Sam Cooper's Fermented Tomatoes with Grey Salt Recipe
Fermented Tomatoes Recipe by Sam Cooper
Fermented tomatoes are one of the easiest ferments you can make and only require a jar, some salt, and something to weigh them down. And they taste incredible, deeply umami, sweet, with similar characteristics to the most savoury cooked tomato.
How to Make
For our picnic, I served them mixed with fresh tomatoes (chopped), olive oil, and fresh basil on toast as a bruschetta, but they’re equally good in salads, as a gazpacho, or in soups and stews.
Reserve the fermented brine as a rich, salty sauce you can use in a similar way to soy sauce but with a powerful tomato kick.
STEP 1
Begin by halving or quartering the tomatoes so more can fit in the jar.
STEP 2
Tare the scales to the weight of a jar, then fill the jar with tomato.
STEP 3
Make note of the weight of tomatoes in grams, then multiply this by 0.02 to find out how much salt you need to add. Add this to the jar and apply a weight on top, squashing the tomatoes down to produce juice. This weight can be a glass or ceramic fermentation weight, or the lid of a smaller jar or even a spare food safe ziploc plastic bag filled with water or grain.
STEP 4
Close the jar and leave it at room temperature for 2 weeks. During this time, open the jar each day to release the buildup of carbon dioxide. After 2 days there should be enough liquid to cover all the tomatoes and have dissolved the salt.
STEP 5
After two weeks, store the jar in a fridge. The tomatoes are ready to eat and will last for two months.