Serves: 6
Ingredients:
12 organic tomatoes
1 cup olive oil
1 cup brown onions, finely diced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped
1 cup medium-grain rice, such as Arborio
50g currants (or raisins)
50g pine nuts
1 tablespoon allspice
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup chopped fresh dill
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white sugar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place pine nuts on a flat baking tray and place in oven for 1 min until lightly toasted.
Cut off the top 1cm of each tomato; set aside the tops. Using a table spoon, very carefully remove as much pulp as possible from each tomato, without piercing the skin. Sprinkle the inside of the tomato cases with a little salt and sugar and place upside down and leave for 20-30 mins. Chop the tomato pulp.
In a large skillet, heat ¾ cup of the oil and sauté the onions and fennel bulb over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the allspice and rice and sauté, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 cups of the tomato pulp and reserve the rest, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes more. Stir in the currants, pine nuts, parsley, dill and mint and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and add salt and plenty of pepper. Stuff the tomatoes with the rice mixture, loosely, leaving a little room for the stuffing to expand, and cover with the tomato tops.
Place the tomatoes in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish and arrange the potato pieces in the gaps between the tomatoes. Pour the remaining tomato pulp over everything and drizzle the tomatoes with the remaining ¼ cup oil and the lemon juice. Then slowly add water into the baking dish to fill up to half inch high. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake for 45 mins, or until the rice is tender (lift the cover of a tomato and check). Turn off the oven and let stand in the oven for 10 minutes, then let cool to room temperature. Serve 2 tomatoes and a some potato pieces on each plate.
Recipe by:
Theo Kostoglou
Owner and Exec Chef of Kouzina Restaurants |
