Dolmeh Feffel

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 large green peppers
• 1 pound ground lamb or beef
• 1 cup rice
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons corn or canola oil
• 1-2 cans tomato paste
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 1 bunch mint, finely chopped
• 2 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1 bunch tarragon, finely chopped
  

DIRECTIONS:

Fry onions in oil over until soft. Add ground meat and fry further until meat is cooked. Add salt, pepper and most of tomato paste (I like my dolmeh very tomato-y, so I add a good amount of tomato paste, if you don't like it tomato-y, add less paste). Mix and cook further.

Cook rice until it's soft (don't steam it, just boil until cooked). Drain the water and let cool. (wild rice is very tastey in this recipe if you don't want to use white rice).

Add rice to meat & onions. Add parsley, mint, onions & tarragon as well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and let cook another 15 minutes. The mixture should be a little 'wet', so if need be, add some water.

Cut a circle at the top of the peppers and remove seeds. Sprinkle some salt inside peppers, fill them with the mix and close the tops. Again place the peppers side by side (avoid stacking them) in a large pot. Prepare sauce by mixing water with the rest of tomato paste. Pour the sauce in over the peppers and simmer for approximately 20-30 minutes. There should be at least 1 inch of sauce in bottom of pot to allow the peppers to cook.