Recipe: Golubtsi #1 (with peppers)

Golubtsi is an Eastern European dish, claimed as theirs by half the nations of the former USSR even though it's found across Europe and the Middle East. Essentially it's something stuffed with rice and/or meat, usually cabbage leaves or occasionally vine leaves, particular further south. The Russian name means little pigeons, hopefully not from the original filling. I've done another Russian variant, what we in the UK would call stuffed peppers.

Ingredients:
6 small peppers
300g mince (I've used quorn; Russian shop-bought mince is often a beef and pork mix)
150g rice
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 thin carrots, sliced thinly
1 egg
2 bay leaves
2 stock cubes (I've use vegetable ones)
seasoning: 2tsp salt, pinch of black pepper, 1 tbsp dried parsley
soured cream


How: 
1. Soak the rice in enough water to cover it.

2. Prepare the vegetables - chop the onion; slice the carrots; remove top off pepper and remove stalk, deseed.

 
3. Mix the onion, mince, egg [without the shell, obviously :) ], seasoning.
4. Stuff the hollowed out peppers with that mince mix; press down so it's compacted in

5. Place the sliced carrots on top and then the top of the peppers on top.
6. Place in a pan and cover with water with stock and bay leaves.

Also making soup at the same, hence the extra veg

7. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the mince and rice are thoroughly cooked and the peppers have softened.
8. Serve with soured cream.


Variations/ ideas:
Some people add tomato puree to the mix (but I don't as it slows down the cooking)
Some people put some tomato ketchup on top of the peppers while cooking.

I usually add enough other veg and a bit extra stock to the water to make soup at the same time. I think it helps to flavour the golubsti and some filling mix always falls into the stock anyway, so you may as well take advantage of that and of the meat stock if you use minced meat.