Indian Smoky Charred Stuffed Peppers

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
6 large or long peppers of your choice
Olive oil, for brushing
4 medium sized potatoes
1 tbsp of oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped, I like to use red onion
1½ tsp dried red chilli flakes
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp salt
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp anardhana (ground pomegranate seeds), optional
A good handful of chopped fresh coriander including stalks

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Boil the potatoes whole, leaving the skins on, until they are soft.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the cumin seeds. When sizzling, fry the onions until soft and translucent. Add the chilli, ginger, salt, lime, garam masala, ground pomegranate seeds, if using, and mix well, then turn off the heat.

3. Drain the potatoes and, when cooled, use a sharp, small knife to peel the skins away and mash the flesh into a bowl with a fork. Tip the mashed potatoes straight into the pan, if large enough, or transfer everything to a large mixing bowl. Mash the mixture together with a fork. Add the coriander and stir with the fork to mix together thoroughly. Leave to cool.

4. Cut out the stalks of the peppers by carefully using a small sharp paring knife to cut around them and pull them out like stoppers without tearing the flesh of the rest of the pepper. Do not discard the stalks but remove any seeds. Remove seeds from the inside of the peppers and trim away as much white membrane as possible by carefully poking in with a sharp knife.

5. Stuff the peppers with the mixture but not right to the top, leave a gap of a couple of centimeters and use your fingers to press the mixture in. Push the stalks back in and push down into the peppers by a couple of centimeters, cleaning the edges if this pushes any filling to the surface. The heat during cooking will push the stalks back out and if there is too much filling it will leak out of the pepper into the pan. If this happens though, during cooking when you are turning them over, just gently ease the escaped filling back into the pepper, plumping them back up and place the stalk back in. But be gentle with the peppers as they will be soft and delicate when cooked, and you don’t want to tear them.

7. Place the peppers on a lightly oiled baking tray and brush all over with oil, including the stalks. Bake in the oven for 30 – 45 minutes, turning over every ten minutes to cook evenly.