Recipe please? Stuffed Sweet Peppers, no tomato sauce

[dragnlaw]

Have a bunch of sweet peppers, red and orange. Want to stuff them and am defrosting some ground beef and pork. Also with the thought of freezing some for future meals.
But I do NOT want to use a tomato sauce. Don't mind a chopped up tomato, just don't want a sauce that is tomato based.

Rice, cooked or raw - what is your preference? and do you have any particular reason why?
Meat, also cooked or raw - probably goes along with whether or not your rice is pre-cooked? or is not - why?

Also do you par-boil your peppers? any reasons for your choice? yea or nay?

 

[gerardj]

you need something to glue it together, otherwise it will fall apart when cut open.
We use left over jasmine and cook the filling in a big wok.
if you want the pepper to be fork tender, cook in an insert over boiling water with a lid, the steam penetrates very nicely. Otherwise you'll be there for a while as you wait and wait and wait.
Nothing worse than crunchy stuffed peppers.

 

[dragnlaw]

But, although nothing worse than crunchy stuffed peppers, nothing worse than mushy peppers with a chewing skin.

 

[taxlady]

This is my favourite, reddish, no tomato sauce. I have used it with store bought cannelloni and that worked well. It uses red peppers that you roast and skin or store bought, roasted, peppers in oil. I can't find roasted peppers in oil, just in marinade. It's what I use. My two big observations: Use an immersion blender, it's about a hundred times less messy than using a FP. If you can only find marinated, roasted peppers, not the ones in oil, then rinse the marinade off before using them in the recipe. Also, a tip from Kenji, stir in the EVOO after you are done blending the other ingredients because, EVOO can get bitter when blended for too long.

Easy Romesco Sauce (7 Ingredients!)

Romesco sauce is something I discovered a few years ago when writing our Everyday Cooking Cookbook. We had a lovely market near our apartment at the time

minimalistbaker.com

By the way, how would you use tomato sauce? As part of the filling? To coat the peppers?

It has been decades since I made stuffed peppers. I always cooked the rice. I was a vegetarian back then, so I have no experience with making them with meat in the filling. If it is sort of like meatloaf, then it might hang together better with raw meat. Do you make cabbage rolls? I think it would be similar. My Swedish recipe, which I have yet to try, for cabbage rolls uses raw meat.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Get yourself a box of Zatarain's jambayla mix, cook it up according to the package directions, then stuff it in the peppers. You're gonna love it!

 

[medtran49]

Craig uses a plumber's torch to blacken the skin, then we remove the char. Doing it that way gets rid of the skin, but the structure of the pepper is not affected nearly as much as charing them in the oven.

One of our favorite ways to stuff is a play on bouef bourguignon, mostly cooked rice mixed with browned ground beef with S&P, onions plus some red wine and beef broth reduced, with some sliced mushrooms partially cooked. Sometimes I throw in some Bleu cheese, sometimes not.

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank you medtran, that sounds perfect. Never thought of removing the skin. Beef bourguignon idea is great.

taxy thanks, but making a romesco sauce for stuffed peppers is a bit beyond my energy level, prepped peppers or not. Also not quite the flavour profile I was looking for.

SirLOB, thank you too - sounds sort of cool but again, not quite the flavour profile I'm looking for. Did look it up, that product is available here, might give it a try one day!

 

[pepperhead212]

Though I don't stuff bell peppers, I occasionally stuff chiles, and I also peel them - on my stovetop, and sometimes I peel red bells, for some Italian dishes. I actually have an old cooling rack, dedicated to this use, that I put on the burner, and turn the heat up to max, and turn them quickly, as they blacken, then set aside until cooled enough to handle.

 

[dragnlaw]

yeah, pepper. Have never done it in the oven. Just stand there with long tongs in hand and turn them on a gas burner.

Just bought some Jalapeno's today. Any advantage (or dangers) to skinning them on a burner? Don't know why I thought of doing it, just wondering.

 

[pictonguy]

Removing the skin on jalapeno's to put in a stuffing is basically extra work where I doubt you'll see any difference at all. imo.

 

[Aunt Bea]

You can take a few swipes with an old vegetable peeler to quickly remove most of the skin on the flat sides of a bell pepper.

 

[dragnlaw]

Thanks pictonguy, was my guess anyhow.
Aunt Bea, once tried that a long time ago but really not worth the double effort. Besides, I'm a little heavy handed and kept taking too much skin. Wasn't a very pretty looking pepper after, LOL!

 

[GotGarlic]

yeah, pepper. Have never done it in the oven. Just stand there with long tongs in hand and turn them on a gas burner.

Just bought some Jalapeno's today. Any advantage (or dangers) to skinning them on a burner? Don't know why I thought of doing it, just wondering.

I put peppers under the broiler to blacken them and remove the skins. I make several at a time, so I've never used the stovetop method.

To prepare an onion, some garlic cloves and a jalapeño or two for recipes, Rick Bayless pus them in a dry cast iron skillet on the stovetop and turns them to char them evenly.

What is the flavor profile you're going for?

 

[dragnlaw]

Well this time I just might GG. I've never done more than 1 or 2 so have always just used the stovetop. I sort of feel I've got more control. Will see, don't know how or if I'll be doing them today. A few other things have popped into my schedule today.

 

[dcSaute]

this is a good off-shoot, does use chopped tomato

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

parboil green peppers 3-4 minutes; drain and cool well
pre-cooked white rice - volume 2.0 cups / 475 ml
(alternate: 120 grams uncooked + 230 gram water per Jamie Oliver oven method)

pre-heat oven to 350'F/175'C
0.5 cup / 120 ml finely diced yellow onion - option: saute in olive oil prior to use
drain and reserve liquid from one can ca 15 oz/ 425 grams of black beans
drain and reserve liquid from one can ca. 15 oz / 425 grams "chili style diced tomatoes" (*)
(can be drained to same bowl and mixed)

in a large bowl, combine rice + black beans + diced tomato
season with
1 teaspoon / 5 ml chili powder
1 teaspoon / 5 ml garlic salt (alternative: 0.5 teaspoon garlic powder + add'l 0.5 teaspoon salt below)
0.5 teaspoon / 2.5 ml ground cumin (UPT 5/16/2018 no cumin)
0.5 teaspoon / 2.5 ml salt

mix / fold well; add minor amount reserved bean/tomato liquid if needed.
mix / fold in 1.5 cups / 355 ml / 350 grams shredded cheese - blend to personal preference

stuff peppers with mix; spoon ca. 2 tablespoons / 30 ml reserved liquid over each stuffed pepper and allow to soak through the stuffing

top peppers with additional/remaining shredded cheese -

bake uncovered in preheated 350'F/175'C oven for 30 minutes until cheese melts and bubbles.


(*)chili style diced tomatoes
this can be tricky to find depending on your area. contents per label:
tomatoes
tomato juice
sugar
salt
dried onion
dried celery
dried bell pepper
"natural flavors" - on the front of the can it says "with cumin"

 

[medtran49]

Putting peppers in the oven will make them soft. Using the plumber's torch method keeps them almost raw firmness.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yes, I suppose it might, especially if like me, you have a tendency to leave them just that one little minute more! LOL
On the stove top it is very hands on and visual.

 

[caseydog]

Beef and Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

4 large bell peppers (of your color choice -- red yellow and orange are sweeter)
I pound ground/minced beef (80/20)
1 pound of raw sausage of your choice (I used a breakfast sausage you probably won't find outside of Texas)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced celery
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
Black Pepper
Olive Oil
Melty cheese (I used whole milk Mozzarella)

Method

Preheat oven to 350F

Dice onions and celery. Sauté in olive oil until somewhat soft and transparent. Don't caramelize. Add garlic to the pan for they last two minutes, to take the edge off the garlic. When done, put it aside in a bowl in the fridge. You want it cooled down before adding it to the cold meats

Mix the two meats lightly, then add the veggies, bread crumbs, and eggs.Mix together thoroughly, but gently.

Cut the top off of each bell pepper. Measure our you meat mixture for each pepper and stuff each pepper with meat mixture.

Place on a foil lined baking pan, and place in the oven. Bake until the temperature at the center of the meat is around 145F, sprinkle cheese on top, and continue baking until at least 160F. It should take about an hour, perhaps a bit longer. Always go by temperature, not time.

Server over you favorite rice -- I used some of my Uncle Ben's famous Spanish Rice.

CD

 

[Badjak]

I'm not fussy about the skin of a pepper.
Occasionally I will blacken them and remove skin, but mostly I'll keep it on.

For stuffed peppers (it's been a long long time ago), I would par boil them, cut of the hood, remove intestines and fill with a sort of fried rice dish. Then in the oven to heat through.

My dad would fill them with spiced raw ground meat and cook in the oven.
Rice & lettuce would be served with them in his case

 

[gerardj]

You can take a few swipes with an old vegetable peeler to quickly remove most of the skin on the flat sides of a bell pepper.

View attachment 67445

to what end, if you peel and stuff it the end result will burst open when its cooked, it will make a mess.the skin is what holds it together, its like baking a pie without a mold.