First and foremost, I would like to thank Hive account@progressivechef for hosting such an exciting challenge which is the #steemit-ironchef challenge. Everyone is welcome to participate in this challenge and if you are interested to know more or even join this challenge yourself, you can check out the links here & here.

PRODUCTS USED

For this week's challenge(can you imagine I am already in my 3rd week of participation?), the main ingredient is BELL PEPPER/CAPSICUM and the products I used for my dish are:

Red, green & yellow bell peppers.
150gm Linguine Pasta (cooked)
Onion (diced)
Garlic (chopped)
Black & white shimeiji mushrooms (mixed)
Red tomato (diced)
Parmesan cheese (grated)
Rocket salad/Arugula/Eruca Sativa

In Malaysia(SEA), bell peppers or capsicums as most of us would call them are usually associated with Western cuisines, so when I see a bell pepper, I would usually think of pastas because that's the most common dish where I can spot the most bell peppers in it.

Therefore I wanted to create a simple pasta dish but with the bell pepper as the main character because well, it is the theme of the week. And as I was looking at the bell peppers that I bought earlier and thinking how should I create and plate my dish, a thought came to me: why not use the the peppers as the vessel for the pasta?

With this idea in place, I then decided to make a colourful bell pepper CUP PASTA. The whole cooking process from prep to finish took about 45min-1 hour (the preparation process took the longest time) and this dish can be a fun item for house parties or even as an attraction for kids to learn how to eat their vege!

PROCESS

First, I cut the top of the bell peppers and removed the seeds inside of the bell peppers. I was careful not to damage the inside of the peppers.

Next, I peeled the skins of the onions off and I put one onion each inside the emptied bell peppers (to give flavour and also to maintain their shapes). I also rubbed butter all over the peppers to add flavour.

I then set my microwave-oven to 250°c and roasted the peppers for 20 minutes.

After adding the onions into the peppers, I was left with some edible parts of both the peppers(the head) and onions(I had to peel a layer or two off so that the onions could fit nicely inside the peppers). So what did I do with them?

I diced them up for my pasta.

Once the peppers are cooked, I wrapped them in a bowl tightly to further soften the skins before I peeled them off after about 10 minutes.

I then heated a pan with a medium-low fire and added olive oil in the pan.

Once the oil is hot enough, I added the chopped onion and garlic into the pan.

After stirring for a few seconds, I added the mixed shimeiji mushrooms into the pan and continue sauteing for another minute or so.

I then added the diced red tomato into the pan.

After sauteing for a few more seconds, I added a handful of diced mix bell peppers into the pan.

I seasoned the dish with salt(to taste), pepper(to taste) and red chili flakes (to taste).

After that, I added 150gm of cooked pasta into the pan.

I also added a pinch of grated Parmesan cheese onto the pasta and sauteed everything together for about 1 minute.

Using a pair of kitchen tongs, I mixed and insert 50gm each of pastas into the roasted bell peppers after taking out the whole onions earlier and added a pinch of parmesan cheese on top of the pastas and sprinkled a little chopped english parsley as garnish. Lastly, I added some more diced mixed bell peppers around the plate along with some rocket salad to give colour and texture to the dish and a playful, juicy sweet bell pepper CUP PASTA is ready to be served!