Cold stuffed tomatoes with mushrooms recipe

To prepare the whole tomatoes, cut out the green stalky bits with a knife and scoop out the centres with a teaspoon.

Ingredients

5 to 7 tomatoes
3-400g fresh mushrooms
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of breadcrumbs
A few sprigs each of parsley, celery leaves and basil and a couple of spring onions
2 or 3 dessert spoons of olive oil
Salt
Black pepper

Fry the mushrooms in the olive oil until they any water they produce has evaporated. Add the breadcrumbs and fry for a further 2 or3 minutes. Transfer the contents of the pan to a bowl and mix in the chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Leave the mixture to cool and then stuff the tomatoes.

Spinach and mushroom Cutlets recipe

Ingredients

1 and a half cups of cooked spinach (see below)
1 cup of fried mushrooms
4-5 cups of cooked rice
1 level dessertspoon of flour
Salt

You'll be surprised at how much fresh spinach you need to produce one and a half cups of cooked stuff. I used two bunches from the bazaar - probably about 400g altogether. You don't really have to be that fussy about the quantities though - a bit more, a bit less - nobody will die. Wash the spinach and leave it wet. Chop it well and steam it for ten minutes in a pan with a tight fitting lid (you don't need to add water).

Mushrooms, to a lesser extent, also tend to shrink when you cook them so be prepared. Fry them in a very small amount of oil - remember, you'll be frying the cutlets too.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mash them well with a potato masher, coffee jar or other blunt instrument. The mixture will keep in the fridge for a day or two. Heat some oil in a frying pan - you don't need much as there's already some in the cutlets from the mushrooms. Make cutlets with your hands and coat each side with flour (sprinkle some on a plate and lay them in it). Fry them on a medium heat for about 5 minutes each side. Despite the colour, they really are delicious.