Du concentré de tomates, et une flognarde

It was a good cooking weekend, with lower temperatures outside and in the house. I made a batch of tomato paste (concentré de tomates) with a dozen or more big tomatoes from this year's vegetable garden. I used a stainless-steel steamer pot (un couscoussier) to sterilize jars and lids, and to cook the tomato paste and hermetically seal the jars. The top of the couscous pot was deep enough for the jars to stand upright for the steaming. I turned about 10 lbs. of tomatoes into about 2.5 lbs. of paste. The jars won't need to go into the freezer, but can be stored in the downstairs pantry for the winter.

To make the paste, I trimmed and cut the tomatoes and cooked them with just a few bay leaves, some black pepper, and just a pinch of salt. I didn't need to add any liquid to the pot; the tomatoes produced their own cooking liquid. I let the resulting sauce simmer for hours and hours until it had thickened up. I let it cool and then pureed it, tomato skins and all, using a stick blender. Walt and I filled five jars with the paste, screwed on the lids, and then put the jars back in the steamer pot to cook for at least 30 minutes, maybe 45. As they cooled after that thorough cooking, the lids sealed the jars. The tomato paste is tasty and sweet. We had about half a jar left over to just put in the fridge to eat this week.

Then, it occurred to me that we didn't have anything for dessert. So I went over to our Blois neighbors' yard and picked enough little red plums off one of their trees (with their permission) and made a clafoutis or flognarde with the plums, a few eggs, some sugar, and some milk. Above you see the result. Here's a link to a recipe.