Saturday, April 24, 2010

Jade: Bitemytomato

The best thing about living in catered halls, besides having someone to clean your bathroom and kitchen, was always breakfast. Granted it was the only palatable meal served at the canteen..I loved the convenience of waking up, knowing a hot breakfast complete with my choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate awaited. There was something so grown-up about getting to choose between hot danish or buttered toast, fruit or yoghurt and if it was yoghurt, what flavour? And then there was the cooked breakfast~ sausages, bacon, beans, mushrooms, eggs, fried bread..the works. It was always sausages and beans on days when I was feeling particularly indulgent...eggs on toast whenever I missed home because my mum used to make them..and on weekends, bacon on toast, topped with lashings of honey.

Stuffed tomato with mushrooms [ Inspired by Raymond Blanc's stuffed tomatoes. I was watching him on BBC and all I could think about the whole time was how I could turn it into a nice breakfast. Monsieur Blanc stuffed his tomatoes with minced pork and served them with a rich tomato sauce. I stuffed mine with sausage meat, nestled it in a bed of fried mushrooms and topped it with an egg, sunny side up]

1 beefsteak tomato [you want a big, sturdy tomato that will hold the filling and not turn into mush after baking]
1 pork sausage, skin removed
2-3 tbsp breadcrumbs [ I didn't have any so I used cracker crumbs]
1 small shallot, diced finely
1 clove garlic, minced
some chopped sage
1 egg yolk and a drizzle of olive oil to bind
some grated pecorino
freshly cracked black pepper

mushrooms
fresh parsley, chopped
a splash of white wine
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Combine sausage meat with breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs and seasoning, binding it with the egg and olive oil. Don't bother with a fork, use your hands
3. Cut off the top of the tomato, and using a spoon, gauge out the pulp and discard or save it for a tomato sauce
4. Stuff the tomato with your sausage mix, grate some more cheese over the top, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 20-25 minutes
5. In the meantime, pop the mushrooms in a pan, add a glug of wine and stir till softened
6. Fry an egg just before the tomato is ready
7. Dish up and there you have it. My version of a British fry-up. None of the grease, all of the pleasure ;)

3 comments:

  1. Love the idea of waking up to a nice spread of breakfast prepared for me. Hmm... I am having breakfast while reading blog posts!

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  2. haha! reading food blogs while eating always seems to make food taste better,nón? :)

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  3. Drool...mushrooms! Plus stuffed tomatoes! My daughter would love that! Yums!!!

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