Monday, September 7, 2009

Peeling a tomato

I've been busy this weekend making salsa, canning tomatoes and getting my veggie garden ready for winter.


I made zesty tomato salsa, last year which was so delicious that I decided to make it again. A huge problem for me last time was peeling tomatoes, they would just get all mushed up and I ended up with tomato sauce which I put in the freezer. Not a big deal but I wanted salsa not tomato sauce. Anyway I finally figured out the secret, which most of you will know, but for me it was a real eureka moment...do not crowd the pot, sheesh so simple but if you don't know well you just don't know.


So this is how I peeled my tomatoes which I used for my zesty tomato salsa and for the first time ever, chopped canned tomatoes.


Grab your tomato and score the bottom with an X.




Drop your tomatoes in boiling water, do not overcrowd the pot, just enough for a single layer, cover and bring to a boil for 30 seconds, no more.





Then into an icebath and then into a colander.





The peel will curl up from the X or the skin may crack, just grab it and pull. It will come off very easily.


Chop the top off and gently squeeze the tomato of it's seeds and extra water. Be careful, the seeds will squeeze out from the top, bottom or sides. I think I'll be finding tomato seeds for a long time...




And then use your tomatoes in your favorite canning recipe.




In addition to all these tomatoes, I still have 5 plants outside that I need to get to...


2 comments:

Scrappy quilter said...

Oh my, look at those tomatoes. I'm on my way over for salsa!! Wish I could, we didn't plant tomatoes this year. Glad your garden produced such a good quantity. Hugs..

Powell River Books said...

That's an amazing amount of tomatoes. I can't keep up with my three plants. Next year I am cutting back to one cherry tomato, one Roma and adding one Early Girl. That will be more than I can handle I'm sure. I hate to waste the cherry ones, but there are just too many to eat in salads. I went ahead and stewed some for spaghetti sauce, but they are pretty seedy and a pain to skin. - Margy