Professional Soldiers ® - Stuffed Tomatoes

My mom made this often when we were kids, so it is comfort food for me. I’ve taken her recipe and made some small changes, and this dish is in the regular rotation if I’m cooking dinner.

3-4 medium to large tomatoes
1 pound ground pork
1 whole yellow onion
1 bulb of garlic
1 egg
1 tablespoon plain bread crumbs
1 teaspoon MSG
1 teaspoon paprika
Nouc mam
Black pepper
Dried basil

Finely chop half of an onion and place in a large bowl. Finely chop half the cloves of garlic and place in bowl. Add about a pound of ground pork. For these pictures, I couldn’t find ground pork at the store, so I used meatloaf mix instead (beef, pork, veal). It was OK, but I prefer ground pork. Mix so that the onion and garlic are evenly distributed. Add bread crumbs. Beat one egg and add to mixture. Sprinkle some MSG and paprika, crack some black pepper, and add a couple sprinkles of nuoc mam. Mix ingredients thoroughly.

Wash tomatoes then cut each one in half at the middle (imagine where the equator would be). Scoop out the inside of the tomatoes, and set scoopings aside in a bowl. It may help to take a knife and cut around the edges to help scoop. Fill in the tomato halves with the meat mixture. I used six halves, because that’s all the room I had in the pot. I had some meat left over, which I used to make a soup. You can also fry the meat and add eggs to make a nice meat omelet [I searched for the egg thread, but it is gone].

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Don’t let the oil get too hot, because you will be placing the stuffed tomatoes in the pot, meat side down. There’s water in the tomatoes, so the oil will splatter if it’s too hot. Increase heat and brown the meat. Add remaining onion and garlic, this time coarsely chopped. Sprinkle some basil, paprika, and black pepper. Add to the pot the scooped out tomatoes set aside in the bowl. Add water to cover tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer to cook the meat and reduce the sauce. I usually add a little nuoc mam as the sauce is cooking, but don’t add enough nuoc mam to taste until the sauce has reduced to the thickness I want. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.