Skinning tomatoes - part 3

Of course, if you want to bottle/can tomatoes, then the grating method will be as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Have a look at this video from a fabulous blog,' Northwest Edible Life'.

I just cannot believe how quickly she skins tomatoes whole - the most efficient thing I've every seen! Makes this chore look so easy - I absolutely hate skinning toms.


She also has a book out, from yesterday.  I haven't read it of course, but it looks good.  I don't get any payment by the way, just love a good book about home preserving and home keeping - go through the link to Ohiofarmgirl below though, as she gets a penny or two from Amazon for referrals.

Anyway, the book title is

The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping

and I saw all about it here:

Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures In The Good Land

Take a peek at both of these very interesting blogs.

PS:  I think that's quite enough about tomatoes from me for one year!

Skinning Tomatoes - the easy way.

One of my pet hates is to skin tomatoes.  It drives me bonkers - I hate boiling up the water, dropping them in, fishing them out, waiting for the hot toms to cool so I can peel them - I'm far too impatient for all of that.

I prefer this method: grating.

Firstly, I absolutely cannot take any credit for this tip as I saw it on the net, by an American chef called Justin Someone (can't remember his name at the mo, sorry) so I thought I would try it.

It's especially useful for using over-ripe or damaged fruit as you can easily cut out the bits you don't want, like these:

Take a ripe tomato, cut out any bits you don't want and cut the rest into two pieces

 Then, merely grate the cut side of the tomato against a box grater

Just gently rub: the skin prevents you grating your fingers

you'll be left with the skin which you can feed to the chickens or put in the compost

and lovely, fresh tomato pulp which you can put with pasta as a sauce, add a few herbs and olive oil, or as I did, with chopped up squash, skinned marrow, onions, garlic, herbs and oil and popped in the wood oven for a sort-of-ratatouille, and eventually cooled for the freezer.

Easy-peasey!  Took about 30 seconds...