STUFFED DRIED PEPPERS WITH MINCED MEAT AND RICE

Piperki polneti or stuffed peppers, are very popular dish in Macedonia. Peppers are stuffed with minced meat with rice and spices then baked in the oven. But can you imagine using dried peppers instead of fresh peppers? The taste is amazing! Drying peppers is a tradition in Macedonia and we use them in many ways. Stuffing dried peppers is one of them.
Ingredients:

• 15-20 dried peppers
• 400 g mixed minced meat
• 200 g of rice
• 1 teaspoon paprika 
• a little black pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 teaspoons vegetable seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried or fresh parsley
• 4 cups of water 1 cup tomato sauce
• oil

Preparation:

1. First, boil dried peppers so they would soften, then clean them from the seeds.
2. Then, fry the chopped onion, add meat, spices and fry for about ten minutes until meat is well fried. Add rice and paprika in the end and a little tomato sauce.
3. Fill the peppers with the prepared mixture. Use teaspoon for filling. You can close the peppers with pieces of tomato or potato.
4. Put peppers in a pan, add the water so the peppers are more than half covered with water, add tomato sauce add some oil on top and put them in heated oven to bake at 250 C until rice is cooked well. Be aware that these peppers don't require the same baking time as fresh peppers.

Enjoy!