STORY TO BE TOLD

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 - 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.

All recipes courtesy of Publisher Marshall Cavendish (M) Sdn Bhd from the cookbook Everything Rice and Nice' by Chef Zam.

Related recipes:

Chicken in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Special Tomato Rice
Fresh Tomato Salsa
Tomato Pulao Rice
Creamy Pan-Fried Snapper With Fresh Tomato & Pineapple Salsa

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A three-year-old boy takes 10km bus ride alone and unattended
By STEVEN DANIEL
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: With his milk bottle in his hand, a three-year-old boy climbed onto a public bus on his own and went on a more than 10km ride before a good Samaritan brought him to a police station.

Bystanders recalled seeing the boy, who was wearing a red shirt, at the bus stop near the Sri Sabah Flats here at noon yesterday.

“A woman in her 40s noticed that the boy was alone and unattended.

“She then carried the boy when she got off the bus near Jalan Tun Hussien and took him to a police station to lodge a report,” Cheras acting OCPD Supt Abdul Rahim Hamzah Othman Supt Abdul Rahim said.

Police took photographs of the boy before handing him over to the Welfare Department in Jalan Pahang. His photographs were distributed at the Sri Sabah flats area where he was first spotted.

At 5.30pm, a couple came to the Cheras district police station claiming that their child had gone missing while the husband was washing his car.

“We could not reunite the boy with his parents as the welfare centre had already closed. We will return to the department today and send the boy back,” Supt Abdul Rahim said.

However, he said police would be conducting a DNA test to confirm if the couple were indeed the boy’s parents. Supt Abdul Rahim said if the test was positive, police would take action against the couple for negligence.

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Baby chokes to death on milk

KUALA LUMPUR: A seven-month old baby is believed to have died after choking on milk at a babysitter’s home in Taman Melati here.

The incident occurred at about 1pm yesterday when the babysitter found Joseph Razzin Mohd Yusri unconscious.

The baby sitter claimed that the child was sleeping shortly after being fed milk.

Joseph’s father Mohd Yusri Abdul Rahim, 39, took the baby to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival. The father refused to have a post mortem conducted on his son’s body.

Sentul police chief Asst Comm Zakaria Pagan said initial police investigations revealed that the child had died after choking on the milk and had ruled out foul play.

“We will record statements both the parents and the babysitter.”

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Monsoon season starts, bringing heavier rainfall

PETALING JAYA: The annual north-east monsoon season is back, bringing with it heavier rainfall and the possibility of floods, especially in the northern states and east coast of the peninsula.

The people of Perlis and Kedah are still reeling from the effects of massive floods which started over a week ago due to a tropical depression in the South China Sea and they could potentially face new floods in the coming months.

“At the moment, there is no new tropical depression. We are more worried about a north-east monsoon surge and a heavy rain spell,” a Meteorological Department spokesman said.

The rainy season, which started early this month, is a normal annual occurrence that is expected to last until the end of February or March.

It would also bring about heavier rainfall in Sarawak and the east coast of Sabah.

Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu were expected to experience above average rainfall throughout the season with the possibility of potential floods in low-lying areas.

The spokesman said the department was monitoring the rainfall intensity and would issue warnings accordingly.

“The whole monsoon season is just beginning. There is no warning yet on potential floods.

“A strong monsoon surge can affect Perlis and Kedah but it is too early to tell,” the officer said yesterday.

According to the department, isolated rain is expected in Kedah and Perlis today. Kelantan and Terengganu were also likely to experience isolated rain with thunderstorms in the evening, especially in the inland areas.

“This month, total rainfall is expected to be between 500mm and 900mm for east Kelantan and Terengganu and from 300mm to 500mm for west Kelantan, south and east Kedah, north Perak and east Pahang.

“Other areas are expected to receive total rainfall of between 200mm and 300mm,” according to a meteorological forecast report.

The monsoon would slowly move towards the south with Johor and Pahang expected to have heavier rain in December and early January.

Most states in the peninsula and Sabah were expected to receive above average rainfall from January to March, the forecast report said.

Sarawak was expecting average rainfall but floods could still occur in low-lying areas should there be continuous rain over a few days.

The northeast monsoon develops in line with the cold air outbreaks that occur in Siberia, bringing about heavy rain.

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