Stuffed

Vegetables.  Booooring.  If it didn't bleed at some point, or is still bleeding I don't really see the point in eating it.  Sadly, those nasty little dirt dwellers are kind of vital to, you know, our overall health and stuff.  That's why when I'm forced to consume cripples... uh ... vegetables I stuff the living hell out of them with MEAT!

The best part about having stuffed bell peppers is that you can get creative.  I've seen all kinds of different recipes from Greek, Mexican and even New Orleans stuffed peppers.  You can make them healthy and use ground turkey or ruin your colon and stuff them with bacon, wrap them in bacon and then deep fry them in bacon fat.  It's completely up to you.  

I kept mine simple and somewhat traditional.  Ground beef, lots of garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, rice, worcestershire sauce and provolone cheese.

Men, the following does NOT apply to women.  Before you stuff something, you must remove it's innards.  Cut the pepper in half and remove the stem, ribs and seeds.

If the smell of healthy living bothers you, you might want to tape a chicken nugget under your nose while cutting the pepper.  Try to endure the torture, I promise it will get better.  

Once the peppers are cut, you'll need to boil out some of those pesky vitamins.  After all, I'd sure hate for one of my readers to go into anaphylactic shock.  That and boiling them for about 5 minutes also makes them tender and more palatable.  During this process you can start making the stuffing!

Start by cooking rice.  Some recipes will say to use uncooked rice, claiming it'll cook in the tomato sauce.  Crunchy, under cooked rice is a sin and not one that Jesus died for.  Don't risk your eternal happiness, just cook it!

Brown the ground beef or turkey or endangered animal with some onion.  I also had half a pepper that wasn't getting stuffed so i chopped it up and added it as well.

From there add a can of tomatoes or tomato sauce.  Your choice.  I used fire roasted tomatoes.  Add garlic, a tablespoon of worcestershire sauce, cooked rice and seasonings.  In the past I've seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary, basil, and other "Italian" flavors.  Not this time.

This time I went with salt, pepper and cajun seasoning.  I wasn't sure how much to add so I started with a teaspoon, tasted, added more, tasted again (with the dirty spoon) and so on.  Using the dirty spoon would have gotten me booted from Chopped for sure.  Alex Guarnaschelli would have had a fit!

By now you should have removed the peppers from the boiling water and drained them on a towel.  If you didn't you're a dumb ass.  I said FIVE minutes!  Now add some cheese, then the stuffing, then more cheese.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and just started to turn brown.

Ratings - ( a possibility of 5 ☆'s )

Cost - ☆☆☆☆ This is great for any leftover meat from other meals, the mystery meat in your freezer, or using up some of the 20 lbs of bacon you bought on ebay while piss drunk.  Even if you use ground beef, like I did, you'll only need one lb.  Green bell peppers are around 60 cents each.  You only need one per person since you'll be cutting it in half and stuffing both halves.  Trust me, two halves will be enough for one serving.  Rice, canned tomatoes, garlic and onions are all cheap and something you should have on hand anyways.  If you don't have, and don't regularly use the worcestershire feel free to omit it.  No one will miss it.


Difficulty - ☆☆☆☆ I'm not going to lie, this does require a bit of work.  BUT... it's all easy work, assuming you have hands and own a knife.

Taste - ☆☆☆.5  Overall I enjoyed this, but it's not something I typically crave.  Maybe if it was stuffed with cake batter...

Clean up - ☆☆☆ I always make such a mess when making this.  There's the cutting board, knife, large pot to boil in, pan, baking dish.  I guess it's not that much, but I'm clumsy and a messy cook.  While stuffing I spill everywhere.  The counter tops, the floor, the ceiling.  It's pretty bad.

I wonder how the boys over at Epic Meal Time would make stuffed peppers....  hmmmmm....

 

Happy Porking People!