How do I preserve plum toms?

[mpdjulie]

Does anyone know how I would preserve plum tomatoes (like tinned plum and chopped toms) as I am sure I will have an abundance this season?
Thanks
Julie

[mpdjulie]

[jennym]

I dry some plum tomatoes, also make puree and freeze that in blocks for use later.

[keepondiggin]

I would cook/puree them down and freeze in freezer bags to add to your dishes instead of a can of chopped tomatoes/passata -you can just bag up the amount you would need at a time and then take out of the freezer as required.You can also add onions/herbs/garlic for some variety!

[mpdjulie]

I am assuming that I need to skin and cook them for making a passata or chopped plums.  Are there any extra ingredients for this or is it simply just tomatoes skinned and cooked and them pureed or chopped?

[manicscousers]

we add all sorts to ours, garlic, basil, onions, sometimes celery, chillie..we freeze the tome, they skin very easily after that, boil it all together, sieve it, the thin stuff is boiled until it's thick and frozen for adding to beans for toast, the thick stuff is frozen for pizza toppings or adding to soups and stews

[keepondiggin]

I put the tomatoes in the pan (I pierce the tomato skins with a skewer )  and just let it simmer away for some time until it reduces (you won't need any extra liquid at the start) then push it through a sieve over another pan which I have already cooked some onions and garlic herbs etc in ,these are combined and heated through together then I put it through the food processor to get it smooth ( or you can leave it at this stage and just freeze or bottle it.)

Another slight variation if you like a 'roasted' taste is halve the fresh tomatoes place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper drizzzle olive oil and sprinkle salt then cook in a hot oven (220 ) for about half an hour then add to the pan with onions garlic as above and sieve to get rid of the skins

As Manics has said you can add chillies as well and have quite a range in your freezer. The herbs I usually use are oregano or basil which go well with tomatoes....mmm I'm feeling quite hungry now!

[manicscousers]

you're right, keepondiggin, I'd forgotten that one, we roast the toms with peppers, onions etc in a baking tray and blend, didn't do that this year, can't remember why  ??? ;D

[mpdjulie]

Thanks for all your replies - I shall be very busy this coming season
:)

[Sparkly]

We roast toms with onions and garlic then cook down with a tiny bit of water and basil. Sieve and then put in small pots in the freezer to use as pizza topping. Also roast toms and then jsut freeze like that ready to make tomato soup in the winter. Also make a tomato based sauce with mushrooms or peppers and freeze for winter.

[chriscross1966]

Luckily my onion harvest coincided with the tomatoes in the GH going into overdrive and the courgette glut getting beyond the ability of courgette surprise to control..... slice up a couple of beg kelsae onions, add some garlic once they've started to brown, tip in about 5-6 lbs of ripe-overripe tomatoes, add a half-pint of vege stock and a glass of red wine, put the lid on the pan and let it cook down for half an hour, add 3-4 lbs of courgettes and let it cook on for another half hour with the lid on, take the lid off and reduce for a while, then run  the lot through the blender and freeze in small blocks....we call it redbase and it underpins a lot of pasta sauces, chillis, pizza toppings and curries.

chrisc

[PurpleHeather]

I put my tomatoes in a pan then cover them with boiling water from the kettle.

After a minute the skins come off and with larger tomatoes which are firm, they can even be sliced for sandwiches or salads. I hate tomato skins.

However, peel them and then they can be cooked on into all sorts. It is less energy consuming to peel them this way than baking I think.

The skins can still be put into the stock pot along with the nasty umbilical green bit to remove every bit of flavour. After that I compost them.

Tomatoes are so versatile I make loads of things with them. 

Great chopped with our own onions and courgettes.

Pasta sauces

Soups

Jam

Chutney

Some posh restaurants even use them for desserts, they are a fruit after all