Croatian Stuffed Green Peppers (Punjena paprika)
This is in fact Turkish heritage in Croatian gastronomy. We use mixed pork and beef meat. This is the recipe I use and the difference is that I roast peppers before putting them into sauce.
This is in fact Turkish heritage in Croatian gastronomy. We use mixed pork and beef meat. This is the recipe I use and the difference is that I roast peppers before putting them into sauce.
- Carbohydrate 37.83356 g
- Cholesterol 125.524 mg
- Fat 33.38712 g
- Fiber 6.03000014901161 g
- Protein 25.93544 g
- Saturated Fat 13.575952 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (567g)
- Sodium 111.66 mg
- Sugar 31.8035598509884 g
- Trans Fat 3.253356 g
- Calories 548 calories
Step-by-step
- Wash green peppers and cut the stem part to open a hole and to remove seeds part.
- Sauté finely minced onion on lard. When transparent remove from heat and add grounded beef and pork. Cook rice until half done and add into meat. Also add 1 whole egg, salt and pepper. Mix well into a compact stuffing. Stuff each green pepper with stuffing until full (Surplus of stuffing use as meat balls to cook with peppers).
- In a pot melt lard and sauté flour until brownish. Add tomato strained juice, salt and sugar. Add water if needed.
- Roast each green pepper in a frying pan on some oil making sure they don’t over burn. Put each peppers into a sauce and cook 60 minutes. At the end you can add sour cream.
Most home cooks pack raw peppers tightly and drop them straight into cold liquid, which results in watery filling and tough skins. Professional kitchens avoid this by pre-roasting the vegetables to break down tough cell walls while concentrating natural sugars. Historical adaptations of this dish trace back through Balkan and Mediterranean trade routes, bringing stuffed vegetable traditions into Croatian home cooking.
Scaling this recipe requires precise ratio adjustments for the meat and binding agents. If doubling the yield from five to ten servings, do not double the egg blindly. Use one large egg per 500 grams of combined ground meat to prevent a dense, rubbery texture. Rice should remain strictly at twenty percent of the meat weight so starches do not absorb all internal moisture during the sixty-minute simmer.
Brown the flour and lard base carefully until it smells nutty before introducing the strained tomato juice. Simmer the assembled pot on low heat, maintaining a gentle bubble rather than a violent boil. Stir in sour cream only after removing the pot from direct heat to prevent curdling.
