AMAZING RECIPE FOR STUFFED PEPPERS FILLED WITH MEAT AND RICE
STUFFED PEPPERS
I love all sorts of foods, but one of my favorite dishes is Stuffed Peppers.
It has a thing to do with my childhood when we had an Egyptian cook named “Ziza” that would come to our house and cook food for my family.
I remember sitting in the kitchen, fascinated, watching her create wonders as a child. The whole kitchen seemed to dance at her command. Pots were boiling. The pans were sizzling—what a show.
And let’s not forget about the small treats that Ziza used to pamper me with, like a hot schnitzel or a steaming meat patty straight from the frying pan.
Ziza had a wonderful hand for stuffing vegetables. Every week, she made us stuffed pepper and stuffed cabbage.
Whenever Ziza had filling leftovers, she would fill every kind of vegetable she could put her hand on tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, zucchini, and onions. These unique vegetables were a pleasant surprise we all loved.
I think Ziza had a significant part in making me love cooking so much.
WATCH AND LEARN
So after years of watching and learning, I have mastered the technique of stuffing vegetables myself.
Making stuffed peppers is not complicated, but it does take time.
Don’t worry. I promise you it will be worth your while.
The satisfaction you’ll have eating the stuffed peppers you have made in your kitchen will be great.
I think the art lies in balancing the amount of water in the filling so the stuffing will be moist but not mushy. It’s a bit tricky, but after one or two tries, you will master it yourself.
meat or rice?
The filling of the peppers in this recipe has a balance between meat and rice. you feel the meat but the meat does not take over the dish and you get a nice airy stuffing.
if you want a more meaty dish you can increase the amount of meat in the recipe and reduce the amount of rice a bit.
If you want to turn the dish into a vegetarian or vegan dish all you have to do is drop the meat out and replace it with a little more rice and additional fried onion.
Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 10 - 12 large red peppers suited for stuffing or any other pepper you like
- 600 grams ground beef
- 2 cups persian rice
- 1200 grams tomato concentrate Bx 28-30 some call it tomato paste
- 2 large dill bunch
- 3 large onions
- 2 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
- 1/2 ts ground Black Pepper
- 4 tbsp canolla oil
Instructions
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Place the rice in a strainer. wash it well under running water until the water coming out of the strainer are clear. put the rice in a bowl and cover with fresh water.
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Chop the onions into small cubes. heat the canola oil in a pan and add the onions.
saute the onions on low heat until they get well browned. we want to caramelize the sugar in the onions and this process takes along time, about 25 minutes. be patient and don't rush this process we will use the time for the other preparations.At the beginning of the steaming process, we mix the onions every few minutes. as the steaming process advances, we will need to shorten the waiting time between the mixes. near the end of the steaming process, we will need to constantly mix the onions.
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While the onions are browning we will continue with the preparations.
Take the dill and remove the small fine leaves from the large stems as much as possible. finely chop them.
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Use a knife and cut a wide circle around the green stem at the top of the pepper. Pull out the stem and carefully cut off the seeds at the base of the stem.
Insert your hand into the pepper pull out the white membrane. wash with water any leftover seeds from the inside of the pepper. we got a pepper and a cap.
Repeat the process with all the peppers. the peppers are now ready to be filled.
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Drain the water from the rice and place the rice in a bowl. add the ground beef, the dill, 500 grams of the tomato concentrate and the spices.
At this stage, the onions should be nicely browned and ready. add the onion and the oil from the pan to the mixture.
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Mix the filling well (be careful the onion might be still warm). add few tablespoons of water to the mixture until it feels thick but a little runny, just like mud. the added water is crucial because they will soak the rice that is sealed in the peppers.
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Taste the filling and correct seasoning.
The filling should taste like we added too much salt, but still edible. it's ok because the rice will absorb some of the saltiness in the cooking process. if needed add some more salt to reach that saltiness.
Also, the filling should have a nice taste of tomatoes and a hint of dill. if needed add some more tomatoes or dill.
Grab a pepper in your hand and stuff it with the filling almost to the top. it is important to leave some space because the rice will puff in the cooking process.
Close the pepper with its cap.
Repeat the process until all the peppers are full. if you have leftover you can fill other vegetables or freeze it to next time.
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Place the stuffed peppers in a large pot.
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Place the rest of the tomato concentrate in a bowl. dilute it with water until we get a thin sauce but not too watery. add a little bit of salt to the sauce to make it lightly salted.
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Pour the sauce into the pot with the peppers. the sauce should cover the peppers to the top but not over.
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Bring to boil and cover the pot. reduce the heat to a light simmer. cook for 90 minutes.
The best way to check if the peppers are ready is to stick a fork in one of them and dig a little bit in to reach the center of the pepper. if the rice in the center is cooked and soft the peppers are ready. if not cook for an additional 10 minutes and recheck again.
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Bon appetite!
