Friday 27 September 2013

Kitchen Days Part 3

First of all, welcome to my new follower the womble.

Another autumn day finds me in the kitchen once again. This time, making a Green Tomato and Apple Pie courtesy of here

There are many recipes on the internet for this but thought I would give this one a try as I have used many of their recipes before. I did cut down the sugar though as 1/2lb, using sweet apples, would have been too much. With hindsight, I would use 170 - 180C rather than the stated 200C, as 50 - 60 minutes at that temperature, the pie most certainly would have burnt if I had left it in for that long!

Anyway, herewith some photographs as I was making it.  The tomatoes are meant to be skinned but although I have success using the hot water method to skin ripe tomatoes, it didn't work with green and I had to use a peeler - very fiddly!

This is after slicing and adding all ingredients except the butter.
Here is everything, except the butter, on top of the base pie crust. You can see by the shiny appearance that more juice is coming out.
Once filled, this was the spare juice. Again, with hindsight, I think it all should be left to drip for longer to get as much juice out as possible. It might even be worth salting the tomatoes overnight to dry out their juices BUT I have no idea if doing so, whether it would make them more chewy or not.
Top pie crust on - oops, forgot the butter, ah well!!
I used some of the left over juice on the top crust.
Here it is after baking for 40 minutes at 190C - my choice as it was browning a little too quick. There was more juice in the bottom despite adding the requisite flour to help soak it up - but it was more sauce like. I really don't think it was cooked for long enough as there is still quite a bite to the tomatoes.

Anyway, we had a quarter each with custard for our lunch!
Would I make it again. I don't think so. To me it seems a waste of good quality eating apples. Both those and the tomatoes were chewy, not a texture we like in apple pies. So in retrospect, I'll stick to the British apple pie and use my green tomatoes up in something else!

Anyway, we had a little left over pastry and managed with a couple of re-rolls, to make 9 jam tarts which were filled with home made gooseberry and blackcurrant jam.




8 comments:

  1. The pie looks nice, pity it wasn't as good as you had hoped. I usually leave green tomatoes on the kitchen counter to ripe, though this autumn I have been thinking about making green tomato chutney. The tomato harvest has been great this summer, but we have had a few frost nights now, so soon it will be time to clear out the greenhouse.
    The jam tarts look yummy :)

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    1. It tasted fine but was chewy. As you couldn't taste the tomatoes, couldn't see the point!

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  2. I have to say, Dc, I didn't much like the sound of that pie as I started reading ...and you proved my instincts to be right! Put it down to experience and trust your own instincts as you usually do! I have been gifted several kilos of Pink LAdy apples - from my son's tree they are SO crisp and wonderful - I have no idea what to do with them other than eat or give away. I am exploring the idea of an apple press as I type .......

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    1. If your apples are in perfect condition, you can wrap each one in paper and store in a cool place, without them touching. You would need to check them every now and then though. My little russet tree has done well this year and we have around 20 off it.

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  3. I use my green tomatoes in picalilli; have you tried breading sliced green tomatoes and frying them.
    Other than that I put green tomatoes in shoe boxes to ripen. They do quite well, like that.
    If you leave tomatoes out during cold nights it spoils their flavor.

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    1. Haven't tried fried green tomatoes but mine are the very small cherry type so don't think they would work. I have 2 trays of green ones ripening nicely in the conservatory. Been a very good year this year.

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  4. Ma made ' apple' pie from green tomatoes in one of the 'Little House' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder! Reading your post has made me want to go and get my books from the attic and read them again!

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