It seems that lately all my posts about food were requested by Son. At our fam dinner this week, I made Tomatoes with tofu stuffing, Omelette with tofu stuffing, and a tomato-based broth. I got a tray of fresh organic tomatoes from Costco and had to make a good meal out of it. I used dried mushrooms, so I had to soak them for 1/2 hour before slicing. For this recipe, I used a teflon skillet.

6 tomatoes

For stuffing:

• 1 lb or pork (or half pork half chicken)
• or 1 block of firm tofu, pressed to ½ size. Use hand to smash it.
• 4-5 shittake mushrooms, sliced thin or diced
• ½ cup of woodear mushroom, sliced thin or diced
• 1 package of cellophane noodles, soaked for 15 min, drained, and chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 egg
• 3 green onions, chopped

In the hot skillet, add oil and onion. Fry till onion is translucent, then add both types of mushrooms. Stir fry for a minute, then add the smashed tofu. Season with salt and sugar. Add cornstarch. Mix well. Place in a large bowl and set aside to cool down the mixture.

While mixture is cooling down, prepare the tomatoes. Chopped 1 tomato and out in a bowl for sauce. Cut the other 5 tomatoes in half. Scoop out the soft inside and place in the sauce bowl. Place the cut part of the tomatoes down to drain of the liquid.

Add seasoning to the tomato sauce bowl: 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 Tbsp fish sauce. Set it aside.

Back to the meat/tofu mixture. Add the chopped cellophane noodles, green onions, and egg. Again, mix well. The egg is for binding the stuffing together.

Using a spoon, insert the stuffing into the tomato half. Stuff it down and enough to create a dome. Place the tomato halves, stuffing down, in the skillet. Let it fry for about 5 minutes to set the stuffing. You can lift up one tomato to see if it’s brown underneath.

Add the tomato sauce. Taste to see if more fish sauce is needed. The dish is done when the sauce gets thickened and just covers the bottom of the skillet.

Serve with some chopped cilantro or green onions on top. This dish is eaten with jasmine rice.