Stewed Tomatoes

Deep Run Roots

These Stewed Tomatoes have so many uses! Serve them as a condiment for meat or vegetables, as a sauce for pasta or rice. Anywhere a tomato-y sauce would be welcome, this could stand in. They're a little tangy, a little sweet, a little savory. There's basil and garlic in the recipe, but you could surely use other seasonings if you wanted to take this in a different culinary direction.

In our next video we'll show you another recipe from this book that uses these in a unique way.

You can find the full recipe here: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2018/08/27/stewed-tomatoes

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today it is the end of
[00:08]: summer and I had a ton of tomatoes some
[00:11]: of them were getting a little bit past
[00:13]: their Prime
[00:15]: um so they've been sitting in the
[00:16]: refrigerator looking for something to do
[00:17]: with them
[00:19]: and I've decided I'm going to be making
[00:21]: stewed tomatoes from Vivian Howard's
[00:24]: cookbook Deep Run Roots I haven't made a
[00:26]: lot of tomato recipes from this book
[00:28]: before but
[00:30]: we're going to make these I've already
[00:32]: got some butter melted over medium heat
[00:35]: in a either a four to six quart saucepan
[00:40]: or a dutch oven
[00:41]: heavy this is an enameled cast iron and
[00:45]: I've got some onions yellow onions and a
[00:48]: small dice
[00:50]: that we're going to cook in here for
[00:53]: about 10 minutes
[00:56]: um we just want them to start cooking in
[00:58]: caramelized slightly we're also going to
[01:01]: add part of the
[01:04]: salt from the recipe I'm gonna get those
[01:07]: stirred up a little bit right now get
[01:09]: the salt mixed in and we're going to let
[01:11]: those go for about 10 minutes
[01:14]: I'll let you know about how long it
[01:16]: takes until I think they're ready
[01:19]: [Music]
[01:21]: so when you come back should be
[01:24]: a little bit Brown a little bit
[01:26]: caramelized and starting to cook
[01:30]: but we're at about
[01:32]: that's right now and I'm not seeing
[01:33]: ly Browning
[01:36]: so I'm going to
[01:37]: let them sit for a few more minutes and
[01:40]: we'll see what they look like
[01:43]: then and how long it takes
[01:46]: so it's been
[01:49]: 18 minutes now and we're starving to see
[01:52]: some brown so I'm going to call that
[01:54]: lightly caramelized
[01:58]: add some more ingredients not quite all
[01:60]: of them but most of the rest of them
[02:02]: here I have
[02:04]: white a lot of tomatoes I peeled them
[02:07]: just made a little X on the bottom dunk
[02:10]: them in boiling water briefly took them
[02:13]: out
[02:14]: the peel comes right off she does not
[02:16]: say you have to peel them and does not
[02:18]: give a procedure for that
[02:20]: olive green in it find it if you want to
[02:22]: I decided I wanted to peel mine I don't
[02:25]: like the little pieces of Peel so these
[02:27]: are diced it's a pretty I went for a
[02:30]: pretty large dice
[02:32]: um and all of the juices all of the
[02:34]: seeds and everything is in here we're
[02:36]: going to add this first
[02:39]: one of the things that I don't like is
[02:41]: when
[02:43]: a recipe
[02:45]: gives you
[02:46]: a number of things but those things can
[02:49]: vary in size like the number of onions
[02:51]: and the number of tomatoes and what if
[02:54]: my tomatoes are smaller than yours are
[02:56]: bigger than yours and onions
[02:58]: it doesn't really matter you can
[03:00]: probably
[03:02]: uh do this with whatever
[03:04]: amounts you want but you have to kind of
[03:08]: the other things you'll have to adjust
[03:10]: we have onions and butter and tomatoes
[03:12]: and some salt in here now let's give
[03:15]: this a quick stir my tomatoes were cold
[03:19]: so it'll take them a little while to
[03:21]: come up to a boil but that is what we're
[03:24]: going to be looking for but we have to
[03:25]: add some more things
[03:28]: um so we've got
[03:30]: the rest of the salt in the recipe and
[03:33]: some she calls them chili flakes red
[03:37]: pepper flakes whatever they're called
[03:40]: where you get them
[03:44]: um red chili flakes
[03:46]: uh we have some
[03:48]: garlic that has been sliced thin not
[03:53]: minced
[03:57]: and then we have some light brown sugar
[04:00]: which is interesting I've mostly seen
[04:04]: um mostly seen people put just plain
[04:07]: granulated sugar in tomatoes but usually
[04:10]: it helps cut the acidity but we're also
[04:12]: going to be adding
[04:14]: uh some vinegar this is just like a
[04:19]: standard red wine vinegar nothing too
[04:21]: special
[04:22]: you do use what you like
[04:26]: there we go
[04:32]: it's over here and then
[04:36]: I'm going to stir this up
[04:39]: and we have some
[04:42]: basil so it is end of summer and my
[04:46]: basil is going crazy and she says to use
[04:48]: just a um
[04:51]: large stem of fresh basil and we're just
[04:54]: going to drop this in here as is uh and
[04:58]: kind of
[04:60]: let it
[05:01]: marry with all of these ingredients and
[05:04]: Infuse its flavor I think eventually
[05:06]: we're going to be taking that out
[05:08]: so now
[05:10]: I'm going to cover this and bring it up
[05:12]: to a boil so that might take a few
[05:14]: minutes for me
[05:16]: I'm going to turn the heat up just a
[05:18]: little bit to kind of bring it to a boil
[05:20]: faster because like I said my tomatoes
[05:22]: were very cold
[05:23]: all right so my
[05:25]: um my tomatoes are all boiling and so
[05:29]: what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna leave the
[05:30]: lid on
[05:32]: I'm gonna put the lid back on but I'm
[05:33]: gonna turn it back down to medium
[05:36]: because I was just trying to get them up
[05:37]: to a boil
[05:39]: um so I'm going to turn them back down
[05:40]: to medium and we're going to boil these
[05:42]: for 30 minutes
[05:44]: and we'll be back
[05:45]: when that's all done these have been
[05:48]: boiling away with the lid on I've only
[05:51]: checked on them a couple times
[05:52]: um for 30 minutes
[05:55]: and now it's time to add the last
[05:57]: ingredient so
[06:01]: um
[06:02]: as you can see
[06:04]: the basil is all wilted in there I'm
[06:06]: gonna wait until
[06:08]: it's uh until it cools off to take that
[06:12]: out because I'm not eating these right
[06:13]: now so
[06:14]: the last thing we need to do is add some
[06:17]: bread crumbs these are fresh and she
[06:20]: says home not fresh they're homemade and
[06:23]: she says preferably homemade and we need
[06:24]: to let these
[06:26]: um
[06:27]: boil in here for about five minutes and
[06:30]: then it will all be done so I
[06:33]: keep my the end pieces of my bread I
[06:37]: throw them in the freezer and when I
[06:39]: have sort of a sheet Pan's worth
[06:41]: I
[06:43]: dry them out toast them a little bit in
[06:45]: the oven and then run them through the
[06:48]: food processor to make fine crumbs and
[06:50]: then I have breadcrumbs whenever I need
[06:52]: them so
[06:54]: that's what that was just my regular
[06:56]: sandwich bread so and then I can also
[07:01]: defrost those bread pieces and make
[07:03]: croutons and cut them up toast them in a
[07:06]: pan or in the oven with some oil and
[07:08]: some spices and
[07:10]: really delicious good way to reuse your
[07:13]: bread so we're just going to let these
[07:15]: go for about five minutes and um
[07:19]: that'll help thicken it up now we're not
[07:21]: going to eat this right now she says
[07:24]: obviously they're good right now but
[07:27]: they're even better the next day so I
[07:30]: will definitely taste these as they are
[07:33]: but my plan is to use them for breakfast
[07:37]: tomorrow and you'll probably see that as
[07:40]: our next video
[07:41]: but uh I will show you what these look
[07:45]: like when they're done in another four
[07:48]: minutes or so and we'll be uh all ready
[07:51]: and we'll let you know what we think of
[07:52]: them
[07:53]: right after this
[07:55]: [Music]
[08:03]: on this episode of cooking the books
[08:05]: with Heather you watched me make stewed
[08:07]: tomatoes from Vivian Howard's Deep Run
[08:09]: roots
[08:11]: um we I tried them
[08:14]: right after we made them I just tasted
[08:17]: them we didn't really eat them then and
[08:19]: she says they are even better the next
[08:21]: day and I do think I do agree with her I
[08:23]: think they were better
[08:24]: um we refrigerated them overnight and
[08:26]: then used them in another recipe this
[08:28]: morning and they were really really
[08:30]: flavorful all the onions and the garlic
[08:33]: and the basil
[08:35]: um and the chili flakes the chili flakes
[08:37]: I didn't find it spicy although one of
[08:40]: my children did it was really just sort
[08:43]: of a back of your throat kind of you
[08:47]: could feel it I could feel it a little
[08:49]: bit my husband is like I didn't notice
[08:51]: it at all there's a very small amount of
[08:53]: chili flakes in and we actually she says
[08:56]: her wrist who makes a generous five cups
[08:58]: it's definitely mine was definitely
[09:00]: between five and six cups
[09:02]: and like like I said it's all a number
[09:07]: of tomatoes so it depends on how big
[09:10]: your tomatoes are I'm sure you can fudge
[09:13]: that a little bit and in fact it
[09:16]: in this recipe and the next recipe that
[09:18]: we did it really looks like she used
[09:20]: some cherry tomatoes in hers
[09:22]: which is absolutely fine use what you
[09:24]: have
[09:25]: um
[09:27]: whatever I'm sure it will be delicious I
[09:30]: skinned mine you don't have to if you
[09:32]: don't want to do that and if you don't
[09:34]: mind having the skins
[09:35]: in your uh in your your result
[09:39]: whatever
[09:41]: but we found found these very delicious
[09:43]: super easy I mean there's a lot of
[09:45]: chopping of you know since I skinned the
[09:49]: tomatoes that was a little extra step
[09:51]: didn't wasn't necessary chopping the
[09:53]: tomatoes but other than that really just
[09:55]: kind of put it on the stove took
[09:58]: probably all told about an hour a little
[10:01]: bit longer on the onions than she says
[10:05]: but that's kind of always the case with
[10:09]: caramelizing in my experience anyway so
[10:13]: but it doesn't take that long and then
[10:15]: there's enough for at least
[10:17]: two different uses for like what I would
[10:21]: use these for but she says she uses them
[10:23]: sort of like ketchup sort of like
[10:25]: marinara it does the flavor does remind
[10:27]: me a lot of marinara
[10:30]: um and if it's too thick or too thin for
[10:34]: you you can always
[10:37]: boil it down a little bit reduce it a
[10:41]: little bit more
[10:42]: um but the breadcrumbs really do help to
[10:47]: thicken it up quite a bit also she says
[10:51]: if you don't want to do gluten she can
[10:54]: use cornmeal to thicken it up
[10:56]: um
[10:57]: and also you could always leave the
[10:59]: starch out and just have a very have a
[11:01]: much looser end result and probably need
[11:04]: to boil it down a little bit longer if
[11:05]: you want to use it
[11:07]: as she does in many of the recipes
[11:10]: although there aren't that that many
[11:11]: recipes that use it in here we did use
[11:13]: it for another one which you can see
[11:15]: next week so if you enjoyed watching me
[11:18]: make this please give me a thumbs up hit
[11:19]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[11:21]: me make something with this next week
[11:24]: [Music]