Mother-in-laws- lamb filling (Turkish style)

Who does not want to impress the mother-in-law?

In all cultures there are special recipes to do the trick. The recipes are simple but tricky.You do the trick and the lady  smiles and dotes over you :)

I wanted to impress a date over dinner.  I adapted a classic Turkish meatball recipe, typically used to impress the Turkish mother-in-law, to stuff capsicum. I figured if I can get the recipe to work, my date is my man :) I skipped the part of rolling the lamb filling into bulgur and making a classic meatball soup. The stuffed capsicum impressed my date pretty adequately. And it will impress anyone. What with almonds, raisins, thyme and oregano and garlic....Here it is then

Minced lamb stuffed capsicum (Turkish style and adapted from Ghille Basan)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsf olive oil

A small handful of walnuts or almonds chopped

1/ 2 tsp pf cumin powder

1/2 lb of minced lamb

1/2 tsp of dried thyme

1/2 tsp of dried oregano

2 large bell peppers

3-4 tbsf olive oil

In two steps

Preheat the oven to 500F (or as high as you can get it). Take the tops of the capsicums and seeds off. Rub some salt and olive oil inside and out.  Broil for 5- 6 min. You may grill as well. Alternatively, char over coal (excellent) or directly over high heat. whatever you do, do not over cook. It will droop and will hold the filling well. Handle with care after you have done charring the capsicums. Set aside to cool.

Soften the onion and garlic in olive oil. Stir in cumin and walnut followed by the minced meat. Cook for 5 minutes. Not too lomg. You will cook it in the oven. So do not over cook and dry out the juices. Add the thyme and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.

Carefully stuff the filling into the bell peppers. Drizzle some olive oil over the top. Bake for 30 mins at 350 or 375 F. Serve as warm as possible.

 Happy eating and healthy living!