How to carve a rose from a tomato – 3 min

You may not realise that we eat with our eyes as much as we eat with our tongues. The word ‘flavour’ takes into account not only what taste our tastebuds can detect; but also the smell, the texture, and the presentation of our food.

Beautiful food whet our appetite and enhance our dining experience. That is why after preparing my everyday meals, I’ll try to arrange them nicely on a plate and use my best utensils (I have a weakness for pretty serveware. I really eat with all the cute plates and bowls, cutlery and chopsticks holders you see in this site!).

On special occasion such Chinese New Year, I even make food carving on top of beautiful dining ware. One that is incredibly easy to make is carving an edible rose from a tomato.

TOOLS

• Tomato
• Sharp knife

SHORT IDEA

The idea is to cut a continuous strip of skin from the tomato. It’s much like peeling an apple in a long curly strip. You will remove the skin and leave the bare flesh. If you can do that, this wouldn’t be a problem. Even if you don’t, this is very easy to master. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial:

INSTRUCTIONS

1. From the top of the tomato, cut a semi-circle around the stem, about 2 cm away from the top.
2. Slit it around the whole tomato- maintaining the same width. Remember not to cut too deep as you only want the skin of the tomato.
3. Cut all the way until the bottom of the tomato.
4. Cut horizontally from the top to remove the outer strip of skin from the tomato.
5. Continue cutting all the way until the end.
6. When you reach the bottom, cut the strip off from the tomato .
7. You will have a long strip of tomato skin.
8. Roll it to form a rose.

TIPS

1. Sharp and small knife It’s best to use a sharp and small knife. I’m using a 5 inches/ 13 cm long knife from Zwiling J.A Henckels which I sharpen often.
2. Serve with green vegetables The red ‘rose’ contrast really well with green vegetables. On special occasion, I like to keep the vegetables whole and make sure that I don’t overcook it.
3. Use leftover tomato to make soup Use your leftover tomatoes to make soup. Try this rainbow roasted vegetable soup

Have fun carving your edible rose!