Hungarian Beef & Pork Stuffed Bell Peppers

BoxO'Wine's Note:

Stuffed peppers made the old fashioned way on top of the stove and enhanced with a rich sour cream gravy. Have loads of crusty bread ready to sop up the juice. Ground pork is optional, you can use all ground beef if you prefer. Mama wont mind if you mess around with her recipe.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 45 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 cup rice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 8 medium green bell peppers
• 2 lbs lean ground chuck (BEEF)
• 1 lb ground lean pork
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
• 1 1/2 cups catsup
• 3/4 pint sour cream
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Prepare rice by rinsing under cold water for a few seconds.
2. Put rice in small pot with water and bring to boil uncovered, at medium heat.
3. When rice begins to boil, lower heat to medium low and place lid on pot tilted to allow steam to escape.
4. Cover tightly when craters appear in rice, lower heat and simmer approx 15 minutes.
5. Let sit for 5 minutes, fluff with fork and let cool.
6. Prepare green peppers by slicing off tops approximately 1/4" down and remove seeds and membrane.
7. Wash peppers and allow to drain upside down on paper towel.
8. Prepare filling by placing ground meat in large bowl.
9. Saute diced onions in vegetable oil in small saute pan until onion is transparent.
10. Add to meat bowl.
11. Add salt and pepper.
12. Add 1/2 can tomato sauce (reserving remaining 1/2 can) Add rice to bowl and combine ingredients with hands until blended together.
13. Add lightly beaten egg and continue to blend mixture.
14. Loosly pack each pepper with meat mixture forming small dome on top.
15. If you have extra filling, form into individual meat balls.
16. In large stock pot, pour remaining 1/2 can tomato sauce and 1/2 can water, swishing around until blended.
17. Place stuffed peppers into stockpot, along with extra meatballs (if you made any).
18. Add 1 can tomato soup, 1/2 can water to pot.
19. Add catsup to pot.
20. Add remaining 3 cans tomato sauce, and add about 1/2 can of water to each can to clean up remaining sauce in can.
21. Add this to pot also.
22. Bring stockpot to boil, lower heat, cover with lid slightly tilted.
23. Cook over low heat for about 1 hour.
24. Blend flour into sour cream in bowl.
25. Slowly blend in about 1/2 cup (or more) hot gravy from pot.
26. Add sour cream mixture SLOWLY into pot, stirring constantly until gravy slightly thickens and becomes a deep orangy color, rather than the bright red color of tomatoes.
27. Serve peppers in bowls, split open, and generously covered with gravy.
28. Have crusty bread available for soaking up the rich gravy.

Reviews

[Marieee24]

They was wonderful, but I left out catsup,egg,pork and 2 peppers. I used 2 cans tomato soup and 1 8oz. can tomato sauce. And cut water to about 3/4 cup. I also added garlic to meat. It made plenty of sauce, and I used crockpot. I have a long oval one that worked great!

[ChipotleChick]

This was so good~! I have to admit though, I substituted V8 for the sauce and soup. I also took the edible parts of the tops of the bell peppers (I bought orange, red, green, and yellow), and chopped them up, and added them to the tomato sauce. It all worked extremely well. I added a little cornstarch and water at the end to thicken it up a bit. This made a lot of sauce, so I took the leftover stuffed peppers and chopped them up. I mixed them into the sauce, and it made a fantastic soup the next day to go with a crusty loaf of bread. Great and versatile recipe, thanks!

[Darkhunter]

Great flavor in filling. Also like it that it is made on stove top. Made too much gravy, so will leave soup out next time. Don't like to use canned soups in recipes, anyway.