Vietnamese Turkey Stuffed Tomatoes

This is based on a Vietnamese favorite of mine growing up. There are as many variations of this as there are Vietnamese moms, and even my version is not exactly like my mom's.  Traditionally this is made with ground pork, but I prefer ground turkey myself.  Serve over brown rice, or whole wheat couscous in the picture below.

Vietnamese Turkey Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• olive oil 
• 8 - 10 smallish-mediumish tomatoes (about 4" - 5" diameter)
• 1 lb. ground turkey
• fish sauce
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

• Cut a 2" hole in the top of each tomato and remove all seeds (you can leave the membranes).  Set aside.
• In a large deep skillet, the one you'll use to eventually cook the tomatoes in (you should be able to put a lid on it without squishing the tomatoes, sautee the onion and garlic in a splash of oil, until translucent and fragrant.  Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, mix ground turkey with the sauteed onion and garlic.  Add fish sauce to taste (I use approx 2 tablespoons).
• Stuff each tomato with turkey mixture.  Over-stuff a little bit to have the pretty seared meat muffin-top (okay, so maybe the words "meat" and "muffin" shouldn't be put next to each other, you get the gist).
• In the skillet you previously used to sautee the onion and garlic, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat.
• Place the tomatoes meat-side-down in a single layer in the skillet and sear for a couple of minutes.
• Once the meat side is nicely seared and brown, turn down the heat to medium, add the water and a few more dashes of fish sauce.
• Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the meat is thoroughly cooked and the tomatoes are nice and soft but still keep (somewhat) their shape.  (If your tomatoes are bigger, you'll need to add more cook time.)

If you end up having extra turkey mixture after stuffing all your tomatoes, just roll them into little 1" balls and throw them into the pan next to the tomatoes.  They'll cook up nice and tender.