It is a mini seedless pepper and what happens when a three star master chef cooks it? The recipe isn’t complex but when the chef explained it I was like “okay chef” but here it.

Quite simple it is similar to the Greek food without Gemista, usually stuffed tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant filled with rice and sometimes with ground meat but always baked in the oven. Gemista translates as “ones that are filled”.

The key is the rice from the Balkans Djuvec and butter, and paprika juice, onions and shallots butter and reduce and reduce 2x.

As I know from making Gemista you need to make the stuffing and I do it mirepoix:https://mesubim.com/2020/08/31/cutting-duxelles/

Steps:

1. I make the mirepoix so in this case the pepper is small so small micro mirepoix is necessary and I would flavour it with some herbs or wait until you stuff the peppers and add the fresh herbs parsley or other herbs dill, or whatever at the last minute before you cook them off in the oven.
2. I use arborio rice and toast it for a few minutes – in butter or olive oil, I use oil but better adds sweetness and fattiness.
3. Then liquid is necessary and there are two parts to the liquid, the liquid in the skillet you add with the rice (after) it is toasted and the liquid in the oven. The right cooking requires some practice and so be patient. I use steam and finish with crispy and toasty using a professional convotherm because I like it crunchy parts as Bottura says: https://mesubim.com/2020/08/06/massimo-bottura-2/
4. The rice is cooked al dente in the pan with liquid and I used tomato sauce from Maida farm: https://mesubim.com/2020/08/31/maida-farm-passata/
5. I toasted the vegetables and then added the rice
6. Then add Maida sauce tomato or whatever you have and in the Steirereck recipe they reduce and concentrate the flavour 2x and so it is all about the rice absorbing the flavour you wish.
7. I toasted my rice but Steirereck does something different which is cleaver and they avoid toasting and cook the rice with the butter and shallots and paprika juice to get the rice flavoured~smart move and not what we know when we make a classical risotto. Actually if you think about it, toasting rice is a concept I try to understand better (next post)
8. When ready you add the filling you add parsley and shiso and the basic sauce is used for cooking and I guess cook it with steam and heat at 150°C and or more depending on the liquid and oven and eye control.