KimmyKokonut

In the oven

I have mixed emotions about peppers. They are beautiful to look at and pair nicely with a lot of ingredients, but I must admit, I’m not a fan of raw peppers. Occasionally I’ll enjoy their crunch in a salad or on a sandwich but I rarely buy them unless my goal is to roast them into sweet pepper heaven. I may not like them raw and I may not have a preference for green peppers, but roasted peppers are amazing. The most amazing thing about them is that they are easy to make. So stop buying roasted peppers in jars and get a bottle of wine instead and roast them yourself. There are many methods to roasting peppers, such as burning the skin over a gas range using tongs or in a dry cast-iron skillet. I prefer the oven method because I can get other stuff done while they are roasting and the end result is still awesome.

10 minute rest

I’ll just chat myself through this recipe because it’s not the most structured process, so the recipe won’t be either. Ready? Buy some peppers. Maybe the farmer’s market has a farmer with a surplus or you have an overflowing garden or there’s a sale. Buy more than you think you can eat because we’ll preserve some for later so you can use them in quick dinners when you don’t have the time to roast and you won’t be tempted to get that store bought fancy stuff. Wash and dry the peppers. Preheat your oven anywhere between 375 deg F and 450 deg F, depending on how smoky you want them to taste. You can also do this under the broiler if you put the rack up close to the boil element. Put your peppers on the pan, pan in the oven. Now open a bottle of wine or start your rice or whatever you feel like doing.

Check on your peppers every 5 minutes or so and if they are getting nice and burnt, turn them over with some tongs until all of the skin is burnt and blistery looking. Once the whole pepper is thoroughly browned or roasted to your liking, put the peppers in a bowl and cover it with whatever you’ve got to make a seal. I use plastic wrap but if you have a bowl or pan with a lid, you can use that too. Set your timer for 10 minutes and pour yourself another glass of wine.

The process

Now comes the labor. Uncover your peppers and have another bowl ready with a strainer on top of it. Start peeling the skin off the pepper using your fingers or the back of a paring knife, letting any of the juices go into the bowl and the seeds and skins go into the strainer. Once the skin is removed, take off the stem and de-seed as well as you can. Cut the peppers however you like them. I prefer strips.

Roasted, peeled and ready to eat

Store the peeled, seeded peppers in their own juices in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. I like to pack some peppers into a jar with olive oil, salt, roasted garlic and a little balsamic vinegar and spread it on bread. Roasted peppers make a good addition to tomato sauces, pizzas and pretty much anything. To preserve anything you think you won’t eat in a week, spread the peppers on a sheet pan and put in the freezer for an hour. Once they have hardened a little, peel them off the sheet pan, ziplock it and keep it in the freezer for those handy moments when your dinner needs a little pizzazz. Enjoy and know that you are getting plenty of Vitamin C, A and K, fiber and plenty of antioxidant for preventing cancer. Interestingly enough, all peppers contain a substance that causes your body to increase it’s heat production and oxygen consumption for 20 minutes after eating, meaning you burn more calories after eating peppers than other foods.