Sun Dried Tomatoes

The lovely Sun Dried Tomatoes done on my very own terrace.

With this post I am starting a tomato fest here my inspiration is ofcourse the Jivha for tomatoes hosted by RP. There is so much to do with the healthy tomato. It is indispensible in my cooking and no one will believe this vegetable is not of Indian origin. In the old days tomato was considered taboo. It was called Masal Phal which literally means flesh fruit and was not offered to the Gods as naivedya.

When I am visiting family I like to carry some stuff that I just learnt to make just to surprise them. This time round I dried tomatoes. We depended on one or the other person to get back sundried tomatoes from trips to Europe and used them only for pizza made at home. These bought out ones are black in color. As I was planning to dry my own I decided I wanted the tomatoes to well look like tomatoes. Which meant to retain the color as much as possible. So it meant eliminating salt.

Here is how I went about my first stint with drying tomatoes which was hugely successful.

First read up a lot about drying tomatoes. Only to realize that it was a very simple but prolonged process. Ignorance washed off realized I have been paying a bomb for it at times.

Day 1:

Bought 2 kgs of fresh round tomatoes almost all of the same size. Yes the size has to be same so the drying is even.

Cut each tomato into four pieces. Experience taught me I could have quartered. I was fearing that tomatoes would not hold themselves if the pieces were smaller and that proved baseless.

Arranged the tomatoes in 2 huge aluminium trays.

Put them on the terrace for sun bathing right from 10 am to 6 pm.

Updated on 2nd April 07

After Nandita's response I can say that the tomatoes should not be piled up at any point of time. They have to be arranged in a single layer like in my pictures.

Also never leave out the trays in the open at night as dew or condenstaion may cause fungal growth over the tomatoes.

Day 2, 3, 4 :

Put the trays out in the sun for the same time. Finally I got lovely red colored sundried tomatoes on the fourth day. It could take a couple more days if you don't get too much sun unlike us down south in India.

Incase you like the salted ones just sprinkle generous amounts of salt on the diced tomatoes.

How to use them:

Soak them in minimum amounts of water to soften and then use in breads, savory muffins, pizza or even your regular dal when you are in a mood to give it a twist.

The unsalted ones are better as the water can be used for kneading the doughs. This imparts a slightly red tinge. Whereas if salted the water is usually discarded.

I would be sharing some recipes with sundried tomatoes in the upcoming posts.

Thank you RP and Indira for this event.

Other Recipes where Tomatoes rule:

Mushroom Cashew Tomato Curry
Tomato Omlette

Colorful Pizza

Masala Pav

Tomatochi Bhaaji