I am on a diet which prohibits the use of canned foods. I am wanting to make some RoTel from scratch, if possible, but am a young, inexperienced cook who has never boiled or stewed tomatoes before. Does anyone have some tips for me as to whether to peel/seed the tomatoes, how long to cook them, how many, how much water or other items to add, and how to prepare and add green chilis to that? Any detailed response would be very much appreciated (I need specifics!) Thanks!

-- Susan Cunningham (susanmcunningham@hotmail.com), January 08, 2002

Answers

You will need a meat tomatoe, so roma's would be great to use. Par- boil them in boiling water (submerse them in the boiling water for 1- 2 minutes,until skin splits, them remove them and put in cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel the skins off.

Once you have them all done, put them in a pot and add the diced chili peppers. Slow simmer them (crock pot would be perfect). If you want to can them, then you will have to process the sterilized jars for 10-20 minutes, depending on the acid content of your toms.

-- Wendy A (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), January 08, 2002.

Susan:

It should be fairly easy to do but be prepared for some time and mess. The way I prep tomatoes is to core them, dunk them in boiling water until they split a little and then skin and seed them while running cold water over them to avoid burning myself. The skins should slip off easy. The seeds usually come out in clumps, just kind of break open each chamber and scoop them into the sink. (A food mill is handy for this but I'm guessing you don't have one). Then chop them up and they're ready to stew. I'll let others chime in with more on peppers and other ingredients...

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), January 08, 2002.

Susan...all I do is cut out the stem end, cut off any blemishes, quarter them and cook them down. I leave the skins on and the seeds in. I just prefer them that way!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), January 08, 2002.

I am Marcia on this one, although I run mine thru a food prosseser before cooking down. If you want it a little spicy add a few Hot Peppers in the food prosseser with the Tomatoes.

A friend gave me a couple of boxes of tomatoes this summer and I did them all like this and put them into freezer bags. They are great to use for making spagatti sauce & chilli.

A lot less work then skinning and seeding. If you are using the skinning and seeding method try making a batch without skinning and seeding, I'm sure you will like them and love all the less work.

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), January 08, 2002.

This is an easy one,(right off the ingredients list on the can) cut the tomatoes into chunks what ever size you like. Regular tomatoes will do fine for homemade "Ro*Tel" to get the texture of the canned chilies, boil the peppers with a slit cut in the side to let the air out and some water in, when the peppers are just tender enough to bend easily let them cool (run cold water on them) and peel the skin off.(if the skin doesn't want to come off the peppers aren't cooked enough)

If you like a roasted flavor burn the peepers until blackend all over, (some people do the tomatoes this way too) let them cool in a covered dish or a bag (this steams the flesh to soften it better)and then peel off the skin washing the peppers only if you must. Then chop the peppers, they are kind of slippery by now, leave as much of the seeds as you like. Salt to taste Add a dash of red pepper powder, (to taste) that makes the Orginal Ro*Tel the other flavors have lime juice added, cilantro, jalapeno and habanero peppers added, and if you don't want to peel any thing you don't have to, it still works. You might like a touch of garlic added, or onion, but the cans don't have these in them. Cool all the stuff together until the tomatoes are as soft as you like, and it's done (it's good raw too, maybe add a pinch of sugar or a couple drops of stevia, yee haa! thats good stuff)

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.

Ooopps, that was supposed to say 'cook them all together', not cool them all together. Sorry 'bout that.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.