Sandtribe stuffed Peppers

A long long time ago, in a far away land, lived a tribe of happy hunters on a sandy beach at the edge of a warm forest.
Their favorite food was by far the fireduck, that they caught by shooting fierce arrows on these stupid beach-roaming birds (whose preparation method will be detailed in an upcoming recipe).
Nonetheless they had to find some vegetables to supplement their diet in the spring months when the fireducks migrated to distant isles (as they were quite stupid, they migrated at odd times). Their spring-time delicacy consisted of red peppers stuffed with all the magical ingredients that the nearby forest would offer them.


In this forest, in a quite odd fashion (so many things were out of place in this enchanting land), grew olive trees, tomatoes, onions, and tall tamarind trees. All around, aromatic spices such as cinammon, fennel, and black pepper grew on low-lying branches. And sometimes, a very special kind of tree could be found that provided smoked bacon. In this peculiar natural environment, a very sophisticated culinary tradition developed among this friendly people which was otherwise of the most primitive sort.

I now invite you to join the fun with my own version of their delicious stuffed red peppers. You are free to choose large chili peppers, or more pacific sweet peppers, as long as they have a shape convenient for stuffing and cooking (long and straight for horizontal cooking, or regular bell-shaped for vertical cooking). In any case, they have to be able to rest where you put them without the stuffing escaping.
As for the meat, you are invited to use one with a distinctive flavor such as smoked bacon, lamb, turkish sucuk or pastirma. Otherwise, don't bother and let the dish be vegetarian.


Ingredients :

• Red peppers (fit for stuffing and cooking, see above)
• Some meat with a distinctive flavor (see above)
• Half a glass of rice
• Onions (one or two big onions, or several smaller ones)
• Garlic
• Tomato paste
• Aromatic spices (my pick : cinnamon, fennel, bay leaves, black pepper, a little turmeric)
• Tamarind paste (optional, but recommended)
• Lemon juice and skin
• Chili peppers, dried or fresh (if you are stuffing normal peppers, or if you are crazy)
• Green olives without kernels
• Parsley leaves
• Sugar

Instructions :

1. Barely cook the rice (it should be almost edible, but not quite).
2. Soak a spoon of tamarind paste into hot water for ten minutes, mixing and crushing now and then. Then discard the solid contents by filtering, keeping only the water (you don't want to have hard tamarind seeds in your dish, do you ?).
3. Cut the heads of the peppers 1cm from the top (horizontally if they are bell-shaped, in diagonal if they are long), keeping the heads preciously. Empty the contents of the peppers with a spoon and a knife if needed.
4. Chop together the garlic, olives, and parsley into small pieces and place in a bowl.
5. Cut the onions into thin slices.
6. Chop the meat into small pieces together with the lemon skins.
7. Crush the spices and the chilies (if they are whole).
8. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and add (in this order) the meat with lemon, the spices, and the onions, stirring constantly for one minute between each ingredient.
9. Add a few spoons of tomato paste, and stir for a few minutes.
10. Add the ingredients from the bowl and continue stirring.
11. Add the lemon juice and the water from the tamarind paste, and continue cooking until much of the water has evaporated. Add as much salt and sugar as you want, making sure that it tastes delicious. Mix in the rice. You now have a paste that will be used for stuffing.
12. Stuff the peppers with the paste up to about 90% of their volume, making sure that you fill them densely. Don't overfill them as the rice will increase slightly in volume.
13. Place the peppers nicely in a big pot ; they are allowed to touch each other but not to step on each other. Put their heads back if you can, otherwise dump them randomly in the pot. Spray with olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and aromatic spices.
14. Cook on medium fire for a few minutes (not much more, otherwise the peppers will leak from the bottoms or worse stick to the pot !).
15. Mix one spoon of tomato paste in half a glass of water, and pour gently the liquid in the pot.
16. Close the lid (leaving a very small space so that water vapor can escape), and cook on low-medium fire for about 15 minutes, checking regularly if some water is left.
17. You can actually continue the cooking for as long as you want provided that the peppers are not too soft - they should hold their shapes and be transferrable to a plate without self-destroying.
18. Transfer to a plate and serve hot, or leave in the fridge and serve cold.

In all cases, I advise you to use the thick sauce that's left in the pot to pour on the peppers when serving. Furthermore, I suggest spraying some crushed Feta cheese on the peppers and serving with some garlic-lemony-salty yogurt, it is absolutely gorgeous !

Happy stuffing,
The Spring Recipes team