TREE TOMATOES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 315, 6 July 1945, Page 22

TREE TOMATOES

REE tomatoes have so many uses that they have won for themselves a very high popularity, especially as they come at a time of the year when the most popular fruits are over. They are delicious as breakfast fruit; they make a good seasoning in cooking left-over meat; they are good raw in salads; they boost up the rather flavourless melon or apple in jam; they are nice mixed with a cornflour blancmange; and _ besides all this, make delicious chutney. I think I have given you some of these recipes before, but you may have forgotten them. Perhaps you could send us some new and original ideas. Tree Tomato and Apple Jam (Excellent) This is the recipe which converted me to using tree tomatoes in any form at all. I had always disliked them;. but was given some of this jam on a waterbiscuit for afternoon tea at a friend’s home, and found it delicious. Cut up, peel and mince’ one pound of green cooking apples. Scald, skin and cut up 3lb. of tree tomatoes. Bring these two fruits to the boil with 2 teacups of water. After a few minutes’ boiling, add gradually 4lb. sugar (warmed is best), stir until thoroughly dissolved, and then boil fast till it will set when tested on a cold plate about an hour. After half an hour’s boiling, add the juice of 1 or 2 lemons. With Sausages Skin and cut up the. tree tomatoes into thick slices; add a little grated onion and cook all together in a small saucepan with a little butter, just as you would do ordinary tomatoes. A spoonful of sugar brings out the flavour. A pinch of ground ginger is a help, too. You may need a spoonful of hot water, if the juice is not sufficient, Serve as any other tomato savoury-with bacon, kidneys, sausages, etc. Tree Tomato and Piemelon Jam Cut up the melon as usual into dice, To 4lb. melon allow 2lb. tree tomatoes. Soak the tomatoes in 2 pints boiling water, for 20 to 30 minutes, then skin them and cut them up. Pour the same water over the melon and tomatoes, and bring gently to the boil. Allow to cook steadily for half an ‘hour; then | add" 6lb. sugar gradually and stir until it is thoroughly dissolved. Then boil very fast till it will set when tested. The juice of 2 or 3 lemons should be added when nearly cooked; or a pinch of citric acid, when obtainable. In this recipe, the melon is often minced. Special Cottage Pie Mince up the cold meat as usual, with a little onion,. pepper and salt. The meat may be rabbit, beef or mutton, or even some of each. Grease casserole _or piedish and put a layer of meat at the bottom. Cover with a layer of skinned and sliced ‘tree tomatoes. | Sprinkle with a few bits of diced becon, then repeat the layers. Pour in a little left-over gravy or meat essence mixed

with hot water. Cover with a thick layer of well mashed and seasoned potatoes, dot with knobs of butter or good dripping, and bake in fairly hot oven for about an hour, Dessert or Breakfast Fruit 1. Cut the skinned tree tomatoes in halves lengthwise, and just cover them with water in a casserole. Add lemon juice to taste, or a few pieces of rhubarb -and a little sugar. Put the lid on, and bake slowly in oven, so that they are not pulped. If you have neither rhubarb nor lemon, flavour them with a very little vanilla. 2. Lay the skinned tomatoes, cut lengthwise, in serving dish, and pour over them a syrup made by mixing equal parts of honey, golden syrup and hot water, brought to the boil, and flavoured with lemon juice. Simply leave the tomatoes lying in the syrup for a few hours, and serve without cooking. Ordinary syrup made by boiling together 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, flavoured with lemon juice, will do, but is less exciting. Also, just golden syrup, hot water and lemon juice may be used. The syrup must be bciled Tree Tomato Chutney This is an extremely popular recipe. About 3lb. tree tomatoes skinned and cut up with l1lb. onions, and 1%4lb, apples, a pint of vinegar, 2121b. brown sugar, half a packet mixed spice, a tablespoon salt, and a scant 42 teaspoon cayenne pepper. This should not need more than an hour’s boiling. Will make about 54%4lb. The only chutney that is better with onions than garlic.