All about tomatoes

THE ever popular tomatoes can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw tomatoes are used in salads, pasta, dishes, sandwiches and used as garnish for a lot of dishes. These juicy vegetables which look like fruits have found their way into thousands of recipes.

Tomatoes come in many sizes, shapes and colours and have a vast array of flavours. There are many types of tomatoes grown everywhere around the world.

No other vegetable or fruit is widely used nor consumed than the tomatoes. From pizza to ketchup to tomato rice, the tomato is very much in demand in our daily consumption of food. Tomatoes also make healthy drinks.

Cherry tomatoes.

All tomatoes have acid flavourings but some have higher level of sugars than others. For example, red tomatoes are more acidic than others, while yellow tomatoes have the highest proportions of sugars.

Among all the tomatoes, the Heirloom types are the most popular. Heirloom tomatoes can be found in pink, black, brown, purple, white, mottled or striped, ripe greens, orange, red and yellow. Some of their names are familiar, while others are relatively unknown like the Beefsteak tomato, Cherokee purple, Black pear, Canestrino and Hillbilly.

Types of tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes - They look like cherries except that they come in red and yellow varieties. Perfect for salads or grilling on skewers. These small, often sweet cherry tomatoes are pricier than the normal salad tomatoes. However, their intense flavour is worth the extra cash.

Honey plum tomatoes - Slightly oblong in shape, these tomatoes are intensely sweet in flavour. The orange colour is deep. Honey plum tomatoes are ideal for salads or cooking. They also make a great snack.

Plum tomatoes - These oval-shaped tomatoes are bigger than the cherry tomatoes but slightly smaller than the honey plum tomatoes. Plum tomatoes have very rich flavour and have comparatively few seeds. They are available in various sizes including baby plum. Plum tomatoes are the most popular variety for canning and they are also good for making sauces and stews.

Green tomatoes.

Green tomatoes - The flesh is firmer and juicier. They tend to be less acidic than red tomatoes, with a balanced sweet-tart flavour. These tomatoes are often fried and used for pickles and chutneys.

Large red tomatoes - They are also known as Beef Tomatoes. These large tomatoes are also from the Heirloom breed. They have a sweet dense red flesh and are often used for almost all kinds of cooking, stuffing, garnishing, sandwiches and grilling. The red varieties tend to be more acidic than the yellow.

Heirloom tomatoes: They are many types of heirloom tomatoes. They come in many colours, shapes and have lots of flavour. They also have a distinctive aroma and delicious in salads. The concentrated flavour makes them well-suited for cooking.

Yellow tomatoes: These type of tomatoes will ripen to a golden yellow colour. They are good in salads, salsas and chutneys.
Source: http://kuali.com/news/story.aspx?file=/2010/11/9/ku_features/20101109090349&sec=ku_features