🍽️ Shaoguan Stuffed Pepper

Hakka stuffed peppers pan-fried.

Shaoguan Stuffed Pepper is a home-style dish of the Hakka stuffed-vegetable tradition in Shaoguan, Guangdong, ranking with stuffed tofu and stuffed eggplant as Hakka's three stuffed dishes. Fresh thick-fleshed, mildly spicy bell peppers are split, seeded, lightly dusted with starch inside, then filled with a paste of minced pork, fish, shiitake and scallion, pan-fried golden on both sides and braised briefly in a little sauce until thickened. The pepper is mildly spicy and sweet, the filling savory and bouncy, the seared skin rich with oil and a thick sauce. Hakka tradition says no banquet is complete without stuffed dishes, which took root in northern Guangdong as Hakka people moved south; Shaoguan stuffed pepper is a representative of this custom. It is a daily rice dish and a festival staple in Hakka walled villages, showing how Hakka cooks turn ordinary vegetables into a hearty feast.