Stuffed Peppers

For years (all of my life) I hated stuffed peppers and the dried out meat and rice with the overpowering flavor of green bell pepper , yuk! And then one day my DH asked me to make them , "like his mothers" . WHAT! we don't have the same paprika peppers and I have no idea how she makes them. I set out to read, read and read some more, then one day while on vacation in Belgrade him mother made stuffed paprikas and I hovered and watched and tried to learn. I now like stuffed peppers , they are nothing like how my mother in law makes them but they are not that dry stuffing and overpowering green bell pepper flavor.


2 or 3 red or orange bell peppers or if you can find some nice red Hungarian peppers use them
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 oz ground meat. I like to use an equal mix of veal, beef and pork or I will use some sausage I get from a friend who has a pig farm.
1 cup long grain rice
1 egg
1 t. soup spice
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
salt and pepper
2 T. oil or butter
2 T. flour
4 to 6 oz tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock or water

Wash and cut open peppers (sometimes I cut them in half and remove the seeds or I remove the top with the seeds and stuff the pepper whole.
Brown ground meat with chopped onion then add garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in uncooked rice, parsley, egg, soup spice and pepper (the soup spice is salty so I don't add salt).
Preheat oven to 375F
In a sauce pan heat oil and add flour, cook the raw flavor out of the flower then add the tomato paste and stock bring to a boil.
stuff the meat mixture into the peppers, place the peppers in an oven proof dish with a tight fitting lid, ladle the sauce over the peppers and around them. Bake in the oven covered for 1 hour or until rice is cooked and has soaked up the sauce, ladle sauce over the peppers every 15 minutes or so. If need be add more stock to the dish as it bakes.
Serve with plain yogurt.

Zucchini Boats

2 medium to large Zucchini

1 pound Italian sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

½ red bell pepper, chopped

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 14 oz can whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt & pepper to taste

1 T. olive oil

Brown the sausage with the onion. Add the garlic and cook for a minute then add red pepper and tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes on medium. add the rice and parsley and stir through cooking for a few more minutes adding salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375. Cut Zucchini in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon to make a well in the zucchini to put stuffing in. salt, pepper, and brush olive oil on the zucchini. Place the rice sausage stuffing in the well in the zucchini and bake on a cookie sheet for about 30 minutes or until it reaches desired doneness. Serve with plain yogurt.

Stuffed Pears

the other day I made a fig tart that was very very rich, it was so rich that you could not eat it or it would make your head hurt. I happened to have some pears that were getting over ripe so I took the filling of that fig tart chopped it up and added a 1/2 t anise, pinch smoked chipotle powder, ground clove, salt, and nutmeg.


Cut the pears in half and scooped out the core with a melon baller. in the hole in each pear I stuffed in a tablespoon or so if the tart filling and then baked in a preheated 375 oven for 20 minutes.



serve with ice cream.

Serbian Grapevine Dolmas - Stuffed Grape leaves

My Husband is from Serbia so I often try to make dishes that he grew up with or at least something close to what he ate growing up. This week my attempt at Serbian fare is Stuffed Grape leaves. The kids would not even try them but my husband loved them and I thought they were very good as well, this is my first attempt at stuffed grape leaves after all.

30-40 Grape leaves soaked in salted water until soft or one large jar
2 T. oil
1 medium onion
1/2 cup rice
10 oz ground beef
10 oz ground pork
1/2 bunch dill, about 1/4 cup chopped
1 t. Serbian bio nacin, a dried vegetable seasoning with salt or just add salt to taste
pepper
2 eggs
chicken stock

2 T. Butter
1 T. flour
1 t red paprika pepper, I use some from Serbia that has seeds and all but I would think a good quality paprika you find in the US will work
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1 cup white wine*

1. Heat oil and add finely chopped onion, cook slowly to soften. Then add the meat and cook until browned. Add rice, chopped dill, salt and pepper, mix well and cook together for a few minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly, add egg and mix well.
2. Put a small spoonful of meat mixture on each grape leaf and roll into dolmas. Arrange them tightly in a pan; pour enough chicken stock (or water) to fill half way up the side of the dolmas. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, checking from time to time to be sure that the stock has not run dry.
3. melt butter in a sauce pan add flour and cook until light brown and nutty, add paprika pepper, and 1/2 cup stock and heat a few moments and add to dolmas, shack pan and add white wine and simmer for another 15 - 20 minutes or until rice is cooked through.

Serve with plain yogurt.

* if you don’t have white wine chicken stock will work well.