Summer Stuffed Peppers

The Market Inspiration
If you aren't already getting your produce from the Farmer's Market, now is the perfect time to start. Summer is when the most varieties of fruits and vegetables are available; many of your regular grocery store purchases will be there.
Stuffed peppers were a staple food of my childhood, my parents would make them all the time and I always loved the warm, rich flavors of the filling and how it mixed so well with the bite of the pepper.
Though it is quite common to stuff bell peppers, I find that Pasilla or Poblano peppers are my favorites to use and easily purchased at the market. I also tried something a little different with the filling itself , instead of tomato paste or pasta sauce, I lightened things up by using fresh tomatoes then added a shot of flavor with apple cider vinegar and barbecue sauce. As the base of the filling, I substituted summer squash for rice. Now if the idea of squash doesn't exactly leave you a-quiver with anticipation, fear not. In order to enhance the squash's flavor, I caramelized the squash with some sweet onions mixed in, which brings out a lot of the flavor hidden inside both ingredients. No one will notice the squash, but overall it tastes better and is healthy choice.

Many people don't like squash, but it is both inexpensive and widely available, making it responsible (and thrifty) for food lovers to eat it when in season. It is good for our world's overall food supply if we eat a wide variety of produce, including squash, instead of overtaxing only the select ingredients that we personally like the most. One of the best ways to develop a greater appreciation for summer squash, as well as many other less appreciated produce, is the cookbook Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard (of PBS's A Chef's Life). Each chapter of the book highlights a different seasonal ingredient and how her eastern North Carolina upbringing influences how she cooks. Deep Run Roots is a wonderful guide to both food and the people that grow it. Stay tuned for more about this book, my current favorite cookbook, in future posts.

The Recipe
4 medium size pasilla or poblano peppers, cut in half, stem, seeds and white membranes removed.
1.5 pounds ground turkey
Dried rosemary, thyme, chipolte pepper, and ground allspice
Salt and Pepper
1 medium or 2 small sweet onions diced
3-4 summer squash diced to the same size as the onion
2 ears of corn; cut off of the cob
1 pound cherry tomatoes cut in half
3-4 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1-2 Tbs. barbecue sauce
Shredded cheese

Cover a baking pan with foil and grease slightly. Place peppers skin side up in a 375 oven for about 10 minutes. Cool slightly and tun skin side down.

In a skillet on medium heat, drizzle with olive oil and add the onions and the squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and  brown in the pan about 10-15 minutes until both begin to caramelize and become golden. Set aside.

Place the ground turkey in the skillet and sprinkle with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, chipolte pepper, and ground allspice. Brown on all sides about 10 minutes. Add the corn, tomatoes, vinegar and barbecue sauce and continue to cook until the tomatoes heat through and dissolve into a light light sauce. Add in the reserved onions and squash.

With a large kitchen spoon place about two heaping spoonfuls into each pepper. When the filling has been divided evenly, sprinkle the top of each with cheese and bake at 400 until the cheese has melted and begins to brown.

The Pairing
Stuffed peppers are a staple food of southwestern American, which also happens to be the setting of the 1950 thriller Bad Day at Black Rock, which stars Spencer Tracy as Macreedy, a one-armed World War II veteran that visits an isolated southwestern town looking for a man named Komoko. Macreedy finds an unexpectedly hostile and cagey population who want nothing more than for him to move on and ask no more questions. Bad Day at Black Rock is not only an intriguing mystery but also an unusually honest look at post-World War II America and the effects the war had on both soldiers and non-combatants alike. -Z