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If we are looking to seed and dice a tomato, for whatever purpose, the chances are that we will also wish to skin it first. In order to achieve this, make a small "+" shaped cross in the top of each tomato, deep enough only to fully pierce the skin, each cut about half an inch in length. Put the tomatoes in a large basin or bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover them. Allow them to stand for around thirty seconds in the boiling water before placing the bowl in the sink and running cold water in to it for again around thirty seconds. Drain the tomatoes and allow them to stand for a couple of minutes.

What we have essentially done is rapidly expanded the flesh of the tomatoes in heat before equally rapidly contracting it in cold. This first stretches the skin and then leaves it loose as the flesh retracts. It should now be a simple process of pinching the skin around where we earlier made our incisions and peeling it off in four strips.

Place each skinned tomato on a chopping board and half it down through the top. By making two small cuts in the shape of a letter "v," now remove the tough and undesirable remaining part of the stalk. Take a teaspoon and carefully slide it all the way around between the flesh and the seeds before scooping out and discarding the water and seeds. Simply thereafter slice the tomatoes in to the desired thickness of strips and again in the opposite direction to complete our dicing.

So we now have our tomatoes diced - what are we going to do with them? Let me make a suggestion for a delicious, salsa type salad, which goes extremely well with a number of dishes. My favourite way of including it is spread thinly across the top of a beautifully seared fresh tuna loin steak.

Put the (small) diced tomato pieces in to a dish and add a little extra virgin olive oil, a clove or two of crushed or very finely chopped garlic, one small birds' eye chilli pepper - de-seeded and very finely chopped - some de-seeded and very finely chopped cucumber and a finely torn basil leaf or two. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, mix thoroughly, cover and refrigerate until required.

Footnote - In order to de-seed a cucumber, first of all cut the desired length from the main body of the fruit and peel it carefully with a sharp knife. Sit one end of it on a chopping board and half it down through the centre. Take once again a teaspoon and simply scrape it the length of each inner half of the cucumber to scoop the seeds free.

Learn more about this author, Gordon Hamilton.
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