Stuffed Green Peppers

Sorry haven't posted for some time. First, I had some keyboard issues with my i-book which was not surprising considering the five years of continuous use. After two trips to the "genius bar" I now have a swanky new keyboard , Thank God!. There have also been some big developments that I shall tell you about soon. As for now I'm just about managing keeping up with work and home, leave alone blogging. Here is a recipe I promised long back but never got around to posting. I love stuffed peppers whether stuffed with potato as shown here or with meat and rice. I like to bake my green pepper to get that roasted pepper flavor. Hope you like this.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 large green peppers
3 large potatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green chillies, slit
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste
1 tsp lemon juice
Oil

Method

Cut the top off the green pepper. Scoop out insides to retain the pepper shell. If needed make a shallow horizontal cut at the base of the pepper to help it stand straight. Rub pepper with oil inside and out. Keep aside. Meanwhile heat about 1 tbslp oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and green chillies. As they sputter add onions and fry till transparent. Then add the potatoes and turmeric. Mix. Cover and cook on low heat. Add salt and lemon juice and cook for another minute or so. (Frankly you can use any recipe for the potato filling as long as the micture is not runny. Leftovers are great too). When the mix is ready cool a bit. Then using a spoon add the filling into the green peppers. Now bake at 400 degrees till peppers soften and are cooked to your liking (about 30 minutes depending on your oven). I like to leave my peppers slightly undercooked to avoid sogginess.

An Authentic Chinese Fare

Nothing compares to the hospitality I experienced this weekend. My colleague Zhihuan (assisted by Li) invited our lab people over for an authentic chinese dinner at his new apartment. I was really looking forward to it because all the Chinese food I had eaten was either American fare or our Indianized version. And wow was I blown away or what! So the first thing that came to my mind as I was driving back home was that you can eat great food at a very fancy expensive restaurant and and you'll say "Hey that was nice". But if someone labors and makes you a really delicious meal and serves you with much love and hospitality you'll feel moved beyond your taste buds: it'll truely touch your heart. Zhihuan had clearly gone out of his way to make sure we enjoyed our meal and was such a caring host. I am so thankful for this wonderful evening. Thanks so much Zhihuan!

O.k so getting down to business:


The menu.
Zhihuan's hot chilly fish soup


Stir fried chicken wings


Black fungi and tofu


Mapo pork


Egg and tomato


Pork ribs and bamboo stew


Shrimp dumplings (i made those)

Pork egg rolls


Kung pao chicken

Wheat and milk buns

Steamed rice


My best dish was the hot chilly fish soup. It was catfish and bean sprout soup seasoned with a hot chilly oil. Simply delicious! I also especially enjoyed the chicken wings. They were stir fried with some greens, anise and chinese pepper corns.
The egg and tomato was like a scrambled egg with tomatoes in it: surprisingly good with rice. I wasn't too crazy about the black fungi. They had a different kind of texture which I might need getting used to. The pork ribs stew was a simmering pot of bamboo shoots and pork ribs with mild flavors and brothy. The Mapo pork was ground pork with stir fried tofu made in some kind of sauce which was very tasty. The Kung Pao chicken had dry red peppers and green peppers and was on the hot side. All in all you can see how much food we had. I couldn't even fit it all in one picture. I think I have never eaten so much in a really long time. Everything on the table tasted good and I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures and getting to know food from a real chinese kitchen.

Peeved! Upset! Fuming mad!

I'm peeved man...super super super peeved. The reason: this site called taste of India (connect.sailusfood.com). It all began when one of my fellow bloggers asked me to sign my blog up on this site which creates a directory of blogs one can browse. I was using the user name Gromit then and I went ahead and signed up. Now i'm guessing what has happened is that anyone who uses Gromit as a user name is linked to MY blog and they send me messages telling me how their recipes are linked to my blog even though I HAVE NONE of their recipes on my blog. I contacted the moderator with this problem: no response! I changed my user name and registration at the site: no effect! I can't even unsubscribe my blog from her list!!!!!!! Its freaking driving me sooo mad. If you are one of those people whose recipes are getting linked to my blog because of the user name Gromit go ahead and change it. Thats the only solution I can think of. I'm sorry this is happening but I have nothing to do with it. Hopefully the moderator will some day resolve this issue. Till then this moronic glitch is bound to continue.
Oh Btw made some stuffed green peppers last night, shall post it in a day or two.

Adios people. Sorry, I had to vent my frustrations.

Note: O.K it turns out its not due to the username either. Its happening randomly. Poor Sharmila whose recipes are getting linked to mine pointed that out (see comments). Well both Sharmila and I are refraining from registering our blogs anywhere else. Once bitten you see.