Your Favorite Recipe

Assalamu alaikum,

MindyRahman: I have not come across that recipe yet, but if I do I'll post it here!

It's tomato season!  (at least where I live!)  This is one of my family's favorites:

Stuffed Tomatoes with Sauce:

Wash and cut just the tops off of a dozen large size tomatoes.  Carefully scoop out the insides with a regular cutlery teaspoon (as opposed to a measuring spoon!), leaving thick enough walls so the tomato stands firm.  Scoop all the insides into a bowl. 

Place the tomatoes in a 9x13 inch oven proof dish with sides.  Keep the lids.

Sauce:  take the bowl of tomato "insides" and use your fingers to scrape away the seeds and jelly part.  Place the meaty tomato pieces onto a cutting board and cut into smallish pieces.  Discard the seeds, jelly and juice.

Put tomato pieces in a large pot.  Add:

• 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz/796 ml), drained (or, use equal amount of peeled, seeded, chopped fresh tomatoes)
• 1 can tomato paste (5 1/2 oz/156 ml)
• 1 large chopped onion
• 1 large chopped sweet pepper (any colour you like)
• 1 minced clove of garlic (more if you are garlic lovers!)
• 1 tbsp. granulated white sugar (more to taste, if tomatoes bitter)
• 1 tsp. each: dried oregano, dried basil, dried parsley (or equivalent fresh), (I never add salt, but you can if you wish)

Place sauce on stove and bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer (without lid) for minimum of two hours, stirring occasionally.

Stuffing:

• ground beef (or lamb, or turkey, or combination - beef tastes best!), enough to fill the tomatoes (I always make a bit more and freeze as a small meatloaf for another time!)
• finely chopped: 1 med. onion, 1 sweet pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 1/3 cup celery leaves
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
• 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 tbls. worcestershire sauce
• black pepper (I never add salt, but you can if you wish)
• dried bread crumbs (about 2/3 - 3/4 of a cup - enough to make the meat mixture "stick" together nicely)

Mix well and stuff each scooped out tomato with the meat mixture, pushing meat in firmly.  Let the meat stick up over the tops of the tomatoes a bit.  Place the lids of the tomatoes on top of the meat.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, without covering.

To Serve:

Scoop up each tomato with a slotted spoon and use any other utensil to steady it while you tip it over to let the water/fat run out.

Serve tomatoes with your favorite rice or couscous and top with the sauce.  A nice vegetable goes good with this (especially green beans or corn).

***You can prepare the tomatoes and sauce up to 24 hours ahead and just keep stored, covered tightly in the fridge until time to cook.

***I find 3 tomatoes for adult males, 2 for adult females and 1 for kids about right.

Enjoy!   Peace, ummziba.