Stuffed peppers

This is a classic german meal from the east side .



What you need (for like 2 person):

- Minced Meat about 500g

(Make sure the meat is at least 80% from pork)

- 4 Bell Peppers

(Don't use the green ones )

- 2 Onions
- a bit of Garlic
- Parsley
- Tomato paste
- Potatoes
- Bread crumbs
(You really don't need much of this. Best way is to take a dryed out Bread roll(s). Rasp them and you'll get the needed amount)
- 1 Egg
- 1 Bread roll
(I know that those might be hard to get in some countries . You also can take a white toast here, although it's not the same but it should do the work.)


Recept:

Cut the top of the Bell Peppers and clear the inside from all the seeds. Cut the onions in little pieces aswell as the garlic. Don't use that much garlic. For people who don't like it just don't use it. It's ok. For all others, one little "toe" should be enough. Chop the parsley or try to cut it into very little pieces if you don't have a chopper.

Put the bread roll (or the toast) into water and let it soak for a while. after like 20 min you can take it out again and try to press most of the water out of it without loosing too much of the bread roll itself .

Put the meat in a bowl and add the onions, the parsley, the garlic, the not-so-soaked-anymore-bread roll, a bit black pepper, a bit salt (not too much, the meat will give away a bit of an salty taste on its own), a bit of the bread crumbs and finally the egg. Now you'll have to mix all of this with your hands. Thats right! Don't use a machine or something!

Do this until you're sure everything is mixed up...funny feeling, isn't it ?

Fill the emptied bell peppers with the mixed meat. Put some olive oil in a pan and roast the filled bell peppers in it from all sides. They shall become a bit darker. If they get a bit black/roasted on some site it's ok. Just don't let them roast too much.

Now take the peppers out of the pan and put them into a saucepan. Back to the pan. Don't throw away the roasted oil and essences you now have there . Add some of the tomatoe paste and water and mix it within the pan to get some kind of sauce. At this point you can vary a bit ofc. Maybe add some more onions into it and/or add some spices but don't overdo it.

The sauce itself doesn't need to be very thick in it's consistency but try to not add too much water to it. I prefer to add some sort of Broth instead of pure water but it's not necessary. Also just make it hot. Don't cook it within the pan. As soon as it is hot take it away and fill the saucepan (where the filled peppers are already waiting for what comes next ) with it. The saucepan should be big enough to carry the bell peppers but shouldn't be much bigger then that because you won't get much sauce out of the pan.

If you have filled the saucepan with the tomatoe-something sauce put it on the oven again and let it cook. Small heat and a lid covering it. If you, for example, have like 6 heat steps on your oven, take the 3.

Now let it cook like 2 hours.

Here you got two options:

A) you take the saucepan and put it into the fridge or
B) you continue and cook the potatoes meanwhile the peppers are cooking

to A) here in germany this is a meal you prepare for the next day. That means you have more flavour if you give it a rest and let the peppers soak the essences of the sauce a bit more and vice versa. If you want to eat it the next day just take the whole saucepan and heat it up slowly, till it cooks and take it away again. Meanwhile you should have cooked the potatoes

to B) it's also ok to eat it right away. In this case just be sure to cook the potatoes at the right time to make everything ready at the same time.

That's it. Have fun

We always put RICE and sausage In our stuffed peppers !

originally posted by: Meldionne1
We always put RICE and sausage In our stuffed peppers !

Trust me. If you try this, you won't put rice or sausages into innocent vegetables anymore .

Ahh man, that sure looks good. I like stuffed peppers, as long as the peppers are cooked I can tolerate them well. I like them with the rice but this way might be really tasty.

They will soon be having peppers cheap at the roadside market, I make things when the mixed peppers go cheap. Haven't been there since last wednesday, I bet they might have some there already.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Ahh man, that sure looks good. I like stuffed peppers, as long as the peppers are cooked I can tolerate them well. I like them with the rice but this way might be really tasty.

They will soon be having peppers cheap at the roadside market, I make things when the mixed peppers go cheap. Haven't been there since last wednesday, I bet they might have some there already.

Let me know how you found it .

The most important thing is the meat imo. You really have to go on the nerves of your local butcher to provide you with ground meat from pork. Most of the other things you can vary a bit but i'd advice you to rather stick to the recept since this is like a family one here and is well proofed, so to speak .

By the way. I personally don't like the bell peppers at all. After everything is ready i just separate them from the meat within and only eat that plus the potatoes and the sauce ofc. But you need them for the taste and wether you eat them too after or not is something you need to find out on your own.

You said soak the bread for 20 minutes... Did you mean 20 seconds?

Looks awesome and made me hungry for stuffed peppers.

a reply to: Tichy

Thank you for the recipe, I printed it out. We use ground beef, crab meat or shrimp. Do you parboil the peppers before stuffing them? Also, I like to mix in some chili powder, sometimes Old Bay seasoning, and when using ground beef, we also add in shredded monterey jack cheese. Other than the breadcrumb (which sound tasty), our recipes are very similar. I look forward to trying this out.

a reply to: Tichy

I found I can't eat some green peppers, but can't ever seem to narrow it down. They don't even taste right to me, they burn my mouth a little. I spent a lot of time trying to find out why. Immature red peppers. three vs four lobed greens, etc. I still haven't figured it out, it is like a cross reactivity or something. Lots of possibilities with the green pepper allergens. But cooking them makes them not so bad and the flavor is good on the yellows and reds.

Peppers do give a good taste to the stuffing.

a reply to: tinker9917

I mean 20 minutes but if you take plain white toast ofc you don't need that much time. some 2 or 3 minutes should be enough. The bread rolls instead need a bit time to get soaked through.

originally posted by: AphoticJoe
a reply to: Tichy

Thank you for the recipe, I printed it out. We use ground beef, crab meat or shrimp. Do you parboil the peppers before stuffing them? Also, I like to mix in some chili powder, sometimes Old Bay seasoning, and when using ground beef, we also add in shredded monterey jack cheese. Other than the breadcrumb (which sound tasty), our recipes are very similar. I look forward to trying this out.

Hope you like it . Don't parboil the peppers before. They will/shall cook a long time anyway so there's no need for that. The more important thing is to fry them before in the pan. 1st to get some essences into the sauce and 2nd because you close the meat within to prevent it to fall out of em basically.

I never added cheese to them. I'd say this could turn out good but i can't rely on this ofc .

originally posted by: Tichy
a reply to: tinker9917

I mean 20 minutes but if you take plain white toast ofc you don't need that much time. some 2 or 3 minutes should be enough. The bread rolls instead need a bit time to get soaked through.

Ok, thanks!

I use rice and mushrooms no bread crumbs. %50-50 ground beef and pork sausage, I also don't use the green ones because my wife doesn't like them. Why don't you?

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: Tichy

I found I can't eat some green peppers, but can't ever seem to narrow it down. They don't even taste right to me, they burn my mouth a little. I spent a lot of time trying to find out why. Immature red peppers. three vs four lobed greens, etc. I still haven't figured it out, it is like a cross reactivity or something. Lots of possibilities with the green pepper allergens. But cooking them makes them not so bad and the flavor is good on the yellows and reds.

Peppers do give a good taste to the stuffing.

I can eat them but i don't really like em. They give a more sour component to everything which is kind of you don't want here.

a reply to: Tichy

Thank you for the tips, I'll give them a try.

originally posted by: abe froman
I use rice and mushrooms no bread crumbs. %50-50 ground beef and pork sausage, I also don't use the green ones because my wife doesn't like them. Why don't you?

To be honest and clear here: You don't really need the bread crumbs. They are just an additional thing you put in to keep the meat a bit more together. That's why you also don't need much of it really.

I don't like the green ones because of the more sour taste as described above and if you cook this meal i really advice you to not use 50/50 ground beef. It's good for all kind of stuff but not if you want to actually boil the meat instead of fry it, which is what you basically do here. But ofc that's just my own experience .

I really want to try these but my kids don't like peppers (or capsicum as we call them here). Kids may have to have toast.

i had some stuffed peppers before at a restaurant, they used some strange mix of i think it was couscous and chopped veg and cheese - i have no idea but it was damned tasty.

I tryed to make it one or twice after but i messed it up, it wasnt even close to as nice.

Using meat, now thats a plan i like the sound of!!!

+1 sir, definitely going on my list

I use red peppers, chopped up ground hamburg, rice, chopped onion and tomatoe soup. Delicious!!

One question though: How do you cook it without it burning?

Most attempts ive made on a stuffed pepper have burnt the out side quite badly. Id be worried to make the sure the meat is cooked through it would burn the outside just like the others.

Whoever said they put rice in there is correct, and the meat ratio should be 50:50. 80% pork meat is too much. This is according to my Russian girlfriend
But hey, each to their own, nice recipe