Babushka’s Winter Joy

Difficulty: easy. Preparation time: 120 mins.

• Traditional Le Parfait 1L glass jar
• Ripe tomatoes, 30-60 g fruits, as many as fits to the jar
• Garlic, 1 clove
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 peas of black pepper
• Dill, horse-radish and parsley 30-40 g
• Water 1L
• Salt 20 g

1. Stow peeled garlic, black pepper, bay leaves, dill, horse-radish and parsley to the bottom of the thoroughly cleaned glass jar.
2. Fill the jar in with tomatoes
3. Dilute salt in water and boil the solution for 5 min
4. Pour the boiling solution into the jar so that the liquid covers tomatoes completely
5. Cover the jar with a lid but lose, not tight yet and pasteurize at 85°C for 20 min
6. Then tighten the lid
7. You can make your canned tomatoes in summer and store them for months till winter comes in a fridge or a basement. Best to consume as a snack on a freezing winter day, after “banja” (Russian sauna) with shots of ice cold vodka in a company of your babushka (Russian grandma).

Yury Tikunov

Stichting Wageningen Research – Plant Research International (WUR-PRI)