~Hilda Joy If you grow some of your vegetables, you may have a wealth of peppers in August. If not, the local farmers markets have them. These crisp green goblets are perfect vessels for holding food. I have eaten this dish in the homes of friends but always like this recipe best. Mostly, this is my Mother’s recipe but with added flavor in the sauce. This generous recipe is a bit time-consuming to make but is worth the effort as it can feed a family or be frozen in batches for one or two people to enjoy at a later date when there is no time to cook but one wants a nourishing hot meal. Simply defrost and reheat. After getting married, I became serious about learning to cook well and had an appreciative audience of one. My husband was not hesitant to praise or to make suggestions. He had a good palate, and his critiques were fair and therefore welcome. The first few times I made stuffed green peppers, I used a lot of pots. Not so anymore. One large stockpot is used for parboiling, making the sauce, and steaming. This is a dish to be made when one is feeling loving and calm and not rushed. It’s like therapy. Some cooks sauté the ground meat for the stuffing, but it is more tender if used raw (also saves time). It steams for an hour or so bathed in a tomato sauce. Some cooks bake rather than steam stuffed green peppers, and this results in a thick goopy sauce, which I find distasteful. The peppers need to be parboiled for a very short time to soften them, but they should not be mushy. Goopy and mushy are each a no-no. The sweet-sour tomato sauce is a variation on the Austrian Paradeis sauce. When I read that a Czech-born opera singer said she added lemon zest and cinnamon to her Paradeis sauce, I did the same, and my brother proclaimed that my stuffed green peppers, especially the sauce, were even better than our Mom’s. High praise indeed. The shrimp variation resulted from seeing a heap of multi-colored peppers at a market. EnJoy This recipe may be a bit of work but is worth it. Steaming—rather than baking—this dish creates a delectable, non-goopy sauce, which often occurs in baked sauce. The addition of lemon zest and cinnamon to the sauce adds a mid-Eastern touch to this satisfying dish.
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