Saturday, September 20, 2008

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.

21 comments:

  1. yay first time to be first on first, firstly!!!!

    So, first off.... Damn, nations, when can we expect the cookbook or cable access show? Perhaps entitled, "no sauce for you, freakin' hippie sneaky types"

    I can taste the tomato-y-ness even now, what time did you say to come round for dinners?

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  2. eeeewwww FN got jizzed by a yellow tomato

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  3. sEa: hey you! i do lots of recipes on here. about half of them are ones that my Yummy Biker came up with; he is the culinary genius while I am the technician. together we weigh as much as a lincoln continental and like the lincoln we are built for both speed AND comfort.

    beast: coming from someone who gets all sweaty reading 'The Economist' i consider that a...actually I don't know where I was going with that. never mind. *hides copy of 'Forbes' under seat cushions*

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  4. Anonymous3:45 PM

    we weren't able to plant a fall garden b/c of the freakin' rain and hurricanes we had. it pretty much wiped out what was left of our summer garden.

    i've never heard of the yellow pear tomato. cute little sucker.

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  5. I wish you the joy of green tomatoes, fried or sweet pickled. I actually have small cherry type green pickled in brine tomatoes, purchased on line. The finest hamburger in the world is a nice thick patty, slightly pink in the center, swipe of mayo on a grilled bun and huge slice of sweet green tomato pickle. One of my favorite meals as a kid, Grandma Horn's pickles....sigh.

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  6. my favorite is the yellow pear...i get a small carton every year at this time to treat myself...have since i was a child...now you know the secret to my power...damn!

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  7. Anonymous4:18 AM

    This is such a tease - my potatoes are in but no flowers yet. My inch-high tomatoes went in at the weekend. And now I wait. Living vicariously through the gardening posts of others.

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  8. If your making a tomatoe salad , roughly cut the tomatoes. Go wild and use all the different types together , place in a colander and sprinkle with salt . allow to stand for about half an hour until all the water has run off (This will not make the tomatoes salty ). this concentrates the tomatoeness of the flavour , stick in a bowl with some chopped or dried oregano ,grated garlic and a little finely chopped chilli and a dressing of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts olive oil.
    Yum

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  9. You should make a hat or did you already? I haven't slept alot lately. So it was a good idea. I use to wander through a neighbor's garden as a kid helping myself and munching away. Lucky I did not get shot in the butt for stealing. Made boats with the overgrown cucumbers.

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  10. I choose to worship the yellow pear tomatoes.
    They are worthy.

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  11. What do you like in your mashed spuds? For me it's usually butter and parmesan, but roast garlic, mayo,or a mix of mashed sweet potato and black pepper do the trick too.

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  12. I've recently been spending time with 'foodies'. Not being one myself this has been a bit of an education. They are so passionate, you only have to mention a fresh vegetable fry up and they immediately get a lardon.

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  13. ***Smacks tickers legs for telling THE worst food joke EVER ***

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  14. I just love your cooking segments. Wow, you can have a show on HGTV about gardening, then move to the food network and use the stuff you just grew. Tremendous.

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  15. what no purple potatoes?




    hahahahaaaa... great stuff!!!

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  16. I am a spud evangelist. There are 400 odd varieties, most of which we never see on sale because they look lumpy and misshapen, or have blue or blotchy skins.

    There is a spud to match any occasion, which is more than you say for other staples. They also produce higher yields, are more pest resistant, and are more nutritious than any other staple.

    Mr Potato head knows what he's talking about.

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  17. You like potato and I like potahto,
    You like tomato and I like tomahto
    Potato, potahto,
    Tomato, tomahto,
    Let's call the whole thing off

    But oh, if we call the whole thing off
    Then we must part
    And oh, if we ever part,
    then that might break my heart
    *drum solo

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  18. I find wearing ladies panties while "Polishing My Tomatoes" very relaxing.
    Is this normal Miss FN ?????

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  19. dear FN:

    I foolishly saved your email invite to alternate site in a spot that I cannot now get into. Pretty please send me another invite thanks at my yahoo site pretty please.

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  20. oh fine... tease with the UJ thangy, but no send-y me invite after many promises.

    i blow my nose at you and your wee tomatoes... **hark**

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