.png)
Stuffed
Peppers for Light Summer Dining
As a kid, I first encountered green
bell peppers stuffed with ground beef and rice and topped with sweet-sour
tomato sauce at my German-Polish neighbors’ house. I subsequently experienced
various types of stuffed peppers, from Mexican Chiles Rellenos to lamb-stuffed
Turkish Biber Dolmasi in tomato sauce to Chinese minced-fish stuffed pepper
quarters in brown bean sauce.
Peppers are a popular summer
vegetable, now available year-round. But botanically they are actually
“fruits,” members of the Nightshade family. They are technically “berries”
because of their fleshy exteriors, contain seeds, and each fruit developed from
a single flower. So are many other “vegetables,” including tomatoes, eggplants,
cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, okra, and even snow peas and green beans.
Chili peppers, cultivated at least
6000 years in Central and South America, were once uniformly hot and spicy due
to their capsaisin content. Over time, increasingly mild and fleshy pepper varieties
were selected by farming people for cooking, while the hot peppers remained
valuable for seasoning. Our familiar sweet “bell” peppers are a relatively
recent development, a hundred years or a little more. Sweet peppers are
generally the type used for stuffing.
For stuffing, peppers can be halved
lengthwise, their seeds and membranes removed, then stuffed. Alternatively,
they can be kept whole, their tops sliced off, seeds and membranes removed, and
stuffed. Then with their tops replaced, the peppers are simmered or baked.
Either way they are usually cooked in then served with a sauce. I now make a
lighter sauce than I used to.
The recipe serves 3-4. Stuffed
peppers be eaten fresh from the oven or baked ahead and reheated in the
microwave for serving.
2 large bell peppers, red and/or green
Salt for sprinkling
Filling:
1 pound ground beef, pork or lamb
1 cup cooked unsalted rice (or if salted, reduce salt in filling by
1/8 teaspoon)
1/2 small onion, very finely chopped
1 medium clove garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1 egg
3 tablespoons white wine or water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon (the other half for the sauce, below)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
Toppings:
1 Roma tomato sliced crosswise into 4 slices, or 8 grape tomatoes
halved lengthwise
Minced parsley for topping, optional
Olive oil for drizzling
Sauce:
3 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water, plus more as needed
Cut peppers in half lengthwise through the stem. Cut across upper part
of core, inside the pepper, leaving a thin wall of the stem and upper core.
Remove seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves cut side down on a plate. Wet
with several tablespoons of water, and microwave until fully tender and
collapsing a little (try 6 minutes, touch for tenderness, then another 4
minutes, then 1 minute at a time, until done). Alternately, in large baking
dish with 1/2 inch water, bake, cut side down, at 375 degrees for 25 minutes,
or until fully softened. Cool. Sprinkle the insides of the peppers lightly with
salt.
In a bowl, thoroughly mix ground meat and remaining filling
ingredients. Pack filling carefully into the prepared pepper halves and place
them, filling side up, in a baking dish large enough to just hold them. Smooth
the rounded filling surfaces. Place a slice of tomato or four grape tomato
halves, cut side up, on each pepper filling and press tomato in lightly.
Sprinkle a little parsley, if used, on tomato. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
Mix sauce ingredients and pour it around the stuffed peppers. Add more
water, if needed, to come up a quarter of the height of the peppers.
Bake at 375 degrees until filling is firm, about 35-40 minutes.
Serve hot, with the sauce to spoon
over them. Or cool and refrigerate them and microwave to reheat for serving.
