Gemista (stuffed tomatos and pepers with rice)

Posted on Feb 8, 2010 in Main Dishes | 6 comments

INGREDIENTS

• 6 red ripe tomatoes
• 4 green peppers
• 2 medium onions chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves ground
• 1 bunch of parsley
• a bit chopped mint
• 1 grated zucchini
• 1/2 a glass of olive oil
• 10 tablespoons rice carolina (we need the same number of spoonfuls of rice as the number of gemista we want to stuff)
• salt, pepper, oregano

METHOD

1. Wash the tomatoes and peppers.
2. Cut a lid from the top of the peppers and throw the seeds.
3. Cut a lid from the top of the tomatoes, and remove the inside part of the tomatoes with a spoon and pour it into a bowl.
4. Place the tomatoes and peppers upright in a pan.
5. We take half of the inside part of tomatoes we have kept and finely chop with a knife in a large bowl.
6. Add onions, garlic, parsley, mint, zucchini, rice, oregano, salt, pepper and half the oil and mix well.
7. With a spoon, fill the tomatoes and peppers (do not stuff the gemista up too the top because the rice swells during the baking) and place the lids.
8. Pour over stuffed tomatoes and peppers on top of them with the remaining olive oil remaining, tomato inside parts and some water.
9. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 200 oC for 1,5 h-2h.

Gemista II (stuffed tomatos and pepers without meat)

INGREDIENTS

• 10 ripe tomatoes and peppers or any vegetable you want
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• half eggplant (medium), chopped into cubes
• 2 cups pureed tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 2-3 tbs chopped mint
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 10 tbs rice (Carolina or whatever you want)
• 1.5 – 2 tsp salt or as much as you desire
• ½ cup olive oil, or more if you desire

METHOD

1. Wash the vegetables well.
2. If using eggplant cut half and remove the peel in vertical strips of alternating.
3. Cut a lid on top of each pepper completely without removing the lid. We carefully remove the seeds will wash if you are stuck inside seeds and put them upside down to drain.
4. If using tomatoes, cut a lid on top of the tomatoes, taking care not to cut completely, but leave some of the strain linked to tomatoes. Remove the pith of the tomato with a spoon. You will leave only the outer mantle of hard. Turn them upside down to drain and sprinkle the insides with a little salt.
5. Saute the onions lightly with the eggplant in the half olive oil.
6. Add pureed tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, tomato paste and just let it boil for a minute, add the parsley, rice, oregano, mint, salt, pepper and close the fire without removing the stuffing. The rice will absorb more fluids.
7. Once it get a little bit cool and stuffing begins to thicken, fill the peppers and tomatoes, close the cap and pour the remaining olive oil.
8. If want between stuffed, you can chop some of potatoes and add them in the pan.
9. Bake for 45′-50′ at 180oC.
10. It doesn’t need any water, especially when stuffing only tomatoes, but if you think that they might burn, pour half a glass of warm water (or more). In this way the rice will boil very much.