Cold Stuffed Tomato Appetizers

I wanted to make for you an appetizer that would look attractive and was simple to make. I know when I have guest I like to put a bit of the wow factor into my appetizers so they are already impressed before they even take a bit and then when they do I drive it home with flavor. We all love deviled eggs but they are kind of predictable and a close cousin to the deviled egg is egg salad which is easy to dress up and make a big statement with something so otherwise ordinary.

Well how do you dress up egg salad to appear to be more then it is? How about giving it a new coat I mean anyone can put it on or between a slice of bread or two but what if we give it a shiny bright red coat and serve it in a tomato bowl. An edible serving vessel is always a good way to go with appetizers it makes serving so much easier and often elevates the dish from the plain to the sublime.

Now I used vine ripened tomatoes for mine as I love the garden grown flavor of them more than other tomatoes but you could easily adjust this recipe to use cherry tomatoes if you wanted to make little bite sized poppers so to speak they would be a bit more finicky on the hollowing out part but with a bit of care could be pulled off nicely. If doing this I would suggest making the egg mixture a bit finer and not quite as big of white pieces of the egg maybe even go as far as to use just the yoke part. If doing that you could even do it with grape tomatoes for kid sized bites. But you decide what works best for your party application.

Ingredients

Summary: Part of putting on a party or a diner event is presenting appetizers that are as visually appealing as they are good tasting and this recipe has both in spades.
12 medium vine ripened tomatoes
1 doz. eggs
¼ real mayonnaise
½ cheddar cheese, shredded
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
¼ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon sweet basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place the eggs in a pot and fill to cover with cold water, place on burn on high and add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water and bring to a boil when the water starts to boil turn the heat down to maintain a gentle boil.
Boil for 12 minutes.
Remove from heat and run under cold water until pot and eggs are cold and then drain.
Crack and peel the eggs and rinse to remove any remaining shell, place in a colander and allow drying for a few minutes.
Place eggs in a glass bowl and with a potato masher mash the eggs until a course mash is achieved.
Add all the dry ingredients salt and pepper to taste and blend well before adding the mayonnaise, when all blended add the mayonnaise and mix well, place this in the fridge.
Take and wash the tomatoes and allow to dry.
Cut off the top about ⅜ of an inch down from the stem side and retain for later use.
Turn around and remove a ⅛ inch piece from the bottom so they have something to site flat on and will not roll when serving.
With a small spoon or melon baller hollow out the seed and inner most part of the tomato being careful not to break through the sides. If you have uses for this save or just discard it.
When inside is hollowed out turn over and allow any excess liquid to drain for a while.
Remove the egg mixture from the fridge and with a small spoon fill the hollow of the tomato with the egg mixture until slightly above the top, repeat for reaming tomatoes placing the finished tomatoes on a serving platter.
When done top tomatoes with the saved tops like a hat and chill until serving.
These can be made up to a few hours ahead of time.