Date I made these recipes – August 27, 2017 – Celebrating
summer and the "arrival" of green tomatoes!
The Green Tomato
Cookbook by Paula Simmons
Published by Pacific Search
© 1975
Purchased at Bonnie
Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC
Recipes: Tortilla Casserole – p. 50 and Green Tomato
Spice Bread – p. 11
My friend Dennis mentioned in a Facebook post the other day that he picked some green tomatoes from
his garden.
My ears perked up like a dog: "Green tomatoes? Did you say 'green tomatoes'?"
People, I've had this cookbook – The Green Tomato Cookbook – since 2011[1]
and up until now, it's been languishing on my shelf until such a time as I
could score some green tomatoes.
You may think "Well, that's easy, just go to a grocery
store or farmer's market," but those folks sell red tomatoes. Red. Red sell like hotcakes because they are
ripe. People like ripe.
Yet all tomatoes start out green and when Dennis mentioned
that he had "green" tomatoes, I realized that in the future, I needed
to connect with amateur gardeners. Now I
know plenty of people who garden and grow vegetables, but if they offer
produce, they are always trying to push
things I don't need like zucchini or armfuls of rhubarb. Not once has anybody ever mentioned they had
green tomatoes until Dennis and then the light bulb went off and I found my
"Holy Grail."
You might ask "Why didn't you just grow some
yourself," but remember folks, my life motto is "Nature is NOT your
friend." When my husband and I
moved into this house almost 20 years ago, I planted tomatoes and a few other
things because it felt like the new home owner thing to do, and I grew lovely
tomatoes which I then had to pick.
Well now, I went outside to pick my fruit (tomatoes) and
vegetables and got eaten alive by mosquitoes.
And I'm the type of person who gets welts from bug bites (it's a
histamine problem) and so that was my first and last attempt at gardening. This is why grocery stores and farmer's
markets exist. But as I said above,
farmer's markets in these parts don't offer unripe tomatoes and so I have to
depend upon the "kindness of strangers" to be my supplier. To be clear, Dennis is not a stranger but I
just had to quote that line from A
Streetcar Named Desire.
Anywho, I messaged Dennis and asked if I could have some and
he brought some over and I had so many that I made two recipes instead of my
usual one per cookbook. I actually had
enough for a third recipe but there is such a thing as overkill.
Now, I can't read minds but I'm pretty sure most of you
probably inserted the word "fried" in front of "green
tomatoes," but that was about the last thing I wanted to make, not only
because it was expected but because I'm not a huge fan of these things. I mean, they're okay, but don't float my
boat; frankly, I think this is more of a southern obsession. Besides, given that I had an entire cookbook with
green tomato recipes at my disposal, why not do some exploring?
So I explored and I debated about branching out and making
some pickles or relishes, something I had not done before, but frankly, I
didn't/don't want to deal with sanitizing all the jars and making sure
everything is sealed properly. I suspect
though, that this cookbook's previous owner really loved the Pickles and Relishes chapter as almost
every recipe page was splattered with ingredients: "End-of-the-garden Pickles," p. 69;
"Green Tomato Chili Sauce," p. 70, and, "Martha's
Vineyard Old-Time Mincemeat." I love particularly the note at
the end of the mincemeat recipe – "Prize recipe of Gertrude Turner's
mother." I have no idea who that
is, but hooray for her!
Other Table of Contents categories were: Growing
and Cooking Hints; Breads and Wine;
Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Desserts; Casseroles; Pickles and Relishes; Vegetables
and Side Dishes.
I'm sorry, let's go back a minute: ]Green Tomato] Wine????? Pass.
Out of all the other non-pickle or relish recipes, the Tortilla Casserole and the Green Tomato Spice Bread seemed to be
the best and easiest ones to make.
Neither one showcased the green tomato (something you would be expected
to do on Chopped) but they were
fine.
I have to note though, that the Tortilla Casserole's filling could easily be used for Sloppy Joe's
or even Chili, with or without beans. I
thought it was tasty and happily, not too spicy.
As to the spice bread, it was not at all "spicy" which
was good, but the flavors didn't quite come up to those I would expect from a
spiced loaf bread, and that was disappointing.
I also hoped for the bread to be a bit more moist (sort of like a
zucchini bread) but that didn't happen.
Part of the problem might be that I halved the recipe thereby cutting
the oil from ½ cup to ¼ cup, and the eggs from two to one. It's hard to get a moist cake when you're shy
on ingredients, not that a full recipe would have fared much better.
Now as a side note, on my recent visit to Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in NYC last
month, I found a Fried Green Tomatoes at
the Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook by Fannie
Flagg (who knew?). I pondered and pondered whether or not to purchase Fannie's
cookbook, and decided to pass this time around.
This would make sense to you if you saw the huge stack of books I actually
purchased – 18 total! Besides, I already
had today's cookbook on my shelf and so first things first.
Tortilla Casserole –
Serves 6
1 pound lean ground beef
1 T. vegetable oil
½ cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons flour
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
3 large green tomatoes, chopped
1 ripe tomato, chopped
2 crushed garlic cloves
½ cup green chili salsa (optional) (see Ann's Note below)
1 T. chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon or more salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cup water
12 homemade or purchased tortillas (recipe below)
¾ pound (about 3 cups) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
¾ cup chopped onion
Brown beef in oil; drain off excess fat. Add ½ cup onion and sauté until limp. Stir in flour; blend in tomato sauce. Add both ripe and green tomatoes, garlic,
chili salsa (if desired), and seasonings.
Stir in the water. Simmer sauce
slowly until thickened.
Fry tortillas lightly in oil. Spoon 1 tablespoon cheese, 1 tablespoon
onion, and 2 tablespoons of meat sauce onto each tortilla. Fold over and arrange filled tortillas in
large shallow baking pan, side by side. Spoon
remaining meat sauce over them; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350°
for 25 to 35 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.
Easy Home-Made
Tortillas – makes 12
1 ¼ cups flour
¾ cups yellow cornmeal
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Mix dry ingredients together. Boil up oil in water; add dry ingredients and
mix well. Divide dough into 12
balls. Roll each into a thin disk on
floured pastry cloth or between wax paper.
In lightly oiled skillet, brown tortillas on each side. These can be made ahead and reheated in oiled
skillet to soften them when ready to use.
Recipe can be doubled.
Ann's Note: Green
Chili Salsa is an optional ingredient for the recipe above, but the
cookbook does not contain a recipe for it.
It does include a recipe for a Green
Tomato Taco Sauce but the yield on that is mega (8 quarts green tomatoes) when
all you need is ½ cup. So if I were you,
if you want to add this ingredient to the casserole, I'd go shopping and find
something that most closely approximates green chili salsa or make up your own
version.
Green Tomato Spice
Bread – Makes 2 loaves
2 ½ cups unsifted flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon molasses
3 tablespoons honey
½ cup oil
1 cup ground and undrained green tomatoes
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
Mix dry ingredients.
Add rest of ingredients; beat well. Spoon into 2 greased and floured
medium loaf pans. Let batter rest 10
minutes. Smooth the top of the loaves,
then make an indentation along the center from end to end. Bake at 350°
for 45 to 50 minutes, or until they test done.
[1]
Timing is everything: I bought this book
in July 2011, just a few days after we held a memorial mass for my late father
who passed away in March of that year.
Since dad was from New Jersey , and
since it was difficult for older relatives to travel, we brought the
"show" to them and held a memorial mass for him in New Jersey .
Thereafter, as is usual and customary, we went into the city (NYC) for a
few days to see more friends and family and to shop. This cookbook was purchased at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC, with
"daddy money" i.e. money that he left to me after he died. Since he knew about my cookbook collection I
am sure he would have approved, if not been highly amused. He also grew a huge garden every year so this cookbook is especially fitting.
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