Beautiful Roasted Capsicums

These will blow your guests away, they will think you have slaved over a hot stove for a week… believe me, the taste is sublime and they are SO easy… but that part is our secret

Choosing the best Capsicums
Make use of the ‘on sale’ capsicums when the are in season as they can be expensive otherwise, usually the big super markets need to move them quickly or try the farmers markets and get a good deal as capsicums cannot be stored for any length of time.

Choose ones that are undamaged, feel slightly heavy in your hand and have bright almost glowing skins but not ‘shiny’ or ‘waxy’ looking.

A little tip: Use nice, fancy jars and make your own labels to put your finished roasted capsicums in and bingo what a gift for your friends and family.
What you will need and What to Do:

Capsicums, as many as you want. As I said at the start, it’s more economical to do this when they are in season, you can mix the colors and sizes. You have so many colors to choose from. I grow red, green, yellow and chocolate brown capsicums!!

Wash or wipe the capsicums depending upon where you got them, I usually just wipe mine from my kitchen garden then remove the stalk and seeds by cutting from stalk end down to the bottom tip and gently prizing the pepper apart. I usually cut the capsicums into thick quarters, rather than slicing them thinly.

Make nice sized pieces, put them onto a flat baking tray, drizzle over a little olive oil and coat all the pieces on all sides. You need to get your hands and massage the oil into the pieces, don’t use too much oil, just enough to coat the pieces all over. A bit like using moisturizer just enough to do the job!!

Pop under a hot grill, I put my tray quite low down so that the capsicums ‘flesh’ cooks a little before the skin gets too black. Trust you sense of smell, they will be ready when a ‘beautiful sweet smell’ fills the kitchen. Be near by the grill, you can multitask, but keep alert.

The skins should be black but sometimes not all the skin blackens and it kinda bubbles away from the flesh. Don’t over do them or they will be too dry. Aim for sweet and succulent.

Remove from grill and let cool slightly, you want them so you can hold the pieces without burning your fingertips, but NOT cold. Peel off the skins using your fingers, some people put the capsicum pieces in a plastic bag and rub them to remove the skins. But I find this spoils the shape of the pieces and makes an unsightly mess.

Place the whole pieces into a sterilized jar,you can pop clean jars under the roasting tray to warm them gently.
Pack them gently but fill the jar. It’s hard to explain but don’t ‘crush’ or ‘pack’ the pieces in so you reduce the amount of air space between the pieces.

Cover the pieces with olive oil, there is no need to use virgin olive oil unless you want to, but, the second pressing olive oil is just a good for this type of thing and less expensive as well. When you use the end product, you can use the oil straight from the jar for cooking or as a dressing especially if it has steeped for a week or tow and it gets a rosy hue and tastes beautiful.

Seal the jars while they are still slightly warm, this helps to make a good seal and reduce the chances of them going off. Keep refrigerated once opened and use within a month or less.

Believe me, the oil becomes infused with the fragrance of the capsicums and is tinted by their colours, I use this oil for cooking, substituting plain oil. You can use the roast capsicum pieces where and when your imagination lets you. Eat them as part of a Mezza platter or in stir fries, omelets
Go wild…

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