Stuffed Peppers & Ginger-Orange Carrots

Interesting week just past.   Here at the marina we had a 120 ft South African registered megayacht limp into port for a couple day stay.  They'd been crossing Lake Okeechobee, and ran afoul of something huge and fiberglass or plastic (sunken boat?)  that damaged one of their 3 foot diameter bronze propellers.  So the owners went ashore and the crew stayed aboard to "effect repairs".

I walked down the dock the next day,  and welcomed the crew to the area, introduced myself, and gave my Personal Chef business card to the Captain.  He said "You don't sound Scottish." and asked what kind of Scottish food I made.   The upshot was that I was asked to do a "Scottish Dinner" for the Captain, his wife, and two young deckhands.   No rough and tumble sailors these, but polished upscale maritime folk.  Megayachts don't hire seadogs.  The Captain reminded me a lot of Robert Irvine, the Food Network chef from Dinner:  Impossible, who was once chef aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

So for their feast I prepared my Faux Haggis and Tatties & Neeps, detailed here in my Scottish Culinary Delights post.  Their second side dish was my signature Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons.


Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons
1 "thumb" of fresh Ginger
Carrots - 2 large per person, washed
1 can frozen Orange Juice Concentrate

Julienne the ginger.  Peel the carrots.  Just keep peeling long ribbons until you can't hold on any longer.  Don't discard the outside peels, as they've got lot of goodness in them.  In a large covered skillet place the ginger, carrots and about a 2" length of the still frozen OJ concentrate.  Bring the temp up to medium-high, tossing the carrots in the melted OJ and ginger.  Simmer until the ribbons are cooked through -- perhaps 10 minutes.  Plate and serve.  Even veggie haters love these sweet and tangy orange ribbons!

For dessert I made them Strathboggie Mist, a concoction of poached pears in a ginger wine and cream sauce.  But since I neglected to get any pictures, I'll have to give you that recipe another time.


Stuffed Bell Peppers
Last week I gave my my secret recipe for shrimp stuffed tomatoes.  This week I'm stuffing bell peppers.

6 large Red Bell Peppers (or other colors, but we prefer the taste of cooked reds)
1 pound 90/10 or 85/15 Ground Beef
3-4 cups Cooked Rice (2 'cups' uncooked rice in the Rice Cooker)
4 oz Crimini Mushrooms
1/2 Red Bell pepper, diced (not one of the 6 above)
1/2 large Sweet Onion
1/2 large Yellow Tomato, diced
3/4 cup prepared Vodka Pasta Sauce 
Italian Spice Blend or combination of spices, to taste

Cook the rice.  I used Jasmine rice infused with about half a tablespoon of ground cumin.  While that's going on, slice off the tops and remove the seeds and veins from the peppers.  Stand peppers upside down on paper towels to drain while you prepare the rest of the stuffing.

Brown the beef and onion.  Add the diced pepper, tomato and mushrooms and cook 5 more minutes.  Add the pasta sauce and spices and cook another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add the cooked rice and fold to combine.

You can finish this recipe in the oven, or in a temperature controlled deep cooker like my Saladmaster(tm) MP-5, five-quart electric cooker.  If you're going for the oven, set the temperature to 350F and arrange the hollowed peppers in a suitable container.  Fill peppers with the stuffing, swell packed.  Bake about 30 minutes until the peppers are softened.  

In the MP-5 I set the temperature for 300F, arranged the peppers and stuffed them.  Then I added about an inch of water. and put the lid on.  After 30 minutes the peppers were nicely cooked, so I turned things off and plated them out.  One pepper makes a pretty good dinner serving, especially if you serve a small side salad.

Lady Sally had been gifted with a nice large Dragonfruit, so for dessert we had a Dragonfruit and Starfruit smoothie.  Yum.

Even here in Southwest Florida we're getting temperatures in the low 80s for daytime highs.  Welcome to Fall!!