Moussaka stuffed tomatoes

I had come home from a draining day of being an assessor for the next generation of bright young things to join the service. I always say it is more painful for me as, like today, I have to experience three interviews and presentations, whilst each of them only has to do one.


I also came home to lots of ends. The end of an aubergine (the other 3/4s had been used in an aubergine parmiagana), the end of the bunch of fresh coriander, the end of the yoghurt, creme fraiche (and a couple of egg yolks)...I think you know where I'm going with this.


I also had a giant bag of tomatoes which Gipsy Spread had picked up as a £1 lot when I had asked him to pick me up one, for the chana chaat we had Friday night for dinner.

So, it was clear. The universe wanted me to make vegetarian moussaka stuffed tomatoes for our dinner.


What you will need
1/2 an onion
1/4 an aubergine
150g quorn mince
2 cloves garlic
125ml red wine
1/2 tea spoon ground cinnamon
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1/2 tea spoon sugar
8 medium tomatoes
2 egg yolks
1 table spoon creme fraiche
50g cheddar
Fresh thyme


Finely chop the onion and garlic and cube the aubergine. Add to some oil, season with salt to help the aubergines soften and cook for 5-10 minutes until done. Add the cinnamon and cumin to the onions and cook for one last minute.


Meanwhile, slice the heads off the tomatoes and reserve. Next, use a small tea spoon to scoop out the flesh of the tomatoes, including the juice and seeds. Remove any hard centres and the chop the rest of the tomato flesh.

Add the quorn mince to the softened aubergines and onions and top with the glass of wine, cook off for a minute then add the chopped tomatoes, more salt as necessary, black pepper and the sugar. Reduce the mix for 10-15 minutes until the mixture is dry.

Whilst the mince and aubergine filling is reducing, you might as well get on with the topping. Mix together the egg yolks with the creme fraiche and cheddar and season.


Add the fresh thyme leaves to the mince mixture and stuff inside the tomatoes.


Seperately mix together the cheese, egg yolks and creme fraiche. Lay the mix out on some greaseproof paper to form the tops of the stuffed tomatoes. The size of my tomatoes didn't allow space for topping, however, if you have large tomatoes, go crazy and place on top of the mince inside the tomatoes. I had to create little 'bechamel' hats, which were cooked seperately for mine.

 

Bake the tomatoes in the oven at 200 degress for 20-25 minutes. Add the egg and cheese mix to the oven after 5 minutes, and cook for 15-20 minutes.

When cooked, plate up the tomatoes and cut out little 'hats' from the baked egg and cheese mix to sit atop the tomatoes. I'm sure, you can do better than me on this!

I served these with some delicious onion and coriander raita. Gipsy Spread also had some white wine and herb poached white fish with his dinner.