I had purchased a couple of gorgeous red peppers nearly a week ago in an ambitious attempt to make some rice stuffed pepper dish. But days and days went by and it stood dormant in the fridge. I didn’t want it to go to waste so I chose to roast them and then jar them in olive oil.
I must say, these peppers have only been in the oil for two days and already when I opened the jar again this morning, the smell was just ambrosial. Just the smell alone spiralled me on delirious thoughts of dishes like pastas, pizzas, some foccacia breads with the peppers, sauces and salsas, fresh salads, crostinis, red pepper soups….oh, I could go on and on and on. Even the oil would be put to good use for salad dressings.
I have never bought the pre-jarred stuff before but I know red peppers take on sort of a whole different depth of flavour after they’re roasted. There are many methods of roasting peppers, to check them out, click here. To find out how to peel red peppers, click here. I think after making this, I won’t need to buy the jarred ones anymore. For my recipe, I roasted the peppers in the broiler, that’s only because I wanted to infuse it with some roast garlic. If I was just doing red peppers alone, I would’ve just char them over the stove fire.
ROASTED RED PEPPERS IN OLIVE OIL WITH ROAST GARLIC
Ingredients;
2 big red peppers (or capsicums)
6 cloves of garlic
Salt
Black Pepper
Olive oil
Dried oregano
Steps;
1. I sliced the peppers in half and de-seeded it because my oven tray was rather small. Place the peppers skin side up on the tray. Chop some garlic, about 2 cloves and stir them with some olive oil in a bowl.
2. Brush the peppers with the oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Scatter the rest of the garlic onto the tray. Don’t throw away the garlic oil yet, put them in the jar you’re going to can the peppers with.
3. Roast them under the broiler till they’re black. Place the peppers and roasted garlic in a bowl and put a plate on top to steam for about 15 mins.
4. It should be fairly easy to peel the skin off. Peel the skin away from the roast garlic too. Place the peppers in the jar, sprinkle some dried oregano and add the roast garlic.
5. Top it off with olive oil until just covered. Or you could pour in more if you fancy needing more of the oil. Use the peppers on all sorts of recipes.
Enjoy! I know I will!