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A variety of pickles have long served as the main addition to the winter menu, when fresh vegetables and fruits were very difficult to find on sale. Now times have changed and in any small supermarket you can find a fairly large assortment of fruits, berries and vegetables at any time of the year. True, this is in the city, but in the countryside, most residents still try to stock up on tasty and healthy pickles for the winter: cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples. Fortunately, in rural conditions there is always a cellar where you can easily store all these goodies until spring. But even in the city, it’s rare that a housewife will remain indifferent to the opportunity to prepare a traditional folk dish for her family: pickled or salted vegetables. After all, if you want, there is always a place to store them: both on the balcony and in the refrigerator.
Pickled green tomatoes can be called a traditional Russian snack, since in cold summer conditions tomatoes rarely have time to ripen completely. Therefore, at the end of summer, most gardeners have a lot of bushes with still green tomatoes in their beds. But zealous owners should not waste anything - it is from green tomatoes that you can prepare a dish of amazing taste and aroma, which will not at all resemble preparations made from ripe red tomatoes.Its recipe with photos is described in detail below.
Simple old recipe
When fermenting green tomatoes for the winter, all the nuances matter, so you need to sort everything out step by step.
Preparation of main raw materials
Tomatoes of varying degrees of ripeness are suitable for pickling - pink, brown, white and even completely green. But before fermentation, they must be divided by variety and degree of maturity.
The tomatoes themselves must be thoroughly washed with a brush, first in cold water, and then rinsed in warm water. Then the tomatoes are dried on a towel and removed from the stalks.
Dishes for sourdough
In modern home conditions, rarely does anyone have a real oak barrel, but probably everyone has an enamel bucket, and in extreme cases, an enamel pan. Since stores now have a very large selection of a wide variety of dishes for every taste, if you like fermenting vegetables, you can purchase separate containers for cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage in the future.
If you are going to pickle green tomatoes for the first time, then for the first time you can use ordinary three-liter glass jars.
Whatever container you choose, it must be washed clean and scalded with boiling water immediately before placing the tomatoes inside.
Salt and spices
What else do you need to ferment green tomatoes? Of course, salt, and it should be rock salt, without additives.
If you expect to collect 5 kg of tomatoes for pickling, then for brine you will need 5 liters of water and 350-400 grams of salt. The preparation of brine must be approached with great care: after all, the safety of pickled tomatoes directly depends on its quality.
Add the required amount of salt to the amount of water required by the recipe and bring the brine to a boil. After making sure that the salt has completely dissolved, cool the brine.
Now it is necessary to say a few words about seasonings and herbs. They are the ones who fill the finished dish with that amazing aroma and taste that makes green pickled tomatoes so popular.
The minimum required set of spices for this recipe consists of:
- Dill (greens and inflorescences) – 100 g;
- Garlic – 1-2 heads;
- Horseradish leaves – 3-4 pcs;
- Cherry and black currant leaves - 10-15 pieces each;
- Oak leaves – 5 pieces;
- Tarragon – 20 g;
- Basil – 20 g;
- Ground red hot pepper - half a teaspoon.
It is advisable to rinse the spices under running water, dry them and mix together in one bowl.
Fermentation process
Now you have everything you need to ferment green tomatoes the way it was done in the old days. Place about one third of all spices on the bottom of a scalded bowl. Then tomatoes are placed on top.
Having laid several layers of tomatoes, cover them again with the second third of all the spices. Place the tomatoes again and cover them with the remaining spicy leaves and spices. Pour the brine on top, it must cover all the tomatoes.
Now you need to keep the cooked tomatoes for 5-6 days at room conditions, after which you must take them out into the cold. After 20-30 days you can try the dish, although the tomatoes will be able to fully ferment only after 2 months. Tomatoes fermented according to this recipe can be stored in a cellar or on a frost-free balcony until spring.
Stuffed tomatoes
There is another interesting and simple recipe for fermenting green tomatoes, which uses fruits cut into two halves. It will be interesting for beginners because it allows you to prepare a very interesting and tasty dish in small quantities, so you can simply store it in the refrigerator.
For 2 kg of green tomatoes you will need:
- 5 pods of sweet bell pepper;
- 2 heads of garlic;
- 50 grams of dill;
- 50 grams of parsley or cilantro;
- 50 grams of basil.
The brine can be made in a similar way - 50 grams of salt are dissolved in 1 liter of water.
First, all ingredients, except tomatoes, are passed through a meat grinder.
Then the tomatoes are cut in half and carefully placed in one layer in a fermentation container, cut side up. Sprinkle with chopped spices and cover with other halves of tomatoes. Spices are sprinkled again and chopped tomatoes are placed again, and so on until all the ingredients are gone.
All layers are filled with cold brine and a plate with a load is placed on top. Green tomatoes stay in the room for about 3 days, after which it is advisable to move them to a cold place.A delicious tomato snack will be ready in 15-20 days. It can be stored in the refrigerator for several months.
Try to recreate in your family the atmosphere of an ancient feast with a variety of natural pickles, and the recipes described above will help you with this.
