Stuffed Peppers

Another entry from the mysterious Moldovan contributors who helped me confirm my suspicion that I do indeed find eggplant repugnant and foul comes in the form of Stuffed Peppers. Considering how I feel about vegetables in general and peppers in particular, I'm going to give you one guess as to how I feel about this variation.

Did you guess bad? You are right.

In fact, a cursory glance at the ingredients for this bad boy will reveal a nearly complete list of things that I actively dislike - peppers, celery, eggplant, zucchini...it was not promising. I was so prepared to dislike the stuffed peppers that before even embarking on them I set Josh to firing up the grill for a lovely piece of steak left over from my birthday so that I would not starve.

You know what? I think it will just be too easy to prattle on about everything I do not like about stuffed peppers. Let's explore their positives, shall we?

1. They are delightfully colorful. Most things I cook wind up in the yellow/brown spectrum. This was a chance for a lovely change.
2. Vegetables stuffed with more vegetables are obviously far healthier than my usual artery-clogging slabs of meat.
3. There were very cute drawings as part of the hand-written recipe instructing me on how to de-seed the peppers.
4. The dog absolutely loves peppers, so I always give him little pieces (no seeds of course) when I'm cutting them up, which is very cute.
5. There was parsley, which gives me a chance to raid the garden again.
6. Josh was going to like it no matter what.
7. Partaking of cuisine from underrepresented foreign cultures is always marvelous.
8. I got to make 'lids' out of tomatoes.

Tomato lids!

You see? Wasn't that fun?

Didn't make me like the stuffed peppers, but it was fun. In fact, even Josh didn't really like them (shocker!). I mean, he still ate them - don't get crazy - but as he was doing so he announced they were kind of bland, his parents make more fun ones, and most importantly the rice was underdone. Of course, were I someone who liked stuffed peppers, I probably would have known how to liven this up/prevent these problems, but as a hater, I just took two bites and then moved onto the steak. Goodbye peppers. It was nice to meet you.

Well, you're pretty, you've got that going for you

Moldovan Mystery Stuffed Peppers

6-7 peppers (I chose red, orange & yellow bell ones, but who knows?)
1 onion, finely chopped*
1 medium carrot, finely chopped (tips given to dog)
3 tomatoes (or tomato paste)
1 cup of rice (white)
1 sm eggplant or zucchini, finely chopped (ugh)
celery, parsley to taste
oil

Preparation of peppers: Take out the seeds by cutting a circle around the stem and pulling the stem and seeds out. Add to this by then shaking out any remaining seeds, cutting off a piece of each pepper for the dog, and then wondering how on earth the peppers are going to stay upright if you don't cut them in half. Resist urge to cut them in half.

Heat up a pan and saute onions in oil (until golden). Add carrots and 2 chopped tomatoes (or tomato paste, not). Simmer for 2-3 min, add eggplant (no!) or zucchini (unenthusiastic yes). Simmer until the vegetables are tender (for about 15 minutes). If available, finely chopped cabbage can be added. It is not.

Ask Josh to empty compost pale, pick some parsley and bring you up some wine. Stand around and realize this is a long 15 minutes once you have washed all the dishes/put everything away/have nothing else to chop.

When the veggies are tender, take off fire, add celery, parsley (thanks Josh!), salt, pepper, spices. Wonder, 'Spices? What spices? You didn't say nothin' about no stinkin spices.' Realize in hindsight perhaps these nebulous 'spices' are just what the peppers could have used. Let it cool down for ~ 10 minutes. Think, 'OMG ANOTHER TEN MINUTES OF DOING NOTHING!?' Get computer and do final edits to your cousin's recipe book and drink wine (thanks Josh!) while waiting for boring 10 minutes to pass.

Mix in with pre-washed rice. Stuff the peppers with the mixture. Don't press inside the pepper, leave space for the rice to expand. From the remaining 1 tomato, make 'lids' (whee!) by slicing it into ~ 5mm pieces. Think, 'I have no goddamn clue how much 5mms is, but I'll slice the tomato.'

Cover the peppers and place in a deep pot. Add water, just enough to cover the peppers. Realize when you do this that the lids start floating and this cannot be the intended effect. Pour out enough water to unsubmerge the peppers and have water just, you know, up to their neck areas. Hope this is right. Resettle the tomato lids and look in, worriedly, at your now water-logged stuffing bits. Hope some more. Add salt and set to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for ~ 30 minutes or until Josh says, 'Your peppers are done.' Extract 5 of 6 still-water-logged peppers from pot with tongs, while the sixth goes renegade and disintegrates before you can get it out. Oh well. Serve hot.

*A reader named 'squeakykitty' recently commented that I should try putting lemon juice on the knife/cutting board when cutting onions, so I'll try that next time. More importantly: I am pretty sure this was a reader who I don't know personally. Do you know how much I like readers (and comments from readers) that I don't know personally? If you guessed A LOT you are right! Yay readers!!