Pickled Green Tomatoes with Green Adjika

 Last year, I came across Pickled Green Tomatoes with Adjika on Instagram 
and made a jar with the last of my green Cherry tomatoes and was pleasantly surprised how delicious these pickles were.  I used small tomatoes, but this year used medium side and Cherry tomatoes.  I grow tomatoes in a pot and like to grow a variety but this year have 4 mislabelled tomatoes plants that are all Cherry or Cocktail Tomatoes.   

The recipe shared with me from Europe 

"My fermented green tomatoes stuffed with green adjika. (that's a total fermenting spam 😉) Here in my location it's very popular in autumn when they pick up last tomatoes in the fields and kitchen gardens.  My adjika for stuffing is out of green and hot peppers, garlic, mint, celery, parsley, sage.  All stuffed tomatoes are put on celery and horseradish coat and pour with sweet & salt brine. Delicious!"

Last year, I added a horseradish leaf and celery sticks to the base. 

For the filling, I used dill, thyme, mint, parsley, hot jalapeño and garlic cloves and placed the stuffed tomatoes over the celery.  As I was pouring the brines, I wondered about the filling coming out.   Although some of the filling settled to the bottom of the jar, the tomatoes did have filling in the tomatoes.  The pickles were delicious, firm and tasted like pickled olives.  I did find the dill too strong of a flavour and did not use it this year.  The celery sticks are also  delicious. 

Green Adjika Filling

Use oregano, thyme, tarragon, garlic cloves and Jalapeños.

Pulse in the Food Processor 

Cut the top of the tomatoes and stuff the filling into the tomato

* use gloves to do this because of the hot chilies.

My hairdresser from Moldova who makes pickled Tomatoes says she hollows out the tomatoes to add a bit more filling.

I did not stuff the very small yellow lemon tomatoes or green tomatoes, just added them whole to the jar.  I used celery and Grape leaves for the base in the sterilize jars

Brine

• 4 c water
• 2 c vinegar ( I use half white and cider 
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 T pickling salt

Bring to boil and add to pickles

Refrigerate the pickles. 

Stuffed green tomatoes with Adjika

I love Instagram as not only do I have dialogues with people i.e. Chefs all over the world, I love coming across new ideas.  I came across this idea to use up the last of the tomato harvest using the small green tomatoes. This I found intriguing as I had never heard of pickling green tomatoes.  I had a bowl of small green tomatoes and still had fresh herbs in my garden, that I decided to try this recipe.  

According to the Instagram posting on this pickle:

 "In my location it's very popular in autumn when they pick up last tomatoes in the fields and kitchen gardens. My adjika for stuffing is out of green and hot peppers, garlic, mint, celery, parsley, sage.  All stuffed tomatoes are put on celery and horseradish coat and pour with sweet and salt brine"

I have purchased Adjika from a European store that was a red pepper sauce that could be spicy or mild used to flavor food.  This adjika was green as I used jalapeño peppers, celery and garlic cloves along with fresh herbs from the garden, like parsley, mint and dill.  

To make the Adjika , the vegetables were coarsely pulsed through the Food Processor.   The aroma from everything pulsed together was great.  

I did have difficulty filling the split tomatoes, not sure how this filling will stay in the tomatoes once the brine is poured on to them.  

They certainly looked lovely, but do need a solution to keep the filling in the tomatoes! Maybe wrapping some thing around them like a horseradish leaf!

This morning, I tried the pickles after 2 weeks of fermentation.  They were intriguing tasting as with each bite there was an explosion in your mouth! Yes, I will be making them again!

Lacto Fermented Hot Sauce

The City Palate Harvest September magazine edition is full of preserving recipes.  The Lacto fermented hot sauce can be used in stews, soups, taco or salad dressing, fresh or aged.  

I have always wanted to do this recipe and found that the new Italian Supermarket close to the house carried many varieties of peppers, from sweet to hot habanero.  The recipe calls for one pound of hot peppers and I used a pound of habanero peppers.

The peppers were washed and the stems removed.

Using a food processor, pulse the garlic and hot peppers until a coarse mixture.  Add honey.  

  Add salt and water

Transfer mixture to a quart jar and loosely screw on the lid. Let sit at room temperature for 4 days. Stir the mixture everyday.

Day 0ne, 

Day 2

Day 3

finally something brewing!

Fermented Hot Sauce

• 1pound of hot peppers
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 T of honey
• brine (1 1/4c water and 2tsp kosher salt)
• 
  
• 1/4 c Apple Cider Vinegar