GCC: Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice

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This was my second recipe from our Gutsy Cook line up this past week.

As the recipe in Saveur mentions, Italian has the stuff vegetables thing down pack.  Pretty much any antipasto table will have a vegetable that has been stuffed with meat, other veggies and in this case rice.

What appeal to me about this recipe is that fact that the most time consuming task here is prepping the tomatoes.  You have to trim them, and then scoop out the inner pulp without puncturing the walls.

This little prepping step may be a zilch for some cooks.  No biggie – cut top, scoop out pulp, and cut bottom.  Done.

For my perfect convulsive ODC twin this took a while, since I wanted them perfectly hollow out, and wanted them to stand up tall and pretty and the tops needed to be at the right angle and the bottoms…

Never mind. (I know, I got a problem – I’m trying to deal.  Lets move on.)

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GCC: Calas [Sweet Fried Rice Fritters]

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Since it rain non-stopped this past Sunday, we were stuck at home and I had plenty of time on my hands. The only way I was going to curve the “cabin fever” was to keep busy and so I decided to make three recipes in this week Gutsy Cooks recipe line up.

This one is the first.  I will post the other two tomorrow and Tuesday.

When I took a look at our choices, I originally wanted to make the savory Italian Arancini, which holds a special place in my heart since they remind me of my time living in Sicily while working as an Au pair. But, then I thought, why not try something completely new, something that I really never tasted before?

And that is when I turned to the other choice in our list – Calas, which are sweet Fried Rice Fritters from the French Quarter in New Orleans.

I just could not go wrong with this.

Fried batter - is there anything better in life? (besides Nutella, or course).

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GCC: Butternut Rice Laksa Soup

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This weeks Gutsy Cook selection was hard for me.  Especially since I was the one that picked all four choices.  And my pickings were based in how interesting they all sounded and the unusual way they were in using this month ingredient – Rice.

We had Horchata, which you all know I had in my kitchen bucket list for a while now.  Then a Persian recipe called Adas Polo, which appeal to my love of lentils. We had an Indian twist with the Rice Flour pancakes know as Kalappam which is the usual side dish to non-vegetarian curries.  And finally we had a twist to an Indonesian dish from the Peranakan culture – a Pumpkin Rice Laksa Soup.

I wanted to make all four of them.  But faith stepped in and gave us beautiful chilly weather this past weekend here in Florida.  Our temperatures dipped into the 50’s, which called for lots snuggling, lazy TV watching which just comfort food.  So the soup won this hands down.

Let’s start with a little classroom knowledge.

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