[Japanese Recipes] Simmered Stuffed Peppers

This is a recipe for simmered stuffed peppers with mince meat, cooked in a savoury sauce. It is a great side dish with rice, and also perfect for a packed lunch.

I cooked and served this dish directly in the pan. Leftovers can also be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days, making it suitable for packed lunch & meal prep.

MARINADE THE MEAT

The main seasonings for the meat are soy sauce, mirin, white pepper powder, garlic (paste) and ginger (paste).

Note: The tubes are ginger paste and garlic paste. I bought them from Donki. (Recently, my new “hobby” is collecting tube pastes :p I’m use these tubes as a fast & flavourful short cut for marinating.) The tube pastes can be easily substituted with ginger juice and minced garlic.

In a large bowl, add minced pork (or chicken), chopped onions, breadcrumbs, beaten egg …

and the prepared marinade sauce …

Mix well and marinate in fridge for at least 30 minutes.


CORE & STUFF THE PEPPERS

Meanwhile, I prepare the bell peppers (capsicums).

These are mini bell peppers I bought (from Donki too). They are really mini! I recommend using mini or small peppers for this recipe so that there is nice proportion of meat to the bell pepper. The smaller peppers also look prettier, and fit better in a lunch box.

Remove the top and core of each pepper as shown above.



Note: As I ran out of mini bell peppers, I also used small bell peppers from NTUC Finest which is about double the size of the minis, but still smaller than the regular peppers. Also, personally I prefer yellow, orange and red peppers as green peppers tend to turn yellowish when cooked.

This is the part of the recipe I enjoyed the most! Stuff the marinated meat filling into each pepper tightly. You can either a small spoon or a flat spatula.

Dust the exposed meat surface with some sifted flour (any type). I’m using potato starch. This helps the meat to brown nicely later in the pan.


MAKE THE DISH

Grease a non-stick pan with oil. Sear the exposed meat area of the peppers until lightly brown.

Then rest the peppers on the side, add sauce, cover with lid and simmer for a few minutes.

Simmer until the sauce is much reduced, thickened and syrupy. Garnish & serve.

If there are leftovers, keep the stuffed peppers separate from the sauce before refrigerating.
Simmered Stuffed Peppers Recipe


To make this for packed lunch, I recommend using smaller bell peppers as they will fit into the lunch box better.

Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 15 mins


INGREDIENTS:

• 150g minced pork (or chicken)
• 3 tbsp chopped onions
• 2 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1/2 beaten egg
• 350g small bell peppers top removed and cored
• 2 tsp flour (any type; I like potato or corn starch)
• 1 tsp cooking oil

(A) Marinade 

• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp ginger paste (or 1 tsp ginger juice)
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste (or 3 cloves minced garlic)
• 1 tsp sake
• 4 dashes of white pepper to taste
• chopped spring onions and/or a few pea shoots to garnish

(B) Sauce

• 100ml water
• 1/4 tsp dashi powder
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the meat stuffing. Add mince meat in a large bowl with the chopped onions, bread crumbs, egg and seasonings (A). Marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge or longer.
2. Stuff the peppers. Using a small spoon or spatula, stuff each pepper with the meat stuffing prepared in step 1, until all the meat is used up. Dust the exposed meat with some sieved flour.
3. Cook the dish. Heat a fitting frying pan with oil. Brown the exposed meat surface of each bell pepper slightly until lightly seared, then rest them on the side. Pour sauce (B) onto the pan and simmered covered until the bell peppers are cooked, and the sauce is thickened and syrupy. This will take about 5-7 minutes. Garnish with spring onions and/or pea shoots to serve.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Noobcook.com. Thanks so much!