Tomates Farcies à la Portugaise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2-quart heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Paring knife and small teaspoon
• •Dry measuring cups for checking the four-to-one ratio
• •Long oval serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare tomato cups

   Cut a thin lid from the stem end of each round tomato. Scoop out the seeds and soft center with a teaspoon, leaving the walls and base intact. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of the salt among the cavities, then turn the tomatoes cut-side down on a rack or clean towel for at least 20 minutes. The draining matters: water trapped inside the cups loosens the pilaff and spoils the dome. If you pierce a base, ça se rattrape. Set that tomato snugly between two intact ones on the serving platter so they support it.

   Scoop with the curve of the tomato rather than digging straight down. A shell about ¼ inch thick holds its shape without becoming coarse to eat.
2. 2

   Make the concassée

   Score a shallow cross in the base of each plum tomato. Lower them into boiling water for 20 seconds, then cool them immediately in cold water and slip off the skins. Halve them, remove the seeds and watery gel, then concass the firm flesh, which simply means chop it roughly into small pieces. Drain the concassée in a fine-mesh sieve for 10 minutes and measure ½ cup. It should look juicy and bright without leaving a puddle beneath the sieve.

3. 3

   Cook the pilaff

   Melt 1½ tablespoons of the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook without coloring until translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for 2 minutes, turning every grain through the butter until its edges look faintly translucent. Add the hot stock, bay leaf, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the white pepper. Bring to a bare simmer, cover tightly, and cook over the lowest heat for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes, then discard the bay leaf and fluff the grains with a fork.

   If the liquid is gone but the rice remains firm, sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of hot water, cover, and return it to low heat for 3 minutes. If the rice is wet, leave it uncovered over low heat for a minute or two. Both can be rescued; boiling it hard cannot.
4. 4

   Measure the quarter

   Fold the remaining ½ tablespoon of butter through the warm pilaff and let it stand uncovered for 5 minutes. Measure the finished rice loosely by volume, without packing it. You should have about 2 cups. For every 1 cup of pilaff, fold in exactly ¼ cup of the well-drained concassée, giving the expected 2 cups of rice its ½ cup of tomato. Taste and use the remaining salt if needed. If the mixture slumps or releases liquid, stop and drain it in the fine-mesh sieve for one minute, then spread it on a plate for 5 minutes. Ça se rattrape. Do not add spare rice, which would change the defining proportion.

5. 5

   Form the domes

   Blot the insides of the tomato cups and divide the pilaff among them, filling each lightly to the rim. Add another rounded spoonful on top and coax it into a smooth, regular dome with the back of a damp teaspoon. Shape gently rather than packing the grains dense. Sprinkle every dome with chopped parsley and arrange the tomatoes on a platter. Serve them warm or at cool room temperature, with no cheese and no broiling. A flat fill reads as an accident; the dome makes the dish deliberate. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose round tomatoes that are ripe but still firm under a gentle thumb. Large, watery beefsteak tomatoes collapse when hollowed, while hard underripe ones bring no flavor. The shell itself cannot be replaced by canned tomato, so this is a dish that genuinely asks for the season.
• •Measure the cooked pilaff, not the raw rice, before calculating the concassée. The source gives a volume ratio of four parts pilaff to one part tomato, and that proportion keeps the filling bright without turning it wet.
• •Use a pale, lightly seasoned stock. Chicken stock gives the rice a rounder savor, while vegetable stock keeps the tomatoes lighter; a dark or strongly herbal stock overwhelms a preparation this spare.
• •These are best the day they are filled. Refrigerated leftovers remain safe for one day, but the tomato cups gradually soften and the domes lose definition.

Advance Preparation

• •Hollow the tomato cups and make the concassée up to 6 hours ahead, keeping them covered and refrigerated in separate containers. Salt and drain the cups only during the final 20 minutes before filling.
• •The pilaff may be cooked one day ahead. Spread it in a shallow dish so it cools quickly, cover, and refrigerate; do not leave cooked rice standing on the counter. Let it lose its refrigerator chill for 20 minutes before measuring and mixing.
• •The tomatoes may be filled and domed up to 1 hour before serving. Keep them refrigerated, then set them out for 20 minutes so the butter softens and the grains recover their sheen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)