The mutiny of the bounty.

Once again, I have fallen victim to nature's most beautiful seducers and seductresses, seasonal, farm-fresh produce! They allure me to part with my husband's cash as they display so magnificently on farm shop shelves, batting their eyelids at such persuasive passer by's, innocently just driving for the afternoon. I can't resist, although I know full well that this produce will glare at me every time I open the fridge door demanding that I do something creative with them NOW or they will rot away and yet again I haven't learnt a thing. That strange yellow-green thing? It's a kerala, it's from India, it's really pretty but I don't know what to do with it.

Bell peppers from farm shops are particularly appealing to me. Their strange shapes and colours are artistic and in my opinion, most beautiful when graduated, as in the pepper above. I always try to buy peppers with 2 or 3 different colours swirling and mingling together.

So, I have all this produce, I now need to do it justice. My first recipe:

Stuffed peppers.

The stuffing

1 lb extra lean ground beef

1 medium red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 tbsp steak seasoning

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

salt, pepper to taste

4 small mushrooms, diced

1 sachet beef stock, (or 1/2 - 1 beef stock cube)

1 handful kale, shredded

1 handful pine nuts

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp butter together over medium heat.

2. Add the onion, carrot and garlic and saute together until soft, about 10 minutes, (keep stirring)

3. Add the ground beef and press down into skillet, fry, stirring constantly, until browned.

4. Add the seasoning, chili powder, paprika, salt & pepper and stock and continue cooking, stirring well.

5. Keep frying the mixture until all the moisture starts to evaporate and it starts to dry up and crisp.

6. Add the kale, mushrooms and pine nuts and fry until the kale has wilted and the mushrooms softened. The mixture should be quite dry and crispy. (You can leave it for a few minutes for the bottom of the mixture to get a nice crust and then stir it up to distribute the crispy bits)

The roasted tomato sauce

4 medium tomatoes, halved

salt, pepper

extra virgin olive oil

1. Place the toms skin side down on a baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.

2. Bake for one hour at 375oC until soft.

3. Push everything through a sieve into a bowl to create your sauce.

The peppers

1.Halve two peppers and remove the pith and seeds.

2. Place in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes at 375oC until soft.

3. Fill with the ground beef, spoon over 1 tbsp of roasted tomato sauce and bake for a further 15 minutes.