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Clear tomato sauce

14K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  chefedb 
#1 · (Edited)
Looking for a tomato sauce recipe. What I"m looking for is a dark red, rich sauce that is still slightly transparent.  I'd like a few ideas before i start experimenting. I'm thinking just veal or beef consomme with some tomato paste or a finely milled tomato  would probably do the trick. Suggestions appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Then it is not classified as a tomato sauce.? More like a  Madreleinne
 
#3 · (Edited)
NOt familiar with that sauce, and google failed to provide any information for it.  The closest i've come to such a color and transparency is the broth from a vegetable soup which has sucked some of the juice out of tomatoes. so i'm thinking stewing tomatoes in broth and straining would be the best way to achieve that? also interested in a photo or recipe of the mentioned sauce.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Transparent? The simplest way is to cut nice ripe tomatoes into chunks, put them in a blender for a few seconds, no more. Now transfer into a cheesecloth (you could add a few fresh basil leaves), put a knot in the top ot the cloth and let the juice leak out over a pot, as long as it takes (at least a few hours). Do not press on the cloth or the liquid will turn cloudy.

You just made a tomato "essence". Almost completely transparent, very slightly red-ish with an intense tomato flavor.

It's a watery consistency. You could thicken it with arrowroot without losing the transparency.
 
#5 ·
A few years back I took all the tomatoes I had in my garden to my Cafe for a Mexican buffet. This was the end of the year and all the tomatoes were Beefsteak, Ruby red and full of flavor. The juice that was left over was a darker, red, beautiful rich tomato juice. The only way I could see you getting it any deeper red, and still staying clear, would be by adding a deep red pigment vegetable. I would use Tomato power, this powder will add all the infused intense flavor your looking for. I would thicken with arrowroot of you need it thicker. You could also experiment with beets, you may be able to get a nice deep, dark red wine pigment color after cooking that may help color your sauce..........ChefBillyB
 
#6 ·
What I"m looking for is a dark red, rich sauce that is still slightly transparent.

Unfortunately these are contradictory requirements. Most of the pigment, in a tomato, is in the skin and flesh. That's what makes sauces so dark and rich looking (particularly once they've been cooked, which intensifies the red pigment).

However, if you have access to a steam juicer, you can make a beautifully clear tomato juice. It won't be as deeply red as one made with solids, but it can serve as the base for further sauce development.
 
#7 ·
I have gotten the color i'm looking for with some soups and stews. my challenge is i'm not making soup or stew. This picture i found of chicken chasseur sums it up pretty well. I know the photo is highly edited and whatever, but here a reference.



I'm think Chris's idea with a nice rich dark blond veal stock and a deep red wine would make that consistancy.
 
#9 ·
I have tried a lot of these ideas and some more. If you re-hydrate dehydrated fine ground tomato, you will end up with a transparent red. The colour of the red changes depending on the original variety, and how they were dehydrated in the first place (ie gas chamber blowers, dry heat blown or naturally. Roast some other tomato and then into the blender with vege stock and then through muslin.

If it's a high end restaurant that you occupy then you do it a bit different. You de-seed a watery breed of tomato, blanch heat the pile of seeds until they start to separate and then strain. (you can do stuff with the seeds if you want). Put the tomato shells into the oven (low heat) with a little bit of stock and herbs, cover with foil for half the cooking. Saute onion and garlic and herbs in a whole lot of butter. Take out the excess butter then set aside, add the onion just before the tomato is finished and back in the oven to finish

Run the tomato and onion through the blender with vege stock (and this is where the beetroot or rhubarb for colour sounds great) and then through the muslin. Add the acid water from around the seeds back to the dish.
 
#10 ·
PS. I should have added. If you use dehydrated tomato you will get the smell of bacteria with the dish. It's mild but the best way to describe it is in a similar way you have a difference between fresh chilli and dehydrated chilli. To use a farming term "hayed off" is the way we describe it.
 
#12 ·
In the molecular gastronomy way of thinking:

You will need a high speed centrifuge to separate pureed tomato solids and juice. Then, using a high vacuum to boil away some water at low temperature to concentrate the tomato water without cooking it.

You will end up with crystal clear highly flavored tomato water to make clear tomato sauce or tomato jello.

dcarch
 
#13 · (Edited)
I love this website.  Too many ideas to tinker and take from.  I have been trying to think for quite some time how to make Asian "ceviche" sexy and less wet and eatable with fingers.  I  think  transparent gelee made of clear tomato, onion, and ginger water and lime encasing  a dice of fresh tuna with a leaf of cilantro, maybe a ribbon of cucumber, and a diagonal slice of hot pepper will look good.  I need an Asian gig to try this out.     Thanks for the idea,  ChrishBelgium  and Dcarch.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Well I think the first thing I will do is make some of that Madrilene consumme. After that I'll have some more understanding about what I'm doing and work from there. I have, though, never attempted making a small batch of consumme. Does that even work well?

also if i wanted to make the tomato essence without a food processor, could it be done by food mill? and since I"m not too much a fan of the fresh tomatoes at my local grocery stores, will it work will with canned tomatoes?
 
#15 · (Edited)
....also if i wanted to make the tomato essence without a food processor, could it be done by food mill? and since I"m not too much a fan of the fresh tomatoes at my local grocery stores, will it work will with canned tomatoes?
Simply chunk the tomatoes up with a knife. A foodmill may produce too small pieces and remember, you have to do this with raw tomatoes. I wouldn't do it with canned tomatoes. Also, the tomatoes available in winter aren't the best to work with. No worry however, read the following;

When the consistency and looks in your picture "chicken chasseur" is ok with you, then you can proceed in a whole other way! In that picture, the red comes from tomato paste stirred in the cooking juices

.

You could make your sauce like this too;

Sweat a shallot (I don't like onion), garlic, and chopped carrot and celery on low fire. Let it all become somewhat softer without coloring. Add no more than a teaspoon of tomato paste (concentrate). Let it fry a few minutes to get rid of the harsh taste; don't worry if the mixture looks ugly. Then add a dash of white wine. Let it evaporate until it smells of veggies again instead of alcohol. Add a good deal of chickenstock and let reduce on low fire. Taste for seasoning and acidity, you may very well have to add some drops (read a small teaspoon) of white wine vinegar to balance the acidity.

Get everything through a fine sieve. You will have the sauce you're looking for, at the right sauce consistency because the tomatopaste will act as a binding agent.
 
#17 ·
I am going to have to agree with Choke on this one, I have always made this one as a consomme, I have served it cold "jellied" or hot.

Yes , you can take the basic consomme , reduce (as Choke said)  add  butter, wine (or not)  and it would give you that glazed, transparency which is in that photo.

But to save all the time , skip the Madrilene idea and go with some of the other ideas. ...a  thought.
 
#18 · (Edited)
So really, I'm not after much more than a wine reduction, huh? Using your ideas, I have done more research and found lots of cool techniques for clear red sauces. But what seems really cool is Belgium's idea, and as someone else suggested, colored with beet root. This picture actually reminds me of coolaid, but still pretty cool. this is jamie oliver's "tomato consomme"

 
#19 ·
I have gotten the color i'm looking for with some soups and stews. my challenge is i'm not making soup or stew. This picture i found of chicken chasseur sums it up pretty well. I know the photo is highly edited and whatever, but here a reference.



I'm think Chris's idea with a nice rich dark blond veal stock and a deep red wine would make that consistancy.
Chasseur sauce or Hunter sauce or Hunter style is a small compound sauce usually Espanole, Demi Glace, wine and herbs>Sometime tomato is added. It is often used on chicken and some time as a base for Chicken Liver Chasseur and sometime Sweetbreads which used to be served quite a bit at brunch service in better places.
 
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