MEATLESS MONDAY: stuffed peppers and peanut butter marshmallow cupcakes

When I'm in the kitchen, I feel the day finally makes some sense. Though I'm far from being a Gault Millaut cook, I love to prep veggies, pat them dry, chop them up neatly, with a sharp knife (compared to a Gault Millaut chef, my speed is probably slow-mo... but never mind me), fry, braise or roast things, and season it with love and fleur de sel. It is exactly what I need to unwind. Other people love to take long, hot, steamy showers to think and relax (my boyfriend totally belongs to those specimen). Well, I cook. It wasn't always like that. But my mom was and still is a fantastic cook. Her knife and chopping skills are pretty close to that of a Food Network star (possibly), and her expertise is unmatched. Of course, everyone thinks his or her mom is the best cook. And if you've learned as much from your mom as I did, well, then you just have to be fair and state the source of your inspiration and pleasures, right?

So, after years of enjoying my mom's food at home - lavish meals where the tables almost burst with plates and dishes, exotic things, everything home-made, from scratch - I discovered this pleasure for myself. In my first (and very basically equipped) kitchen, as a student. Of course, when I started, I burnt the occasional caramel, over salted one too many servings of pasta and generally ruined a couple of dozen cakes with my inability for patience (and accuracy). But I never stopped loving what I did. I never stopped loving to cook, and the effect it had on me. No matter how much went wrong, no matter how many panna cottas didn't turn out the way I intended them to, it was always (or... mostly) fun, soothing and rewarding. I can't help but think that we should learn more from cooking in our general lives. It teaches us patience. It learns us to be creative, to try something beyond the usual. It helps us to pull something through, and not stop in the middle. And when nothing else is okay, seriously just what can cheer you like a pair of tiny tea cakes, warm and spongy, directly out of the oven? 

STUFFED PEPPERS

INGREDIENTS

• half a dozen small, green peppers (from the Arab store) 
• 1 onion, chopped
•  2-3 tbsp. ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice blend containing cinnamon, cilantro seeds, cumin, etc) 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 peperoncino, minced 
• 2 cups minced soy meat 
• 1 tbsp turmeric 
• 1 cup rice 
• 1 1/2 cup of vegetable broth 
• 1 handful fresh cilantro and parsley, chopped 
• 1 handful pine nuts, lightly toasted 

Tomato sauce:

• 1 glass tomato passata 
• 1 tsp ground cumin 
• 1 tsp sweet paprika 
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp honey olive oil salt, pepper

METHOD

1. In a large pan, heat a little olive oil and fry the onion, one garlic clove, peperoncino and the ras el hanout (i love this word...) spice mix. Add the minced soy meat and fry well. Add the rice, turmeric and vegetable broth. The rice does not have to be fully cooked, just a bit sweated. Season with salt and pepper. Add toasted pine nuts, cilantro and parsley. Set aside. 
2. Wash the peppers and cut off the top part (keep the 'lids'). Take the rice-soy-meat mixture and lightly (without force) pile (not actually 'stuff') into the peppers, one after another. Make sure only to fill them to about one third, since the rice will inflate when cooked (and you won't want your peppers to burst...). 
3. Place the stuffed peppers with their lids on in a heat proof pan. In a food processor, combine the tomato passata, other garlic clove, lemon juice, paprika and cumin, some salt and pepper and pulse. 
4. Pour the tomato mix into the peppers. Drizzle with a generous sprinkle of olive oil. Put in the oven and 'bake' until the peppers are nicely brown around the edges and shrunk. 
5. Take out and serve warm (not sizzling hot), accompanied with fresh cilantro yogurt and a nice flatbread, pita or toasted sesame focaccia. Drink Moroccan mint tea with plenty of sugar in it, to go with it.

STORAGE & MAKING AHEAD

You can prepare the peppers well before you plan to eat them - and simply heat them through again shortly before serving, if you like them warm. You can store them in the fridge for three to four days. So, it's really a very good dish to prepare in advance. Can you believe I'm actually still drooling over those pictures right now...

And come see my fluffer nutter cupcakes here. Peanut butter with a fluffly marshmallow topping drizzled in caramel. Yes and yes!