All Things Chill

LOL. Too many food posts. I had some red peppers leftover from a Denver omelet earlier last week that needed to be cooked, so I used that as my main ingredient (and make-shift cooking vessel). I think it was time for a lighter meal since I’ve been eating such rich foods lately. It was my first time making a stuffed red pepper… and it was a pretty good time. I even used up a couple other aging ingredients in my ice box too. It’s all part of my no veggie left behind act of 2006. Hee hee. The simple instructions follow. Here we go!

Cut the top of a red bell pepper and scoop out the “ribs” and 1/8 of the meat inside. Peppers have a thin membrane that can get bitter and tough.

Choose your filling. I used Dijon mustard, horseradish, extra virgin olive oil, spinach, red onion, artichoke hearts, green onions, salt, freshly ground black pepper, white rice (about 1/2 of the mixture), freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a lil’ butter on top (a lil’ dab’ll do ya).

Overfill the pepper with your stuffing (contents kinda “shrink” while cooking). Make sure to not pack in the filling in too tightly because the heat might not get through properly. Keep it light n’ fluffy.

Place on a baking dish, top with foil and pop into a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

Optional: If you added a melty-melty cheese, now is the time to take off the foil to let the topping brown and get all ooey-gooey.

Plate and eat!

If you’re not a fan of raw bell peppers (me either), keep in mind that cooking them in an oven mellows out their flavor and actually smooths out the bitterness that some people complain about. Also note that all the ingredients are optional. Just use whatever you have in your kitchen. I only added the Dijon mustard and horseradish because I was hoping to use the peppers as a side dish for some beer-broiled bratwursts later that night. MMMMmmmm brats.

Next time, I’d prolly try cooked chicken and cheddar cheese, ham and egg (for an inside-out Denver omelet-like custard), Albacore tuna and egg noodles (for some old school casserole flava) or a can of chunky clam chowder to kill the lunch-room boredom.

Peter picked a pepper and packed it with super savory stuffing!

~Spec

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 at 2:31 am and is filed under Cheap [and GOOD] Eats, Cooking Culture, Cuisine, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.