Stuffed Green Bell Peppers (with Olive Oil)

Couple of weeks ago, I’ve reunited with three of my friends when they came to visit me in Istanbul. The last time we were all together was 12 years ago in Beijing. Needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do! Before they left Turkey, they wanted to learn couple of new Turkish dishes to try back home, so we ended up cooking stuffed green peppers (dolma). Why this dish? Well, besides being extremely tasty, once you learn how to prepare the rice, you literally learned to cook many other dishes simultaneously- stuffed eggplants, red bell peppers, zucchini flowers and my all time favorite stuffed vine leaves!
This is a time consuming dish, but it so worth your effort. If you have some remaining rice, you can freeze it in the freezer and use it next time…

The key ingredients for good "dolma" are lots of onions (be ready to cry a bit) and allspice...

Here we go!

INGREDIENTS

• 15 bell peppers (medium size)
• 1 sliced tomato (medium size)
• 3 big onions
• 2 glasses/cups rice (keep it inlukewarm water for 10-15 minutes, then drain)
• 1/2 glass/cup/ 125 ml virgin olive oil
• 3 glasses/cups hot water
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 tbsp black currants
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp dry mint or 1/2 bunch fresh mint
• 1/2 bunch chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 bunch chopped dill
• Salt to taste

- Dice the onions, put in a pan, add the pine nuts and olive oil
- Cook until the onions are translucent and nuts start to brown stirring occasionally
- Add the rice and stir constantly since the rice has the tendency to stick to the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes. Stop as soon as the rice starts to harden
- Add the currants, allspice, pepper, salt, sugar and mint (if using fresh mint add it at the end together with dill and parsley). Keep stirring!
- Pour 1 glass/cup of hot water and cook on low heat until the rice absorbs the water. 
- Cover the pan and allow the rice to sit for 10-15 minutes. (Rice should be slightly undercooked )
- Stir in the parsley and dill (and mint if using fresh)

- While waiting for the rice to cool, prepare the peppers by removing the top. Wash and clean the seeds inside.

- Stuff the peppers with rice. Leave some room at the top since the rice will enlarge as it cooks more.

- Use slices of tomato as caps for the peppers

- Put the peppers in a cooking pot, place a big enough plate on the peppers.

- Add 2 glasses of water, place the lid and cook until most of the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked. 

Important: Since there won't be a lot of water in the pot, make sure that you pay close attention  and check regularly to avoid burning the peppers. It happened to me couple of times in the past, so be warned!

Once the peppers are cooked, remove the plate and let them cool. Dishes with olive oil are eaten cold and always taste better the next day.

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