Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
225-285g/8-10oz minced (ground) pork
4-6 water chestnuts, finely chopped
2 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped
1/2 tsp finely-chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
3-4 green (bell) peppers, cored and seeded
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp light brown sugar
1-2 fresh hot chillies, finely chopped (optional)
about 5 tbsp Basic Stock or water

Stuffed Green (Bell) Peppers

In a bowl, mix the minced (ground) pork with the water chestnuts, spring onions (scallions), ginger, soy sauce and wine or sherry.

Halve or quarter the green (bell) peppers. Stuff the sections with the pork mixture and sprinkle with a little cornflour (corn-starch).

Heat the oil in a preheated wok and deep-fry the stuffed (bell) peppers, with the meat-side down, for 2—3 minutes, then remove and drain.

Pour off the excess oil, then return the stuffed green (bell) peppers to the wok with the meat-side up. Add the sauce ingre­dients, shaking

the wok gently to make sure they do not stick to the bottom, and braise for 2—3 minutes. Carefully lift the stuffed peppers onto a serving dish,

meat-side up, and pour the sauce over them. Serve.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 aubergine (eggplant)
1 green (bell) pepper
2 beefsteak tomatoes
45ml/3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed 115g/1-1/1/2 cups button (white) mushrooms, chopped
1 carrot, grated
225g/8oz/2 cups cooked white long grain rice
15ml/1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
90g/3/1/2 oz/scant 1/2 cup crumbled feta
cheese 75g/3oz/3/4 cup pine nuts,
lightly toasted 30ml/2 tbsp currants salt and ground black pepper

Stuffed Vegetables

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/ Gas 5. Lightly grease a shallow ovenproof dish. Cut the aubergine in half, through the stalk, and scoop

out the flesh from each half, taking care not to pierce the skin, to leave two hollow “boats”. Dice the aubergine flesh. Cut the pepper in half

lengthways and remove the cores and seeds.

Cut off the tops from the tomatoes and hollow out the centres with a spoon. Chop the flesh and add it to the diced aubergine. Place the

tomatoes upside down on kitchen paper to drain.

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the aubergine halves and blanch for 3 minutes. Add the pepper halves to the boiling water and blanch

for 3 minutes more. Drain the vegetables, then place, hollow side up, in the baking dish.

Heat 30ml/2 tbsp oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Stir in the diced aubergine and tomato mixture with the

mushrooms and carrot. Cover, cook for 5 minutes until softened, then mix in the rice, dill, feta, pine nuts and currants. Season to taste.

Divide the mixture among the vegetable shells, sprinkle with the remaining olive oil and bake for 20 minutes, until the topping has browned. Serve hot or cold.