There’s a weekly food documentary on Travel Channel that I really like to watch – it’s called Planet Food and it’s all about travel and food. There are several presenters in this documentary who travel within one country per episode, meet with local chefs and introduce the local cuisine, culture and customs.

Not long ago this documentary showcased Mediterranean cuisine, an all-time favorite of mine. The presenter was walking around Thessaloníki, Greece, talking to a young-looking chef with a guitar in his hand*. They prepared a vibrant dish of meat and rice stuffed vegetables called “gemista”, a dish I’d remembered seeing over at Maria’s blog before already.

The “gemista” looked splendid. So, a couple of days later when it was time to make dinner, I remembered that dish again and decided to give it a try. I had to omit pine nuts because I didn’t have any. I used tomatoes only, since the ones I had happened to be of the perfect size for stuffing. Also, adding raisins to a savory dish sounded like a little exotic at first, yet I quite liked the outcome.

GEMISTA (stuffed tomatoes)

Ingredients for 2 (approximate measures):
5 middle-sized, firm tomatoes
100g mince meat
a handful of short-grain rice
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
1 small onion/spring onion
1 carrot
1/2 cinnamon stick
some raisins
ground black pepper
a dash of chili powder
some pine nuts (I omitted them)
some water (or stock)

The preparation:
1. Wash the tomatoes and cut off their tops. Scoop out the pulp using an ice-cream scoop or simply a small spoon. Reserve the pulp and salt the interior of the tomatoes and place them on a plate upside down.
2. Mash the tomato pulp, using either a blender or a potato ricer, like me. Keep.
3. Chop the onion very finely and sauté gently on a little olive oil. Add the carrot, chopped into cubes, and let cook for a couple of minutes, then add the meat, cinnamon stick, tomato pulp, raisins (and pine nuts), season with salt, pepper, chili and pour in a little water/stock.
4. Cook and stir occasionally, then proceed by adding rice and more liquid but only little at a time, enough just for the rice to absorb. Cook until the rice is almost done. Set aside to cool a little bit.
5. Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Fill the tomatoes with meat and rice and cover them with their caps (I went for the “uncovered” option because my tomatoes were a bit over-filled). Place them in an oven-proof dish, filled with some water, and transfer the dish into the hot oven. I remember at this point the young chef suggested adding some sliced potatoes to the stuffed tomatoes – I preferred to roast them on the stove top.
6. Bake for 50′-60′, cover with foil if necessary and add more water in case it dries up too quickly. Once baked, serve with the potatoes on the side, and with a bowl of salad, like I did.

The dish was nice, light and tasty. I’ll have to repeat it as soon as I find some reasonably-prized pine nuts (not a small deal around here). I opted for the tomatoes, since stuffed peppers are quite a common dish here -without the touch of raisins or pine nuts though- and I’d never stuffed tomatoes before. I’d definitely make them again.

* I’ve done some searching on the Internet and found out the chef’s name was FT Bletsas. I’ve also found the recipe from the show which you can see here.