The Humble, Stuffed, Mini Sweet-Pepper; Indian Style

I finally admit it. I have been ignoring my blog. Partly because I am hardly on Ravelry anymore (still knitting though). Partly because I am yet to make crafty friends in Hoboken. And partly because I am just pure lazy with the photography clean-up. All in all, the police would call it "Blog Neglect."

Strangely however, I still aspire to blog. Every day. Something happens during the day, and I take pictures thinking, I will blog about it. I cook something unique (strange?), take fancy pictures, telling myself that one day, they will be in blogland.

So here you go. I made these peppers as one of the entrees, when we had Suketu's aunts and uncles over for dinner. When summer arrives, I am the first in line at the grocery store, buying sweet mini-peppers. Within hours, I make something sweet/spicy with them. The sweetness is from the peppers themselves. The heat is from the stuffing. This is my Indian take on stuffed peppers.

Ingredients

Please note: Measurements and quantities are approximations and guess-work. I make up my recipes as I go. Change spice-level according to taste (or should I say, tolerance).

2 pounds sweet mini-peppers, deseeded
1 frozen packet of paneer (usually found frozen in Indian grocery stores, crumbled (sorry for the vague "quantity,"--I just winged it)
1/2 pound baby carrots, diced and steamed
3 onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan under medium heat. Saute onions until slightly brown. Add all the spices, paneer, and carrots, and continue to saute the mixture for another 3-5 minutes under low heat.
2. Once this mixture has cooled, stuff the peppers and arrange them in a greased baking dish. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, and bake the peppers in the oven at 375 degrees F for 50 minutes.
3. Check the peppers and see if the caramelization has began. I usually use a glass baking dish, so I keep looking underneath it. You will see thick, dark syrupy stuff around the peppers. Once this starts, bake for another 5 minutes or so. Then you are done. Note--somewhere in the baking process, there is a fine line between caramelization and burning. Keep checking on the peppers regularly.
4. If you have extra stuffing, you can make delicious roti-wraps. I have warm memories of opening my lunch-box in school, and voila--my mom would have made us wraps with leftovers. The possibilities are endless.