MAKING A TOMATO CONCASSÉ	FOOD TIPS TALLYRAND

Making a tomato concassé - the word concassé (con-cass-eh) is French and means to chop or crush.

Tomato concassé is used in a variety of recipes and can also be used to thicken a dish. The reason for removing the skins and the seeds is that they are what make a tomato bitter - thus you get a sweeter tomato in your dish.

An example of using tomato concassé is Sauce Choron. By crushing the tomatoes you make a tomato paste which in turn can be used to make Sauce Choron. The sauce is basically a Béarnaise sauce which is just a Hollandaise Sauce with added tarragon. To the Béarnaise sauce you add your tomato paste and you have Sauce Choron.

Choron sauce was created by Alexander Etienne Choron, a French chef from Caen who was Chef de Cuisine at the famous Voisin restaurant in Paris during the late Nineteenth century.

Method

• Remove the core of the tomato with the tip of a small knife
  
  
• At the other end, lightly score the skin in a cross (score = just break the surface)
  
  
• Plunge the tomatoes into a pot of rapidly boiling water for 10 seconds (this process is called 'blanching')
  
  
• Remove with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of iced water or under cold running water to halt the cooking process (this process is called 'refreshing')
  
  
• The skins should now easily slip or peel off; if the tomatoes are not quite ripe, they may need to be blanched and refreshed again
  
  
• Place the tomatoes on a cutting board with the core side down and cut in half
  
  
• Remove the seeds with a teaspoon and discard
  
  
• Roughly chop the tomatoes to the desired size

RELATED RECIPE

• Chicken Chasseur

Food and Cooking Tips
from professional
Chef Tallyrand

Born and raised in Plymouth, Tallyrand started his initial training as a chef at Plymouth College of Further Education. It was here that he was to learn his love, his passion for food and the culinary arts. From here he headed to Germany to complete his apprenticeship as Commis de Gardemanger.

Germany gave him his first taste of cooking for the rich and famous, as half way through his first year, along with the Sous Chef and a Chef de Partie, he was whisked off to Cologne to help prepare meals for a political conference, where amongst other dignitaries they cooked for Mr Brehznev, the then powerful Russian leader. This was to prove to be just one of the many celebrities he was to cook for or get to know over the years . . .

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