Black Cherry Tomatoes
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Description/Taste
Black Cherry tomatoes create drama on a salad plate. Unlike other cherry tomatoes, the black cherries don't have as much water and are very meaty. They're also very sweet with smoky overtones. With cherry tomatoes in general, color is the primary interest, but with black cherry tomatoes you get flavor and looks.
Current Facts
Tomato tips: 1. Never store tomatoes in the refrigerator. They'll lose their taste and their texture will turn mealy. Keep them out of direct light on your countertop and use them as soon as they are ripe. 2. To peel the skin from a tomato, cute an X through the skin on the bottom of the tomato, then place in boiling water for no more than 15 seconds. Remove and place in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Dry and peel the tomato. The skin should slip off easily. 3. You can freeze whole, skin on tomatoes for use later in a sauce. Remove stems, wash and dry. Place on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for several hours until the tomatoes are frozen. Then you can remove them and store in the freezer in a plastic freezer bag. Defrosted, they're really only good for sauces since their texture will have changed in the freezing process. 4. Aluminum and tomatoes don't mix when cooking. The acid in tomatoes reacts badly with aluminum. The aluminum makes cooked tomatoes bitter and discolored. The acid can stain the pan. Stainless steel is a better alternative to aluminum.
Nutritional Value
Tomatoes are rich in vitamins A and C and are full of fiber. Field- or vine-ripened summer tomatoes are higher in vitamin C than greenhouse tomatoes grown in fall and winter, and fresh tomatoes have more vitamin C than after they're cooked or canned. Tomatoes are noted for containing the antioxidant compound lycopene, which may help protect against prostate cancer and heart disease.
Applications
Small cherry tomatoes are great for salads, pastas, and chunky gazpacho. For pasta, cook down the cherry tomatoes just until they burst. Shave some fine cheese over it. Poach cherry tomatoes in olive oil on the vine, cut off the vine but leave the stem and finish on fish. Create a simple tomato relish using fresh basil, chopped red onion, diced jalapeno, minced garlic, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Make roasted tomatoes and use them to make a vinaigrette. Roast, puree and add oil and vinegar. Tomatoes are not only great preserved by canning for use in the winter, but make great pickles when picked green and delicious savory jam. Make tomato water and put it in a little glass as an amuse. Tomato water is good with fish. You can also make it into a granita with simple syrup. Serve grilled breads with tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and some salt. Serve tomato tartlets as first course with arugula and vinaigrette. You need a tomato that can be sliced so it should have firm flesh and little juice. Use a simple pie dough and mix in herbs like basil or tarragon. To bring out the flavor of a tomato and lessen the acidity of a truly acid tomato, add a little salt and sugar. In a sauce, you can add some grated carrot instead. Its sweetness will offset the acidity.
Ethnic/Cultural Info
In France, around the time that the myth was dispelled that tomatoes were poisonous, people began to believe that the tomato was an aphrodisiac and called it "pomme d'amour" or "love apple." Tomatoes are among the most common plants grown in home gardens. The typical American eats about 80 pounds of tomatoes annually.
Geography/History
The tomato's trip around the world began on South America's western coast. They are native to the Andes region of Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, but are believed to have been domesticated in Mexico. It was in the early 1500s when tomatoes were introduced to Europe by returning Spanish colonists. In North America, tomatoes were not only not eaten but were believed to be poisonous because they're a member of the deadly Nightshade family. This was disproved publicly in 1820 when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson demonstrated eating a tomato on the courthouse steps of Salem, New Jersey. Botanically, the tomato is a fruit; however in 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the tomato was legally a vegetable due to common usage.
