Stuffed Peppers
History:
A lovely dish I learnt from a lovely acquaintance, Giselle, when I visited Madison in March last year. She's Dominican, and apparently this is quite a common kind of food. I modified it somewhat, adding a little more texture and blanding down the beefy taste.
Ingredients:
1 bell pepper per serving - I like the colourful ones, and they tend to taste nicer than the greens.
75-80g minced beef per pepper - I use weight-watcher's, but that's not necessary.
Steamed rice - to add just that little bit of texture to it. Cous cous is an interesting alternative that I've yet to try, but should work out nicely too.
Seasonal vegetables - again, for the texture. Favourites are zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms.
Assorted herbs - really up to you, but so far terragon with sage has been really great.
Seasoning for beef - soy sauce, wechestershire sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine (the chinese version works great!)
Parmesian cheese - grated or shredded
The method:
A lovely dish I learnt from a lovely acquaintance, Giselle, when I visited Madison in March last year. She's Dominican, and apparently this is quite a common kind of food. I modified it somewhat, adding a little more texture and blanding down the beefy taste.
Ingredients:
1 bell pepper per serving - I like the colourful ones, and they tend to taste nicer than the greens.
75-80g minced beef per pepper - I use weight-watcher's, but that's not necessary.
Steamed rice - to add just that little bit of texture to it. Cous cous is an interesting alternative that I've yet to try, but should work out nicely too.
Seasonal vegetables - again, for the texture. Favourites are zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms.
Assorted herbs - really up to you, but so far terragon with sage has been really great.
Seasoning for beef - soy sauce, wechestershire sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine (the chinese version works great!)
Parmesian cheese - grated or shredded
The method:
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Slice off the top of the pepper neatly to form a sort of cap, and remove the seeds etc from the body to form an empty cup.
- Mix the beef with various seasoning sauces, then add salt and pepper to taste. Add various herbs to the mix. Leave to marinate at room temperature for a while.
- In the meantime, chop up the veggies into small cubes.
- Over medium heat, stir-fry the beef until 90% cooked at least, then add the diced veggies and mix well.
- Add this filling to steamed rice at a ratio of 3 parts beef to 1 part rice - more rice, if you want the mix to be fluffier.
- Fill the peppers with the stuffing, replace the peppers' caps, then cook in oven. I don't quite know the precise time, but just check with a chopstick once in a while. The peppers should be soft and indented easily, yet not overcooked to the extent of changing colour.
