Stuffed Peppers

This one is also adapted from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden.

Decapitation can go several ways, depending on how stable you want the caps to be while you’re baking and how many spare peppers you have in case things go wrong…

Ingredients

• 6 bell peppers
• 1 large onion, diced
• 6 T. olive oil, divided
• 1 ¼ c. Arborio rice
• 2 c. water
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• ¼ tsp. allspice (optional)
• ¼ tsp. cinnamon (optional)
• ¼ tsp. ground clove (optional)
• 3 T. pine nuts
• ¼ c. raisins or currants
• 1 large tomato, chopped, or 1 T. tomato paste
• 2 tsp. mint (dried)
• 3 T. fresh dill or parsley, chopped
• 2–3 T. lemon juice

Directions

1. Fry the onion in half the oil.
2. Add the rice and fry to transparency as in risotto.
3. Add water, sugar, and dried spices (except mint).
4. Cook covered for 15 minutes. (Rice will be underdone.)
5. Meanwhile, cut the caps off the bell peppers (cleaning and keeping them), and clean out the peppers. Set peppers aside.
6. Take the rice off the heat and mix in the remaining ingredients.
7. Fill the peppers with the stuffing, replace the caps, and arrange them upright in a baking dish.
8. Put a scant inch of water in the bottom of the dish and bake at 375° for 45-55 minutes.

Variants

The original recipe said to serve them cold.