[1] Stuffed peppers are a global favorite. Try this recipe stuffed with quinoa (photo © Whole Foods Market).

Peppers stuffed with lamb and feta (photo and recipe © McCormick).

[3] Red and green bell peppers (photo © Burpee).

[4] Sultanas (above) and slivered almonds (below) perk up almost any stuffed pepper recipe (photo © Faire).

[5] Slivered almonds (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

Stuffed peppers are enjoyed in cultures around the world. They’re a versatile food: for a first course, a light lunch or dinner or a side. You can stuff them with anything, including leftovers. And you can find them in “holiday colors,” from red and green for Christmas to purple, gold and green for St. Patrick’s Day.

A large pepper* is hollowed out (removing the ribs and seeds), stuffed and baked. The same technique is applied to eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and other vegetables.

In more recent recipes, small stuffed peppers are served as hors d’oeuvre and snacks:

 
August 28th is National Stuffed Green Bell Pepper Day. But if you want to use orange, purple, red or yellow peppers, go right ahead.

November is National Pepper Month.
 
 
STUFFED PEPPERS AROUND THE WORLD

Get inspiration for your own recipes from these:

 
 
RECIPE: MEDITERRANEAN STYLE STUFFED PEPPERS

The delicious stuffing features ground beef, brown rice, golden raisins and almonds seasoned with flavorful, aromatic spices.

The recipe (photo #2) is also different because it slices the peppers in half, vertically, rather than cutting off the top (photo #1) to create a deep dish.

Prep Time is 10 minutes, cook time is 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. HEAT oven to 375°F. Mix rosemary, cinnamon, oregano and salt in small bowl. Set aside.

2. COOK ground meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat, 5 to 7 minutes or until no longer pink, stirring occasionally to break up meat. Drain fat. Add spice mixture; cook and stir 1 minute.

3. STIR in tomato sauce, raisins and almonds. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Add rice and egg; mix well. Arrange bell pepper halves, cut-side up, in 13×9-inch baking dish. Spoon beef mixture evenly into bell pepper halves. Pour 1/4 cup water into dish. Cover with foil.

4. BAKE 45 minutes or until bell peppers are tender. Sprinkle filling with feta cheese. Bake, uncovered, 12 to 15 minutes longer or until cheese is lightly browned.
______________

*We find it easier to use shorter, wider peppers rather than taller, narrower ones.

†You can substitute conventional purple raisins, or currants.

Create your own stuffed pepper recipe by choosing different ingredients from among these:

 
Why don’t we include fish? While the Basque cod-stuffed pepper is very popular, and brandade (mashed cod in olive oil) works, we haven’t found other recipes that really sing. The delicate flavors of most fish (or shellfish) get buried.

If you have a great recipe, we’d like to try it.

Gumba-what?

If you can’t decide between gumbo or jambalaya for Mardi Gras (this year on March 4th), go for gumbalaya, a combination of both.

 
And gumbalaya (photo #1)?

After the widespread popularity of the cronut, Chef Mike Valentine of Ford’s Oyster House in Greenville, South Carolina thought it would be fun to create a mash-up of the two Cajun classics (photo #1).
 
 
RECIPE #1: FORD’S GUMBALAYA

Ingredients For 6 Servings

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Place chicken in a roasting pan and cook for 20 minutes. Let it stand for five minutes after taking it out of the oven, then cut into half inch pieces.

2. COOK andouille sausage in the oven for 8 minutes at 350°F. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

3. PLACE butter and flour in large saucepan. Turn on medium heat and cook while stirring constantly, until it becomes a light chocolate color. ADD green peppers, celery, onion, chicken, andouille sausage and bay leaves.

4. ADD chicken stock, stirring constantly so the roux fully incorporates with the stock.

5. ADD black pepper, cayenne pepper, Creole seasoning, hot sauce, oregano and thyme. Let the gumbo cook for 15 minutes. Add salt as needed.
 
 
RECIPE #2: JAMBALAYA SAUCE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PLACE olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add celery, onion and bell pepper and cook for 5-6 minutes.

2. ADD garlic, fresh thyme, oregano, cayenne, Creole seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes and hot sauce. Lastly, add the marinara sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. Salt to taste.

3. ADD cooked rice to jambalaya sauce; combine thoroughly.

4. SERVE the gumbo in bowl with a heaping scoop of jambalaya/rice mixture and a side of toasted French bread. Option: Garnish with a sprinkle of cayenne and thyme (see photo #1).

[1] Ford’s Gumbalaya recipe combines the best of gumbo and jambalaya (photo © Ford’s Oyster House | Greenville, South Carolina [now closed]).

[2] A classic Louisiana gumbo (photo © Mackenzie Ltd).

[3] Jambalaya. Here’s the recipe from Gimme Some Oven (photo © Gimme Some Oven).

[4] Andouille sausage from D’Artagnan (photo © D’Artagnan).

[5] Cooked and sliced andouille sausage (photo Wikipedia).

*You can buy or make your own Creole seasoning. Here’s Emeril Lagasse’s version, which makes about 2/3 cup: Thoroughly blend 2-1/2 tablespoons paprika, 2 tablespoons salt, 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon onion powder, 1 tablespoon cayenne, 1 tablespoon dried oregano and 1 tablespoon dried thyme. Store in an airtight container away from light. Use within three months.

†FOOD TRIVIA: Andouille, pronounced on-DWEE, is a spicy smoked sausage made with pork and garlic. The word is French, from the Old French andoille. Andoille dervies from the Medieval Latin inductilia, things to be introduced, from the Latin inductus, past participle of indUcere, “to introduce into a casing.” Whew!

In addition to movie-watching (or movie award show-watching), gourmet popcorn goes well with cocktails, wine and beer.

Don’t like cheese or rosemary? Head to Popcorn.org, the website of the The Popcorn Board, for scores of flavored popcorn recipes.

The recipes yield four quarts of flavored popcorn: 16 one-cup servings (or for our family, four one-quart servings).

We made these recipes with imported Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese because we love the superior flavor; but you can use domestic Parmesan.

You’ll get better flavor if you grate it freshly, rather than buy pre-grated (and please, nothing from a can!).

Here’s the difference between the imported and domestic versions.

Brighten up cheese popcorn with some rosemary. Photo courtesy Popcorn.org.

Ingredients For 4 Quarts

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the popcorn in a large serving bowl.

2. MIX the butter, olive oil and rosemary together in a small bowl; microwave 20 seconds to melt butter. Stir the butter mixture and pour over the popcorn; toss. Sprinkle the cheese, garlic salt and pepper over the popcorn.

3. TOSS again and serve.

Ingredients For 16 One-Cup Servings

 
Preparation

1. PLACE popcorn in a large serving bowl. Sprinkle popcorn with hot sauce, Parmesan cheese and garlic salt.

2. TOSS and serve immediately.

It’s a pleasant surprise: home-popped popcorn is one of the healthiest snacks you can enjoy.

It’s full of polyphenols, antioxidants that help to neutralize the free radicals that contribute to aging. In fact, popcorn has one of the highest levels of polyphenols of any plant food.

It’s also a whole grain, packed with fiber. If you use just a little butter or cheese, you’re adding a bit of cholesterol; but it’s just as easy to skip the cheese, use olive oil, and pile on lots of herbs and spices.

Note that prepackaged, store-bought microwave popcorn is less good for you, made with chemicals and synthetics for flavoring and coloring.

So pop it yourself—it’s easy enough! You can also make the following recipe without oil; but the amount we use is neglible. For an interesting twist, experiment with other oils you may have on hand: nut oils, sesame oil, etc.
 

RECIPE #3: EASY MICROWAVE POPCORN

Ingredients For 3 Cups

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the popcorn and oil in a bowl and mix to coat. Add to bag and sprinkle in the salt. Fold the top of the bag over twice to seal in the ingredients.

2. MICROWAVE on full power for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes, listening until you hear pauses of 2-3 seconds between pops and remove the bag from the microwave. (Even though there may be some unpopped kernels, to continue cooking risks burning the popped kernels.)

3. OPEN the bag carefully, releasing the hot steam; then pour into a serving bowl.

But you can serve classic New Orleans cocktails like the Hurricane, which has its own special hurricane lamp-shaped glass; or the Sazerac, the official cocktail of New Orleans; a combination of cognac or rye whiskey, absinthe and bitters.

Or, you can whip up a menu of cocktails in Mardi Gras’ theme colors of purple, gold and green.

The colors were suggested by the Russian Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov in 1872, during his visit to New Orleans:

 
But when applied to colored cocktails, they represent a good time.

Thanks to Hendrick’s Gin for providing this idea, along with a Purple Basil Gimlet recipe below.

A Purple Haze from Pom Wonderful. In the background, a Midori “Cosmopolitan”. Photo courtesy Pom Wonderful.

 
 
GARNISHES

Add a garnish in a different Mardi Gras color from the cocktail.

 
 
RECIPE: PURPLE BASIL GIMLET

Ingredients For 1 Cocktail

 
Preparation

Muddle the purple basil leaves with simple syrup and fresh lime juice, add Hendrick’s Gin and shake well, strain up into a stemmed glass, garnish with a sprig of purple basil.
 
It’s party time!

Baby carrots move beyond the familiar
orange to purple, red and yellow. Photo
courtesy Sprinkle Side Up. See her recipe for
glazed rainbow carrots.

In picking up supplies for our “diet Oscars menu,” we came across rainbow baby carrots—our first sighting—and rainbow cherry tomatoes, which have been available in our market for a few years.

Although we’re months from peak produce season, it got us thinking of how delightful it is to come across a familiar food with a fun twist. Most of the veggies below are natural mutations (as was red grapefruit and many other foods); some are cross-bred; none are GMO.

It’s not just about fun; there are nutritional benefits as well. Colored foods tend to be more antioxidant rich than pale and white foods. For example, orange cauliflower contains high levels of beta-carotene; purple cauliflower contains anthocyanin, an antioxidant that gives purple color to a variety of foods, including red cabbage and red onions. Green cauliflower just happens to have more protein than the other colors.

So today’s tip is: Keep an eye out and treat yourself to whatever is new and different. Grocers know that customers want new options, so even if there’s no farmers market near you, keep looking.

Then tell us what you found, and how you served it.