Stuffed and smothered.
You can stuff a pepper with anything you want. Nothing in the cupboard but a can of black beans and a packet of quick-cooking rice? Cook that rice and throw it into a pepper with the beans, salsa and a sprinkling of cheese. Instant dinner.
Unenthused by leftover take-out rice and Mongolian beef? Layer them into a pepper and watch your sad leftovers become an entirely new meal.
Stuffed peppers are a great fast weeknight meal. They only take 25 minutes to bake. If you’re using leftovers or pantry staples as your filling, there is almost no prep time. If you decide to make your filling from scratch, you can easily batch it over the weekend or the night before so it’s just waiting in the fridge when you get home. If you have filling leftover, it will also make a delicious packed lunch later that week!
To be honest, the stuffed pepper’s versatility made it really tough to develop a specific recipe for this assignment. Researching, I found recipes for everything from Greek stuffed peppers, filled with chunks of grilled halloumi and tabbouleh, to Mexican peppers, brimming with tomatoey rice, black beans, and shredded cheddar cheese. The variety was bewildering, but also oddly predictable. People were stuffing peppers with anything and everything, but none of it excited me. I wanted something different. I was going to have to think outside the box . . . or outside the pepper.
Today’s most successful chefs cook from a specific point of view, usually rooted in a cultural cuisine. Gordon Ramsay elevates rustic British food with French technique. Marcus Samuelsson cooks American southern comfort food influenced by various global cuisines. Bobby Flay is inspired by southwestern Tex-Mex. I could go on, but I hope you get the point! In each case, the cultural influences that inspire the chef also help define their culinary voice, that unique perspective on food that defines them.
If I asked all the famous chefs of the world to stuff peppers, what would they do?
I started imagining my project from all different perspectives. Bobby Flay would probably char corn and poblano chiles on the grill and toss in black beans and queso fresco. Marcus Samuelsson might do grits with smoked pulled pork. Gordon Ramsay might make a lentil and couscous salad . . .
I’m embarrassed to admit how long I played this game— way too long—but when I finally surfaced from my imagination and focused again on the project, I knew exactly what I was going to do: Peppers Etouffee a la Aaron Sanchez.
Aaron Sanchez is Latino by birth, but his flagship restaurant is actually in New Orleans. His culinary voice combines classic Hispanic cooking with the creole roots that thrive in Louisiana. If he were to stuff a pepper, I imagined he might whip up a batch of shrimp etouffee and stuff it into some charred poblano peppers.
While researching etouffee, I learned that “etouffee” literally means “smothered.” Stuffed and smothered. These stuffed peppers were going to a whole new level.
I did not need any more convincing. Once you’ve tasted them, I hope you won't either!
Enjoy!
Stuffed Peppers Etouffee*
(Serves 6)
For the rice:
¾ cup white rice
1 ½ cup water
For the etouffee:
50 g flour
50 g butter
2 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
1 cup chopped celery (about 3 stalks)
1 cup chopped green bell pepper (about 1 medium pepper)
4 cloves garlic, minced
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 large or 2 small bay leaves
1 ½ teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Diamond Crystal kosher salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shrimp stock
For the peppers:
3 bell peppers
For the shrimp:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
¾ pound shrimp
Salt, garlic powder, and paprika to taste
Sliced green onions for garnish
Special equipment: baking sheet.
Method
For the rice:
Pour water into a medium saucepot and add a three-finger pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then pour rice in in a long steady stream and stir to evenly distribute in the water. Bring the water back up to a boil, then reduce heat, cover the pot, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until rice is tender and cooked through. At this point, remove the pot from the heat, remove the lid, and cover the top of the pot with a piece of paper towel. Replace the lid over the paper towel and let the pot sit off heat while you prepare the etouffee.**
For the etouffee:
Melt butter in a large deep saucepan (a Dutch oven would be ideal). Add the flour and stir to make a paste. Cook at medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the roux is the color of caramel (this step really deepens the flavor of your etouffee, so be patient and do not move on too early!)
Add the onion, celery, pepper, garlic, and a three-finger pinch of salt to the darkened roux and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are softened but not browned (they should not get crispy in any way! You just want to sweat them so they release their liquid).
Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, paprika, garlic powder, and seasoning (I recommend a two-finger pinch of salt and a few grinds of the pepper mill), and saute over medium-high heat for two minutes or until the tomatoes have cooked down and begin to lose their shape.
Add the shrimp stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the flavors mingle and the liquid reduce.***
For the peppers:
Cut the stems out of each pepper and pull out the seeds and white ribs (rinsing the peppers over the sink can help wash out those obnoxious white seeds). If you are planning to bake the peppers whole, standing up on the baking sheet, leave them whole. Otherwise you may cut them in half vertically to create two pepper “boats” to fill.
If you have a gas stove, parcook the peppers by “grilling” them over a medium gas flame, turning occasionally, until they are slightly softened and blackened. The slight char will enhance their flavor; however, if you are serving people who object to a little blackened pepper skin, place the peppers on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F until slightly softened, 5-10 minutes.
For the shrimp:
Preheat a nonstick pan on medium heat. Add oil and swirl to coat the surface. Season shrimp with paprika, garlic powder, and salt and add to the pan. If there are too many shrimp to fit in the pan without crowding, leave some out and cook them in batches. If the shrimp are crowding each other, they will not sear properly!
Cook two minutes, untouched; then flip and cook on the other side for a minute, or until they are no longer translucent. Transfer cooked shrimp to a clean plate.
To assemble:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Fill each pepper half a few tablespoons of rice and cover in etouffee. Or, if you are serving the peppers whole, layer in the rice and etouffee in layers. Set on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until heated through and nicely browned on top. To serve, cover the bottom of each bowl with etouffee and place a pepper on top. Arrange shrimp on top of the etouffee surrounding the pepper and sprinkle with chopped green onion.
*This recipe may look long and involved, but several components, including the etouffee and the rice-- can be prepped ahead of time and used throughout the week for packed lunches, as well as this stuffed peppers recipe. This recipe is also incredibly flexible. If you don't want to use the shrimp, you don't have to. You could do sausage, another type of shellfish, or chicken, or just leave it vegetarian and it will still be completely delicious. Make it the way YOU like it-- it's your meal.
**The paper towel trick is not necessary, but I find that it helps to absorb any residual moisture in the pot. When you are ready to serve it, the rice will fluff easily instead of clumping.
***At this point, you could stop cooking completely and refrigerate both the rice and the etouffee until you’re ready to make the stuffed peppers. Just make sure to let the etouffee cool completely before you put it in the refrigerator. If you refrigerate tomato-based sauces when they are still warm, they can go sour.
Originally posted August 10, 2019.
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