Stuffed Bell Pepper with Home Made Tomatoe Sauce and Walking Vienna.

The first weeks back in Austria have been happy days visiting family and friends, going to concerts and exhibitions,but - oh boy - I didn't know that good things can be so exhausting :)

So this Sunday we decided for a break and stayed at home doing basically nothing at all, just as the song by Bruno Mars goes, "Today I don't feel like doing anything"

Heavenly!

Playing Strauss Waltzes in a small cafe in a beautiful passage in one of the old Palaces, the 
Palais Ferstl.

 Detail of the ceiling in the same Palace

Staircase at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts)

Visiting home is always like going back to your roots and remembering dishes you enjoyed in your childhood. 

It's funny, but whenever I talk to expats from different countries asking them what they missed most from home of course they always mention the family, friends, language, climate but another constant was invariably food.
The history of a country's cuisine is always a part of a country's cultural history.

The Danube monarchy had, at the height of it's power, about 52 million inhabitants and there were 16 different languages spoken.

Austrian cuisine is a mixture of as many different European cuisines as there were countries that integrated the Danube Monarchy.

Apart from the original regional cuisines there are influences from the Hungarian, Czech, Italian and Bohemian kitchen.

It's basically a fusion kitchen of different regions of the former Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, long before the word fusion was even invented.

The Turks who made two attempts to conquer Vienna, left the habit of drinking coffee, the Hungarians spiced up dishes with their delicious, hot Paprika and 

diligent Bohemian cooks, famous for their  skills enriched with their  wonderful desserts the  tables of Austrian aristocratic and bourgeois families.

The dish I would like to present to you today  is a classic of Austrian cuisine,

 "Gefuellte Paprika" or Stuffed Bell Pepper with a rich, home made tomato sauce.

This is what you need:

For the tomato sauce: 
1/2 kg red,ripe tomatoes
40g butter
40g flour
1/2l vegetable stock
1 spoonful tomato paste
1dried Bay leaf
1/2 to 1 spoonful brown sugar
Salt, freshley ground pepper
Method:
Clean tomatoes and put them for about 1 minute in boiling water, this will help to peel them easily.
After peeling quarter them and remove the seeds.

In a large pan melt the butter over medium heat until foaming. Add flour. 
Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes,stirring constantly. Slowly add the vegetable stock,whisking constantly until mixture is smooth. Then add the Bay leaf, quartered tomatoes and the tomato paste.
Let simmer at low heat about 20 minutes or until tomatoes are cooked down and will fall apart into the sauce.
Let cool down, then puree the ragout in the blender.
Strain the mixture through a colander, then stir in salt pepper and brown sugar.  

For the stuffed bell peppers.
You need:
4 medium size green and yellow bell peppers
400g minced meat (1/2 pork, 1/2 beef)
1 small chopped onion
3 spoonful of extra virgin olive oil
3 spoonful cooked round grain rice (or other)
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 spoonful of chopped parsely
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
salt and freshly ground pepper 
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan 
1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella
Method: 
Halve bell peppers  and remove stems, seeds and membranes.

Place peppers in a large pot, cover with salted water and bring to a boil.
Then reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 5 more minutes.
In a large pan heat olive oil and saute onions with crushed garlic until slightly tender.

Add minced meat, marjoram and parsely,  mix well and cook until nearly done.

Mix with the cooked rice then stuff  peppers with the meat-rice mixture.
Apart, combine the Mozzarella and Parmesan.

Place stuffed peppers in a large baking dish.

Pour most of the tomato sauce in the baking dish and  save a bit  to pour over the stuffed peppers.
Bake at 350C for about 30 to 40 minutes, then top with cheese mixture and bake until cheese is melted. 

Serves 4.  Enjoy!
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See you next week.