Baked Pimento Pepper Halves

Stuffed with Minced Chicken Breast

While rummaging in my freezer I came across vacuum packed chicken breast. Just one chicken breast is not enough to feed 2 people unless I use it in stir fry or with risotto or lots of pasta. None of these options appealed to me, I just had to come up with something that I haven’t done before. Last week I made soup dumplings using minced chicken breast, egg and polenta (!) instead of bread crumbs so I figured I could follow same process. Then I remembered one of our favorite dim-sums: fried and steamed green pepper halves stuffed with ground pork! I have a lot of red pimento peppers in my veggie garden (that I grew from seeds J) so I have decided to use them. They are just perfect size for quick bake, about 2” wide and 4” long. Problem: chicken breast is the leanest meat on the planet and because of that I will have to add some good fat. I figured since everybody (among normal people) loves bacon, why not take couple slices of bacon, chop it and then pulverize it in mini-chopper to add some taste and moisture. New recipe was done, at least in my head.

 Ingredients

1 chicken breast (1 halve), cut into 1” cubes

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

2 slices smoked bacon, roughly chopped

1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. Hungarian paprika

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. dried marjoram

1 Tbs. chopped garlic chives or French chives

6 small red peppers

Oil for initial frying

Process

Wash and dry peppers and cut off excess stem.

Split in half lengthwise, remove seeds, white ribs and cut across the stem and as close as possible to pepper wall. You should have only small green knob left.

Place garlic and bacon in a mini-chopper or food processor and process until bacon has a paste consistency.

Scrape the sides of processor bowl and add chicken and pulse until chicken is well minced.

Place bread crumbs, paprika, salt, thyme, marjoram and chives into mixing bowl and mix until well combined.

Mix beaten egg with milk and pour in bread crumb mixture and mix. The crumbs should form small pellets.

Mix the chicken mince with bread crumbs and mix until mixture is well combined and smooth. You should be able to form a ball that holds its shape. Adjust the consistency if needed by adding more milk if dry or more bread crumbs if too runny.

Take a teaspoon of the mixture, make a small pate and fry in little oil to test for seasoning, mainly if it is salty enough since bacon differs a lot in how salty the slices are. Adjust if needed.

With spoon, stuff the peppers with mixture, pressing the meat in all corners and stuffing it a little bit higher than the rim of the pepper. It should have a little mound above the rim.

Preheat oven to 400 °F and place rack in middle.

Heat about 1/2 cup of oil in small frying pan and shallow fry meat side of pepper till golden, about 20 – 30 seconds. Fry only 2 halves at the time, they are very slippery and hard to handle. When seared remove peppers with tongues to plate lined with paper towel. Repeat for rest of peppers.

Place peppers meat side up on a wire or roasting rack and place the rack on baking sheet. (I used my BBQ grill so I’ve omitted the baking sheet and roasted them on warming rack that is higher than cooking grill.)

Bake for 20 minutes.

To Serve

Only you imagination will direct you in how many ways you can serve these stuffed peppers. Simplest one, and the one I used when I served them freshly baked, is just as it is: on a bed of lettuce or arugula with a baguette toast rubbed with garlic and fresh tomatoes. Other suggestion are that you can cut the peppers across into 1 inch slices and put them on top of toasted baguette slices…or serve them in a hot tomato sauce with, you guessed it, garlic rubbed and toasted baguette slices. This was today’s reincarnation of this great meal. Hmmm, it looks like we do like toasted baguette slices rubbed with my very own hard neck garlic. I have to agree, we do. It makes a great base for almost any toppings.

Peppers are ready for initial browning.

Caramelized and ready for baking.

Burners on right and left were on full and two center ones were on low.

  Ready for any way you want to serve them.

Pan Fried Salmon, Green Beans and Red Pepper.

Because of versatility and taste salmon is my favorite fish. This is one of the simplest versions I have made. It can be made in less then 20 minutes, including preparation, same time as rice takes to cook. I have to mention, though, that the red pepper was already cleaned from prep for previous meal so all I had to do was remove ends from green beans and slice them in half and prepare the wasabi sauce.

Again, this is so simple.

Ingredients:

§    Salmon fillet portion, skin on or skinless, 1 per person

§    Salt and White pepper

§    Green Beans, ends removed and cut in half lengthwise and pre-cooked in microwave for 1 minute.

§    Red Pepper, julienned

§    1 tsp. olive oil

§    1 tsp. butter

Sauce:

§    1 tsp. wasabi powder mixed with 1 tsp. water

§    1/3 cup Mayonnaise

§    2 Tbs. Maple Syrup

Mix all ingredients till smooth

Direction:

Season salmon with salt and pepper (for that little extra I use smoked sea salt).

Preheat frying pan with butter and oil on medium high. Add salmon skin side up together with beans and peppers. When salmon is opaque 1/3 up, about 2 minutes, turn over skin side down and stir beans and peppers. When salmon is almost flaky, about another 2 – 3 minutes, remove from heat and serve on preheated plate with rice, beans and red pepper. Spoon wasabi/mayo/maple syrup sauce on side or on top of salmon.

This will be our post golf game lunch, I think. So tasty and fast.

Stir Fried Beef with Peppers

This must be one of the tastiest flank steak recipes that I have come up with. Originally I wanted to do my version of Mongolian Beef but somehow it evolved into this lightly spiced Hoisin sauce based stir fry. The meat was very tender due to fact that it was thinly sliced across the grain and marinated overnight in mix of Hoisin and Oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, Sake and white parts of green onions.

Half an hour before serving this meal I cooked the rice in rice cooker and prepared garlic, 1” chopped ginger, julienned 1/2 red pepper, sliced 1/2 onion, 3 sliced water chestnuts and chopped green tops of scallions.

 Heat up wok, add 1 tsp. peanut oil, 1/2 tsp. sesame oil and when hot add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 1/2 minute. Add pepper, onions and water chestnuts and cook for another 1/2 minute then add the beef with marinade and stir fry till beef is slightly caramelized, about 1 minute. Serve on preheated individual plate, garnished with green tops of scallions and with steamed rice on side.

Stir Fried Beef with Red Pepper

While organizing my freezer I came across vacuum packed piece of flank steak. The method of cooking was immediately obvious but what sort of stir fry I will make wasn’t as clear. At the end I have decided that fewer ingredients the better. “Just follow the KISS principle”, I said to myself. Since I had red pepper, asparagus, green and white onions, decision was made for me. I left the flank in a garage to slowly defrost at 4 °C. In the morning it was perfect for slicing it thin. If you are using fresh beef, place it in freezer for about 30 minutes and it will be much easier to slice. Stir frying is very quick method and meat has to be cut very thin, no more then 1/16” to 1/8”. Then it was to decide what sauce it will be cooked in. Out came my favorite and well used cook book by Gloria Bley Miller “The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook” that I bought back in 1981 when I got really serious about Oriental cooking. I still haven’t seen a better Chinese food cookbook. I refer to it all the time for methods and techniques used, there are so many! This cookbook isn’t for a beginner, you have to have a bit of experience to appreciate and use it.

Here goes the simplified recipe inspired by one in this book.

To serve 2

1/2 lb flank steak, thinly sliced

1” ginger, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper

6 asparagus spears cut in half and separated (stems and spears)

2 green onions

1/2 onion, sliced into wedges

water chestnuts, sliced

1Tbs. peanut oil

Marinade:

1 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce

1 Tbs. Sake

2Tbs. Soy sauce

1 Tbs. Corn starch

Sauce:

2Tbs oyster sauce

1 Tbs. honey

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 Tbs. sake

1 Tbs. corn starch

Mix all marinade ingredients till smooth and coat all beef slices. Cover and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Have all ingredients on hand, it will take just a few minutes from start to finish.

Drain marinade (if meat didn’t absorb it) and pat dry.

Preheat well seasoned wok till hot and add cold oil around the sides of wok. Oil should form a haze as soon as it touches sides of wok. Add slices of flank in one layer if possible and let brown (don’t move the meat) for 30 seconds. Flip over with steel spatula and stir fry for another 30 seconds. Remove the meat to preheated bowl and keep warm.

Lower the heat to medium high and sauté garlic and ginger for few seconds.

Add red pepper, asparagus stems, onion wedges and chestnuts. Stir fry for about a minute and then add asparagus tips and half of the green onions. Stir for about 1/2 a minute and increase the heat. Return meat to the wok and add the sauce. Stir till all ingredients are well coated with sauce and serve immediately. Garnish with remaining green onions. Serve with steamed rice.