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Stuffed Peppers

Name: Stuffed Peppers
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 85 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Ukrainian
Ingredients: 8 piece Red bell pepper; 300 g Coarsely minced beef; 300 g Minced pork; 150 g Short-grain rice; 200 g Onion; 150 g Carrot; 3 cloves Garlic cloves; 500 ml Tomato passata; 150 g Sour cream, to serve; 40 ml Sunflower oil; 400 ml Water; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 12 g Fine sea salt; 3 g Ground black pepper; 15 g Flat-leaf parsley; 15 g Fresh dill

Sweet peppers filled with pork, beef and half-cooked rice, then braised upright in a tomato and sour cream sauce until the peppers slump.

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 55 min
Difficulty: Easy

About this dish

Stuffed vegetables travelled north with the Ottomans and stayed, and the Ukrainian version differs from its Balkan cousins mainly in the finish: sour cream stirred into the tomato, which turns a sharp red sauce into a soft pink one. The technical heart of the dish is the rice, which must go in only partly cooked. Fully cooked rice turns to paste in the hour that follows; raw rice drinks the meat dry and stays chalky.

Gluten-free
Not vegetarian because of Coarsely minced beef, Minced pork
Contains dairy because of Sour cream, to serve

Ingredients

4servings

8piecesRed bell pepper
300gCoarsely minced beef
300gMinced pork
150gShort-grain rice
200gOnion
150gCarrot
3clovesGarlic cloves
500mlTomato passata
150gSour cream, to serve
40mlSunflower oil
400mlWater
2leavesBay leaves
12gFine sea salt
3gGround black pepper
15gFlat-leaf parsley
15gFresh dill

Instructions

Boil the rice in salted water for 12 minutes only, then drain and cool it.
12 min
Tip: Half-cooked, deliberately. It will finish inside the peppers, absorbing meat juices as it swells — that absorption is what makes the filling taste of more than mince.
Fry the chopped onion and grated carrot in the oil for 8 minutes, until soft, and let them cool.
8 min
Tip: Cool them before they meet the meat. Warm onion starts to cook the surface of the mince and makes the filling grainy rather than tender.
Mix the two minces with the rice, the vegetables, the garlic, pepper, half the salt and the parsley.
8 min
Tip: Mix with your hand and stop as soon as it is even. Worked too long, minced meat goes rubbery — the same protein that makes a good sausage snap makes a bad stuffing bouncy.
Core the peppers and fill them loosely, then stand them upright in a deep pot.
10 min
Tip: Loosely is the whole trick. The rice still has to swell, and a pepper packed tight will split down the side and empty itself into the sauce.
Pour over the passata mixed with the water, add the bay, cover and simmer 45 minutes, then stir the sour cream into the sauce off the heat and scatter with dill.
45 min
Tip: The peppers are ready when they collapse against the spoon. Sour cream goes in last and off the boil, or it will curdle into the tomato.