Ghemistà
One of the most widespread Greek meatless dishes. Stuffed vegetables prepared for her husband, Commissioner Caritos, by his Adriana after each quarrel, for reconciliation. Commissioner Caritos from the Homicide Department of the Athens Police is the hero of a series of novels by Greek writer Petros Markaris.
Preparation steps
- Cut off the top of the peppers and tomatoes, as well as other vegetables, if used, and store as lids. Peel a tomato, eggplant, zucchini (if they are also stuffed), clean the inside of the peppers and salt them on the outside and inside and set aside.
- Finely chop the onion head. Cut off the upper part of the peppers (not the lid, but the ring, in order to reduce their height so that they can stand upright and be approximately the same height as the tomato) and cut it into cubes, and cut the pulp of zucchini and eggplant. Squeeze the garlic.
- Finely chop and fry the onion in 4 - 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Towards the end, add the crushed garlic and fry for a very short time so that it does not burn. Add the rice and fry until glassy. Count 2 tablespoons of rice for each pepper and 1.5 tablespoons for each tomato. Add chopped peppers and the pulp of other vegetables and simmer for a while. Transfer to this mass a can of chopped tomato pulp, salt, pepper, add parsley and mint and, if desired, hot pepper.
- Fill the vegetables without stuffing, because the rice will grow during cooking. Arrange everything in a fireproof or earthen bowl that can be put in the oven. If you want, cut the potatoes around the vegetables, I didn't do that.
- Mix the tomato concentrate, 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of olive oil well, add a little salt and pour over the stuffed vegetables.
- Bake for at least an hour, of which 45 minutes covered. If you do not have a lid, cover with aluminum foil. If necessary, add more water during baking. Pierce the peppers to see if they have softened and bake as much as needed. Vegetables should be well roasted.