UPDATED: Frilled Lizard Yellow Takes Many Servings Meatloaf: Greed!!!

UPDATE: new one up at UJ, pervs! and its short, too! yay!


Here are my glorious potatoes and equally glorious tomatoes. You may worship them. Seriously. You can.



Starting on the far left we have the little Andean blue potato. I planted these at the same time as the rest of the potato crop, but they took the longest to mature. It grew into a huge big sprawling plant and blossomed (pink) continuously for 2 solid months. The other potatoes were ready in July; had already blossomed (blue and white) and begun to fail a bit while this one was still throwing baby tiny little potatoes far out from the main stalk, so I left it in. Suh-PRAZ,Suh-PRAZ,Suh-PRAZ... the thing threw nearly half a bushel of little tates per plant!

When you cut these open there is an intense ring of purple blue surrounding flesh that is almost baby duck yellow, although some of them will be lavender blue all the way through. It is very sweet and nice, on the mealy side rather than the waxy side, and the flesh cooks white. It isn't a long keeper at all; it goes soft very quickly even though the skin is relatively thick.

Next comes the standard 'Roma' tomato. This is the tomato that I would grow if I had to choose just one; it has huge, huge flavor and really firm flesh thats easy to work with...not overly juicy either. The only drawback is that the plant itself doesn't run too terribly hardy, but it produces like a mad thing so I guess it all evens out.

The new red potato is the one with what's described as 'waxy' flesh, although thats kind of a disgusting way to describe a structure that's just very fine grained once cooked. You can't make mashed potatoes with this one because it starts forming gluten like bread dough; it has no structure at all once its crushed and lots and lots of carb-sugar. This is perfect in potato salads, cold potato dishes with a dressing, things like that. It doesn't keep very long because the skin is thinner than tissue paper.

The grapette is just your standard little oval-shaped tomato. I found it in a salad and thought it tasted really good so I saved the seeds and I've been growing it for about six years now; maybe longer. Its not icky sweet like a cherry tomato, and like the Roma it has huge, huge flavor. It's very juicy and the plant is quite vigorous. Never had a problem with any kind of blight or spots with this one. Its a heavy producer, so I always have more than enough. I like to dry and pack them in a good thick olive oil with garlic for a special treat in the middle of the winter.

The Early Girl tomato is a Burpee hybrid, and its supposed to be a beefsteak. What I get here is more of a saladette because I don't manure heavily or do any fussing, and the season is really short. Still, its a great tomato, firm like a Roma but much juicier, and running somewhat more acid than the Roma. The seeds are spread throughout the meat of the fruit, not collected in a central vault around a core like the Romas. The plant and the fruit are really succeptible to blighting off, though, although its super vigorous in early growth and it sets fruit enthusiastically.

Yellow Pear is really different. First of all, I have never seen a plant that grows like this; it grows rampantly, just goes totally apeshit,. It's the rankest smelling tomato plant I've ever smelled; and when you crush the plant it leaves a substance on you (and anything else) that turns yellow. The Yellow Pear is the tomato most likely to volunteer as well. The fruit is very sweet, citric and yet almost buttery; very juicy too. It still tastes like a tomato, though, which is what I was after. (I won't grow a standard cherry tomato like 'Sweet 100'. Whats the point? All they taste like is sugar water.) This is what makes my tomato sauce taste different and really good, this little guy here. It just transforms the whole mix.

White Rose potato is just a nice, basic, somewhat sweet potato. Not a very long keeper; it has the thinnest skin of all the potatoes I grew this year.

The Russet is simply the standard Idaho baker. Keeps damn near indefinitely; the skin is more of a hide and the cooked texture is nice and mealy.

I grew this combination of potatoes because, when cooked and riced together, they make the most heavenly, meltingly delicious combination imaginable. The dish I make with them is kind of fussy simply because you need to have special equipment (a ricer, which is essentially a big thing with two handles and a basket that looks and works exactly like a garlic press) and you have to hurry and get it to the table before it 'sinks', but its so very worth the effort. It needs no butter, no salt, no nothing. You've never had a potato dish that did this; it melts like snowflakes on your tongue. Mmmm!
The recipe is simply this:

-Equal weights of blue, white, red potatoes: the total weight equal to the same weight in Russets, (think of it as a ratio) peeled, chopped medium and boiled all together in salted water until tender, drained

-While still hot, squeeze through a ricer into a warm bowl and serve immediately.

Lets look at them again, shall we? Yes, lets!



And heres my recipe for perfect tomato sauce:

-Roma, yellow pear, grapette and early girl beefsteak tomatoes, washed, seeded and run though a food processor until smooth

Place in an 8 1/2 by 11, 3 inch deep baking dish and put into a cold oven on the middle rack.

Set the heat at 325.

Cook for several hours in increments of 45 minutes, stopping each time to stir the sauce thoroughly and checking to see that it is not bubbling..not even a simmer. If it is, turn the heat down to 300 or even 275. The sauce is done when it is reduced by 1/2 (less for thicker sauce or paste. As it thickens it will have to be checked and stirred more frequently to ensure that it does not burn.) This can take up to 4 hours, depending on the juiciness of the tomatoes and the temperature and humidity of the day. Use this time to have a cocktail...read a trashy magazine...give someone special a nice blow job. Or two.

Cool, then return to cuisinart or better yet a blender and blend until smooth; freeze.

When you thaw this out it will taste exactly like summer. It will simply fill the entire kitchen with the smell of fresh tomato and blow you away.