Deconstructed Stuffed Pepper Stew

We’re still savoring the comfort food chapter.  I think it’s because of the frigid temperatures that I don’t feel like doing anything but cozying up to the fireplace (if only we had a real one) with a bowl of hot, homey and hearty comfort food. 

I’ve been craving Romanian comfort food, lately; something other than stuffed cabbage or pork goulash.  And to be honest, I’ve been dreaming of Grandma Vicki’s Stuffed Peppers recipe for a while.  This recipe has been on my to make list, but I wanted to somehow avoid the two inconveniences that the recipe entails: first, I wasn’t eager to waste my time in the kitchen stuffing pepper after pepper; and second, those little gypsy peppers traditionally used in this recipe are mighty hard to find in wintertime.  So, how to make a stew without having to spend an outrageous amount of time putting it together?    

But then it happened that a couple of weekends ago, Adrian and I paid a visit to our friends’ house to watch some English soccer games.  After lots of yelling and cheering while watching the games, Gretchen served us a delicious stuffed pepper stew.  The stew had all the ingredients for a stuffed peppers recipe but everything was chopped and blended together; and she called it “a deconstructed stuffed pepper stew”.  And the little lightbulb went off in my head!  Thank you Gretchen for helping me decide how to approach my grandma’s stuffed peppers recipe!  I have to admit that, once I heard the word “deconstructed” I wanted to race home and make the stew right away. 

Before attempting the impossible, I called my grandma and explained how I wanted to transform her beloved stuffed peppers recipe.  Of course, she said that I was crazy and that it would never work.  But, guess what, it worked out beautifully!  Only the aspect of the stew is radically different from my grandma’s recipe but the flavors that I love are all there.  In fact, I would say that there are various nuances and depths of flavor in this dish.  It’s also nourishing and it incorporates everything from proteins to starch and veggies. 

Of course, being a Romanian dish, I was indebted to throw in a smidge of paprika to coat the onions and meat in a mild pungency and give them that beautiful red color.  But the meat, rice, peppers and tomatoes are all able to shine through and add texture despite being engulfed in a sea of sweet, savory and tangy tomato sauce.  And then you sprinkle a few chopped leaves of parsley on top for a lovely green color and much desired freshness.  You could even argue that this stew is similar to a chili; a Romanian chili with rice but without beans.  Ultimately, this Deconstructed Stuffed Pepper Stew is a filling, flavorful and homemade Romanian comfort stew!

Deconstructed Stuffed Pepper Stew

By Simply Romanesco inspired by my Grandma Vicki

Makes: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

·         6 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

·         1 large yellow onion, chopped

·         Salt and black pepper

·         1 Tablespoon sweet or hot paprika

·         1 pound ground pork

·         2 large red peppers, cut into ½ -inch chunks

·         1 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes

·         1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

·         2 Tablespoons sugar

·         ½ cup white rice

·         A small bunch of parsley for garnish, chopped

·         Sour cream (optional)

Instructions:

Heat 4 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper, and cook until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.  Add the paprika and stir well.  Add the ground pork, season with salt and pepper, and stir well to coat with the paprika.  Cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the meat is cooked through.  Add the red peppers and diced tomatoes and give it a good stir.  Cook for 5 minutes.

Combine the tomato sauce with ½ cup of water and pour it over the ingredients in the pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the sugar and stir well.  Add ½ cup of water and stir.  Bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 30-40 minutes.

In the meantime, rinse the white rice in cold water.  Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil over high heat in a small saucepan.  Add the rice and stir.  Add 2 cups of water and season with a good pinch of salt.  Turn the heat to low and simmer uncovered until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked.  When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off and cover the saucepan with a lid and let it sit until the stew is cooked.

When the stew is cooked, add the rice and stir well to incorporate. Check the seasonings and add more salt and sugar if necessary, for that perfect balance of savory and sweet.  Simmer for 5 more minutes.  Serve with chopped parsley and a dollop of sour cream on top.

Poftă Bună! (Bon Appétit!)        

Farewell Alfred

It’s time to say goodbye to Alfred.  It’s so hard to let go and my heart is so heavy, but I know I have to do it.  I postponed it for far too long and things are still not improving.  Before I get into more depressing details, I’ll spare you the pain and anxiety of the unknown and tell you that Alfred is our bamboo potted plant. 

A friend of mine gave me Alfred as a birthday present in my freshman year in college.  At first, I was very excited and happy with the bamboo.  I even gave it a real name, Alfred.  However, the excitement diminished when it hit me that I would have to take care of this thing, a thought that was terrifying to say the least.  I was actually proud of myself for keeping it alive for five years especially since I just don’t do well with potted plants.  But Alfred was doing quite well – it was green, leafy and healthy before its unexpected and irreversible decline.  It was like it got the five years itch and started to bail out on me.  It turned yellow, lost its leaves, and its poor skeleton stems were invaded by these horrifying black dots.  Truth be told, my Alfred has been looking anemically pale and quite depressed for more than a year now.      

Frankly, I don’t really know what else I could do for Alfred.  I watered it, I kept it in and out of sunlight, cut off its dead leaves, changed its pebbles, added more pebbles, changed its soil, changed its pot, fed it fancy plant food that cost a small fortune.  So, after so many attempts you would think that it came back to life and flourished like there’s no tomorrow.  But no, it became weaker and weaker and now it looks deader than ever.  The sad thing is that a so-called plant expert at Home Depot told me once that it’s virtually impossible to kill a bamboo.  Well, I think that I managed the unmanageable and killed mine.  I just don’t think that potted plants agree with me.  C’est la vie… you can’t win’em all.  And now I have to let it go!

So, in Alfred’s loving memory, I decided to make a vegetarian stew and share it with you and all of you, who experienced difficulties raising potted plants.  I hope someone can understand my frustration.  The Rice and Vegetable Stew is my all-time favorite vegetarian dish that my Grandma Vicki makes.  This is one of those simple and super easy things to make.  The funny thing about this recipe is that it calls for fresh tomatoes and I have to tell you that I don’t like raw tomatoes at all.  I love ketchup (in fact, I could eat tons of ketchup, and as a child I would add extra ketchup to pizza, spaghetti and anything that I thought would need ketchup), tomato paste, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, and even tomato juice, but don’t give me fresh tomatoes.  I can’t explain why.  Sometimes I feel like celebrity chef Scott Conant, who can’t stand raw onions.  If you happen to compete on Chopped and he’s one of the judges, don’t give him raw onions – he’ll chop you! 

My relationship with fresh tomatoes is very limited and when I say limited, I mean it; I don’t even get near them.  On the other hand, Adrian loves tomatoes and sometimes I even forget to buy his San Marzano tomatoes that he loves so much.  But things change when I buy fresh tomatoes for this vegetable stew.  Then, I look for the best tomatoes out there.  I look at their color, their skin, their firmness, and I squeeze them gently to get an idea of how juicy they really are.  By the way, this is how you have to buy your tomatoes for this recipe.  Make sure they’re juicy!  

What I like most about this stew is how well the flavors blend and work together.  The sweetness of the pepper and the onions together with the sourness and juiciness of the tomatoes form a welcoming base for the rice, which adds body and texture to the mixture.  In the end, you’ll get the perfect balance of savory and sweet, and you’ll capture tasty bright flavors in a simple yet bold and brilliant dish.

Ghiveci – Rice and Vegetable Stew

By Simply Romanesco inspired by my Grandma Vicki

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients:

·         Vegetable oil

·         2 medium onions, julienned

·         1 large yellow pepper, chopped

·         5 medium tomatoes

·         Salt

·         1 ½  – 2 Tablespoons sugar

·         ½ cup white rice

Instructions:

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add the tomatoes and leave them in boiling water for a couple of minutes until the skin becomes soft.  Take the tomatoes out, peel them and chop them.  Set them aside. 

In a medium pan, heat up 4 Tablespoons of oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and season with salt.  Cook the onions until translucent, about 7-8 minutes.  Add the yellow pepper and stir.  Cook together with the onions, about 7-8 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and their juices.  Season with more salt and stir well.  Bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down and add the sugar.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes until the liquid has reduced and the stew has thickened.  Season with more salt and sugar to taste to obtain a perfect balance between sweet and sour.

While the vegetables cook down, in a medium saucepan, heat up 2 Tablespoons of oil over high heat.  Add the rice and 2 cups of water.  Season with salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked.  When the rice is cooked, cover with a lid for 5 minutes. 

Add the rice to the vegetable stew and stir well over low heat and cook together for 5 minutes.  Season to taste.  Serve with egg omelette.  

Poftă Bună! (Bon Appétit!)