This sounds like a job for self-confessed tomato obsessive Mike Davies, who just so happens to be sitting in his mum’s garden, staring at her green, under-ripe tomatoes. “The first thing I’d say is we’re apparently getting good weather this month, so there’s a chance they’ll still ripen,” says the chef director of the Camberwell Arms in south London and author of Cooking for People. If you don’t fancy waiting, though, green tomatoes, with their high acidity and harder texture, really lend themselves to longer cooking.
For this reason, chutney is the oft-suggested solution, but fermenting is also a good shout, says Jan Ostle, head chef and co-founder of Wilsons in Bristol. “We had an entire crop of tomatoes fail last year, so we lacto-fermented them and put them in a brine of 2% of the total weight. It’s been a joy working our way through them this year.”
Frying, however, would be Davies’ preferred tactic, knocking up green tomato tempura or pakoras. For the latter, he dices green tomatoes, seasons with salt and folds through green chillies, coriander, maybe nigella seeds and a little turmeric. “Leave to macerate so the tomatoes start to produce juices, then fold in a little gram flour and rice flour for crispness (in a 3:1 ratio), until you have a batter thick enough to hold the tomatoes.” You can then either shallow fry the pakoras (as you would a fritter) or deep-fry and serve with a tamarind dipping sauce or minty pickle. “Tempura batter is more straightforward,” Davies adds. “Mix rice flour and sparkling water to a dropping consistency, then season the tomatoes and drop them in.”
The eminently sensible Nigel Slater, meanwhile, mixes green tomatoes with red (“about one-third green to two-thirds ripe ones”), plus olives, garlic and thyme, and bakes slowly alongside some chicken thighs. Serving green tomatoes raw isn’t totally out of the question, though, Ostle says – just so long as they’re sliced really thinly. “Season with a little rock salt and good demerara sugar, then leave for an hour. They’d be lovely with grilled mackerel.”
Other potential tomato tragedies include those ripe ones lacking in flavour. “If I’m making a sauce and the tomatoes aren’t up to scratch, I’ll boost them with a bit of sugar and a nice vinegar – say merlot or just red-wine vinegar,” Davies says. Otherwise, he turns to salt. “You need to be really diligent with your seasoning to get the most out of a tomato.” In the same vein, Ostle seasons sub-par tomatoes with rock salt and black pepper, and leaves for three or so hours to draw out the juices. “Add a little sugar to those juices, mix with rapeseed oil, then dress the tomatoes in the sweetened tomato water.” The secret, Ostle adds, is to chop the tomatoes small, so they get well coated in that all-important dressing.
And if your tomatoes are too soft to eat raw? Apply high heat. “I do something called burst tomatoes,” Davies says. He puts a load in a high-sided roasting tray – “They should be slightly overcrowded” – with lots of oil, crushed garlic, seasoning, a few capers and a little chilli. Pop the tray in a very hot oven, cook until the tomatoes burst, and you’ll have a rustic-style sauce you’ll want to eat on repeat.
