Bunny Makes Express Dried Tomatoes...

I really really hearts hearts hearts sun dried tomatoes. They taste so exquisitely flavoursome and the chewy texture really brings the food it's been paired up with to a higher level of blissfulness. The tartness yet caramelized sweetness goes well with sandwiches, pasta, pizza, breads and many more stuff. However, the price for sundried tomatoes in Malaysia is really expensive ranging from minimum RM12.90 onwards for 100 grams!

Luckily I was reading a food blog and came across a recipe for homemade dried tomatoes using the oven. I would like to thank the flogger behind The Hungry Caterpillar for highlighting the recipe out from Flavours Magazine.

I was afraid to buy too many tomatoes just in case the recipe turned into a flop. I bought some plum tomatoes, cut them into half and deseeded them. Other recipes in google highly recommended Roma tomatoes as they are meaty and tastes the best. I will use Roma tomatoes the next time I do these oven dried tomato beauties.

 
Next, my condiments include Olive Oil, Black Pepper, Mixed Herbs and salt (not shown).

Mix in the olive oil, dried mixed herbs (they provide a more intense flavour than fresh herbs), black pepper and salt. No exact measurements as I used my instincts. The salt is added to help draw out moisture from the tomatoes faster.

Then line the tomatoes on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 220 degrees fahrenheight or 100 degrees celcius. Put in the oven and start your timer. Smaller tomotoes require about 5 to 6 hours of slow roasting whereas the bigger tomatoes will require 7 to 8 hours in the oven.

After 1 hour in the oven, the tomatoes start to loose its juices and become wrinkley.

After 2 hours, they look like this...

Then disaster struck! My mum thought it was a waste of electricity to use the oven for so long and she decided to help save some time by putting the tray on the top most shelf whereby the heat is the hottest. My poor tomatoes were charred before they lost enought juices... :(

Always maintain the tray in the middle rack whereby the heat is more evenly distributed. My tomatoes were pre-maturedly roasted and I had no choice but to stop roasting them and I took them out...after only 4.5 hours...

Sigh..sigh..sigh...but what is done is already done. The rich smell of roasted tomatoes fill my kitchen. You have a choice of peeling off the skin or leaving them intact. They are easier to peel off when they are still warm. I left some on and peeled the blackened ones off.

Here are some of the ready ones. You can store them away in the freezer as it is or bottle them up in olive oil. I chose the latter as the former have a higher chance of going mouldy due to our humid weather here in Malaysia.

I filled up the jar...it's only a small jar. So my next tryout, I will use triple to quadruple of what I used this first time so that I can make more using the same amount of electricity.

This is after I filled it to the brim with olive oil.

My next attempt, I will add 1 to 2 whole cloves of unpeeled garlic for a more flavoursome oven dried tomatoes saked in olive oil. Stay tune for my yummy BET (Bacon Egg Tomato) sandwich made with herb bread.