Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed sweet peppers are a very tasty and tempting dish. This is a Turkish dish but has an Eastern European variation with minced pork. As a busy businesswoman, this dish can be made in a big pan and will last for several days. So, proportions will be for 12 peppers.

Stuffed Peppers

You will need:

Equipment:

6-7 liters saucepan

Kettle

Plate, smaller than the diameter of your saucepan

A smaller bowl or saucepan that can hold 2-3 liters in capacity.

Main dish ingredients:

12 big sweet papers

1 white onion

500 grams of beef mince

500 grams of pork mince

About 250-300 grams of white basmati rice

1 garlic clove

Parsley

Dill

1 small red chili pepper or red chili powder

Black paper powder

Black peppercorns

Salt

Thyme

Curry

Ketchup or tomato paste

Sauce: Sour (French) cream.

Preparation:

Cook rice. I do it in a microwave – just put all the rice into a microwaveable bowl and fill the bowl with water. The water should be above the rice at about half or two thirds of an inch.

Place it into a microwave that is programmed for maximum heat for about 13-15 minutes.

Cut the onion to small pieces; put it into a food processor together with 6-7 sprouts of parsley, 8-10 sprouts of dill and one small red chili. Process them to a more or less smooth paste.

Now mix your cooked rice, both minces and everything from the food processor together.

Skin about 5-6 garlic cloves and press them into your mix. Add salt, bit of curry, bit of thyme and bit of chili powder or black paper. Mix it again. It is important that garlic is pressed separately from onion.

If you do not like garlic because of heartburn, there is an easy way to illuminate the problem. There is kind of kernel inside of the garlic clove. So, cut a clove in 2 halves vertically and get rid of that kernel. Then use your garlic as usual.

Preparation for Pepper:
You need to get rid of the pepper’s stalk and everything inside of the pepper. If you have not tried this before, I suggest you buy couple of spare peppers, as it is likely you will mess up in the beginning.

Stuff your papers generously and put them into an empty saucepan very close together. You will get kinds of two levels.

Also, put about 12-15 peppercorns, 5-7 skinned (but whole) garlic cloves, salt and 5-6 tablespoons of Ketchup or tomato paste. I use Ketchup – it gives it a nice flavor.

Now add boiling water (that is when you need a kettle) that will completely over your peppers (water has to be above an inch). Switch to maximum heat. If the peppers are afloat, you need to create some kind of cover – either with a plate or fill a smaller saucepan with water and put it above the plate.

Cook for about 30-40 minutes. Heat has to be regulated in a case of an overflow.

Serve hot with sour cream. Do not use regular or double cream – stuffed peppers are not strawberries!

Bon appetite!

Irina Bragin, a woman of many cultures: Polish-Ukrainian-Israeli-British. She is a fashion designer of elegant and absolutely unique Carpet Bags – trendy Renaissance of the 150-year-old Victorian fashion treasure, straight from its homeland – London, England. Her bags leave no one indifferent and can be viewed here: www.madeofcarpet.com