

moonbells