Stuffed Vegetables for Two Seasons

It's nearing the end of October and I have yet to post a recipe!  Traveling has kept me out of the kitchen, however I have several recipes stocked piled to share.  This post concerns the stuffing of vessel-like vegetables.  September and October are wonderful months produce-wise, because the last of the summer bounty, such as summer squash,  peppers, and tomatoes are still readily available but fall and winter favorites are beginning to make their way into the markets and my CSA box.  Within the span of a couple of weeks I made two very different stuffed vegetable recipes: polenta stuffed bell peppers and creamy rice stuffed winter squash.  Both feature a spicy filling, since poblano peppers were a constant element of our box for a couple of months.  Enjoy!

Polenta Stuffed Bell Peppers

2.75 cups of broth
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika or other chile powder

1 medium onion, diced
2 poblano or other spicy peppers, seeded and diced

4 bell peppers
crumbled goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400F.

You can use precooked polenta, or, if making your own, bring the milk and broth to boil in a medium sauce pan.  Add the salt and cornmeal, whisking while adding, and continue to whisk until it becomes smooth and creamy.   You need to stir it constantly for about 5 minutes, after that you can stir it occasionally, for a total of 20-30 min.  When the polenta is finished, stir in the butter.  While the polenta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan on medium-low heat and add the garlic.  After a minute, add the onion and cook for about 8 minutes, then add the poblanos and cook until soft.

When the polenta is finished, stir in the paprika or chile powder, adding more or less to your taste, and add more salt if you need to.  Then stir in the onion-pepper mixture.

You can prepare the peppers by either cutting off the tops or cutting off the top 1/4 lengthwise, as I did in the photo.  Fill the peppers with the stuffing and then top with the crumbled goat cheese.  Put in a baking pan and bake until the peppers become soft and the goat cheese is lightly browned.

WARNING: There is much more polenta than fits in most peppers--you could cut the polenta part in half if you wanted.  We ate the extra as leftovers the next day. 

Creamy Rice Stuffed Winter Squash

1 stuffable winter squash, I used red kuri
Salt, Pepper, optional chili powder

1 cup long grain rice

1 poblano, diced

1 onioin, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

2 cups water

1 tsp ground annatto (achiote) seed

1 bay leaf

3oz of cheddar cheese (I used white)

1/3 cut of heavy cream

handful of chopped fresh oregano

1 cup frozen fresh corn

1 tbsp mild green chili powder (optional)

crumbled goat cheese

optional: black beans, diced tomatoes.

Heat oven to 400F.

Halve the squash and remove the seeds.  Rub the inside and and cut edges with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and chili powder, if you want.  Here my memory fails me.  I know I baked the halves face down for about 40 minutes (until it was soft), but I don't remember if it was on a bare baking sheet or if I put it in a roasting dish, filled the bottom with a quarter inch of water and covered it with foil.  I think I did the later...

While the squash is cooking you make a variation of my favorite rice recipe.  I found it on the Food Network website via a google search.  They have an awesome black bean recipe too. 

In a medium sized pot, heat a couple table spoons of olive oil and saute the onions and peppers with the anatto seed.  Once they are soft, add the water, rice, bay leaf and 1 tsp of salt and bring to a boil.  Cover tightly and cook for 20 min.  This will make about twice as much rice as you need.  Save half of it for another meal.

While the rice is cooking, grate the cheddar and chop the oregano.  Once the rice is finished, stir in the cheese, cream, oregano, corn and black beans into the half that will go in the squash.  I didn't add tomatoes, but afterwards thought they might've been nice.

Fill the squash with the rice mixture and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Put in oven, baking until its warmed through and the goat cheese is browned.