Stuffed Tomatoes

Recently I was making minestrone soup based on a Rachael Ray recipe. Can I say I adore Rachael Ray? True, I probably might not like all her recipes and will surely will never be able to make a meal in 30 minutes unless u count omlettes! But I just love her zest for cooking and lively presentation.. and yes her retro kitchen takes the cake! After making the soup, I ended up with huge chunks of cheese and a large quantity of basil. I rarely make Italian food, so I wanted to use them up before i forgot all about them and then saw them after a couple of weeks when the only thing I can do with them is put them into garbage.
I was still pondering this (I was in Costco) when I saw a box of cocktail tomatoes. They were the perfect size to be stuffed, large enough to take a decent amount of stuffing and small enough to be eaten whole! Since I am addicted to Food TV and coould vaguely remember a recipe for cheese stuffed tomatoes.. thats what I ended up making with the leftover cheese and basil. A pesto turkey lunch sandwich at the Moonshine Grill and Patio served as inspiration to make some pesto for the cheese stuffing.

Ingredients:
20-25 cocktail tomatoes
a cupful of basil leaves
a handful of walnuts
5-6 cloves of walnut
a cupful of Parmigiano Reggiano
a cupful of Pecorino Romano
some olive oil
black pepper
salt

So basically went about the process of stuffing the tomatoes by first chopping of the stem end of the tomatoes and then removing the pulp inside. I rubbed the tomatoes with some salt and pepper and placed them upside down on a sieve to drain. Like a good Indian girl I collected the pulp and the drained juices for use on some later day :-). Then proceeded to make pesto by grinding a cup of basil, 5-6 cloves of garlic, salt and some olive oil after adding the walnuts to the mixture midway.
Mixed the pesto with the grated Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano, some grated black pepper.
Rubbed the outer skins of the tomatoes with some olive oil and then filled each tomato a little over the brim. Preheated the oven to 400'f and when the oven was ready baked the tomatoes for 18 minutes, till the cheese melted and browned slightly.

Its Diwali!!

Diwali, this year, came upon me before I knew it.. so had no time to meditate on what I would like to make. I did feel like making some Faral (Maharashtrian sweetmeats) , but after looking up some recipes and noting that all involved copious amounts of frying..which usually gives me an enormous headache, I gave up on that notion. But there were two Diwali potlucks over the weekend and I did not want to show up empty handed:-). So decided to make quick and easy stuffed chilies. Bought two pounds of jalapeno peppers from the local grocery, the Mexican blend of shredded cheese and I was all set to go.
Since I always keep a large bag of frozen corn in the freezer (being a huge corn freak !) and always have some garam masala at hand, the rest was simple and straightforward.
Cut the stem end of the chilies and slit them vertically I proceeded to deseed them, (note to self in the future: wearing gloves while doing this is a really good idea to avoid the burning sensation that deseeding chilies can leave).I rubbed the chilies with some olive oil very lightly. I microwaved a bowl of corn for 2 minutes and then mixed it with the shredded cheese, some garam masala, salt , turmeric for some color and some dhana-jeera powder. I set the oven to preheat to 400'F and stuffed the chilies while it got to that temperature.
Once the chilies were stuffed and the oven was preheated, I put the chilies in for 12 minutes. Let them sit in the oven for 2-3 minutes after the first 12 minutes were over and I had turned off the oven.
The smell of the melting cheese was a good indicator that the chilies were done. The chilies looked a little wilted and I could see they had been cooked well.

That was it.. I was happy to have prepared a spicy, cheesy appetizer in a short time, with no frying involved!