Tomatoes stuffed with prawns, mayonnaise and herbs are a traditional Belgian dish. Known as ‘tomates aux crevettes’ in French and ‘tomaat garnaal’ in Flemish.
Over there, they prepare it with small, grey-brown North Sea prawns, but you’re unlikely to come across those, or only very rarely. In that case, use other North Sea prawns – pink and slightly bigger – but not the large ones from other oceans, as they’re not suitable in terms of either size or texture. You can buy such prawns peeled and pre-cooked; they’re available in most of our supermarkets.
The tomatoes should be evenly round, large and ripe, but still a little firm. They need to be round so that they stand upright on the plate, at least 7 cm in diameter so that the filling fits inside, and still a little firm so that they can be hollowed out without losing their shape.
Although this isn’t done everywhere or all the time, we generally peel them; it doesn’t take much effort and makes the dish all the more delicious.
Bring water to the boil and make a cross-shaped cut in each tomato at the stem end and on the opposite side – not too deep, just through the skin.
Blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then immediately plunge them into water that’s as cold as possible. The greater the temperature difference, the easier it gets.
Almost straight away, you can peel off the loose skin from the tomatoes with a small knife. Here the old-school way.
Cut off the top of the tomato, leaving the stalk intact – about the top 5 mm. Then you need to hollow out the tomato. You could do this with a small knife and a spoon, but there are inexpensive, sharp-edged kitchen tools designed for scooping out flesh that make the job much easier.
The filling is quick to make.
You’ll need mayonnaise, and you can read here how to make it perfectly yourself.
Fold the washed and drained prawns into the mayonnaise along with some chopped parsley, then season gently with salt and pepper. The prawns should, of course, provide the dominant flavour.
For a bit of variety, you could add a little tarragon; if used very sparingly, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce or Tabasco would also work.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 4 people as a starter):
4 large, firm tomatoes
For the homemade mayonnaise:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp hot mustard (Dijon)
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp lemon juice
120 ml neutral vegetable oil (e.g. peanut, rapeseed or safflower oil)
For the filling:
320 g grey North Sea prawns, peeled
1 small handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
1–2 tsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped (optional)
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and/or Tabasco (optional; use very sparingly)
Salt, pepper
