Fake sun-dried tomatoes

A few weeks back I stumbled upon Shaheen's food blog, the purple foodie. I immediately fell in love with the layout of the blog. With further exploration I also realised how much she loved to cook, especially bake. Sifting through some of the recipes, I decided to try 'oven-dried tomatoes' partly because the ingredients were lying at home apart from my liking for sun-dried tomatoes. 

The recipe is easy, and a little lengthy, but certainly not as complicated as real sun-dried tomatoes!

Ingredients-

• Tomatoes - if you find the seasonal deshi-tomatoes, then even better!
• Garlic
• Oregano
• Pepper
• Salt
• Oven

Method-

• Cut the tomatoes in half or smaller pieces depending upon your liking (I bought the non-deshi tomatoes which were small in size and hence halved them)
• Scoop out all the seeds
• Roll the cut tomatoes generously in salt and keep them skin-up for upto one hour to remove any excess water (After one hour I drained the water and re-applied the salt as the tomatoes were still watery)
• Once most water has been drained off, coat the tomatoes in oregano, pepper, finely chopped garlic and lay in a baking dish
• Sprinkle a little olive oil on it
• Put the dish in the oven for about 2 hours at the lowest possible temperature. (I kept it for 3 intervals of one hour each on 110 degree Celsius If you think the tomatoes are still juicy, you can keep it in the oven for longer.)
• Eat with sandwichs, pizzas or as a snack!

My patience ran out so I did not re-bake the tomatoes after the 3-hours. My oven-dried tomatoes were a little moist but I loved them nevertheless! :D

Store the tomatoes in an air-tight container. Also, don't be too generous with the sprinkling of the garlic and oregano, it will take away the essence of the tomato!

Preparation time: approximately 4 hours
USP: Matches up to the real thing!