Tomato Tricks

Self admittedly, I have been quite lazy these past few weeks and haven't bothered to post anything of substance. In an effort to get back on track I'll leave you this evening with a simple cooking tip. It's a simple technique that adds only 4 or 5 minutes to your cooking times, but it is easy to accomplish and worth the investment.

When you cook tomatoes, especially stewing or braising, they tend to have thick skins that do not breakdown. Anyone who has made any type of fresh tomato sauce has inevitably seen the result of not seeding and peeling the tomato prior to cooking. Seeds are quite noticeable no matter how thick of a sauce you make and the skins tend to curl up into little cigarettes and can be chewy and uninviting. Skins and seeds also, obviously, effect the flavor of the dish generally in a direction I do not enjoy. So, to remove the skin and seeds from your tomatoes you can perform the following.

To Peel:
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Nothing crazy, just enough to cover the tomatoes or at least a few at a time if you want to work in batches. Do not salt the water.

Remove the core from the tomato, if you like, and at the opposite end make an X through the bottom no more than a 1/4 inch in depth. You can do it easily with a paring knife. Gently drop the tomatoes into the boiling water, return to a boil, and cook for about 3 minutes. You should see the skin just barely starting to curl back on itself.

Immediately remove the tomatoes and place them into an ice bath. An ice bath is simply just a bowl with ice and water. It will shock the tomatoes, stopping the cooking almost instantly and cooling them down to a temperature that is low enough so that you can hold them in your hands.

Once the tomatoes are cool enoughto handle, using the paring knife peel the remainder of the skin and discard.

To Seed:
At this point you can cook with them if you like or you can run them through a food mill to break them down and remove the remaining seeds. If you aren't lucky enough to have a food mill simply cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze them with your hand over a bowl. It will remove the seeds and gel from the interior of the tomato leaving you with just the tomato flesh. You can strain this gel and reduce it or add it back to your sauce. Keep enough of it and you can turn even turn it into ketchup. The seeds, go plant them...

Now obviously there are instances where this is completely unnecessary, however, any time you are going to cook the tomatoes into a dish, say ratatouille or a tomato sauce, I highly recommend using this technique first. Your finished product will easily reflect the extra step.