Stuffed capsicums recipe
'Stuffed peppers were always a favourite from my childhood'.
This week I want to hark back to food from my youth, with recipes inspired by my mother and my godmother. Good home-cooked food is like being enveloped in a warm, comforting hug that lingers in your memory long after the meal is over.
I love the intense heat of late summer when the many varieties and hues of peppers are blushing with ripeness and potential. Stuffed peppers were always a favourite from my childhood when my mother would fill them with rich mince, and sometimes cheese, before baking them. The sweet, fragrant smell of the peppers would fill the house, leaving me salivating in anticipation.
I entreat you to grill your capsicums to soften them for stuffing in lieu of the traditional boiling. When peppers are charred, the heat causes the natural sugars in the peppers to caramelise, imbuing them with a sweet and slightly smoky flavour.
The filling can be as simple or as complex as you like, depending on your preferences and the ingredients you may have to hand. I like to combine a little rice with the mince, which soaks up all the juices from the peppers, while incorporating a few other ingredients that I have grown to love over the years, namely capers, raisins, anchovies and pine nuts. Stuffing allows you to celebrate the vegetable as both a cooking vessel and an ingredient – and this filling can be used to stuff a variety of vegetables, from pumpkins and squash to eggplants and tomatoes. These peppers are equally delicious served warm or enjoyed cold the next day.
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RECIPE: Stuffed peppers
Ingredients
- 4 ripe large red capsicums
- 500g veal or beef mince
- 80ml white wine
- 400ml chicken stock
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 100g onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 400g chopped ripe tomatoes
- 40g long grain rice soaked for 15 minutes, rinsed and drained
- 4 Cantabrian anchovies, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers, chopped
- 1 tablespoon preserved lemon, diced
- 2 tablespoons raisins, covered in boiling water and soaked for 15 minutes
- 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped oregano
- Sea salt
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- On a hot grill, char capsicums (peppers) for 5-6 minutes until they are lightly charred all over. Remove and allow to rest before carefully cutting the top off and removing the seeds. Season the inside with a sprinkle of salt and reserve.
- Sweat finely chopped onion in 50ml olive oil until soft and translucent, and then add the garlic and fennel seed and cook for further 5 minutes. Remove and reserve.
- Heat the remaining 100ml of oil and fry the mince, season with salt, and caramelise until lightly browned all over. Deglaze with the white wine (reducing by half) before adding the chicken stock, chopped tomatoes and the onion mixture. Simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until it has reduced to a rich, thick sauce.
- Add the rice, stir through and remove from the heat, allowing to cool slightly, before adding the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and stuff inside the peppers, placing the tops back on the peppers.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until the rice is just cooked. Remove, and allow to cool slightly, before serving.
Serves 4