The Speares

Living the life in Muskoka

Stuffed Peppers

Preheat oven to 350, though there's no rush as this recipe takes a while. Get a large pot boiling with lots of water. Wash, cut in half lengthwise and remove the gross bits from

  • 2 or 3 really big peppers, or 4 or 6 smaller ones
Red or yellow ones are best. When the water boils, dunk the pepper halves in and make sure they submerge. Lightly boil for

10 minutes at slow simmer

and then remove to dry and cool down somewhere. Watch you don't drain scalding water over your hands. Use tongs. Once you drain the water out of the pot (save the water for soup if you're making soup) then rinse out the pepper slime and return it to the burner. Add in and fry until mostly done

  • a glug of oil
  • 1 large onion, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 pound ground beef/pork/sausage
Stir around so as the meat breaks apart, especially if using sausage. When the onions are sweated and the meat is mostly done, remove from heat. Drain the grease as required. I find that extra lean ground beef requires no draining, but sausage definitely requires a drain and a wipe with a paper towel to boot. Return the pot to a low heat and add

  • 1 540 ml can stewed and flavoured tomatoes - spicy pepper is my choice
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 TBSP onion powder
  • 1 TBSP grainy mustard
  • ½ TBSP garlic powder
  • Several glugs of worchestershire sauce
  • Several glugs of tobasco sauce
When the sauce returns to a low simmer turn the heat almost (but not quite) off. Add

  • 1 cup dry basmati rice
Stir it up then place a tight fitting lid on and

15 minutes at a slow simmer.

Then remove the pot from the burner, turn that off and remove the lid. Stir it all up and make sure the rice is just cooked, not crunchy which would mean either your simmer was more of a not simmer or you didn't have enough water and will have to fix with more liquid and/or more simmer. Meanwhile, place the pepper boats in a pyrex baking pan. Add a scoop or two of meat sauce to each to make a nice mound and into each insert a thick triangle of

  • Very old cheddar cheese
Then into the oven for

20 minutes at 350

until the cheese is melted and yummy.