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A variety of pickles have long served as the main addition to the winter menu, when fresh vegetables and fruits on sale were very difficult to find. 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, and in the village, most of the residents are still trying 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 keep all these goodies until spring. But even in the city, a rare housewife will remain indifferent to the opportunity to prepare a traditional folk dish for her family: pickled or salted vegetables. After all, if you wish, 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, because in the cold summer, tomatoes rarely have time to ripen completely. Therefore, at the end of summer, most gardeners have many bushes with still green tomatoes in the beds. But zealous owners should not lose anything - it is from green tomatoes that you can prepare a dish that is amazing in taste and aroma, which will not at all look like blanks from ripe red tomatoes. Its recipe with a photo is described in detail below.
A simple old recipe
For pickling green tomatoes for the winter, all the nuances matter, so you need to disassemble everything in stages.
Preparation of the main raw materials
Tomatoes of varying ripeness are suitable for pickling - pink, brown, white and even completely green. But before fermentation, they must be divided according to varieties and degree of maturity.
The tomatoes themselves must be thoroughly rinsed with a brush, first in cold and then rinsed in warm water. Then the tomatoes are dried on a towel and freed from the stalks.
Sourdough utensils
In modern home conditions, rarely anyone has a real oak barrel, but an enamel bucket, and in extreme cases, an enamel pan is probably for everyone. Since the stores now have a very large selection of a wide variety of dishes for every taste - if you like to ferment vegetables, you can purchase separate containers for cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage for the future.
If you are going to salt green tomatoes for the first time, then for the first time you can use ordinary glass three-liter jars.
Whichever container you choose, it must be cleanly washed 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 stone, no additives.
If you count on the fact that you pick up 5 kg of tomatoes for pickling, then for the brine you will need 5 liters of water and 350-400 grams of salt. The preparation of the brine must be approached with all attention: 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 is completely dissolved, cool the brine.
Now it is necessary to say a few words about seasonings and herbs. It is they who fill the finished dish with the same amazing aroma and taste, thanks to which green pickled tomatoes are so popular.
According to this recipe, the minimum required set of spices 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;
- Basilica - 20 g;
- Red hot ground pepper - half a teaspoon.
It is advisable to rinse the spices under running water, dry and mix together in one bowl.
Fermentation process
Now you have everything you need to ferment green tomatoes the way they did in the old days. Put about one third of all spices in a scalded dish on the bottom. Then tomatoes are stacked on top.
After laying several layers of tomatoes, fill them again with the second third of all spices. Place the tomatoes again and cover them with the remaining spicy leaves and spices on top. Pour the brine on top, it must cover all the tomatoes.
Now it is necessary to keep the cooked tomatoes for 5-6 days in room conditions, after which it is imperative to put them out in the cold. Already after 20-30 days, the dish can be tasted, although the tomatoes will be able to ferment completely only after 2 months. Tomatoes pickled according to this recipe can be stored in the cellar or on the frost-free balcony until spring.
Stuffed tomatoes
There is another interesting and simple recipe for sourdough green tomatoes, which uses fruits cut into two halves. It will be interesting for beginners, since it allows you to cook 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.
Brine can be made in the same way - 50 grams of salt dissolves in 1 liter of water.
First, all ingredients, except tomatoes, are passed through a meat grinder.
Then the tomatoes are cut in half and neatly stacked in one layer in a fermentation container, cut up. Sprinkle with chopped spices and cover with other tomato halves on top. Sprinkle again with spices and cut tomatoes again and so on until all the products run out.
All layers are poured with cold brine and a plate with a load is placed on top. Green tomatoes stand in the room for about 3 days, after which it is advisable to transfer 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 old feast with a variety of natural pickles and the recipes described above will help you with this.
