Ray McVinnies Baked Stuffed Capsicums

Ray McVinnie produced this recipe for the December 2005 Sunday magazine and we tried it as part of a champagne brunch in honour of my sister who was returning fron England and missed the entire meal. The most amazing thing was that the capsicums did not collapse as we were expecting them to. In fact, they were still very firm after an hour in the oven. We suspect that has to do with the rice component absorbing any excess moisture. The skin came off the capsicums quite easily and altogether it is a fairly substantial portion. If serving as a side dish, consider cutting them in half vertically.

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion,finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup leftover steamed long grain rice
500g minced lamb
3 tablespoons chopped mint
Salt and pepper for seasoning
3 large red capsicums
1 cupbeef stock
1 x 400 gram can crushed italian tomatoes in juice.
Mint leaves for garnish

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Heat the oil over a moderate heat in a frying pan and add the onion, carrot, coriander seeds, garlic and zest. Fry gently for about 10 minutes until the onion has softened.
Remove from the heat and cool completely. Put the onion mixture into a large bowl and add the rice, lamb, mint and season well with salt and pepper.
Mix well so that everything is evenly distributed.
Put the capsicum halves in a roasting dish just big enough to hold them cut-side up.
Place a sixth of the lamb mixture in to each. Pour the stock around them and spoon the tomatoes over everything. Cover loosely with foil and place in the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes, remove the cover and bake for a further 15 minutes until browned. The capsicums should be tender.
Remove from the oven and serv e hot or warm, garnished with mint leaves with warm flatbreads on the side. Also good served with a spoonful or two of plain thick unsweetened yogurt.

Serves 4 - 6.