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Tomatillos: From Bush to Paste

Tomatillos are a Solanum, related to tomatoes, but also to potatoes and aubergine (eggplant). You can’t eat them raw, but they make a superb sour, tangy salsa and are great in a quiche. I’ve grown them several years in my greenhouse, and they do well there. They are more robust than tomatoes and very productive.

In this series of photos, I am cooking down a few kilos of the fruit into a concentrated paste, which will keep through the winter. I will later add it sparingly to stews and casseroles. It makes a very interesting substitute for tomato purée.

#1 Little gift-wrapped Packages

Lots more where these came from! They are about the size of tomatoes, but the plants are less susceptible to blight or fungus attack.

#5 Cook it down

Cook them down slowly. I use this copper jam-making pot, as its shape aids in evaporation. When the paste started to stick, I transferred the pot to a slow oven for several hours, then transferred to sterilised jars.

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