Tag: #tomato

Posted on

Serbian Style Stuffed Tomato

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?

  1. Pre-heat oven on fan 230°C
  2. Cut the top off the tomato. Keep the top for later to use as lid on tomato.
  3. Scoop the pulp and seeds out in a bowl by using a knife and spoon. Keep the pulp for later.
  4. Chop 1 shallot, chop 1 carrot and press 2 garlic cloves.
  5. Cut bacon in small pieces.
  6. Heat pan with 1Tbsp olive oil. Add bacon.
  7. When bacon starts to cook, add shallot, carrot and garlic.
  9. Stir for a few minutes.
  10. Add 300gram beef, 1 bay leave and salt to taste.
  11. Stir the meat until small lumps.
  12. When meat looks cooked, add ½ cup rice. Mix together for a 5min.
  14. Switch off cooking plate.
  15. Remove bay leave.
  16. Fill up the tomatoes and close it with the tomato top.
  17. Put tomatoes in oven dish.
  18. ————- Sauce ————-
  19. Re-use the frying pan without washing.
  20. Just remove remaining food in pan.
  21. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Cover the dish with aluminium foil. Put dish for 45min in oven.
  25. Take dish out and keep oven on.
  26. 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. 
  28. 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.

Three Styles

Prijatno! Hajde, navali! Dobar apetit!

Share this:
Posted on

Borscht soup with meat

In this covid19 period and having social distancing to keep everybody safe…. me, my partner and his friends started with a weekly virtual dinner meet-up. We mutual agree on a recipe to cook and at lazy times we do delivery/takeaway in a particular kitchen. 

Today, we all cook the famous Ukrainian/Russian beetroot soup, borscht. Each of us makes his own version of borscht. One having meat, with shrimps (my partner’s style) or vegetarian.

Naturally, I go for the original borscht with meat. How can it not go with meat, right? This is my 1sttime cooking borscht and I will never forget this delicious soup when I ate this in Russia. I really hope I will get close to this memorable taste.

The result was surprisingly good, almost close to the one I had in Russia. Maybe next time, when I try again 🙂

Serves 4P and cooking time 1:30-2hrs

Ingredients

  • 300gr unboned stew meat or veal shin (NL: kalfsschenkel) – cut meat in pieces
  • 1L cold water
  • ½ Tbsp salt + more at taste 
  • 2 medium beetroot – peel and grate or cut in bite size pieces
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil2 Tbsp vinegar
  • ½ Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp tomato sauce 1 shallot – fine dice
  • ½ Tbsp butter1 medium carrot – peel and cut in bite size or grate
  • 3 medium potatoes –peel and cut in bite size
  • 1 tomato – optional peeled and cut in dices
  • 1 bay leave
  • ½ tsp pepper 
  • 10gr dille (handful) – chop + fresh sprigs for garnish
  • 1 clove garlic – pressed
  • Sour cream – optional for garnish 

Kitchen Tools

  • Large soup pot
  • Food processor
  • Large bowl
  • Frying pan

What to do?

1) Wash meat in cold water and cut in pieces. Place in a large soup pot with 1 liter cold water +  ½ Tbsp salt. Bring it to boil and remove the foam while it boils. Keep doing this until there is no foam crud as this will be your broth. Then lower the heat and boil for 45min-1hr. Regularly remove crud if needed.

.

2) Grate beet in food processor or cut in bite size. Place the beet in a large bowl and add 2 Tbsp olive oil + 2Tbsp vinegar. Stir well and sauté 5min in pan. Then lower the heat, add ½ Tbsp sugar + 1 Tbsp tomato sauce. Stir well for 10min. Place the beet back in the bowl and set aside.

3) Use the same pan, no need to wash it. Sauté the onion in ½ Tbsp butter for 2min. Add carrot and sauté for another 5 min or until it gets soft. Then add into big bowl of beet.

4) Once the meat has been cooked for minimum 45min, add the diced potatoes in the soup pan and cook for 10min. Then add sautéed beet, onions, carrot and diced tomatoes. Cook for another 10min.

5) Add 1 bay leave, ½ tsp pepper and salt to taste.

6) Add chopped dille and pressed garlic in soup pan. Stir well and cover with lid. Cook the soup in low heat for 20min.

Finally: serve the soup hot and garnish with fresh dille sprigs and a little bit of sour cream (optional).

Borscht Soup with Meat

Eet Smakelijk!

Share this: