Goat's Cheese and Chicken Stuffed Peppers

Take as many whole fresh and firm large red or yellow capsicum peppers as you will require to serve one to each person.

Cut carefully round the stalk on each pepper, remove it, and then through the hole remove the seeds and white pith from the interior of the capsicum. Set aside. (I don't use green peppers for this dish because they have a slightly bitter taste.)

Take one modest breast of chicken for each capsicum. Open it out, and then with a knife slit along the thicker side of the breast to create a pocket. (You may wish to remove and use on another dish the usual small loose piece of breast.)

Without overdoing it, stuff this pocket with part of a soft goat's cheese, preferably the squat cylindrical kind that has a skin all around it. Riper is better. Add black pepper and any fresh herbs that you fancy, including garlic if you like it.

Roll the breast of chicken so that the slit is closed, and tuck the pointed ends of the breast back over to contain the cheese within the breast.

Now gently work the stuffed breast into the capsicum through the hole at the end, taking care not to split the pepper. Using the point of a knife to manipulate it, make sure that when you have finished, there is a complete seal of chicken breast across the entrance of the pepper so that the cheese will not leak out as it melts.

Place the stuffed capsicum peppers on a roasting tray and put into a fairly hot oven for about 35 minutes. (In my terms this would be close to the top in the main oven of the Aga!)

When the skin of the pepper is looking cooked, even beginning to change colour, the chicken should be cooked, but for safety, please do check one before serving it the first time you make this in your own oven, to make certain that the chicken is fully cooked.

The Goat's Cheese and Chicken Stuffed Peppers can be served with whichever carbohydrate and vegetables you prefer. On a bed of rice is good, but for a supper party, my dramatic favourite is to serve all the stuffed bright red and yellow peppers on a single large dish, sitting on top of a mound of black squid-ink tagliatelle. That gets an oooh!