I tried a new twist on the stuffed pepper today. The bell peppers in the garden are starting to come in so it is time to find something to do with them; an especially difficult task considering my son and I are the only ones that like them, and he is even kinda hit and miss. Anyway, they actually turned out great! I would have taken a picture, but Michele usually wonders what I’ve been smokin’ when I take pictures of food. Speaking of pictures of food Giada Delorentes’ show has the best food pics ever. She isn’t too hard on the eyes either, according to some of the “other” guys I’ve talked to.
Anyway, I am especially indebted to my mother for the rice portion of the stuffing and to my friend and gardening buddy Bill (Billy Bob) for the pork sausage. The rice is actually my mom’s spanish rice recipe, which I love. Basically you saute about half a medium yellow onion, and 1/4 of a bell pepper along with 1 cup of rice in 3/4 stick of butter. I add a few minced garlic cloves toward the end (as far as I know my mom didn’t do this). Once the rice is straw colored I add 1 1/4 cup of water and 3/4 can of stewed tomatoes, 1/2 t of ground cumin, cover, and cook on low for 15 minutes.
Once the rice is done I browned about 1lb of pork sausage with a couple tablespoons of chopped onion. When browned I added that to the rice along with 1 cup of tomato sauce to bind it together a little. I then cut the tops out of the peppers, seeded them and blanched them in boiling water for 3 minutes. Ok, finally, were almost done. I then stuffed the peppers full and put them in a baking dish with 1/4 inch of water, covered with tin foil, and put them in the oven for about 40 minutes at 400F. ( I actually forgot the water for the first 20 minutes, oops!) Finally, I topped them with fiesta blend cheese and let it melt. The best part is you can freeze them! I can’t wait to pull one of those bad boys out in January with some chili.
Filed under: Food, Uncategorized
