You Must Destroy Some Tomatoes in the Deep Fryer.
As we approach August, you and I will be seduced and tested by the season of false tomatoes. Although I have never had a truly fantastic tomato before my eighth month of the year in my life, I refuse to study and always find myself under the pretext of at least one beautiful but disappointing tomato.
Good, fresh tomatoes cannot be raped. Sure, cherry tomatoes are pretty decent at any time of the year, but they are no match for ripe summer tomatoes. Fortunately, we humans have long learned to use heat (and salt) to improve the quality of food, and the deep fryer was the next step in this evolutionary journey. It’s a fairly new device, but effective, and I’m happy to report that it does a great job of shrinking watery, soft tomatoes to an umami-rich cooked mass.
Unlike most of my favorite deep fryer apps, there isn’t a dash of crisp here. Instead, the gusty wind of the tiny convection oven puffs up the skin of the tomato and rips open its flesh. The juices pour out and then almost evaporate, turning into something that, while not syrup in consistency, is certainly sweet enough to be.
These mashed tomatoes are very fragrant. They have a deep caramelized sweetness – almost like tomato paste – with intense, slightly raisin notes of sun-dried tomato without overwhelming astringency. They spread like hearty jam and make a great sandwich filling, especially if you want something a little warmer, sweeter, and spicy than tomato toast .
Cooking times are quite long for a deep fryer recipe, but still quite short when you consider that another of my favorite fried tomato recipes requires an overnight stay .
All you need to do is add half a liter of dried cherry tomatoes (or about 10 ounces of large, halved or quartered tomatoes) to the deep fat fryer basket along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of large pinches of salt. If your fryer has a “crisper plate” or similar equipment that holds food above the bottom, remove it. You want the tomatoes to stay in the oil. (If you have a deep fryer that looks like a toaster, place the tomatoes and oil in an oven-safe dish.)
When the tomatoes are in a small puddle of salted olive oil, close the basket and set the temperature to 300 ℉. Let the tomatoes simmer and simmer for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until they turn into a shapeless mass of toasted, softened tomato gruel. Spread wort on bread, add it to a sandwich, or mix with cereal. You can also pour it over ricotta and place it in your mouth along with potato chips. In fact, I think I’ll do it right now.