Plasma Mary

Yeah, it's been awhile. But there you are.

I had a modest harvest of tomatoes this year, which for a single person is a cornucopia. With some of my extra pineapple tomatoes (sweet and flavorful with good acidity), I made a tomato water. I blended them, squeezed the juice through cheesecloth and then skimmed off the clear part after it settled in the fridge.

Then I added horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire and salt along with some ice and Sapphire gin. Stirred and strained and voila! A new style of bloody mary that is super-tomato-y but is super clean and light tasting. Quite spectacular.

Anyone have ideas how to make it even clearer?

I supposed if I were to do it right, I should coat the glass rim with celery salt. Next time.

Summer Surplus

I’m harvesting way more tomatoes than I can eat (unless I wanted to do that awesome tomato diet). But it’s been my pleasure to give them away. I’m rather proud of my tomatoes; they’re all flavorful and sweet. All except for the Romas, which are mealy and characterless. Romas are a paste tomato whose high pectin content makes it good for cooking. In a sauce they come alive and you can really taste their tomato-y goodness. My ego prevents me from letting people eat the Romas I give them raw. God forbid they think I grow bland tomatoes. And I only would be giving them enough for a half cup of marinara. What's the point? So I’ve been keeping them, which leads to another dilemma: My one Roma plant has yielded a dozen or so every days which is substantial but not enough to start canning. What to do? From the first harvest I made a salsa, which, while not cooked, tastes amazing.

Salsa Fresca (adapted from Two Hot Tamales) 6 paste tomatoes, halved (around a pound?) ½ medium onion 2 cloves garlic 2 tbsp cider vinegar 1 handful of cilantro ½ dried chipotle chile (or to your heat tolerance) A healthy dose of salt and pepper Put everything in a blender and blast it. FYI, using canned chipotle is fine but they can get super hot. Also, slicing tomatoes can be used but your salsa will be more watery.

maybe enough for a few cups of sauce With the next harvest I had a lot more tomatoes, but still not enough for sauce. I seemed to remember Mario Batali roasting tomatoes so I tried it. I sliced them lengthwise and sprinkled them with salt and sugar and olive oil, added a couple cloves of garlic and put them in a 275 degree oven for a few hours. I guess the sugar might be considered cheating, but whatever. It's only a couple teaspoons and it tastes better. Some people add herbs but I just want pure tomato flavor. Your results may vary – oven fluctuations, tomato size – so after a couple hours, it’s best to check on them periodically. You’re looking for something that’s dried but pliant with just a tiny bit of juice. You don’t want a sun-dried tomato. Pack them in olive oil and store them in the fridge. Put them in pasta, salad, sauces, sandwiches, or whatever. At least, that’s what I read. So far mine haven't made it beyond the antipasto plate.

A Short and Lazy Entry

Last night I was feeling rather peckish and lazy so I defrosted some spaghetti and meatballs I had made a couple months back. It was an icy lump that was enough for two meals but I couldn’t well portion it out without a hacksaw so I reheated the whole thing in a pot. Long story short, I ate the entire thing (covered in cheese) in one sitting and complained of stomach pains the rest of the night. It was one of those not-so-rare moments where food made me feel bad about myself. For those guilty times I turn to This Is Why You’re Fat, a collection of reader-submitted photographs of disgusting foods. When you read about The Tobias (a grilled beef sandwich topped with fried pepperoni, salami, provolone cheese, fried onions, tomato and special sauce), suddenly a double helping of spaghetti and meatballs doesn’t seem so bad. Most of the featured dishes are various fast foods stuffed in a bun or on a pizza: The Potluck Burger A burger with sliced hot dogs, potato salad, mac and cheese, tomato, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. But every so often there is an inspired entry: Breakfast Cake Two layers of egg, sausage, bacon, cheese quiche with country gravy in between, topped with gravy icing garnished with bacon bits. I’m sad to admit that I’ve eaten more than one of the featured items on multiple occasions. I refuse to say which ones. I know I mentioned them in the previous entry but the Planet Money team just podcasted on the Fancy Food Show. This blog isn’t really meant to pimp out other websites but that’s apparently what today is about. Slow news day, I guess. The podcast is one of their rare food-centric episodes and it's humorous and informative (and I promise, it’s the last time I’ll mention them or NPR for the rest of the year). Lastly, a brief tomato update: All the plants are flourishing, though many of the fruit are afflicted with blossom end rot, a condition that blackens the ends of tomatoes. It’s due to a calcium deficiency so I tossed in a couple Tums into the water. Very scientific of me, I know. The Sweet 100s have been producing consistently, truly living up to their name. A handful a day of super-sweet little tomatoes. The big ‘uns have been slow to mature but I picked the first pretty one yesterday. This Early Girl has a date with the inside of a grilled cheese sandwich Tons of Big Boys and Romas to follow.

An Inconvenient Lunch

Tomorrow at the movie theaters marks the theatrical release of Food, Inc. This is a documentary directed by Robbie Kenner about the industrialization of food. It incorporates a lot of the subjects covered in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser is a co-producer) along with a bunch of stuff that’s happened since their publications. But before you nod off, this movie is will change the way you think about food. Take a gander at the visually dynamic and dramatically galvanizing trailer!

To be fair, I haven’t seen the movie yet and I don’t necessarily agree with all of what I’ve seen in the trailer (I’m not that worried about cloned livestock), but I believe this is an important film. Ugh. That sounds so pretentious. Le cinéma important. Full disclosure: I do know one of the film’s producer, but since I have a long-standing man crush on Michael Pollan ( the bald dude in the trailer), I’m pretty sure I’d have been first in line regardless.

They screened the film in Sacramento for agricultural lawmakers and it received a hugely positive response to the point where they were trying to organize screenings for the entire state legislature. I don’t know if that happened, but it should. And you should all see it, too. It opens in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow but it opens wider in subsequent weeks – depending on how well it does this weekend. Check here for the schedule. My friend promised me the movie won’t make you want to stop eating.

Now for a little business: Thanks to the few who are reading this silly blog. If you have any feedback, please lay it on me (thanks, Jenna, for the mac & cheese w/beans tip) or leave a comment. Topic ideas, criticisms and factual corrections are welcome. And if you like the blog or know someone who might, feel free to forward the link. I won’t complain.

Lastly, TOMATO UPDATE! The Earthboxes are going crizazy with fruit and growth. The Sweet 100s are living up to their name. A veritable fruit explosion. And I’ve got Yellow Pear, Big Boy, Roma and Early Girls coming up, too. They should start ripening in a couple weeks.

Sweet 100s on the left, Early Girl on the right

Coming along nicely

The DIY Earthboxes haven’t yet experienced the same bounteous growth spurt of the real ones, but I still think they are going to work out. They were planted a few weeks after the other ones and they are in a spot that receives less light. However, the other plants are sucking. They haven’t grown at all. No pictures of them. Too embarrassing.

My Victory Garden

O.K., it’s been awhile since I wrote anything but I’m back and with a purpose. I’ve got tons of things to talk about from molecular gastronomy to sustainable eating to Mini Sirloin Burgers. But today I’m all gung ho about my upcoming bounty from Mother Nature. In the past, I’ve had mixed successes with my gardening endeavors. When I lived in a crack house (or so my friends called it), I had a huge harvest of tomatoes in my otherwise barren backyard. In my current, less crack-y house, I’ve had more misses than hits despite two raised beds full of expensive soil. One of the problems is that the backyard is on the north side of the house and surrounded by tall trees so it gets somewhat limited sun. But mostly, I would get lazy about watering because I don’t spend a lot of time in the backyard. I tried to do a drip system but it was pretty shoddy. As a result, my tomatoes tended to shrivel up and yield only a couple of tough skinned fruit. The only thing that flourishes is arugula in the spring because it’s basically a tasty weed. So this year, what with it being a drought year, I was hesitant to plant anything. But then my sisters gave me an Earthbox. I kind of dismissed it as a plasticky, faux-terracotta planter, but it’s actually a pretty clever hydroponic system. Basically, you have a reservoir of water at the bottom of a planter and two plugs of soil are dipped in it so it wicks up the water to the rest of the soil. It doesn’t waterlog the plant roots, you don’t need water it very often and the soil moistness stays at a pretty constant level. Plus it has a plastic covering on the top of the soil so you don’t get weeds or lose excess water from evaporation. I got totally excited about it so I bought two more boxes. The problem is that you can only grow two tomato plants per box and they cost $55 apiece, not including soil and seedlings. You can reuse them so it’ll probably pay off in the long run but it’s still pricey. Thus I did the logical thing and did a Google search for DIY Earthboxes. Turns out there are tons of designs out there from fellow nerds who have created whole urban rooftop farms based on this type of planter. Basically, you just take a plastic bin and rig up some sort of platform for the soil so you can maintain a water reservoir underneath. I found one design that looked pretty sturdy and clever involving using a plastic grid on some PVC tubes. I decided that bigger was better so I used two 30 gallon bins where I could plant three tomato plants per bin. I’m really happy with how they turned out but they’re a little too voluminous and it seems like the water is having trouble reaching the shorter roots. It shouldn’t be a problem as the tomato roots grow deeper, but I should have used a smaller bin. Plus, it was kind of a pain in the ass to make. Lots of power tools and sawing and flying shards of plastic. And the cost per box was about $20-25 per bin. I need them to be cheaper if I want to this on any sort of scale. But all in all I’m still really happy about the finished product. Please ignore the surrounding dirt and dead weeds. So I planted a dozen tomatoes, everything from Early Girl to Bigger Boy to Arkansas Traveler to Momotaro. Nothing crazy exotic; I just want big yields. But I still was thinking about more planting. So I went for a simpler design that involves fewer parts and easier assembly using 18-gallon bins. It works out to be about $10 per finished bin so it’s more economical. However, the build is kind of flimsy since all the parts don’t really fit together snugly. I think it’s still going to work but it’s just kinda inelegant. In those I planted squashes, melons and eggplants. I'm not what you would call "handy." But I did create a clog-free/mosquito-free overflow spout. We’ll see how this summer’s harvest goes. If all goes according to plan, next year I’m going to take out the raised beds and replace them with rows of plastic bins. Won’t be the prettiest solution but if it means having low-maintenance vegetables year round, then I don’t care. Eggplant in the back, zucchini in the front. Ooh, one more thing: I was listening to some woman on the radio talking about edible landscapes and so I pulled out the decorative plants in the front of my house and planted herbs instead: parsley, cilantro, two types of thyme, two types of sage, lemongrass, epazote and bunch of basil plants. Again, not very pretty but as long as they grow, I don’t give a crap. I will post updates as the summer goes on.