RECIPE: Stuffed Tomatoes

It's ages since I posted a recipe, but here's a seasonal one made with some of the amazing tomatoes Mark has grown this year. It's been a bumper year and we've eaten tomatoes with nearly every meal as well as having lots of sauce in the freezer and a fridge full of home made ketchup.

I used some of his Montserrat tomatoes for this dish.

They are the ones in the tray at the front. They are huge - about the size of a large man's fist - and sort-of hollow, with just a small core of seeds that is easily scooped out (but not discarded - the ones I scooped out are currently simmering in the latest batch of sauce). That makes them ideal for stuffing, although of course you can use almost any decent sized tomato if you carefully scoop out the seeds. Well, maybe not cherry tomatoes. Yes, I have made stuffed cherry tomatoes but it takes rather more patience than I can muster on a regular basis.

I had some left over boiled rice in the fridge and was planning a meal of spicy merguez sausages baked with butternut squash, so I wanted to make a suitable accompaniment. In the store cupboard there were a few pistachios and the tail end of a bag of currants - perfect.  To that I added a small onion, a knob of butter and a pinch of cinnamon.

To fill two very large tomatoes
About a mug full of cold boiled rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbs shelled pistachios, chopped
1 tbs dried currants
pinch of ground cinnamon to taste
a small knob of butter

Fry the onion in the butter until translucent, then add the currants, pistachios and cinnamon and continue to fry slowly for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. This is important as you are using pre-cooked rice and don't want to warm it up until it is time to cook it.

When cold, mix with the rice, taste and season. Slice the tops off the tomatoes, scoop out the insides and stuff with the rice.

Replace the tops and bake in a moderately hot oven (it all depends on what else you are cooking!) until the tomatoes are cooked and the filling piping hot. Remember when reheating rice it must be fully heated through to destroy any lurking nasties.

The tomatoes don't look quite as spectacular when they come out of the oven because the soft sides might collapse, but oh my they taste delicious!

This is my recipe for this month's Kitchen Clearout link up at Madhouse Family Reviews, where you will find lots of ideas for using up those odds and ends in the fridge and cupboards.