OK, OK, so this isn’t as much of a pantry cleanout as it is a freezer cleanout, but for the sake of simplicity, I labeled it as the former. It’s the same principle, just another type of pantry!
A month or so ago, I made up a big batch of stuffed bell peppers – about 24, to be exact – for a dinner party. I didn’t expect our guests to eat them all – there were only about 14 people in total – but I wanted to be prepared for big appetites. And, of course, I wanted to be prepared to bring some home to stick in the freezer for nights just like this one! I love it when a plan comes together!
I’ve used the same bell pepper recipe for years, having found it on VegWeb a thousand centuries ago. The only thing I do differently is boil the peppers before stuffing them; my mother taught me this. Boiling them for just a few minutes gives the peppers a softer skin and a better texture in the end! With 24 peppers to plow through, I tripled the recipe, but no matter; it’s incredibly easy to add or subtract portion sizes with this lineup of ingredients! You really can’t hurt it.
Anyway, at the end of the dinner party, I sealed up several zip-top bags’ worth of peppers and stuck them in the freezer for later use. Tonight, with LeeLee away at a meeting, I pulled out two to heat up for my own personal version of a TV dinner!
If you’re in a pinch, you can microwave these peppers from frozen, but I’d recommend heating them the old-fashioned way in the oven if you have the time to do so. The final product turns out much better, and the textures are spot-on. (The microwaved version can be a little rubbery, truth be told, after a stint in the freezer.) Heat your oven to a high temperature – I was hungry tonight, so I bumped mine up to 450 degrees! – and place the peppers in an oven-safe dish. I used a regular 8-by-8 glass Pyrex pan tonight. Then heat them for 30-40 minutes, checking on them after half an hour.
Next, it was time to dig in! And what a treat – all the flavors and ingredients of a perfect stuffed pepper without any of the hard work! I could get used to this sort of pantry cleanout. Wonder what else is lounging around at the back of the freezer? ;)
:)