Russian hostesses can cook fragrant jam from anything. Berries and fruits, orange and watermelon peels, lemon slices and even young fir cones - a lot of things are good for making sweet treats.
You will not surprise anyone with vegetable jam: zucchini and pumpkin make it very tasty.
But tomatoes? Can a sweet and sour juicy fruit turn into a traditional Russian dessert?
Imagine how you can! Moreover, the jam with the same success can be cooked from red and green fruit. No one will ever guess that the magic ruby or emerald sweetness in a crystal vase is a flaming Signor Tomato. The taste of the product is exactly the same as that of ordinary jam. But with the scent you can play a little. Orange, vanilla, star anise, lemon, alcohol give different shades of tomato jam.
Tomato Jam - General Cooking Principles
For the preparation of tomato jam, ripe, but strong red fruits are selected. They need to be washed in cool water, and then remove the skin. The easiest way is blanching in boiling water. It is necessary to lower the fruit for two or three minutes into boiling water, after having incised the skin crosswise at the place of attachment of the stem. Then remove and rinse with cold water. After a contrast “bath” the peel is easily separated from the tomato.
Often a couple of tomatoes in jam make up citrus. They give the dessert a festive flavor and a more refined taste. Oranges and lemons should be thoroughly washed, rinsed with boiling water, then remove the skin and be sure to rid the pulp from the bones. If you do not remove the bones, the jam will turn bitter.
Ginger, included in the recipe, be sure to wash thoroughly and finely grate. Large ginger pieces can spoil the look of the product.
Sliced tomatoes into small pieces should be covered with sugar, mixed with chopped fruit and spices, cooked over a small fire, like regular jam. For syrup, you can take both water and tomato juice. Water will make the final product more fluid and light. Cooking usually takes place in two or three stages with an interval of several hours. If possible, you can add dry pectin to the jam. This will reduce the time for evaporation of the liquid, and the dessert will be thick.
Tomato jam is well stored at normal room temperature. You can try it immediately after complete cooling.
Apple-Lemon Jam Tomatoes
Fresh festive flavor has tomato jam with apples and lemon. To prepare it is very simple. Traditional and exotic fruits turn tomatoes into a wonderful sweet and sour dessert, which is perfect for family tea.
Ingredients:
• a pound of tomatoes;
• pound of sugar;
• one or two sour apples;
• one lemon.
Cooking Method:
Pick fleshy ripe tomatoes.
Peel off as described above.
To no one guessed about the tomato origin of jam, you need to remove the seeds. You can cut out the middle with a small knife or rub the tomato pulp through a sieve or colander.
Grind the tomatoes in a blender, turning into a thick puree.
Remove the lemon zest, squeeze the juice out of the rest of the fruit.
Mix tomato puree with sugar, lemon juice and zest, leave it overnight in a cool place. Cover the prepared mashed potatoes with a napkin or towel.
Remove the apple peel and rub the apple through a fine grater.
Transfer the tomato base and grated applesauce into the cooking pot. Boil until cooked for about forty minutes.
At the end of cooking, you can pour a glass of rum or brandy into the jam - as they do in sunny Italy.
Chilled jam decomposed in sterilized jars.
Store under capron or metal lids in a cool place.
Citrus Ginger Tomato Jam
The dessert of red juicy tomatoes, oranges, lemons and ginger has a wonderful exquisite aroma. Vanilla gives a delicacy oriental touch. Tomato jam can be served with baking, tea or used to make desserts.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of red strong tomatoes; • kilogram of sugar;
• one lemon;
• one orange;
• bag of vanilla sugar or vanilla;
• half a spoonful of dried ginger or a piece of fresh.
Method of preparation
Peeled tomatoes cut into small pieces.
Remove the peel from the orange and lemon, remove the bones, cut the fruit into small cubes.
Grate fresh ginger on a fine grater, removing the peel.
In a large cooking pot, mix the tomatoes, citrus, sugar and ginger, leave for an hour to highlight the juice.
Sugar should melt in the juice and become the basis for the syrup.
Boil the sweet mass after boiling for five minutes. Cool completely in an hour.
Put the pot on the fire again, cook for a slow boil for another half an hour.
Tomato and citrus jam is immediately decomposed into jars and cooled.
Jam from kiwi slices
From green tomatoes it turns out not less tasty original jam. It can be confused with a dessert of kiwi. The taste is savory, although there is nothing except tomatoes and sugar in the composition of this delicacy. Such jam from kiwi slices can be used for filling or decorating pies, making unusual desserts.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of green tomatoes;
• six glasses of sugar;
• one and a half glasses of water (300 grams).
Cooking Method:
Boil syrup from water and sugar. To do this, pour granulated sugar into the water and boil with a slow boil until homogeneous.
If the tomatoes are small, you can leave them whole. Larger should be cut into two or four pieces.
Pour the tomatoes with cooled syrup, leave for a day, covered with a towel.
The next day, pour the syrup into a separate pan, wait for boiling and pour the tomatoes. Leave again for a day.
Repeat draining of syrup and pouring again. Leave again for a day.
Without pouring the syrup, put the pan with the tomatoes on the fire and cook until ready. Tomatoes should be transparent, and the syrup is thick enough.
To check the readiness of the dessert, you need to leave a drop of syrup on paper. If it does not spread, and the paper does not get wet, the dessert is completely ready.
Tomato jam “Emerald ice”
More fresh taste has jam from green tomatoes and a lemon. It can be served with pancakes or just for tea, used as a filling for “Friendly family” or open pies. Due to the lemon, the taste of the dessert becomes more pronounced, pleasant, acquires a gentle sourness.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of green tomatoes;
• kilogram of sugar;
• one lemon;
• bag of vanilla or vanilla sugar (optional).
Cooking Method:
Washed tomatoes cut into medium-sized slices, put in a plastic bag or plastic container and put in the freezer.
When the tomatoes are completely frozen, they must be removed and wait for complete thawing.
The resulting juice is drained.
Lemon scroll in a meat grinder along with the peel.
Tomatoes, sugar and lemon mix, remove overnight or ten hours in the refrigerator.
Transfer the tomato base to the pan, bring to a boil and cook for fifteen minutes. Cool for two hours.
Repeat the cooking two more times, followed by two hours of cooling.
Put cooled jam in jars and remove for storage.
Tomato jam with basil
Fragrant jam from tomatoes and basil can really surprise guests. The original taste of this dessert will be remembered for a long time. A wonderful recipe is worthy of “registration” in the cookbook of every skillful hostess.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of ripe tomatoes;
• kilogram of sugar;
• 40 grams of dry pectin;
• juice of one lemon (one third of a glass);
• four tablespoons of finely chopped basil.
Cooking Method:
Peel tomatoes and seeds (for this recipe, the middle core is better to cut with a small vegetable knife).
Cut the tomatoes into small slices.
Put the tomatoes in a saucepan and simmer, covered with a lid, over low heat for about ten minutes.
Chop the basil very finely.
Squeeze juice from lemon.
When the tomatoes are boiled dry, add lemon juice and greens to them.
Separately mix the sugar and pectin, gradually add to the boiling tomato base. Give the jam a minute to boil and turn off the heat.
If foam is formed, remove it and pour the dessert into prepared jars.
Sterilize banks, cork with metal lids, put in storage.
Tomato jam “Fragrant dessert”
Neat cherry tomatoes are exactly what you need for a delicious, beautiful, original dessert. If you cook them in lemon syrup with allspice, you get fantastic tomato jam!
Ingredients:
• a pound of cherry tomatoes;
• pound of sugar;
• two tablespoons of lemon juice;
• half a spoonful of ground allspice;
• glass of water.
Cooking Method:
Wash the cherry tomatoes, carefully separating them from the twigs.
Cook syrup from sugar and water as described above. The pot should immediately take a large, as in it will cook the dessert.
Dip cherry in boiled sugar.
Boil the tomatoes for five minutes, turn off the fire, leave the pan for five hours.
Repeat the cooking three times, each time boiling the tomatoes for five minutes and leaving for four to eight hours.
Cooled jam spread in jars.
Tomato jam with star anise
Lemon smack of a badian - a highlight of jam from tomatoes and real lemon. To prepare you need to take a small cherry. They will keep their shape and become a real decoration of the holiday table.
Ingredients:
• two kilograms of cherry tomatoes;
• 850 grams of sugar;
• star aniseen;
• one lemon;
• juice of half a lemon.
Cooking Method:
With tomatoes remove the skin.
Cut the lemon into thin rings or half rings.
Put the tomatoes and lemon in a deep pan, add sugar, put the star anise.
Boil the mixture over medium heat for exactly an hour (after boiling), stirring necessarily.
Turn off the heat and leave for 24 hours in a saucepan.
The next day, squeeze the juice from half a lemon and pour in the jam. Stir.
Put the pan on the fire again, and boil for another hour after boiling, not forgetting stirring. Put the jam in the prepared jars, cork and store in a cool pantry.
Tomato Jam - Tricks and Tips & Tricks
- If the jam is boiled without water, then it is better to mix the ingredients right in the cooking pot. It should be enamelled and deep enough. So do not have to pour the juice and shift the cut after the sugar is dissolved.
- The jam with the badian turns out to be very fragrant. It make the perfect company for cheese and meat.
- You can peel tomatoes from them using the “two-bowl method”. It is necessary to prepare containers with boiling water and chopped ice. The first bowl should stand on the stove (water boils in it). Cut the skin, lower the tomatoes one by one in boiling water for just a minute and immediately transfer them to a bowl of ice water. Peel is easy to move.
- If there is no fresh ginger, dry powder can be used. It does not change the taste of the finished dessert.
- It is not necessary to throw away the cut core of tomatoes with seeds. It can be used to make an omelette, vegetable soup or serve with boiled potatoes, mixed with garlic, salt and herbs.
