Vietnamese Stuffed Tomatoes

When I was little, my mom used to make pork stuffed tomatoes served with rice. Recently, I decided to recreate it from memory - wildly guessing the ingredients. As I was making it, it dawned on me that I had no idea if this dish was something my mom had invented or if it was an actual Vietnamese comfort food. I decided to text my parents and ask. To my surprise, they weren't 100% sure either! My mom had originally believed it was a southern Vietnamese dish since her grandma had taught her when she was a little girl. My dad, on the other hand, felt it was actually French inspired since: 1) the French did colonize Vietnam for a period of time, and 2) there is a known French dish called 'tomate farcies' (the French version of stuffed tomatoes). I put both explanations together and ultimately decided that this was a Vietnamese version of a French dish.

If you grew up in a Vietnamese household and also had this dish, I would LOVE to hear about the version you ate and if you know more about its history!

Vietnamese Stuffed Tomatoes

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Yields 8

Ingredients:

• 4 medium to large tomatoes

• 1 lb ground pork

• 1/4 cup woodear mushrooms (pre-soaked, softened, and thinly sliced)

• 1/4 cup vermicelli bean thread noodles (or cellophane noodles or similar) (cooked)

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 tbsp shallots (diced)

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

• 1/8 tsp salt

• Green onions (thinly sliced for garnish)

• Cooking oil

Directions:

• In a large bowl, mix together ground pork, woodear mushrooms, noodles, sugar, fish sauce, shallots, black pepper, and salt. Set aside.

• Cut large tomatoes horizontally / across the middle. Use knife and spoon to carefully cut and scoop out the middle of the tomato (keeping only the shell).

  • Optional: You can save the middle of tomato to blend into a tomato sauce.

• Generously stuff each tomato shell with pork filling.

• In a large cast iron pan (or other frying pan), add cooking oil over medium high heat. Once surface is hot, place stuffed tomatoes into the pan with pork side facing down. Cook for about 8 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. Carefully turn over each stuffed tomatoes so pork side is facing up. Pork should be nice and charred. Let cook for another 2-3 minutes so bottom of tomato is softened and slightly charred.

• Transfer stuffed tomatoes to serving plate or bowl.

  • Optional: I opted to blend the middle of my tomatoes into a sauce and fish sauce. I added a thin layer of sauce onto the bottom of serving bowl before placing stuffed tomatoes over.

• Garnish stuffed tomatoes with green onions and serve with rice.