| Meet The Tomato, Eggplant’s Secret Twin | |
by Judy Sobeloff, from the June 2005 newsletter
Note to parents of young children: Secure your tomatoes before falling asleep for the night. Experts advise storing them stem-side down in a cool, dry place (not the refrigerator, which sucks the flavor from them), but your priorities may be different.
Early the morning of Gazpacho Sunday, my husband and I (in the interests of full disclosure, I must reveal that he says “tuh-MAH-toh” and I say “tuh-MAY-toh”) were awakened by thuds. Opening our bleary eyes, we saw two sets of small tomato-clutching hands, arms swinging like windmills.
Tomatoes fell all around us.
“Benji, we need to go home now,” the 3-1/2-year-old alerted the 16-month-old, and they gathered their dented acquisitions and disappeared as quickly as they’d come. Later I discovered four more tomatoes in their lair under the kitchen table, each with a tiny bite missing.
You may think, Heck, I grew up with tomatoes, I know them like my sister/brother/back of my hand, but with thousands of varieties, not to mention all of the recent commercial shelf-life-extending, color-improving, flavor-reducing enhancements, how well can you really know them?
Initially cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as the 8th century, tomatoes are native to western South America and Central America and were brought by Cortez to Europe in 1519. The story from there has a familiar ring. Like eggplant, its fellow member of the nightshade family, the tomato was initially regarded with suspicion in Europe (read: Britain) and later the U.S.
The Latin name, Lycopersicon esculentum, translates to “wolf peach,” due to a case of mistaken identity, after another plant believed to kill wolves. While the French were calling them pommes d’amour (love apples) and the Italians were discovering their rich flavor and generally whooping it up, English-speakers believed the skins would adhere to the stomach lining and cause cancer, among other ailments.
A dramatic story tells of Colonel Robert Johnson, who brought tomatoes to the US and found no takers, boldly eating a basket of tomatoes on the Salem, New Jersey, courthouse steps in 1820 in front of a crowd of 2,000 who had gathered to watch what they expected to be a public suicide. Johnson survived, and so did his legend. While this story is widely circulated, apparently the stunt never happened, according to Andrew Smith’s ‘Tomatoes in America’ (www.bbg.org).
While Americans now consume 12 million tons of tomatoes a year (www.tomato-cages.com), tomato leaves are in fact toxic. Raw, unpickled green tomatoes contain solanine, the same toxin found in raw eggplant, and should be eaten only minimally if at all. Regular old red tomatoes are among the top ten foods to which people are most commonly allergic.
In yet another stunning similarity to eggplant, the tomato is also a fruit, also technically a berry, years of ketchup masquerading as a vegetable in school lunches notwithstanding. Nonetheless, in 1887 the Supreme Court ruled that although tomatoes are botanically fruits, they should be taxed as vegetables when imported.
In an effort to reclaim the misunderstood tomato, I made two fabulous dishes with our recently fallen ones: Gazpacho, a cold vegetable soup using vinegar, and Toxic Tomatoes, a cheesey, broiled crustless pizza-like snack. The gazpacho, fresh and crunchy, was so refreshing that our 16-month-old climbed onto my lap and scooped out chunks from my bowl into his mouth with his hands. “Save some for me, Mom,” our 3-1/2-year-old said. Toxic Tomatoes, on the other hand, though delicious, weren’t pretty. Both children refused to taste them, though I’m ready to make them again.
Gazpacho (adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook)
4 cups cold tomato juice or tomato-based veggie juice
1 small, well-minced onion
2 cups freshly-diced tomatoes
1 cup minced green pepper
1 tsp. honey
1 diced cucumber
1 clove crushed garlic
dash of ground cumin
juice of 1/2 lemon + 1 lime
dash of Tabasco sauce
2 Tbsp. wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. each tarragon and basil
salt and black pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours. (This soup can be pureed if desired.)
Toxic Tomatoes (adapted from Creepy Cuisine by Lucy Monroe)
6 medium-sized tomatoes
1/2 avocado
1 cup grated Swiss cheese (1/4 pound)
6–10 chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 Tbsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
Wash the tomatoes and cut them in half crosswise. Place the halves—open side up—on a cookie sheet. In a small bowl, mash together the avocado (sludge), grated Swiss cheese (pus), and basil (poisonous plant matter).
Spoon the mixture on top of the tomatoes and sprinkle with oregano (fly wings). With an adult’s help, broil the tomatoes for 5–7 minutes or until the pus begins to ooze. Carefully remove the tomatoes from the broiler and serve hot. Or, allow Toxic Tomatoes to cool slightly and eat them with your hands (wearing plastic gloves, of course, to keep from being contaminated).
Judy Sobeloff can’t wait to eat sun-warmed tomatoes in the garden.
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