Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Vinegar

Deep Run Roots

Pickled tomatoes? I'd never even considered it. But I like tomatoes and I like pickles, so...why not?

You can even make these in the winter, since cherry and grape tomatoes (both work fine) don't suffer as much from being out of season. You'll just have to find a good source of basil, since this recipe uses a LOT of it. I ended up with extra basil-infused vinegar (I suggest putting the peeled tomatoes into the jar first, then adding vinegar to cover) that I can use for salad dressings to bring a little summer flavor into the cold months.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather on this episode we are
[00:09]: going to be cooking once again from Deep
[00:10]: Run Roots Vivian Howard's first cookbook
[00:13]: and we definitely cooked from this
[00:16]: cookbook a lot this time of year it's
[00:18]: sort of the end of the summer there's
[00:20]: all sorts of tons of fresh produce and
[00:24]: uh we have a lot of stuff to use up so
[00:26]: we go to her because
[00:29]: her books are often uh our or this book
[00:34]: is organized by ingredients and they're
[00:38]: ingredients that we have a lot of around
[00:39]: here and that we have growing outside so
[00:44]: that's what we're doing right now
[00:47]: and today we're going to be making
[00:48]: cherry tomatoes in basil vinegar so this
[00:51]: is a lot like
[00:53]: um it's a pickled tomato but they're
[00:56]: going to be cherry tomatoes and we're
[00:58]: going to have to peel them later but the
[00:59]: first thing we have to do is just make
[01:01]: the basil vinegar and that has to sit
[01:04]: for at least three days up to about two
[01:06]: weeks before we do anything else so
[01:08]: we're gonna make this today and probably
[01:09]: next weekend we'll actually have to peel
[01:12]: the tomatoes and put those in there but
[01:15]: so I have washed and taken a bunch of
[01:18]: leaves of basil off of the stem we have
[01:23]: so much basil and we're supposed to just
[01:25]: cram this in a quart jar
[01:28]: so that is what I'm doing now
[01:33]: it is
[01:34]: um
[01:37]: she doesn't really say to pack these
[01:39]: really well or don't pack them but she
[01:41]: does say to cram this in so
[01:44]: a kind of packed it
[01:46]: just turned out to be the amount that I
[01:49]: grabbed
[01:52]: you know where I can use that one looks
[01:53]: dirty
[01:54]: who knows
[01:57]: so
[01:59]: there we go that's a lot of Basil in
[02:01]: here and next we're going to put in some
[02:04]: peppercorns I added my salt on top of it
[02:07]: so you can hardly see those but we've
[02:08]: got a few peppercorns
[02:10]: um and some salt I'm using kosher salt
[02:14]: she doesn't say to use kosher salt and
[02:16]: or how much by grams so it may not be
[02:19]: salty enough but
[02:21]: it'll certainly be pickled and we're
[02:23]: also going to add some sugar
[02:26]: this is just plain white granulated
[02:28]: sugar
[02:30]: and then we're going to be using
[02:32]: she says rice wine vinegar I can never
[02:35]: find anything around here at any of the
[02:38]: grocery stores that calls it rice wine
[02:41]: vinegar
[02:43]: um so I usually just buy rice vinegar
[02:48]: know if they're very much different but
[02:51]: um
[02:52]: I do know the acidity the acid level in
[02:56]: this is a is less than say white vinegar
[02:59]: that you use for pickling
[03:01]: so
[03:02]: if you're using this for pickling you
[03:05]: have to be a little bit more careful
[03:06]: with everything else
[03:08]: so it won't go bad but this is going to
[03:10]: be just in the refrigerator it's not
[03:12]: something that we're going to keep going
[03:13]: to can and I did just break that so
[03:18]: awesome so we had to
[03:22]: do some engineering to get this open if
[03:26]: that's okay
[03:31]: foreign
[03:33]: so that's not quite the amount that she
[03:36]: says to use but I'm going to start with
[03:38]: that and hope it all goes in and then
[03:39]: I'll add the rest
[03:41]: so we just pour this in here
[03:52]: and I definitely feel like I will be
[03:54]: able to fit a little bit more
[04:04]: so there we go
[04:08]: foreign
[04:10]: [Music]
[04:15]: and
[04:16]: Shake It Up to dissolve the sugar and
[04:19]: the salt
[04:27]: so now we let this sit in a dark spot
[04:32]: for uh at least three days and up to two
[04:36]: weeks
[04:37]: so we'll see you probably in about a
[04:39]: week
[04:39]: so my basil vinegar has been sitting uh
[04:43]: for about a week and this is what it
[04:44]: looks like now we're gonna strain this
[04:47]: in just a minute but the first thing I'm
[04:50]: going to do is get my tomatoes ready for
[04:54]: peeling because this is going to be the
[04:57]: most annoying part of this job so just
[05:01]: like a large tomato what you need to do
[05:04]: is make a small X on the bottom so not
[05:08]: the side the stem end where there's this
[05:10]: little
[05:12]: um round thing where the stem would be
[05:14]: attached but on the other side and I've
[05:16]: got a small serrated knife because that
[05:19]: is the easiest one I have
[05:21]: that will cut tomato skins pretty easily
[05:26]: and so I've got a small X
[05:28]: and I'm going to be doing that to all of
[05:31]: these Tomatoes
[05:32]: um I've got some that were from my
[05:34]: cherry tomatoes that produced really
[05:36]: well this year but she says to use a
[05:40]: mixture of colors preferably just for
[05:43]: Aesthetics honestly so I went ahead and
[05:46]: did that
[05:47]: but we're gonna
[05:49]: dip these in boiling water in two
[05:51]: batches so I'm going to just divide them
[05:54]: into two batches
[05:56]: here
[05:57]: before we go over there so I don't have
[05:59]: to kind of estimate at that point
[06:03]: I have a four to six quart
[06:07]: pan of saucepan of water almost out of
[06:13]: oil I've got it sort of turned down
[06:15]: right now just because
[06:17]: I don't want it to
[06:20]: boil dry while I'm doing this part
[06:25]: um
[06:26]: so
[06:28]: I I did rinse these and make sure there
[06:30]: were no stems on them
[06:34]: and beside my
[06:37]: uh
[06:39]: water that is boiling I have an ice bath
[06:42]: because after we
[06:45]: quickly
[06:47]: boil them I think she says
[06:50]: only 15 seconds so after 15 seconds
[06:53]: we'll pull them out then we're going to
[06:55]: put them in the ice bath to stop them
[06:57]: from cooking
[06:59]: because we don't want these to be mushy
[07:02]: and overcooked
[07:03]: so I'm going to be doing this and
[07:08]: I will be back in just a second
[07:10]: [Music]
[07:27]: okay these are all they all have a
[07:31]: little X in the bottom I'm going to drop
[07:34]: these in the boiling water for about 15
[07:35]: seconds pull them out drop them in the
[07:38]: ice bath
[07:39]: I'm not going to show you that part
[07:41]: fairly self-explanatory but I'll see you
[07:44]: when it's all done
[07:46]: now I'm going to let those sit in the
[07:48]: ice bath
[07:49]: for a little bit longer while I strain
[07:52]: out the basil and the um
[07:56]: peppercorns that are still in this
[07:59]: vinegar so I'm just going to oh I'm
[08:03]: going to dry this out first
[08:06]: just gonna pour this in
[08:15]: let me get a spatula so I can get all
[08:17]: those little bits out because I'm just
[08:18]: going to reuse that
[08:19]: she says to drop these into the basil
[08:22]: vinegar I think what I'm going to do
[08:25]: is peel them and put them in here and
[08:27]: then cover them with the vinegar that
[08:29]: way if I have a little bit too many
[08:30]: tomatoes
[08:33]: um or a little bit too much vinegar then
[08:36]: we can make another jar of it so
[08:39]: so I just
[08:41]: put them all in the same ice bath and
[08:44]: let them sit until they were pretty cold
[08:47]: um because you don't want these to
[08:49]: overcook I'm going to get a paper towel
[08:52]: and now we should be able to just slip
[08:55]: the skins
[08:57]: off
[08:60]: there we go some of them are a little
[09:02]: bit looser than others but they should
[09:05]: all come off pretty
[09:07]: pretty easily
[09:10]: and
[09:14]: we're not going to worry about the
[09:17]: stem end I'm just going to drop them in
[09:19]: here and I'm just gonna
[09:21]: kind of put a mix of colors in at it you
[09:25]: know not not just all one color
[09:27]: so we keep it all mixed up
[09:30]: after Much Ado we have our mostly peeled
[09:33]: I had some had some assistance
[09:37]: tomatoes and they kind of barely fit so
[09:40]: we're going to see if all of this
[09:41]: vinegar grows in this jar now
[09:43]: okay
[09:44]: that's as much as I can fit in there
[09:47]: that's okay I'm gonna go ahead and put
[09:50]: this lid on
[09:54]: and we're gonna put this in the
[09:55]: refrigerator
[09:56]: and we have to wait at least two days
[10:01]: um before we try these out
[10:04]: um they will keep in the refrigerator
[10:06]: for up to two weeks getting slightly
[10:10]: Brett better every every day I guess
[10:13]: um so there we go we have our
[10:16]: uh cherry tomatoes in basil vinegar and
[10:20]: I will let you know what we think of
[10:21]: them
[10:22]: in just a minute
[10:24]: [Music]
[10:32]: on this episode of cooking the books
[10:33]: with Heather you watched me make cherry
[10:35]: tomatoes in basil vinegar from uh Vivian
[10:39]: Howard's deep Brown Roots cookbook
[10:42]: so uh we tried these as a little
[10:46]: appetizer kind of thing with the little
[10:48]: balls of mozzarella I would probably get
[10:50]: ones that more match the
[10:54]: um size of cherry tomatoes I got the
[10:56]: kind of smaller ones but I didn't
[10:57]: actually look at them myself I ordered
[10:59]: them online and I wasn't sure which ones
[11:00]: were larger but that's okay we just put
[11:03]: one on each side it was really pretty
[11:04]: those would be great for a little
[11:06]: appetizer a little a little um sort of
[11:10]: chilled pickley thing to add to your uh
[11:14]: sort of buffet party whatever
[11:17]: um
[11:19]: didn't take long to put together so that
[11:21]: was good I did add a little leaf of
[11:23]: Basil
[11:24]: um and I think that mine could have you
[11:26]: could use a little bit of
[11:29]: um salt so uh she calls for just salt
[11:33]: and I think I used my kosher salt which
[11:35]: is a little bit less dense and thus not
[11:37]: quite as salty as
[11:39]: something like a table salt
[11:41]: um
[11:42]: so I think I would use maybe a little
[11:44]: bit more of that or use just sort of a
[11:46]: plain table salt next time to make it a
[11:49]: little bit more salty but that was okay
[11:50]: all I had to do was add a little bit of
[11:51]: salt I think in the end I decided to add
[11:54]: a little bit of salt a little bit of
[11:55]: pepper and a little bit of olive oil and
[11:57]: it was a little bit like a Caprese
[11:60]: um
[12:01]: we like ours with balsamic I know I
[12:03]: think the original is just olive oil
[12:05]: with the tomatoes and
[12:07]: mozzarella whatever it's delicious I
[12:10]: don't care we eat it like we like it
[12:12]: um and so that's what that's what that
[12:14]: reminded me of
[12:16]: these have been sitting in the
[12:18]: refrigerator for about a week so I have
[12:20]: about another week
[12:23]: uh to to use them up she says after that
[12:27]: you you know they will improve slightly
[12:29]: for up to two weeks they probably won't
[12:30]: go bad very quickly especially since
[12:32]: they're in the refrigerator
[12:35]: um and they're in vinegar and sugar uh
[12:38]: so it should be okay for a little bit
[12:39]: longer than that but
[12:41]: um
[12:43]: I think they're pretty much ready to eat
[12:44]: right now so
[12:46]: um she says to
[12:50]: she says to serve them with like butter
[12:53]: beans
[12:54]: um lima beans corn and snap Bean
[12:57]: succotash some of the other recipes in
[12:59]: here
[13:00]: or just set them out with like uh
[13:03]: buttermilk blue cheese dressing or
[13:05]: smoked corn Mayo just to dip in so
[13:08]: that's um
[13:10]: that's what she says something creamy
[13:11]: which I think the fresh mozzarella gives
[13:14]: you that creaminess so that was my
[13:16]: my plan there but you can also just
[13:18]: anytime you would want a pickle
[13:21]: put that put one of these in there or
[13:23]: slice it up or
[13:25]: um make it just a little a little pop on
[13:27]: your plate here in the South we often do
[13:30]: cucumbers as sort of a quick pickled
[13:33]: cucumbers and sometimes tomato and uh
[13:37]: Red Onion in there I think this would
[13:39]: serve the same purpose as that on your
[13:41]: plate to sort of set off the
[13:45]: fattierness of some of the the meats
[13:48]: that you might be eating to have a
[13:49]: little sort of balance there
[13:54]: I like them I'm looking forward to
[13:56]: figuring out some other ways to use them
[13:58]: here
[13:59]: at my house let me know what you use
[14:02]: them for in the comments down below and
[14:05]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[14:06]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
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[14:10]: me make something else next week
[14:14]: thank you