Beer isn't Dinner »

Stuffed peppers mean nothing to me. I have no attachment to them whatsoever. We never had them in my house growing up. I made them last night simply because we had the ingredients in the refrigerator and pantry. I was, as the dads like to say “televisioning the fridge” trying to concoct a plan from the ingredients before my eyes when I realized it was like a math problem bubble in a grammar school classroom. 4 + 3 = 7 while 4 x 3 = 12. It was only a matter of which formula I was prepared to attempt. This is how I rolled:

Ingredients

• 1/2 package ground beef
• 2 orange peppers
• one cup Basmati rice
• half a white onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• heaping tablespoon tomato paste
• small amount of dried Ancho chilies
• splash of white wine
• chicken bouillon cube
• tablespoon of olive oil
• some salsa
• Mexican shredded cheese

Method

In a deep saute pan I sweat the diced onions in oil, added thinly sliced chilies and minced garlic then the wine splash, ground beef and tomato paste, slowly and deliberately and in that order until browned and incorporated and moist. In a pot of salted, boiling water I dunked the peppers until they were bright orange, about three minutes, cut off their tops and popped out the remaining seeds. I cooked rice with a few drops of oil and a cube of bouillon then combined about half with the beef mixture. I filled the peppers, oiled inside, and placed them in a Dutch oven with an inch of water in the bottom. At the last minute I impulsively added a spoonful of store-bought salsa to the top of each pepper, a handful of cheese and popped them in the the oven at 350 for 50 minutes, and when they were done they were glorious.

We do not have the luxury of shopping daily for fine ingredients. We source the best vegetables and meat available (often from Costco) and try to MacGyver interesting dinners all week. For now the focus is on simplicity, layering flavor and mastering the basics, which is both very pleasing and methodical. If some day stuffed peppers become a fixture on our family dinner schedule we will fondly recall that they were born of necessity during the Mexico adventure early in our marriage.