Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Blistered Tomatoes

I haven't come across many perfectly peeled tomatoes; it's a method problem. The only method I was taught was scoring the skin and then blanching in boiling water. The idea is that you separate the skin from the flesh without cooking the flesh. This works with tomatoes that aren't very ripe. Truly ripe tomatoes are very soft and get destroyed when using the blanching method. Very small tomatoes are the greatest test.
They have much less mass and overheat in water almost instantly. What you really need is more heat. Using a blow torch is a much better technique. This was suggested to me by my roommate Shiraz Noor, and now we spend our night effortlessly peeling even the ripest cherry tomatoes.

Plate it up!
White soy marinated cherry tomatoes with yuzu kosho, scallion, avocado, and pork terrine.

Tepidly,
Adam

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you torch them in a frying pan so it absorbs the heat?

Adam Starowicz said...

No, but I do rest them on a metal surface, a pot lid to be specific. However, it's only because it doesn't burn, a frying pan would do the same thing. I don't want what they are resting on to retain any heat, as it would cook the tomatoes. I transfer them to a plate as soon as I finish torching them.

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