Have Tomatoes, Will Travel

The peak growing season is winding down and I am determined to eat as many summer tomatoes as possible. While visiting my sis in Southern California, that was easy enough to accomplish. In her backyard garden, there are tomato plants taller than me!

We spent one morning picking and preserving a whole bunch of Romas, making a super simple sauce that we simmered and ladled into freezer bags. It will be the foundation she can later build on, turning it into anything from eggplant parm to a fiery enchilada sauce. The flavor of those sturdy plum tomatoes was absolutely delicious on its own, having an almost meaty quality. Making the sauce involved sauteeing some chopped garlic in olive oil, adding halved tomatoes and covering with a lid until they've broken down a bit. Once the tomatoes turned sort of saucy, I mashed them further with a tater masher. Added a little salt at the end, simmered for 20 minutes and it was bursting with fresh, bright flavor. So good!

When it came time to pack my bags, I tried to figure out to take a little bit of the Sunshine State home. Hmm. How to transport? Scanned the kitchen and spotted an empty egg carton! It worked!

While the container of green mole did NOT make it through TSA screening -- it might not be "liquid" but it's considered a paste, like peanut butter and that is a no-no -- the carton of tomatoes were not a problem.

So, I re-created that sauce last night and served it on top of grilled eggplant, finished in a flurry of shaved Pecorino. It was a big hit at the dinner table, keeping the tomato season sizzling along a little longer.

-- Leslie Kelly

Name That Fruit!

I've been visiting my sister in Southern California, soaking up the sun and making some delicious discoveries. On a trip to a garden spot called the Urban Homestead in Pasadena, we picked up some of the walnut-size fruit, pictured here.

I had never tasted a jujube, but after munching on them, I did some digging. (Thank you Wikipedia!) The fruit is also known as a red date, Chinese or West Indian dates. Though they taste more like an apple than the sticky dates most people wrap in bacon.

They have quite the storied history, being used for medicinal purposes in addition to culinary applications. Jujubes are believed to have anti-stress properties and they're antioxidants, too.

The head homesteader who sold us the fruit -- as well as beautiful Mexicola avocadoes and honey from the on-site apiary -- told us many folks like to chutnify them. And that's exactly what we did, simmering them on the stovetop with some chopped shallots and raisins, a little bit of sugar and a splash of vinegar at the end. Didn't get as jammy as a typical stone fruit chutney, but the taste was bright and sweet. Just the right note of pucker power. Can't wait to serve it with some grilled pork chops!

-- Leslie Kelly