Chef Juliette
Stuffed Onions
Oignons farcis teach the discipline of the shell: mild onions hollowed without weakness, filled with their own flesh and Duxelle, braised in butter and stock, then glazed until the tops bronze.
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Pimentos Farcis
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2198, Pimentos Farcis, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Small green peppers, skinned and half-filled with buttery pilaff rice, then carefully braised in good stock until tender and glossy. The empty space is not thrift, it is room for the rice to finish cooking.
Appetizers & Snacks
French
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 15 min total
Yield4 appetizer servings (12 peppers)
Pimentos Farcis (braised rice-stuffed green peppers) teach proportion before seasoning: half-fill them, no more. The rice must have room to swell while the pepper softens around it; crowd the shell and the filling bursts out before either is properly tender. This is the one true thing to know before touching a pan.
The entry assumes a salamander to skin a tray of peppers, a stock never off the fire, and a saucier free to watch the braise while another hand tends the pilaff. At home, a broiler, one small saucepan, and a lidded 30 cm sauté pan do the same work. Brigade quantity becomes twelve peppers because they fit one pan in a snug layer and cook evenly, one cook, one stove, one evening.
The separate rice station and perpetual stockpot are scaffolding and can go. Skinning the peppers, stopping the pilaff halfway, and braising in good stock must stay. When the peppers are supple and olive-glossy and the rice is tender to its center, spoon the reduced stock over them and bring the whole dish warm to the table. When you fill them, stop at halfway and leave the grains loose. That empty space is the dish.
Stuffed peppers sit naturally in the Mediterranean larder of Provence and the Comté de Nice, where the family of petits farcis uses small vegetables as edible vessels. The version codified here belongs to a plainer vegetable register, with half-cooked pilaff rice in place of the meat-and-bread farce often associated with Nice, and stock supplying the whole foundation. Its restraint is deliberate: this is a carefully braised pepper with rice, not a baked pepper hidden under cheese.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small, slender, carrot-shaped green frying peppers
Quantity
12
washed and dried
unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
divided
yellow onion
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 50 g)
finely diced
long-grain white rice
Quantity
⅔ cup (160 ml / 120 g)
good unsalted light chicken stock
Quantity
2¾ cups (660 ml / 660 g)
divided
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g)
divided
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small, slender, carrot-shaped green frying pepperswashed and dried | 12 |
| unsalted butterdivided | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| yellow onionfinely diced | ¼ cup (60 ml / 50 g) |
| long-grain white rice | ⅔ cup (160 ml / 120 g) |
| good unsalted light chicken stockdivided | 2¾ cups (660 ml / 660 g) |
| fine saltdivided | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Rimmed baking sheet
- •Small saucepan with lid
- •30 cm (12-inch) heavy ovenproof sauté pan with tight-fitting lid
- •Tongs
- •Narrow teaspoon or small skewer
Instructions
- 1
Blister and skin peppers
Set an oven rack about 10 cm (4 inches) below the broiler and heat it fully. Lay the whole peppers on a rimmed baking sheet and broil for 6 to 9 minutes, turning them as each side blisters and blackens in patches. The skins should loosen while the flesh remains firm enough to hold its shape. Transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover for 5 minutes, then rub away the skins with your fingers. If a patch clings, don't gouge the flesh; expose that patch to the broiler for another 30 seconds and try again.
Blackened skin is expected because it will be removed. A pepper that collapses completely has cooked too far, so turn each one as soon as the skin blisters. - 2
Empty the peppers
Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, cut neatly around each stem and pull it free. Use a narrow spoon or the blunt end of a skewer to loosen the seeds and pale ribs, then shake them out without slitting the pepper walls. Keep the openings small and the shells whole; they must hold the rice through the braise.
- 3
Half-cook the pilaff
Melt 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) of the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 3 to 4 minutes without coloring. Stir in the rice and cook for another minute, until every grain gleams with butter and turns slightly translucent at its edges. This is pilaff, rice coated in fat before stock is added. Pour in ¾ cup (180 ml / 180 g) of the stock, add ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) of the salt, cover, and cook over the lowest heat for 6 minutes. Bite a grain: the outside should be yielding, with a firm white core inside. Spread the rice on a plate to stop the cooking. If it has gone nearly tender, ça se rattrape: cool it immediately, fill the peppers a little below halfway, and begin checking the braise after 15 minutes.
- 4
Fill only halfway
Lower the oven to 325°F (165°C). Rub the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) of butter across the base of a heavy 30 cm (12-inch) sauté pan. Spoon the pilaff loosely into each pepper, filling it to exactly half its internal height. Don't pack the grains. The empty upper half will look severe. It is exactly right. If you have overfilled a pepper, remove the excess now, while the remedy is still a teaspoon rather than a split shell. Arrange the peppers snugly in one layer with their openings tilted slightly upward.
- 5
Braise at a tremble
Warm the remaining 2 cups (480 ml / 480 g) of stock in the rice saucepan and season it with the remaining ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) of salt. Pour enough around the peppers to come roughly one-third of the way up their sides, taking care not to flood the openings. Cover the sauté pan and braise in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, basting a little stock into each opening halfway through. The liquid should barely tremble. If it boils hard, lower the oven to 300°F (150°C) and add a small splash of hot stock or water. If a pepper splits, turn the tear upward and brace it against its neighbors; the filling will remain where it belongs.
- 6
Reduce and serve
The peppers are ready when a knife tip slips easily into the flesh and the rice is tender but still holds separate grains. Lift them carefully onto a warm shallow serving dish. Set the sauté pan over medium-high heat and reduce the braising stock for 3 to 5 minutes, until it lightly coats a spoon and gleams rather than runs like water. If it becomes salty before it gains body, stop reducing and loosen it with a spoonful of hot water. Spoon the stock over and around the peppers, allowing three per person. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Look for mild green frying peppers about 8 to 10 cm long, narrow at the tip and thin-walled. Small Corno di Toro or slender sweet banana peppers are useful cousins. Ordinary bell peppers are too thick and broad for the book's rice-to-pepper balance.
- •Use unsalted or very lightly salted chicken stock. The braising liquor reduces at the finish, and a salty carton becomes harsher with every lost spoonful. A stock with natural gelatin gives the peppers their best clear, glossy coating.
- •Choose a sauté pan that holds the peppers snugly in one layer. Too much empty space makes the stock evaporate before the rice finishes; a crowded second layer cooks unevenly and spills its filling.
- •Serve these warm rather than fiercely hot, with a dry Provençal white or rosé. They need no parsley, cheese, or ornamental finish. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
Advance Preparation
- •The peppers can be skinned, emptied, covered, and refrigerated up to one day ahead. Let them lose their refrigerator chill while the pilaff cooks so the braise begins evenly.
- •The pilaff can be half-cooked one day ahead. Spread it thin to cool quickly, refrigerate it promptly in a covered container, and fill the peppers while the rice is still cold and separate.
- •For a dinner party, braise the filled peppers earlier the same day and keep them in their liquor. Reheat them covered at 325°F (165°C) for 10 to 15 minutes with a splash of stock, then reduce the liquor just before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 200g)
Calories
190 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
15 mg
Sodium
640 mg
Total Carbohydrates
29 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
5 g
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