Hi Everybody ...its very simple to prepare tomato puree and store in fridge for winter...its almost been 11 years since i did my course in food and preservation its very nice to learn how to store essential food products for a year...I normally focus of certain vegetables that are easy to store for winter or for any emergency cooking...you'll never know when your running out of tomatoes while cooking its best you always have tomato puree in store its especially very effective for working women do try to make this puree in bulk and store it for a rainy day...:)
Lets get started...
I have used 2 kilos tomatoes these are farm tomatoes some people call them and roma or bangalore tomato make sure you buy nice ripe tomato to preserve.
Wash the tomatoes thrice...twice with clean water and third time with 2 tbsp vinegar this will help remove all the pesticides.
After washing all the tomatoes allow to drain then score the skin into cross as shown in the picture.
Add enough water to blanch the tomatoes in a heavy bottom pot.
Add the tomatoes to the boiling water with in 10 to 15 minutes you can see the skin from the tomatoes peel switch the stove off drain the water and add ice cold water or just normal cold water to the tomatoes this will stop the cooking process in the tomatoes...
Peel the skin of the tomato and cut into half remove the seeds and add to the blender make a smooth puree.
Heat a heavy bottom pot again preferably nonstick pot add the tomato puree to the pot constantly keep stirring while preparing the pureeand allow to reduce till 1/3 .
Allow the puree to cool before adding any preservatives 1/2 cup of vinegar or lime juice can also be added to the puree but i normally wont add either of it since i dont know the amount of sour content needed while cooking anyother dish like curry we can always go wrong...so i prefer to use sodium benzoate or citric acid.
Once the tomato puree has cooled add 1/2 tsp citric acid or sodium benzoate always use a glass or plastic container to store the product since we are adding preservatives...storing the product in metal container can cause chemical reaction.
Always use the product after 2 or 3 days since the preservative can cause health issues like soar throat and fever.
can be stored in fridge or freezer upto 1 year.
Hope this post is useful for everyone i will be doing more recipes with tomatoes and preservation if you have any request or question you can always mail me and feel free to suggest and communicate on my face book fan page i would love to hear from you...?