Today was a grown-up day, which meant that I made tea when I woke up this morning. I realize that doesn't sound like much, but when you work from home and are sort of lazy and are maybe suffering from shin splints, it definitely counts. (Let it be known that I also did some work and learned about pediatric GERD and had some delicious beet pizza [beetza?] for lunch, so I am on some sort of roll). This is obviously all part of my (half-hearted) attempt to get back onto some type of schedule, so as to round out 2011 on a productive bang.
Fortunately, given how anyone would clearly be exhausted after such a day as this, our fridge is replete with tasty leftovers. After several months of not-cooking and fail-cooking (how I messed up fried rice is still a mystery), it has been gratifying to discover that I can still make proper meals. Perhaps my cooking mojo just went into hiding in October because it too was angry at the 100º+ fall days? And wanted to punish me for dragging it out to the desert by making me go out to eat all the time? Oh, cooking mojo, we need to work on your intimidation skills.
Tasty dinner #1 was a pumpkin soup, which is described
here. Tasty dinner #2, which The Husband declared to be The Best Meal EVARRR and I declared to be proof of The Husband's obsession with hyperbole, was wee stuffed peppers, called wee peppers because the peppers were indeed wee.
Pros of wee peppers:
- Adorable
- Probably cook quicker?
- You can eat like twice as many and feel like a giant
- Seriously: SO CUTE
- Juggling purposes?
Cons of wee peppers:
Of course, the cons of my plan were not immediately apparent when I giddily purchased the wee peppers at the farmers' market, and actually did not become apparent until I was already well into making the stuffing and thus could not turn back. Luckily, I am the sensible sort, which means I just pretended that I hadn't made this realization and just assumed things would work out in the end.
To make wee stuffed peppers, you must first acquire wee peppers. Mine were red and yellow and hidden amongst the huge beets and parsnips. I suppose you could use regular-sized peppers IF YOU MUST, but then they are no longer wee and is it really worth it anymore? (Probably.)
Slice these bad boys in half, lengthwise, and remove the seeds and membrane. Season the cavities with a little bit of salt and set aside. You can probably also preheat your oven to 400ºF, if your oven isn't incompetent like mine.
For the stuffing, cook yourself a couple of handfuls of dried chickpeas with a good slurp of olive oil and a dried chipotle pepper. Mince 10 or so cloves of garlic and, once the beans are done, drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Heat some oil in a saute pan; when hot, add the garlic and 1 T fresh rosemary. Once the garlic is fragrant, add the chickpeas and cook, stirring occasionally, until the they are brown and crispy. While the chickpeas are sauteing, cook up some grains (I used 1/2 c. of a Middle Eastern couscous/quinoa blend, cooked in the bean broth). Mix in one roughly chopped tomato and some diced feta, add the grain blend, then season to taste (depending on the saltiness of the feta). Remove from the heat, because you don't really want the tomatoes to cook or the feta to melt.
By the way, I think the feta is key, and might just be what made this so good. There isn't much going on with the stuffing, flavorwise, apart from garlic and rosemary, so a good cheese is necessary. I fulfilled my bourgeois quota with some local peppercorn goat-milk feta, which was salty and smooth and fantastic. If you aren't lucky enough to get a hold of fancy cheese, it might be worthwhile to add more rosemary, or maybe lemon, to the stuffing, to perk up the flavors a bit.
Attempt to stuff the wee peppers. Discover that the chickpeas are pretty much the same size as the wee cavities. Make a giant mess. Have a lot of stuffing left over. Gingerly balance the overloaded peppers into a lightly oiled baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake at 400ºF for about 15 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle on some shredded parmesan, discover that the shreds of cheese are longer than the wee peppers, make a giant mess. Return the dish to the oven for an additional 5 or so minutes, until the peppers start to dehydrate a little and get a bit of color on them. I served the wee peppers on a bed of the some extra stuffing, topped with a dollop of avocado-yogurt sauce (mash one avocado; add a heaped dessert spoon of plain yogurt, a squeeze of lemon, a generous pinch of salt, and some ground black pepper; mix well until smooth). A sprinkle of toasted pepitas are fun, especially if you just have some lying around from a soup adventure.
The peppers keep pretty well and can easily be reheated in a toaster oven or similar (though they can get mighty soft, so keep an eye on them). The extra stuffing also keeps, but the feta chunks will melt when heated up; not a huge loss, but I found the large bites of feta to be appealing, so I might keep that separate in the future. The avocado sauce, however, turns brown and unpleasant with a quickness, so only make what you need (1/2 avocado worked well for roughly 8 wee halves).
Also, because it has been awhile, here's a photo of our little idiot. Yes, he really sleeps like that.
