Tomato Primer
From: www.gourmetcountry.com
Select Tomatoes with bright shiny skins with no evidence of mold. In
general avoid broken skins and overly soft tomatoes unless you are making
a sauce. Don't avoid odd-shaped tomatoes or ones with growth lines. These
are the old-garden types and extremely delicious.
Never put tomatoes in the refrigerator. (An exception is if they have
broken skins.) It will destroy their flavor. Don't buy ones that have
been chilled or refrigerated. Place unripe tomatoes, not touching, on
a windowsill or in a warm spot. If you grow your own, this technique
will give you fresh tomatoes long after you pull the plants out of
the ground. Before the first frost, hang the whole plant, unripe and
ripe tomatoes on the vine, upside down in a cool, dark place. They
will ripen slowly over weeks.
Freeze as many tomatoes as you can with the freezer space you have.
They should be thoroughly ripe. Freeze them uncooked, whole or cut
into pieces. Or cook them into a simple sauce and freeze it. Fresh
frozen tomatoes must be drained of water before adding them to soups
or sauces. Cooked ones will give off less water. Unripe green ones
will freeze but have a mushy texture.
Dry them, sliced, in a 170 degree oven on a cookie sheet covered
with silipat or parchment for 6-8 hours. Or put them in the sun
under screens in a very hot spot. Freeze all sundried tomatoes
for at least 48 hours to kill any insect larvae you can't see.
Peel tomatoes by coring the top of the tomato and cutting an X in
the bottom. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and immerse the
tomato in the water for 15 to 30 seconds. The riper the tomato
the less time it needs. Transfer immediately to an ice bath. Drain
and skins will peel off easily.
There is no standard-size tomato, but 1 pound of tomatoes equals
approximately 3 large, 3 medium or 4 small ones: 20 to 24 cherry
tomatoes; or 1 cup chopped tomato pulp.
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