Mediterranean stuffed peppers

Press, 7 April 1982, Page 12

Mediterranean stuffed peppers

Alison Hoist’s

Food Facts

At this time of year green grocers’ shops overflow with plump, shiny produce, and vegetable gardeners reap the result of earlier work as they gather their harvest. Now is the time to find recipe books that deal with the cooking of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, and to make interesting recipes for red and green peppers, purple aubergines, onions, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini etc.

Stuffed peppers (or capsicums) are often mentioned in American books, too. In March we can enjoy these — at many times of the year peppers cost too much to use like this.

You can use any mild peppers for stuffing. The most usual are green, unripe capsicums, but the ripe red ones can be treated in the same way. They taste similar, but the red, ripe ? peppers are sweeter. Both are very high in vitamin C — higher than all other fruit and vegetables except blackcurrants. Occasionally, waxy yellow peppers appear in the shops too — these are fine for using in the same sort of recipes — usually it is’the smaller types of peppers which are hot — and the really hot ones are very small.

You may decide to try this filling in other vegetables — I’ve used aubergines and teen-aged zucchini very sue- 1 cessfully. The cooking time will vary with.the size and maturity of the- vegetable used. I like to; pre-cook the filling so that the vegetable does not over-'cdbk before the 1 filling is ready.

Filling for 4 to 6 servings: 1 cup uncooked rice 1 teaspoon salt 2 to 3 cups water 500 g minced beef 1 to 2 garlic cloves 1 to 2 onions 1 cup chopped, drained tomatoes 1 tablespoon instant beef stock t herbs to taste 2 cups grated cheese Method: Cook the rice in the salted water until the grains are tender. Do not overcook. Drain if necessary. Use plain or brown rice. Brown rice will take up to 45 minutes to become tender, but has an excellent flavour and texture in this recipe. Brown the mince in a large frying pan, breaking up the pieces as they change from pink to brown. Add finely chopped garlic cloves and onions and cook until onion is transparent. Add the. tomatoes. Use fresh tomatoes' where possible, and canned or bottled tomatoes or puree, if necessary. Add the instant stock and whatever herbs you like, or consider to go well with the vegetable you are using.

Try: A fresh mint and parsley, mixed; basil and oreganum, mixed; thyme, rosemary, dill. . Use fresh herbs in preference to; dried ones. Mix all the filling ingredients thoroughly, adding half to three quarters of the cheese. Shells — use one or two peppers per person. Slice the stem ends from the peppers and stand them upright, or slice them lengthwise and lie them oh their sides. I find that two upright shells hold

as much as three halved shells. Remove and discard seeds and white membrane. For egg plant shells, use one pfear-sized vegetable per person, or half a larger one. Halve the vegetable, cut out the central area, chop it up finely and brown it with the mince and onion. For small marrows, halve lengthwise and scoop out the centre portion with a spoon. Discard this if the seeds are mature

— chop it up and use it if the, vegetable is young. Pack the stuffing firmly into the prepared vegetables. Stand them side by side in any suitable baking dish. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the container, cover the top with foil, or a lid and bake at 200 C (400 F for 30 minutes, or until shells are tender-crisp and the filling is hot. Time will vary with the size and thickness of the vegetable case. Top with remaining cheese and a sprinkling of paprika. If desired, thicken the liquid in the baking dish, since this will be flavoured with the vegetables and the filling.

Serve this in a jug, to • be used as gravy. This is a good microwave recipe too. Cook the rice using 2 to 2%-cups water. Water will all be soaked up during cooking. Plain rice takes 10 to 12 minutes. Brown rice takes 15 to 20 minutes. Mix beef, garlic and onion. Microwave 2 to 3 minutes until no longer pink. Break up all lumps. Mix with rice, tomatoes, instant stock,

herbs to taste, and most of the cheese. Pile the filling into the vegetable shells. Cover lightly (with paper towel or greaseproof paper), microwave about 2 minutes for each pepper. Remove from oven, top with remaining cheese, and leave to stand for 1 to 2 minutes. It is quite practical to halve or quarter the recipe for one or two servings, if using a microwave oven.