Another virtual get-together dinner and this time no take-away but cooking a Serbian dish. Original recipe is with stuffed paprika but as I have paprika allergy, a Serbian friend advised to replace with giant tomatoes. My friends will cook paprika and I got 3 tomatoes. Third one is just in case if two is not enough 😁
Serves 1P and cooking time 1:30-2hrs
Ingredients
- 3x giant tomatoes (or 2x paprika/bell pepper/pepper)
- 1x shallot chopped
- 2x garlic cloves pressed
- 1x carrot chopped
- 1x slice bacon (about 70gr) – cut in pieces and remove fatty parts
- 1Tbsp olive oil
- 300gr ground beef or mix 200gr ground beef + 100gr ground pork. Personally, I like to avoid too much pork. As there is bacon, I took only beef.
- 1x bay leave
- Salt to taste
- ½ cup white rice
- ½ cup white wine
- ½ cup water
- (When you cook with paprika, dice 1x tomato. Pulp and all will be used for sauce)
- ————- Kitchen Tools ————-
- Medium measure spoon to hollow tomato, edges are sharper then a regular table spoon.
- 1 medium bowl
- 1x deep oven dish
- 1x frying pan
- Aluminium foil
What to do?
- Pre-heat oven on fan 230°C
- Cut the top off the tomato. Keep the top for later to use as lid on tomato.
- Scoop the pulp and seeds out in a bowl by using a knife and spoon. Keep the pulp for later.
- Chop 1 shallot, chop 1 carrot and press 2 garlic cloves.
- Cut bacon in small pieces.
- Heat pan with 1Tbsp olive oil. Add bacon.
- When bacon starts to cook, add shallot, carrot and garlic.
- Stir for a few minutes.
- Add 300gram beef, 1 bay leave and salt to taste.
- Stir the meat until small lumps.
- When meat looks cooked, add ½ cup rice. Mix together for a 5min.
- Switch off cooking plate.
- Remove bay leave.
- Fill up the tomatoes and close it with the tomato top.
- Put tomatoes in oven dish.
- ————- Sauce ————-
- Re-use the frying pan without washing.
- Just remove remaining food in pan.
- Turn heat on. Add ½ cup wine, ½ cup water and add 1 cup tomato pulp. I store the leftover pulp in the fridge for something else e.g. soup, pasta sauce.
- When everything is mixed, pour the sauce in oven dish. Ideally is to bath the tomatoes in ~3cm sauce. If not enough sauce, then add some water.
- Cover the dish with aluminium foil. Put dish for 45min in oven.
- Take dish out and keep oven on.
- Remove foil and pour sauce over tomatoes. If there is too much liquid in the dish, then take some liquid out until ~1cm for the tomatoes too bath in.
- Cook for another 15min in oven without foil.
Finally: serve tomatoes with a simple salad on the side.
My tomatoes got very soft and burst a bit open because of the long cooking time. You need this time in letting the rice cook and letting the flavours flourish.
Prijatno! Hajde, navali! Dobar apetit!
Share this: