Tomatoes Filled With Seasoned Cottage Cheese

Added two photos 6-19-22

 

I recently came across this "general" recipe among some German dishes. It grabbed my attention, especially with warm weather upon us. To my knowledge, I had never seen this dish, and I looked it up, even under its German name, "Gefüllte Tomaten mit Hüttenkäse" (Hüttenkäse= literally, "hut cheese," hut... cottage... käse=cheese, get it?). Anyway, I found several variations, with some using feta cheese, others using herb seasoned cheese, and still others using no cheese at all, but rather a variety of herbs and spices. So this recipe is the basic recipe, but with my own touches to it.

Ingredients:

4 large (baseball to softball size) ripe tomatoes
2 1/2 cups cottage cheese (large or small curd, low fat is fine)
1/4 cup of your favorite crumbled blue cheese, like Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola or some other 
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
3 green onions, with the green, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
3 tablespoons tomato paste, thinned out with a tablespoon of white wine or just water
1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika (generally, Hungarian hot paprika is not really all that "hot")
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional, as the cheese has salt)

Cut the tops off of the tomatoes, cut out the tough core and scoop out the seeds and center of the tomatoes, so they can be filled. Mix the rest of the ingredients together well. The mix will have an orange or red like color. Fill each tomato with the mixture and serve with some crackers, chips or bread.  


I served the tomato with a slice of multi-grain bread

And with whole wheat bread ...

WORD HISTORY:
Strain (2)-There is more than one word of this spelling in English, but this is the one with a variety of specific meanings, among which the most common are: 1) "to injure a muscle by tightening that muscle too much, due to overexertion (also used of voice)" 2) "to filter something, typically through some type of sieve" 3) "to lift an object to the point of injury or physical endurance" 4) "to press a matter to what is seen as an extreme position." It is distantly related to "strait," which is used both as a noun and as an adjective, and is a word of Latin derivation, but borrowed by English by way of Latin-based French; and to, "stringent," a word borrowed by English directly from Latin. It goes back to Indo European "streygh," which had the notion, "to press, to exert pressure on;" thus also, "to pull with force." This gave Latin "stringere," meaning, "to pull tightly, press together." This was passed to Latin-baased French as, "estreindre," meaning, "to hold, press or tie tightly." This was borrowed by English in the early part of the 1300s as "streynen," which then became, "straynen," before the modern form. The noun form was derived from the verb in the early 1400s to mean, "an injury to muscle by overexertion (straining)." The noun "strainer" (a filter) was also derived from the verb in the first half of the 1400s (it has peacefully coexisted with the native English word "sieve" since the 1400s, so there is no "strain" between them). 

Sage & Cheese Stuffed Dates With Bacon

The idea for this simple recipe "seems likely" to have developed from Spanish tapas; that is, "snacks" of numerous types served at bars in Spain.

blue cheese (any type, including Gorgonzola, one of my favorite cheeses)
sage leaves
bacon
dates, pitted (large date types are naturally better for stuffing, but use what you have or what you can buy easily)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees (204 C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Soften the cheese a bit by mashing it down and stirring it, you don't want it too soft, and definitely not runny, so I wouldn't add any milk or cream. Slit open each date, then put a bit of the cheese inside, then put a sage leaf, or half of a larger leaf, on top of the cheese. Press the date together to close it somewhat, but it doesn't have to be totally closed. Cut the bacon slices about 3 inches, so that each slice wraps around a date just one time, with little overlap, then fix the bacon to the date with a toothpick. If you wrap the bacon double, it will not cook properly. Place the dates in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, checking to make sure they do not burn. If the bacon needs a little more time, keep the dates in the oven, but watch extra carefully.

WORD HISTORY:
Date-English has a couple words of this spelling, but they have different histories. This is the word for the fruit coming from a type of palm tree. The exact origin of this word is uncertain, but it most certainly seems to come from a Semitic language of the Middle East, as Hebrew has "deqel" and Arabic has "daqal," both meaning "date palm," the tree producing "dates." Greek applied the meaning to their word "daktylos," which meant "toe or finger," from the fruit's resemblance to a toe and the closeness of the Semitic word to their own. The Greek word is likely related to English "toe," going back to Indo European.^ Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "dactylus," and it was taken by French, a heavily Latin-based language, as "date." English borrowed the word from French circa 1300.

^ The Indo European root "deik" is the ancestor of "toe," but the meaning of the Indo European root had the notion of "point, show;" thus, the Old Germanic form was originally used for "finger," from the idea of "point, show," but then was used also for "toe." 

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

This dressing has grown ever more popular over the years, not only for use on salads, but also to go along with spicy chicken wings, especially "Buffalo Wings," and as a topping for various sandwiches, including hamburgers.

Ingredients:

3 ounces blue cheese (Gorgonzola or Roquefort are excellent)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup buttermilk (if the mixture is too thick, add a little more buttermilk)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic powder and pepper in a bowl (or you could use a blender). In a small dish, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and then add to the other ingredients. Mash the blue cheese in a dish, then add it in bits and pieces to the dressing, stirring so it won't clump together. Chill the dressing before serving.

I put a few pieces of blue cheese on top for the photo

WORD HISTORY:
Blue-This is a word, distantly related to "bleach," with an original English version, later influenced in pronunciation by a foreign borrowing, which itself was a roundabout borrowing from the same original Germanic source as the English word. If I haven't confused as yet, just give me time. The word goes back to Indo European "blehg," which had the notion of "shine, pale, bright." This produced Indo European "bleh," which meant, "shiny light color, yellow, blue." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "blewaz," meaning "blue," then this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "blæwen," meaning "light blue, bluish in color." Meanwhile, Old French had borrowed "blew" from the Germanic dialect Frankish, which supplemented its word "blef," also meaning "blue," but which had come to Old French from Latin "blavus," itself a borrowing from the Old Germanic form, "blewaz." The French form "blew" was carried to England by the Normans, and began to blend with the related native English word, and became "blewe, before the modern form. Modern French has "bleu." The other Germanic languages have: German, Low German and West Frisian have "blau," Dutch has "blauw," Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have "blå" and Icelandic has "blár." ‎