Dinner Meeting....

Right out of the oven

A dish created from my mixed experience of eating, a combination of many ingredients that created something I never imagined. Good thing it turned out well. Actually, better than I expected, as my roommate told me. It was a spur of the moment idea that came to me, may be because I watched so many episodes of Hell's Kitchen, and having seen wellingtons made so many times on the show, decided to try for myself. Of course, its no fun to just copy everything you see on TV. Just as my brother does with his music all the time, I decided do something similar, yet quite different.

Nice cut down the middle. Hope the juices don't dry up.

Recipe is as follows:

Stuffed Tomato Wellington (Serves 5.... maybe? I made enough for 4, but have some left over materials)

• 5 medium sized tomatoes
• 1 can of Pillsbury Crescents dough (Found in your local supermarket.)
• Stuffing:
• 1 pound of Italian Salsicca sausages (Buy the ones that are not in actual sausage casings)
• Can use other pork sausages if you wish
• 1 pound of ground beef
• Fistful of fresh spinach (Define fistful by how healthy you eat.... :D)
• 1/2 cup of Breadcrumbs (Make it fresh, buy it canned, your choice)
• 2/3 cup of Balsamic vinegar
• 2/3 cup of Soy sauce (I know, weird, right?)
• Dried oregano
• Dried basil (If you have fresh, even better. My basil plants died before I was making this)
• Salt and pepper
• Provolone cheese (Optional)

In a bowl, mix the sausages and beef together. Add balsamic, soy sauce, and breadcrumbs. Add dried spices, salt and pepper to taste. (Don't actually taste it... its kinda raw at this point. Kinda sniff, you should get a scent of oregano and basil, and a light vinegary smell) Mix the stuffing nice and evenly, the acidity in the vinegar would make the proteins very smooth in your hand.
Cut the top of the tomatoes. Using a spoon, carefully scoop out the 'meat' of the tomatoes. In other words, leave only the flesh that is directly attached to the skin. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of tomatoes left in there. Stuff tomatoes with stuffing. (Duh.)  Take the Crescent dough, and wrap the tomatoes with it. Make sure to seal it nice and tight so that it covers it completely. It helps keep the juices and the goodness inside when you cook it.
Set oven to 350 degrees. When oven is ready, put the wrapped tomatoes into the oven, bake for 18-25 minutes, until top is slightly golden. Lay a piece of provolone on top of the wellington, continue to bake for 5-7 minutes until cheese melts and becomes bubbly. Serve while hot.

As you can see, I'm not what you call an 'precision' cook. I go mostly by instinct, and most of the time it works out great, while other times, I make what you call 'edible' food. Also, the left over stuffing that you might have from making the above mentioned can be made into an awesome snack. Just take any extra Crescents dough you might have, wrap the extra stuffing(I am assuming you have no tomatoes left to stuff at this point), plus one piece of provolone cheese with it. Make it small, kinda like a mini pastry (2"by 2" squares is great) and bake it until its golden brown. Voila! mini hot pockets, put it in at the same time as the tomatoes, and you'll have something to munch on while the delicious goodness bakes to perfection. Hmmm... the thought of it makes me hungry.... time to make food. Before I go, this was made for my mini exec board meeting with my student group, hence the title.

Live long and eat well.
Aphrael