Frank's Stuffed Creole Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 5 ripe creole tomatoes, tops removed and hollowed out
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 cups pulp from hollowed out tomatoes
• 1 lb louisiana crawfish tail, with fat
• 12 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon chicken soup base (or granulated chicken bouillon)
• 3/4 cup finely minced red onion
• 1/3 cup finely diced celery
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon louisiana hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• salt
• fresh coarse ground black pepper
• paprika (to garnish)

Directions

1. 1

   The first thing you want to do is trim the tops off the tomatoes, scrape out all the inside pulp with a melon baller, and set the tomatoes onto a cookie sheet in the refrigerator to chill.

2. 2

   Next, in a 12-inch non-stick skillet, melt the margarine, drop in the onions and garlic, and sauté them over high heat until the onions begin to wilt (it isn’t necessary to caramelize them—and besides, you don’t want to burn the garlic). When you’re feel as though the onions have softened sufficiently, pour into the skillet all the pulp you removed from inside the tomatoes and cook it down until the majority of the liquid evaporates (which should take about 10 minutes over a medium-high heat).

3. 3

   Now once the tomato pulp has reduced, add to the skillet the crawfish tails (along with any crawfish fat left inside the package), stir everything together well, and cook the mixture just until the crawfish come up to heat—don’t overcook them or they’ll become tough and rubbery. When they’re ready, turn off the fire, remove the skillet from the burner, and allow them to cool to room temperature.

4. 4

   Then, when you’re ready to stuff the tomatoes, take a large mixing bowl and a rubber spatula and add all the egg salad ingredients to the bowl—the eggs, mayo, soup base, red onion, celery, parsley, Dijon mustard, hot sauce, and lemon juice. Now very gently and for a very short time, fold the ingredients together—do not stir…fold! You don’t want to mash the egg yolks. When the ingredients are thoroughly blended, add the contents of the crawfish skillet to the mixture and fold everything together again—this time until the mix is totally uniform.

5. 5

   All that’s left to do is season the stuffing to taste with salt and black pepper and mound the mixture by heaping spoonfuls into the chilled tomato hulls. Sprinkle the tomatoes lightly with a little paprika and serve each stuffed tomato on top crispy lettuce leaf with buttered crackers.

6. 6

   Chef's Notes:.

7. 7

   (Personally, this not the chef speaking, Frank, this is the guy who posted this recipe, I would stuff the tomatoes as directed and bake them at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes).

8. 8

   Instead of crawfish tails, you can also use fresh shrimp sautéed down in the onions and garlic. Simply fold in the shrimp just as you would the crawfish tails.

9. 9

   The stuffing turns out best if you finely chop up the pieces of the tomato pulp before cooking it down with the crawfish. I suggest you do the chopping by hand with a chef's knife-a food processor purees the tomatoes too finely.

10. 10

    This recipe uses the minimum amount of mayonnaise. If you'd prefer your stuffing to be slightly more moist and creamy, you can stir in as much as twice the amount of mayo without changing the taste and texture of the recipe.

11. 11

    The tomatoes may be served freshly made, but they seem to have a richer taste and flavor once they have been chilled, especially overnight. Just make sure you cover them well with plastic wrap.

12. 12

    Oh-and I emphasize once again, fold the mixture gently. If you stir or mix it together the egg salad will turn pasty and lose it's palatability.

13. 13

    frank davis.