Pepper should be dense
When you are in the store and pick upproducts for making stuffed peppers, please note that the main vegetable, and we mean peppers, should be dense so that when stewing it does not fall apart and all the stuffing does not fall out into the pan. In order for the finished dish to look more cheerful on the plate, take peppers of different colors: red, yellow and green. When choosing minced meat, give preference to your taste, be it pork, beef or a mixture of several varieties. You can also buy a whole piece of meat and then mince it yourself. The main thing is to have something to stuff the peppers with. From vegetables, you will also need carrots and onions. And do not forget about rice. Here is an approximate amount of necessary products, calculated for four medium-sized peppers (but you should understand that for a larger number of peppers you need more products by weight):
- Minced meat - 500-600 g
- Pepper - 4 (5) pcs. medium size
- Carrots - 1 medium sized
- White onion - 1 bulb
- Rice - about 1 cup
- Sour cream - 1 tbsp.
- Ketchup or tomato paste - 1 tbsp.
We cut off the top part of the peppers, the so-called"hat" with a stalk. Clean the insides from seeds and put aside. Let's get down to the minced meat. Add salt, black pepper, finely chopped onion to taste. You can also add other spices, for example, vegetable seasoning or finely chopped dill and parsley. Grind the carrots on a coarse grater and also add to the minced meat. By the way, you can fry it a little in a frying pan with onions, then add part of the cooled mixture to the minced meat, and put the rest aside. As for the rice, there is no need to bring it to full readiness. This is necessary so that when preparing the stuffed peppers themselves, it does not boil over and turn into mush, which would ruin the whole idea of the recipe. Also add half-cooked rice to the minced meat.
Juicy means delicious
We return to the cleared, but not yetstuffed peppers. Feel free to scoop the prepared filling into a spoon and press it into the vegetable. You can put the mince in a mound, or you can do it so that it doesn’t stick out. We have the “cap” of the pepper left. You can either cut it into large pieces and put it in a saucepan, or leave it whole and put it on top of the already stuffed pepper. Put our peppers in a saucepan. Place them so that they are located strictly vertically. Then pour boiled water over them to the middle or a little more. Take sour cream, ketchup or tomato paste and mix these ingredients in a glass, add a little water so that the whole mixture has a liquid form, and mix again. Pour the entire contents of the glass between the peppers into the saucepan. You can pour a little of this “sauce” over the stuffed peppers themselves. We do this so that they turn out juicy, so that the filling is not dry. We have some carrots and onions left over, which were lightly fried. We also boldly add them to the pan, casually spreading them between the stuffed peppers. There are a few more tips on what to stuff and make the already delicious stuffed peppers incomparable. Take a regular tomato, chop it finely and fry it in a frying pan, but do not overdo it, otherwise you risk adding bitterness to your peppers (the same applies to fried onions and carrots). You can put a little garlic in the frying pan with the sizzling tomatoes for flavor. We also send this mixture to the pan with the stuffed peppers. As you probably already understood, the stuffed peppers will make an appetizing broth. But it is worth noting that some housewives initially add meat broth. What to do is your decision. Let's get back to preparing our dish. The time it needs to be stewed is about an hour. But do not forget that it is worth checking the peppers for readiness, namely their filling, before serving. When you are sure that your hearty dish is really ready, put it on a large plate, decorate with greenery, on the edge you can put sour cream, mayonnaise or a homemade sauce. Enjoy your meal.
