Stuffed Bell Peppers

[The Ironic Chef]

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

4 large bell peppers with tops removed, seeded and cored.

Filling
1lb of ground beef.
1/2 cup of uncooked long grain rice.
1 small onion, diced fine.
1 clove of garlic minced.
1 egg beaten.
A pinch of red pepper flakes.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1 quart of V8 Juice with a teaspoon of vinegar mixed in.

Mix all the ingredients for the filling. Fill each pepper but don't pack them to tight.
Arrange the filled peppers in a large sauce pan. Dice the tops of the peppers after removing the center piece of stem and add along with the V8 juice to the pan over the peppers. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for an hour.

If a pressure cooker is used just follow the directions for your pressure cooker. Cooking time should be about 15 to 20 minutes.

If a crock pot is used, cook the rice first following the directions for the rice. Cook on low for about 4 hours. My mother loved to use Minute Rice for this.

Peppers can be halved, filled and placed in a baking pan in the V8 juice. Taco seasoning can be added to the meat mixture and then baked at 375* for 45 minutes covered with a piece of foil. After baking, remove foil, sprinkle on a nice Mexican style cheese mixture and place under the broiler until the cheese has browned nicely.

[Mama Mangia]

I love stuffed peppers. Did you ever use tomato soup in place of the V-8?

[The Ironic Chef]

I'm not a big fan of tomato soup unless it's home made Mama. I'm thinking it might be a good choice for the Mexican style stuffed peppers though.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

I have tried it both ways V-8 & Tomato Soup but my ultimate favorite is plain old tomato sauce. Like IC I love the pan drippings after doing the pressure cooked Stuffed Bell Peppers!!! It makes and excellent gravy for the rice served along side the stuffed bell peppers!

IC I have not had good results using unccoked rice the last few times, from here on out I am using cooked rice in my meat mixture.

[The Ironic Chef]

I have the opposite luck with rice Cathy. If I used cooked rice it turns into a mush and I can't stand that. I like to let my peppers simmer in the sauce as long as possible.
I make porcupines up at the same time as making my peppers so I tend to snack on pieces of them to check for the doneness of my rice.
I mentioned above that my mother liked to use Minute Rice for her peppers. The minute rice always produced good results for her.

[The Ironic Chef]

I have a reason for not liking Minute Rice.
As a kid I never had real rice. My mother always used the Minute Rice. A weekly meal at our house was a box of Banquet Fried Chicken with Minute Rice with probably canned corn.
I remember sitting down to eat dinner one night and something about the Minute Rice caught my eye. It looked like it was moving on my plate or I was tripping. I asked my mother who had a mouth full of the rice at the moment if the rice was actually moving. She looked at the rice on her plate and all of a sudden the contents in her mouth spewed out. Bear Giles she was not.... The little black dots moving around were not black pepper. They were the eyes of the little critters that had been living in that box of rice. The 1 minute bath in boiling water surely didn't cook them.
To this day, over 40 years later, I can't get the image of the expression of my mother's face out of my mind. I so enjoy long cooking rice.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

How funny IC!!! Now I am not a fan of any instant product (except perhaps and only very occassionally Instant Mashed 'taters) and I would never buy Instant Rice, Oatmeal, or Grits = YUCKY POO. But it is simply from a taste stand point>> I never even gave it a thought about bugs in the stuff!!! And a quick water bath to rehydrate the product would surely not be sufficient to kill them all or even sterilize your food for that matter. I am glad you shared the rice story with us as it gives me yet another reason to stay away from instant products!
IC like you I love cooking my rice and my very favorite rice is Basmati I am
not a huge fan of Brown Rice although I keep a bag at all times and use it when we are having steak dinners. For some reason brown rice seems to mate well on a plate with a steak and (in my opinion) the flavors complement one another very well. Other that that I prefer Basmati, Jasmine or plain white rice best.

[cookie]

I Love sweet peppers in the summer, Thanks for your recipe I.C. I stuff mine with Couscous sometimes or dirty rice mix. I will have to try your recipe. Cookie

[double wen]

thanks

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Welcome to EPI, double wen! Please share more about yourself- we're glad you found us! smiles- kevin (chubbyalaskagriz)