©Ashy Macbean 2002.
Sounds exotic, doesn't it? It is. I first tasted peppers stuffed with rice and pine-nuts in Turkey and when I came across some lovely fresh Siberian pine-nuts, I remembered the peppers and wanted to try making them. The ones in Turkey also contained a special type of small black raisin which I didn't know where to buy. Luckily, there were six black cherries in our fridge and I thought, 'Cherries? Raisins? - same-same, no problem!' There was also a can of sweetcorn in the cupboard.
Here is my version of Turkish stuffed green peppers. Don't worry if you haven't got all the ingredients - just do as I did and add some different ones. If you don't have any cherries however, don't call your creation 'Stuffed green peppers with cherries and pine-nuts'.
The quantities I give for the stuffing will fill about 8 small peppers. Make more if you want to. The crucial thing however, in this recipe, is to have just the right amount of peppers to sit open-end-up, side by side in a pan, so they don't fall over. Think about how many people you want to feed then choose your pan and do your calculations.
Ingredients
1 mug of rice, soaked overnight, or at least
for a few hours.
100-150g sweetcorn
A small handful of pine-nuts
6 cherries (more if you've got them)
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Half an onion
3-4 tsps. tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic
A few whole black pepper-corns
Salt
Rinse the rice, drain and put it in a bowl with the corn, vegetable oil, finely chopped onions, cherries and pine-nuts and a little salt. Mix it all together and leave to one side while you do the peppers. Cut round the stalks and pull them out, then remove as much of the white bits and seeds as you can without being too fussy, and definitely without splitting the peppers. Use a teaspoon to fill the peppers but don't pack the mixture in too tightly - it will swell as it cooks. Leave some space for this. Stand the peppers in a pot and pour some water, mixed with the tomato paste and a pinch of salt, round them. The water should only come about two thirds of the way up the peppers - you don't want to flood them. Pour plain water into each pepper until it covers the filling. I used the little plastic jug that came with our iron when we bought it (before I hit on that idea, I thought of using a teapot).
Crush the garlic cloves and poke them down between the peppers into the cooking water along with the pepper-corns. Put the pan on the cooker and bring to the boil. Boil it for five minutes to heat the peppers thoroughly, then turn the heat right down and cover the pan. Simmer for about 40 minutes.
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