John Myers
If you want to skin tomatoes, prepare a hot and cold water bath. Using a sharp kitchen knife, prepare the red fruit by making a cross in the skin on the underside of the tomato. The skin on this incision will burst open a little after the water bath and is particularly easy to touch and pull off. To skin the scored tomatoes, first place them in an uncovered pot of boiling water for about 30 to 60 seconds. They should be completely covered with hot water. Then put the tomatoes in a bowl of cold water, ice water is ideal. It is best to use a sieve for this. When the red fruits have cooled, the skin on the edges of the cut has already come loose. Using a simple kitchen knife, skin the tomatoes completely by peeling off the skin.
You can also skin peppers in a similar way. Put the vegetables cut into wide strips in boiling water and let them soak briefly. After quenching in ice water, the skin can be peeled off just as easily as the tomato. Alternatively, you can cook the peppers in the oven and then skin them. Wash the peppers and then cut them into quarters. Remove the stalk and seeds. Place the vegetables, skin side up, on a baking sheet that has been greased with oil or lined with baking paper, and cook the pieces on the top rack at around 220 degrees Celsius for a few minutes. The vegetable pieces should be very soft and develop black spots or blisters on the skin. Once cool, peel off the skin with a kitchen knife. If you cook the pepper pieces with oil, they are particularly suitable for antipasti or salads.
If, on the other hand, you need the peppers raw for further processing, you can also skin them with a vegetable peeler. Skinning is also easier with this method if you first cut the peppers into wide strips. It is best to use very fresh vegetables whose skin has not yet become wrinkled.
