Russian food is much influenced by the cuisines of Russia's own Near East, which consists of Caucasus, Central Asia and the Muslim nations of the Volga basin.Stuffed bell peppers are one of such Oriental goodies that quite commonly appear on the Russian table. It is a festive dish and takes some time to prepare but the result is totally worth the fuss.
Equal quarters of mince, cooked rice, chopped onions and a pre-stirfried and pre-seasoned vegetable mix go into the stuffing. I gentrify the original recipe with a few sophisticated touches:
- I use tartare mince which is low-fat;
- Rice is cooked with quarter less water than necessary, thus it helps trap the juices inside the peppers;
- I add shiitake and Iranian spices in the veggie mix;
- I steam the peppers in a glass of white wine added at the bottom of the pot.
I have found that Chilean white wine from the Pedro Jiménez variety of grapes, it goes perfect with my stuffed peppers. It is dry with just one tone of passion fruit that rings like an A sharp. It is slightly gassy and tastes the best when left in the glass to warm up and oxidise a bit.
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I'm almost tearful now - my mum and her family (from Southern Ukraine) always make these peppers. I always felt that I couldn't quite replicate the recipe because here in the UK you can't get 'Bulgarian' peppers, which are of course quite different from the bog standard bell peppers (less sweet, longer in shape, more delicate). However, I think my beloved Green Lanes in London might just stock something similar to our Bulgarian peppers (probably calling them Turkish peppers)
ReplyDeleteYou can find ANYTHING in London, just got to know where to look. Fresh markets and ethnic stores are the best place to look. Turkish grocers carry many products we think as essentially Russian: barley, buckwheat, sweet condensed milk (sguschonka).
ReplyDeleteI never have qualms about sprucing up the recipe when it serves to enhance the taste. Some original versions may be somewhat bland and my taste buds need more kick than you can derive from the classic Russian spices, salt and pepper.