Stuffed Vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, white marrow
For the Meat Stuffing:
1 kg best beef mince steak
1 large onion, grated
40g fresh mint, finely chopped
½ cup long grain rice
1 tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
375 ml tomato juice for the mince mixture
125g melted butter
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Extra tomato juice, left over from the tomato pulp
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Extra butter to dot on top of tomatoes and peppers
Salt
You can make a combination of say 16 medium tomatoes and 4 peppers.
Method:
Wash the tomatoes and peppers.
Take each tomato and slit the bottom of the tomato almost to the end, so it forms a lid.
Scoop out all of the inside of the tomato and save the pulp for juicing.
When all of the tomatoes have been scooped out place them in a baking tin.
Partially slit the tops of the peppers, to form a lid and scoop out all of the seeds and discard.
Blend the tomato pulp and pass through a sieve ready to use for the cooking.
Place the minced steak, grated onion, finely chopped mint, rice, salt, pepper, the tomato paste mixed in the tomato juice and the melted butter.
Mix thoroughly.
The mixture should be quite soft.
Fill each tomato and pepper to the top with the meat mixture being careful not to tear their ‘lids’ off.
Flip their lids to cover the meat mixture.
Mix the 2 tablespoons of tomato paste into the rest of the tomato juice to pour over the tomatoes and peppers.
Sprinkle with salt. Put a knob of butter on top of each tomato and pepper.
Cover with alfoil and bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hour, however, every 20 minutes take the baking tin out and baste all of the tomatoes and peppers a couple of times with some of the pan juices.
This keeps the rice and meat mixture moist.
Remove the alfoil and bake for a further 30 minutes.
Test the rice inside one of the tomatoes to ensure that it is cooked.
