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Stuffed beef tomatoes with spicy mince
The recipe would do well as a starter, mezze or even a main course, served with rice or couscous.
Ingredients
- 8 beef tomatoes with tops cut off and reserved
- 2 tablespoons Belazu extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 to 4 Cloves garlic, or to taste, finely chopped
- A couple of pinches of chilli powder, paprika, ground cumin and all spice
- 500g/1lb 2oz lamb mince
- squirt of tomato puree
- 1 tablespoon Belazu Rose Harissa or orange biter
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 bunches fresh mint, chopped or 1/2 teaspoon of dried mint
- 4 tablespoons of dry sherry.
Mise en place
- Pre-heat the oven to 180° C (350° F - gas 4)
Method
- Scoop out the tomato flesh from each tomato and put in a bowl then put to one side. An ice-cream scoop is good for this.
- Keep about half of the tomato flesh, and all of the pips, place in a sieve to drain excess liquid. Discard the rest.
- In a large deep-sided frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Cook gently till beginning to soften. Then add garlic, one pinch each of the spices and the chillies.
- Give it a good stir and then cook for a couple of minutes.
- Tip in the mince and stir to break it all up. Add the remaining spices, tomato purée, Belazu Rose Harissa, lemon juice and the mint.
- Mix then stir in the reserved tomato flesh till all is combined. Cook gently for about 15 minutes until the mixture is fairly dry.
- When cooked, taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- If the mixture has lots of fat, drain off any excess.
- Sit the tomatoes in a roasting tin then spoon the mixture into each and pop the tomato lid on. Add a tablespoon of sherry to each tomato.
- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour, then using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the tomatoes to a serving plate.
(Prima Magazine)
Serving suggestions
Serve with the Greek yoghurt.
Variations
Use sweet peppers instead of tomatoes Use beef mince instead of lamb mince Try a variation of spices & herbs. Dried oregano, ground cumin complement each other well.
Chef's notes
The original recipe suggested baking onions with the tomatoes to add sweetness and 'help them stand-up'. The sherry now adds the sweetness and if you want to ensure they 'stand-up' use a smaller roasting dish so they are a snug fit.
This amended recipe is now very nice indeed and will be made again!
This recipe heavily adapted from a recipe, originally from the recipe section of Belazu.com All Belazu products shown can be purchased online or obtained from their network of stockists:
Many thanks to Belazu for kindly giving Cookipedia permission to use the recipes from their website.
