Stuffed peppers, who knew they could be so good?

So there's this stall at the market called Tonnemakers. They have a huge variety of produce--apples, melons, cherries, pears and peaches, tomatoes and corn, you name it--but it seems like peppers and apples are among their specialties.

See?

When I was at that market a few weekends ago, I decided to get a bag of peppers. I'd been eyeing them for awhile but kept deciding against them because I had no idea what I'd make. I practically never cook with peppers and really don't know how. Truthfully, they are not one of my favorite foods. My good friend Hans* said to me once, in college, that when she ate peppers, she ate them all day. Also true of doughnuts. I'm paraphrasing. The point is, they make you burp, and that's not something I can get behind. Can you? Spicy peppers are a breed apart and I think my next pepper project will involve these. Historically my tolerance for heat has been pretty low but it's getting better and I like a good spicy dish every now and again.

Maybe cooky will post again one of these days and tell me how to make it spicy. *hint*

I got a mix of sweet peppers, the names of which I can't entirely recall, but most of them were recommended as good for stuffing or frying. The long curly frying ones I still have and they are beginning to shrivel up, so what their fate will be is anyone's guess. The others, however, were either diced or stuffed in a haphazardly conceived but otherwise well-executed Sunday supper.

Stuffed peppers did not excite me as a prospect, initially. I kept thinking of the those frozen Stouffers peppers, which I remember making for my grandmother. They always looked sort of watery and mushy and as such are not among my favorite food memories. (However... homemade applesauce? Kitty Dukakis?** Hot milk sponge cake? Now we're talking.) But then I considered my other options--sausage & peppers, some kind of stir-fry, a roasted pepper sauce for pasta--and figured they were worth a shot.

Getting to supper was something of a journey. All the recipes I could find for stuffed peppers--online and in print--were very uninspiring. Beef, rice, ketchup or tomato sauce, breadcrumbs and cheese cropped up in most. Those could taste pretty good, but I didn't have those ingredients on hand. (As an aside, leftover risotto or a really nice ragu or chili might make an amazing stuffed pepper, too.) What I did have was some ground lamb and a pantry, so I worked up a kind of middle-eastern mix for the stuffing. Since the peppers were red and sweet, I think this was the right call flavor-wise. I ended up producing a fragrant savory-sweet heap of delicious.

And when I say heap, that's what I mean. Since my peppers were an odd shape, I had to cook them on their sides instead of standing, as you'd do with a traditional bell pepper. It was a little more messy that way, but I don't lose sleep over this kind of thing. I had a lot of stuffing leftover and topped with a quick egg poached in olive oil, it's been a great quick supper.


Moral of the story: stuffed peppers are much better than you may think! If you try these, let me know how they turn out. For vegetarians, you could easily substitute chickpeas for the lamb and add some chopped olives, too.

Stuffed Peppers a la Chefty

4 peppers, bell or otherwise--they just need to be big enough to accomodate a filling
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 or 2 small sweet peppers or 1 medium bell pepper, diced
3/4 -1 lb ground lamb
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tb cumin
1 tsp caradamom
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (you could also use the same amount of fresh ginger, peeled and grated)
1/4 cup black currants
6 oz of feta cheese or paneer, diced
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (optional to toast, I just like to)
1/2 cup brown rice or rice pilaf, dry (I used a packet of this Kashi pilaf, yum)
1 cup diced tomato, canned or fresh
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly oil. If you're using bell peppers and want to stand them up all pretty, you can lightly oil a bundt, angel-food, or 9x9 square baking pan so they keep their form while they cook. Otherwise, if you have irregularly shaped peppers, you can just cook them on their sides and sacrifice aesthetics.

1. Slice tops off of peppers, remove core and seeds, and blanch peppers in boiling salted water for about a minute. Remove peppers to drain on a paper towel until you're ready to stuff them.

2. Using blanching water, cook brown rice or rice pilaf according to packager's instructions. You won't need to use all the water, just measure out what you need for 1/2 cup of dry rice. Of course, you can make as much rice as you want and save the leftover for something else. For the stuffing, you'll need about 1 cup of cooked rice.

3. Saute onion and pepper with salt and pepper in olive oil over medium heat until soft and beginning to color, about five minutes. Add ground lamb and cook through until brown but still juicy. Check for salt.

4. Add garlic, cumin, cardamom, coriander, ginger, and red pepper flakes and stir to combine.

5. Add tomatoes, cheese, and currants and stir to combine. Now's a good time to take a nice big whiff of the steam rising from the pan--guaranteed to make your stomach growl. Check again for seasoning.

6. Remove pan from the heat, add pine nuts and cooked rice. Taste.

7. Fill peppers to just shy of the top (not overflowing), you'll probably have stuffing leftover. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until peppers have softened slightly and filling has begun to sizzle.

8. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and serve with salad greens or just by themselves. If your peppers are on the small or skinny side, you could probably eat two (I did).

*Name changed.
**"Kitty Dukakis, you say? Is that code for rubbing alcohol?" Shame on you. No, it's a recipe by Kitty Dukakis that was printed one year in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (or maybe the Boston Globe) around the holidays and has since become a family favorite of ours. I don't remember exactly how you make it, but it's basically cranberry jello with sour cream and walnuts. Like stuffed peppers, much better than it may sound at first.