Last Friday, we had our neighbors over from across the street for dinner. It was pretty depressing to see them walk 150 feet bundled up like they were getting ready to compete in the Iditarod, but such is life in the wake of the Polar Vortex 2014.
For dinner, we went Greek. The main course was a roast pork tenderloin. I made a 9 x 13 of spanokopita (which could have been the main dish, but we had the remains for lunch the next day) and stuffed tomatoes.
I prepared the tomatoes by cutting off the cap and reserving it. I scooped out all the pulp and seeds and tossed them out. To get the tomatoes to drain completely, I turned them upside down on the cutting board.
In a skillet, I sauteed some diced yellow onion and minced garlic in olive oil, then added a 1/2 cup of white rice. Once the rice was coated, I added some chicken broth and simmered the rice for 15-20 minutes until it was al dente.
While the rice was going, I took some feta, olive oil, and chopped fresh mint and put them in a small bowl. I mashed the feta with the oil and got it to a creamy consistency. Once the rice was done cooking and had absorbed nearly all of the liquid, I added that mix in to the feta-mint mix. I added a little salt and pepper, as well.
The rice/feta/mint amalgamation was evenly distributed among the four hollowed out tomatoes. I then replaced the caps on the tomatoes and gently poured water around them as they were sitting in an 8 x 8 baking dish. The tomatoes were cooked at 400 for 45 minutes and came out tender with tremendous flavor inside.
This sounds tasty, but....don't they just explode/fall apart all over the plate when you cut into them after they're baked?
ReplyDeleteNo, not really. They were soft enough to cut with a fork, but held together enough to not just fall over the whole place.
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