Saturday, June 12, 2010

Stuffed Peppers, Easier Than I Had Guessed

Maybe it's because I didn't grow up seeing my mother make them, but I always thought that foods like stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage were the foods of nightmare preparation.  When I was younger and more ambitious I did try stuffed cabbage, but as tasty as the results were, I decided that they weren't worth the work.  In my mind, and most restaurant menus, all the stuffed vegetables are in the same category, so it was only very recently I ever attempted stuffed peppers.  You must understand that I've been married forty years already and I don't buy "take-out."

Simply put, there 's a mystique concerning stuffed vegetables, like homemade blintzes.  
Too complicated!

I'm wrong; yes, I admit it.  Stuffed peppers, tomatoes and even squash if you have a grapefruit spoon are amazingly easy to make.

Mix your chopped meat as if you're making meatloaf. 
  • For a pound or half a kilo of meat:
  • Dice an onion, add an egg and a generous squeeze of ketchup or tomato paste and garlic
  • If you're stuffing tomato or squash, add whatever you've had to take out when emptying them
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  • Open up the vegetables you're stuffing and put them in your baking dish
  • Stuff 'em, you'll be amazed at how far a bit of chopped meat goes
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  • Cover with foil and bake
Yes, it's that easy and it looks so impressive!
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PS You can stretch the meat with starchy additives like rice etc.  You can enrich it with parsley, oregano, whatever you like.

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