Red Pepper Yemista

Yemista is a delicious greek recipe for stuffed vegetables.  There are many versions of this recipe, some including meat but the one I am doing today is vegetarian and made with red peppers.  The same recipe can be used to stuff aubergines, courgettes, green peppers and tomatoes.

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice (uncooked) x 1 mug full
Large Red Peppers x 4
Red Onion x 1
Clove Garlic x 2
Vine tomatoes x 4
Packet of Feta Cheese
Toasted pine nuts
Olive oil
Fresh Mint x 2-3 handfuls
Fresh Basil x 1 handful
Fresh Parsley x 1 handful
Salt
Pepper

First, cook the mug of rice in a pot with 2 mugs of water, a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil. Bring to the boil then simmer gently until holes appear on the top of the rice and the water has evaporated. Turn off the gas and cover the pot with a clean tea towel.

While the rice is cooking prepare the peppers by washing them, slicing off a cap from the top of each and cutting out the membrane and seeds.  Keep the cap.  Chop the tomatoes and the onion into small pieces and place into a large bowl. Add the chopped herbs and crumble in the feta cheese. Add the crushed garlic cloves, the rice, the toasted pine nuts and some salt and pepper.  Mix everything together and taste it. Add more salt and pepper as required.

Fill the peppers with the mixture and replace the caps, place onto a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and cook in the oven for about an hour at about 200 deg. C.  About half way through the cooking add a half glass off water to the tray, this will make a lovely stock for spooning over the veg when serving.

If you are stuffing other vegetables, scoop out the centres using a teaspoon, mash or blitz it and add it to the mixture.  For example, if you want to stuff tomatoes don't chop them like I did for the peppers above, just scoop out the insides and use that in the stuffing mixture instead.  Same for courgettes and aubergines, just cut them in half lengthways and run a spoon along the centre to scoop out the flesh which you can then use as part of the stuffing mixture.

Hope you give this tasty recipe a try and if so I would love to hear how it turned out.

Courgettes (Zucchini) In Cream

This is one of my favourite dishes but I don't cook it often and you'll see why after you've made it and eaten the entire dish yourself!  It is so simple and yet so delicious and unfortunately high in calories.  I learned how to make this one in France where emmental cheese is used in it but you can use cheddar if you prefer. In recent times I have been leaving out the garlic as I think it overpowers the flavours a bit - a small clove is enough if you do decide to use some though.  The ingredients below make a small dish and are approximate as I don't measure the cheese or the cream I just know by now how much to use.

3 Courgettes

125ml Fresh Cream

Approx. 1 Large Cup Grated Emmental or Cheddar

Salt

Pepper

1 Small Clove Garlic

Wash the courgettes and slice them.  Put them into an ovenproof dish, add some salt, a little pepper and the crushed garlic clove (if required) and pour the cream over the lot.  Give it a stir to ensure that the courgette slices all have a coating of cream.  Flatten them down into the dish a little and cover with a layer of cheese.  

Cook in the oven on 190 deg. C/gas mark 5/375 deg. F until the cream has evaporated and the top has formed a golden crust.

I serve this with a large baked potato.  It freezes well too (if there's any left)...

Celery Soup

In this weather you can't have enough soup and this one I guarantee will blow you away.  It is stunningly tasty and after one bowl you'll be hooked.  I found this recipe on the back of a celery pack when my little boy was a baby and I have been making it for him ever since, we usually share the entire pot it's so delicious.

Here's what you need:

1 x small red onion
1 x clove garlic
1 x head of celery
2 x vegetable stock cubes
1 litre water
Crème fraîche 
Olive oil
salt
pepper
Fresh herbs to garnish

First, finely chop the red onion and crush the garlic clove and cook on a low heat in a drop of olive oil.  While this is cooking, wash, trim and chop up the celery.  When ready, add it to the pot with the other ingredients and cook for about 2 minutes stirring continuously.  While you are doing this have the kettle on for your boiling water.  Make up your stock using the two cubes and the litre of water and then add this to the pot.  Simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes or until the celery is soft enough to blitz.  When ready, blitz.  Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche  and some crusty bread.  To die for...

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Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is middle Eastern in origin but has become more and more popular in Europe etc. in recent years.  It can be made with either bulgar wheat or couscous but in this recipe I will be using a fine couscous.  The best one that I have come across is in Lidl, it's really fine.  There are many variants to this dish so there are no set rules, the ingredients can be altered according to what you like best or what you have available.  I make two versions with minor ingredient changes but which taste quite different. Version 2 is more spicey and contains cumin and red chilli pepper.

Ingredients (for a medium sized bowl)
1 x mug Couscous (or bulgar)
1 x mug boiling water
2 x cloves garlic
1 x small red pepper
1 x small green pepper
Half a lemon
Half a red onion
3 x medium vine tomatoes
1 large handful fresh corriander or mint (version 1)
1 large handful fresh parsley
Olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
4 x teaspoons Cumin (version 2)
1 x red chilli pepper (version 2)

First, get the couscous ready by pouring 1 x cup/mug full into a bowl and covering with the same amount of boiling water.  Cover the bowl with a plate while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Chop the tomatoes into small pieces (as small as you can) and do the same with the peppers, the red onion, and the herbs.  Crush the two garlic cloves.  For version 2 leave out the corriander/mint as you will instead be adding the cumin and chilli peppers.

When the couscous has absorbed all of the water, remove the lid and fork it to separate the grain and leave to cool.  When cold, add the chopped ingredients, squeeze on some lemon juice, add a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper.  If you are making version 2, this is where you add the cumin and the finely chopped chilli pepper.  Refridgerate for an hour or two or even better overnight to let the flavours infuse.  Serve with warm pitta or Naan bread with a side serving of Tzatziki or plain greek style natural yoghurt.  Yummy.