Stuffing Things (Example: Lamb-Stuffed Bell Pepper)

Tonight I stuffed some leftover lamb and other stuff into orange bell peppers and realized that there's kind of a formula for stuffing things. I'll use this dish as an example for how to stuff things.
 

Elements of Stuffing

1.      Base Flavorings
   Bacon is a good spice to start with. In the pan from the bacon cook some Onions and garlic (if you do start with bacon, afterward pour out some of the bacon grease, and cook the onions in the bacon grease... mmmm...). Shallots are good too. Put in any spices with these, so the flavor soaks into all dem onions and garlic. I used chili powder, basil, oregano, thyme, and sage.
   
   
2.      Filler
   This can be any kind of vegetable, starch, or anything else that takes up the space that's not the meat or cheese. Also throw in whatever you take off of your stuff-ee (bell pepper in this case). I used rice, eggplant, tomato, and bits of bell pepper (which turned out to add a great color to the stuffing).
   
   
3.      Meat or meaty filling
   This can be really any kind of meaty filling. I used leftover lamb from the night before. This was already an awesome lamb roast, so I didn't need to do a whole lot to make it great. I just chopped up the already cooked lamb super fine and threw it in near the end of the mix. You could use other meats though, like sausage or beef or even chicken. Just make sure whatever you use is chopped up really fine, or chopped in a food processor (cheating).
   
   
4.     Cheese!
   This is a big flavor component of the stuffing. Tonight I used cheese from goat's milk. It was still really cheesy, not like feta or anything, and there was a great flavor to it. When I stuffed mushrooms once I put in English Cheddar with caramelized onions from Trader Joe's, and that was really good. A cheese with some body would also be pretty good, something like mozzarella or ricotta cheese.

So you mix all these together in a big pan, cook it down a good amount, then spoon them into what you're stuffing. Make sure it's packed in there, so you have a high stuffing ratio. Put them in a greased pyrex dish that'll fit everything (or two if you need to) and cook for around 45 minutes at 350. Depending on the vegetable you're stuffing, it will take more or less time. Peppers took 45 minutes. Mushrooms take about the same amount of time.


If the stuff-ee is big, like these peppers, you could serve them cut in half. However you do it, it should be pretty tasty, this is one of my new favorites.