This was a
happy surprise last night. My wife and I were sitting around the kitchen, trying to figure out
what to make for dinner, and since we had about an hour and a half until the arrival of both my parents and
her parents, we needed to
get something together. We
grazed through the fridge, made a quick dash to the grocery, and came up with this pleasant dish. My wife is a
vegetarian (although she's no
purist, to be sure), so this is a vegetarian recipe, although I suspect pre-cooked and shredded chicken could also be added with some good results. If anyone tries that, /msg
me and let me know how it turned out. I'll post your findings here.
STUFF YOU WILL NEED:
- six bell peppers (we used two orange, two red, two green for aesthetic purposes. I prefer the green, my wife the orange, our mothers the red. Take your pick.)
- 1.5 c. rice (uncooked measure)
- 1.5 c. cheddar or jack cheese
- 1 can vegetable broth (or about 10 oz. if you have time to make your own)
- 1 medium onion
- ~1 T. butter
- 1 roasted green chile, peeled and chopped (or about a third of a cup if you can only get it out of a tub or can, or whatever you can get your hands on if you can't import it from The Holy Land)
- garlic (only you can decide how much you love this most devine of ingredients)
Okay, first things first. Chop up the onion and toss it in the broth. Throw in the garlic and some
salt and
black pepper. Boil until the onions are
clarified. Now
strain all the onion and garlic back out and set them aside. Use this broth to cook the rice. You'll have to add more water to the broth to have enough liquid to cook the rice. Aside from using the broth, just cook the rice according to
the directions on the package. While the rice is cooking, carefully cut the crowns of the bell peppers off, turning them into little bowls. Remove any seeds and
membranes from the peppers. Now try to stand them up. If they keep tipping over, cut a thin layer off the bottoms of them to make a more flat surface. Now preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and set your rack in a mid-low position. You don't want the tops of the peppers too close to the
heating element. Ready? Good.
When the rice is done, stir the onions and garlic back in. Add the butter, chiles and cheese, and stir with vigor and happiness at the
pleasing aroma. When the cheese has melted and you've got a thick rice-based goop, spoon it liberally into the bell peppers. The goop should just over-fill six medium-sized peppers. If not, well, I don't know. Do your best, I guess. Anway, pop those suckers (open-topped) into the oven. Set the timer for 30 minutes. Now
walk away.
When the buzzer goes off, come back. Take the peppers out of the oven and cover the tops ONLY (which should be turning slightly golden) with
aluminum foil. Or, if you're British, use
aluminium foil. Now stick the peppers back in the oven (same temp) for another twenty minutes. The peppers are done when they are tender if poked with a sharp knife. That's it!
If you want, you can use the uncooked tops of the peppers as
garnish, making little lids for your stuffed peppers. I also recommend this simple
mushroom recipe as a topper for the peppers.
STUFF YOU WILL NEED:
- 1 pkg mushrooms (~10 oz.)
- 2 T butter
- 1 cube vegetable boullion
Clean and slice the mushrooms. Crush up the boullion cube. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Toss in the boullion and mix it into the butter. Now toss in the mushrooms and
fry them until the water that they release as they cook starts to steam away. That's it. It's as easy as it sounds.
Serves six.
Enjoy!