Tomatoes are widely used in cooking. They are used as an ingredient in appetizers, first and second courses, salads – both raw and ready-made. Salads with fresh tomatoes, tomato soups, sauces, pizza and pasta with tomato dressing have become quite familiar to us.
How to Cook Tomatoes
Tomatoes are successfully used for cooking various types of canned food. Fruits contain a significant amount of acid, which makes it possible to limit the production of canned food to sterilizing them in boiling water. Depending on what taste the cook wants to achieve, tomatoes can be pickled, salted, boiled sweet sauce, juice or drink. As a rule, sugar, salt, vinegar, citric acid and all kinds of spices are used in any kind of canning. With proper preparation, the product can be stored in a dark, cool place for several years. These preserves are always an excellent addition to side dishes, meat, fish, salads and an independent snack. A well–known tomato product is ketchup, a sweet tomato sauce with seasonings.
Combination with Other Products
Tomato is not desirable to combine with starch-containing and cereal products. It is recommended to eat tomatoes with herbs and vegetables that do not contain starch. It is advised to take tomatoes with proteins and fats, thus improving their assimilation. A useful combination is tomato and avocado, as well as broccoli. The usual combination of tomatoes and cucumbers is not as useful as it seems – the components of these vegetables, according to recent studies, mutually interfere with the assimilation of various components of each other. Tomatoes with liver or olive oil are considered useful combinations.
The Use of Tomatoes in Drinks
The most famous tomato drink, as expected, is tomato juice. It is consumed both in its natural form and with the addition of salt, pepper, celery, Worcestershire sauce, lemon and lime juice. In addition, tomato juice is used as a component of several alcoholic cocktails. Tomatoes can be added to vegetable smoothies based on yogurt, as well as to prepare diluted drinks with spices from them.
Types of Tomatoes
There are hundreds of types of tomatoes – small cherry the size of a grape, huge tomatoes weighing 600-800 grams, juicy for salads and fleshy for pasta, campari and – these are just the most famous of the many varieties. The color of the fruit, in addition to red, can vary from white, orange, yellow, green to purple and chocolate.
How to Choose and Store Tomatoes?
Ripe tomatoes have a rather rich aroma. If there is no smell, most likely the tomatoes were picked unripe. The peduncle should be small. When choosing tomatoes, you need to pay attention to the smoothness of the skin, the absence of cracks, spots and traces of blows. A fully ripe tomato is soft and springy, but you can choose it only if it is consumed immediately. Overripe tomatoes are always good for sauces and soups. In healthy fruits, the skin is thin, and the flesh is monotonous. If white thin veins are visible in the pulp, there are white spots in the core, and it itself is “plastic” to the touch – it means that there are nitrates in the tomato.
The storage conditions of a tomato directly depends on how ripe it is. Room temperature will accelerate the ripening process. Therefore, if you want the tomato to ripen, feel free to leave it warm. Ripe tomatoes are best stored at a temperature of about 12 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the tomato will cease to ripen, but it will not lose its taste and useful properties.
What a new Year’s feast without fish and seafood dishes. I suggest that you, dear cooks, prepare a simple and home-made delicious dish of cod steaks for the festive New year’s table. The dish is good both cold and hot.
A delicious, juicy zucchini and vegetable salad will perfectly decorate your everyday table. Good for meat dishes, and as an independent dish. Not difficult to prepare, it is sure to please you with its harmony and freshness.
A light snack in the form of rolls is suitable both for a festive table and for every day. Cooking will not be difficult, and the result will please vegetable lovers. A pleasant garlic ostrich is harmoniously combined in this dish with the juiciness of tomatoes and the softness of eggplant.
I offer a simple recipe for eggplant and pepper salad. The dish is prepared for a short time, does not require much effort. The result will certainly please you!
Despite the fact that chili con carne is associated with Mexico, it actually originated in the southwestern United States, where a mixture of cultures gave rise to a new cuisine called “Tex-Mex” (in other words, Texan-Mexican). But even these two countries are not limited. Initially (before joining the United States) Texas was influenced by the Spanish. It was then that a mix of Spanish and Mexican dishes laid the foundations of Tex-Mex. And much later, affordable American products joined it. As for Chile con carne itself, it is possible to trace the influence of all three cultures. Pepper stews trace their history back to the Aztecs themselves. The Spanish colonizers added meat as the main ingredient. Well, the American land gradually modernized all the ingredients.
