Dishes
Stuffed peppers, Țuțora-style, by madame Simona
What’s it like to be greeted early in the morning with fluffy sweet bread and a pear brandy that gets your blood pumping and adds extra zing to a fall day when the sun barely peeks out from behind the clouds? Signs are looking good for today! It’s still early in Țuțora, and as soon as we enter the village, it smells like autumn, abundance, and industrious women. We’ve been invited to Madame Simona’s home, where we’ll partake in one of the most cherished local dishes, a dish that has gained fame throughout the community filled with resourceful homemakers.
Stuffed peppers, Țuțora-style, are as famous as the beautiful people in this community, known for their good looks and hardworking nature as they go about their daily chores in their proud households. This recipe incorporates the creativity and imagination of the village’s diligent women. We gather about 30 plump peppers in various colors, a sign that this feast will be substantial, with plenty of guests who will enjoy a spread filled with delicious dishes.
The stuffing for these plump peppers is a combination of finely chopped beef and pork, totaling about four kilograms, along with sweet onions, roughly one kilogram, finely chopped dill and parsley, oil to tame the mixture, tomato paste, and, of course, thyme. The thought of the magnificent dish that will result from this combination of ingredients has our mouths watering.
Madame Simona, a chef who could put even the most famous master chefs to shame, dices the onions with her eyes almost closed. She prepares the meat mixture with tantalizing aromas and expertly blends the ingredients. Then she fills the peppers with this delicious stuffing, making sure to pack them generously. Finally, she caps them with new tomato lids, perfectly cut.
Now it’s time to prepare the vessels in which the peppers will simmer, as if in a slow autumn slumber. Madame Simona spreads a bed of thyme in the pot and carefully arranges the peppers, being careful not to disturb their contents. She prepares a delightful liquid mixture using boiling sour soup, tomato juice, a spoonful of tomato paste, which she pours over the peppers. Then she places them in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hour and 10 minutes or lets them simmer on the stove for just over an hour until the skins and contents are cooked to perfection.
As we wait for this culinary masterpiece, we get lost in the family’s garden, a magical place that reflects the warm hearts of the hosts. Here, they care for rabbits, noisy geese, pigeons, lazy cats, diligent watchdogs with perked ears, chickens, and more. Eventually, the table is set, but words fail us as we try to describe how wonderful everything tastes.
On television, they say, “probably the best… in the world.” Well, if Țuțora-style stuffed peppers had an advertisement, they would surely surpass many other dishes from around the world.
Ingredients:
– About 30 medium-sized red and green bell peppers
– 4 kg mixed minced meat (3 kg pork, 1 kg beef)
– 1 kg round-grain rice
– 1 kg sweet onions
– 0.5 liters of oil
– 250 g tomato paste
– 1 liter tomato juice
– 1 liter borscht (putină)
– Salt
– Pepper
– A bunch of dill
– A bunch of parsley
– Dried thyme (branchlets)
– Tomato slices for capping
Preparation:
- For the filling, combine the ingredients listed above, except for the liquids, in the specified proportions, until you obtain a homogeneous mixture.
- Remove the caps with stems from the peppers and fill them with the prepared mixture. Seal the peppers with tomato lids to prevent the stuffing from coming out during cooking.
- In a clay pot, a ceramic dish, or a tray, you can prepare the stuffed peppers either on an open flame or in the oven. Arrange the stuffed peppers in the pot on a bed of thyme.
- Prepare a liquid mixture using sour soup brought to a boil, tomato juice, and a spoonful of tomato paste. Pour this mixture over the peppers.
- Place the pot in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hour and 10 minutes or simmer it on the stove for just over an hour, allowing the skins and contents to cook thoroughly.
- Serve the stuffed peppers with polenta, homemade sour cream, and hot peppers for an extra kick.
Enjoy your meal!