It's been cold here. Freezing cold. So cold it's hard to imagine that two weeks ago it was plus 34*C.....Right now were siting at a wintry -7*C. Crazy weather! But I guess I should be grateful. There are no tsunamis here, no earthquakes. No poisonous bugs that can kill you. All in all life is pretty good.
This cold weather is actually kind of refreshing. It's getting me into the holiday spirit. My excitement for Christmas is brewing. I know it's a little early, but so is winter, and I'm going with the flow of season.
The greatest part about the cold weather for me is that I can cook up a storm, and not die of heat exhaustion. Even better, the icy outdoors double as a fridge for pots of soup, baking, and pre-cooked meals to cool off before I store them in the freezer. A little more work now, a little less work later, all the while saving on my energy bill!
Part of what I'd like to share with you all, is my adventurous spirit in the kitchen. I love to teach the skills I have learned over time. When I first started cooking, I discovered how uniquely different dishes made from scratch are compared to their commercially sold versions. There is a quality and taste that cannot be matched by their packaged and processed relatives. Today I am passing on a lesson for you on how to roast peppers in your oven. Their sweet slightly smoky flavor compliments many dishes in this cold season to come.
Cooking 101: How to roast peppers
Ingredients:
Peppers (any color)
( I roasted eleven, why waste your efforts when you can fill the pan with peppers and freeze the extras for a nice meal addition another day?!)
4 Tbs olive oil
Directions:
1.Turn oven to broil
2.Pour olive oil in a bowl and brush oil into every nook and cranny of the pepper
3.place on a baking sheet
4.place baking sheet 2-3 inches away from burner. Turn on your overhead fan. These tends to smoke a bit as the olive oil splashes onto the burner. Keep an eye that it is smoking not burning.
5.broil 4-7 minutes each side until the skin of the pepper blisters and darkens (darkened, but not burnt). Due to varying sizes some peppers may not blister fully during their rotation, leave them without rotating for the next round. The peppers need the blisters for the skin to come off easily.
6.Rotate until each pepper is consumed by blisters. Once all consumed, place the peppers in a casserole dish or a pot with a lid. Leave them for 20 minutes to steam their skin. This allows the skin to come off easily and the peppers to cool down enough to handle.
Once roasted
*I keep a small bowl of water nearby to dip my fingers into when annoying bits of pepper skin get stuck to them.
Take one of the peppers and gently pull on the stem. The stem and seeds should come out. Sometimes just the stem comes out, and that's O.K.
Turn the pepper upside down and squeeze the seed innards out of the stem opening into the med bowl
Tear the pepper in half. Be careful, they can be hot inside! Place skin side down on the cutting boar. Gently remove the remaining seeds with knife. Swipe the seeds off of the cutting board. Clean up with a cloth. I generally swipe them to the side to be cleaned later. This also saves your shirt from getting juiced.
Flip the pepper over and remove skin. The skin should come off easy. If there is any parts of the skin that is not coming off, scrape it off with a the knife.
Once skins are removed cut them into thin long strips, and then in halves.
Done!
These roasted peppers freeze beautifully. They retain the sweet slightly smoky taste as well as the same texture as the fresh ones.
What to do with them, you say? Roasted peppers taste great in almost anything!
Try them in:
Salads & dressings
pastas
Sandwiches
burgers
soups
Don't worry, recipes using roasted peppers coming soon!
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