3 ways to cook heirloom tomatoes

Left-to-right: Roasted Heirloom Tomato, Grilled Heirloom Tomato, and Fried Heirloom Tomato

A few weeks ago I went to a local gourmet supermarket and I happened to stumble upon some heirloom tomatoes for sale. You may be wondering, "What's an heirloom tomato and how does it differ from a regular tomato?" Heirloom tomatoes can be of many different colors and sizes, ranging from red, green, orange, yellow, brown, or a mix of these colors. A regular tomato is almost always a red tomato of uniform size.

Heirloom tomatoes are tomatoes whose seeds have been passed down through generations(hence the term "heirloom"). Spoiler alert: the seeds in the tomatoes I used in this video won't be passed down to future generations because I threw out the seeds.

I am definitely not a gardener. In fact, I still remember having to grow a plant in 2nd grade(way back in the 20th century(ok, 1999, but I''m not that old!)) with some boy named Stephen as my partner. Our plant never grew. :(

In my first internship, I researched ways to grow vegetables via hydroponic gardening, though I have never partaken in this practice myself.

I also think heirloom tomatoes are just another food ingredient that is a product of the advent of gourmet, more expensive foods(in the supermarket I went to, heirloom tomatoes were $5.99 a pound!) that have pervaded most supermarkets still in business today in the 2010s.

Waldbaum's and Pathmark never had fancy gourmet foodstuffs, and now they are no longer in existence.

Heirloom tomatoes taste like ordinary red tomatoes, only with unidentifiable slight differences in taste depending on the color of the tomato.

I originally wanted to just show you how to grill and fry tomatoes but a video that has the title "2 ways to..." doesn't seem to make sense to me. But that's my preference. So I also am showing you how to roast an heirloom tomato(which is just a fancy way of saying "put in the oven for 3-5 minutes").

You can also eat heirloom tomatoes raw, but what's the fun in that?

I got my George Foreman grill for my birthday in November and it is amazing. Although I did have such a grill when my mom was still around 6+ years ago and she used it. But this is the first time I'm using the grill myself, and the first time in 6+ years my family is using such a grill.

You will need:

For grilling:

1 heirloom tomato
Olive oil
A pastry brush
A grill

1. Wash your tomato in some water. Then cut it in half vertically. If you have one piece that is bigger than the other, cut that piece in half as well.
2. Brush each tomato slice in olive oil using a pastry brush.
3. Warm up your grill(a George Foreman grill usually takes 4 1/2 minutes to warm up; as for a charcoal grill, I don't know).
4. Once your grill is warmed up, put the oiled up tomato slices on the grill. If you're using a George Foreman grill, put the cover down and let the slices grill for 4 1/2 minutes. There's no need to flip them over halfway through the grilling process. If you're using a charcoal grill however, you will need to turn them over after 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
5. Don't worry if you don't see any black grill marks if you're using a George Foreman grill. As long as you see any faint grill marks, you're good to go. The grilled tomato slices may be a bit mushy but that's OK. Bon appetit!

For frying:

1 heirloom tomato
AP flour
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs
2 small bowls
1 medium bowl
Canola oil for frying
A frying pan

1. Wash your tomato in some water. Then cut it in half vertically. Cut each half into vertical strips that look like steak fries(really thick French fries).
2. Place the flour and eggs in separate small bowls. Beat and whisk the 2 eggs.
3. Dredge each strip first in flour, then in the beaten and whisked eggs, and then coat them with breadcrumbs.
4. Once all your strips are dredged and coated, pour some canola oil into a frying pan. Heat the oil up.
5. Once the oil is heated up, place the strips into frying pan very carefully. Since tomatoes are very moist by nature, you'll need to watch out for hot splashing oil!!
6. Once all of the strips are in the pan, let them cook on one side for 1-2 minutes. Then, using a spatula, flip them over and let them cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes.
7. Bon appetit!

For roasting:

1 heirloom tomato
Olive oil
A pastry brush
A baking tray or cookie sheet

1. Wash your tomato in some water. Then cut it in half vertically.
2. Brush the top and bottom of each half with olive oil using a pastry brush.
3. Place the oiled up halves on the baking tray. Roast in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 3-5 minutes. Bon appetit!