So your vegetable garden is spitting out tomatoes like crazy or maybe you just want to use some fresh tomatoes in your favorite recipe instead of the canned tomatoes you usually use. The quaility of your dishes will improve by peeling the tomatoes before you use them. You won’t believe how simple it is to peel and even de-seed fresh tomatoes. As simple as boiling water!
Fresh Tomatoes
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Here is What You Need
A stockpot or dutch oven that can hold about 4 quarts of cold water
Large bowl for an ice bath. It should be large enough to hold ice and water plus your tomatoes
Sharp paring knife
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Here Is What You Do
Prepare the water and ice bath
- Place about 4 quarts of cold water in a stockpot and place on the stove over high heat.
- Place about 4 cups of ice in a large bowl and add about 4 to 8 cups of cold water in the bowl, Simplified-fill a large bowl with ice and water!
Prepare the tomatoes
- Rinse the tomatoes in cold water.
- Make a crosshatch cut on the stem end of the tomato with a sharp paring knife. It does not have to be deep, but it needs to pierce the skin.
Blanch the tomatoes
- Depending on the size of your tomatoes you can blanch one or two or a few tomatoes. (See Hints and Tips)
- Bring the water to a heavy boil and drop one tomato into the boiling water
- Allow the water to return to a boil and time 1 to 1 ½ minutes. (See Hints and Tips)
- Remove the tomato with a slotted spoon and drop it into the ice bath.
- Let the blanched tomato sit in the ice bath at least 5 minutes and not much longer than that. You should see the skin starting to pull away.
Peel and Deseed the Tomatoes
- Remove the tomato from the ice bath to a cutting board.
- With a sharp paring knife, cut all around the stem on an angle as deep as the core.
- Remove the core and discard it.
- With the paring knife, grab a piece of the loosened skin between the knife and your thumb and pull until you remove the entire skin. If the skin is loose enough you can do this without the paring knife.
- If you wish to remove the seeds, slice the tomato in half horizontal.
- Using your finger or a kitchen knife, scoop out the seeds. This does not have to be perfect, just get most of the seeds.
- Now chop the tomatoes into your desired size and set aside to use.
Hints and Tips
- Just about any variety of tomatoes can be peeled in this manner.
- It will take the water longer to return to a boil the more tomatoes you do. The more tomatoes you drop into the boiling water, the lower the temperature will fall, taking longer to return to a boil. It’s no problem if it takes a couple of minutes, just remove the tomatoes a minute after it returns to a boil. You’ll see the skin start to peel back in the ice bath, so if you don’t see that after a minute or so soaking, just drop them back in the boiling water for 45 seconds to a minute.
- You can freeze the tomatoes after peeling. Tomatoes have high water content so I suggest placing them in a strainer or colander to drain as much of the water as possible before freezing. They will still tend to get a little mushy when defrosted, but they will be fine to use in sauces
You can use these new skills when making this recipe:
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Yeah You Right!
Recipe
Peeling Tomatoes
Here's What You Do
- Fill a stock pot or Dutch oven with about 10 cups of cold water.
- Make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and add cold water.
- Rinse tomatoes under cold water. With a sharp paring knife, cut a shallow cross over the stem end of the tomatoe.
- Once the water is boiling, place one or two tomatoes at a time into the boiling water and let then blance for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes after the water returns to a boil.
- Remove the tomato and place it immediately into the ice bath; Once you have blanched all of the tomaotoes, let them sit for no more than 5 minutes in the ice bath
- Remove the tomatoes and cut the stem end core out of the tomato with a paring knife.
- The skin should be shrinking a little off the tomato. Use the paring knife to grab an edge of the skin and pull it off until it is completely skinned. You may be able to do this with just your hands if the skin is loose enough.
- If you want to de-seed the tomato, cut it in half (horizontally) to expose the seed cavaties and scoop out the seeds with a small spoon or your fingers. You can also squeeze the seeds out in lieu of scooping.
- Chop the tomatoes into your desired size.
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