Preserving red and yellow peppers

[OldGreyBeard]

HI,
Can people recommend a good way of preserving read and yellow peppers? The idea is to buy stocks in the summer for some of our favourite dishes and then use them in the winter. I don't have a greenhouse so I can't grow my own

[demi]

we roast them on the wood burner, you can also do it in the oven but you dont get the same smokey flavour as you do from the wood. they then get put into freezer bags and go in the freezer.
or you can put the roasted, peeled and deseeded peppers into steralized jars with oil.
or into steralized jars with salted water and boil them in a water bath for 20 min.
you can also slice, blanch then freeze them in bags.
you can also string them up and leave them to dry in the sun.
or you can just clean them and freeze them whole.

hope that helps

[JuzaMum]

Good idea Demi - preserved in jars roasted peppers are yummy.

I must admit I just buy frozen chopped ones for cooking a lot of the time as they are so cheap and easy to use. (Don't tell anyone but I get them in Iceland - the shop not the country!)

JuzaMum

[Maykal]

Hello there,

Here in Romania they grow a lot of peppers (no greenhouse needed :) ). They usually preserve them in jars:

1. Roast/grill the peppers.
2. Remove the skins and the seeds. (I find that sticking them in a tupperware box for 10 minutes after roasting/grilling helps the skin to come off easily).
3. Fill a jar up to the top with the peeled/deseeded peppers (once they've cooled enough to handle, of course).
4. Put 0.5 litres of vinegar, 2 litres water, 100ml oil, 2 tablespoons of honey (or 3 tablespoons of sugar), 2.5 tablespoons of salt, some peppercorns, some mustard seeds, some allspice corns, and 5 bay leaves into a large pot and bring to the boil. (Note - this'll make enough to fill quite a few jars, depending how tightly you've packed them and the size of the jars - if you're only doing a couple of jars you might need to scale the quantities down a little).
5. Once the liquid is bubbling, pour into the jar to the top, wait a few minutes, and top up (as it may have expanded) and then put the lid on.
6. Stick the jar/s into a very hot oven for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave them in the oven until cool.

Another nice thing to make with excess peppers is 'zacusca'. It's normally made from aubergines but here they often make it with peppers as they are so common. It's lovely as a dip, in a sandwich, on toast, next to a salad...

[contadina]

Zacusca sounds a lot like Ajvar, the Croatian/Serbian preserve made with roasted, mashed eggplant and sweet peppers. Its a faff to make (you have to stir it for hours and be really careful how you preserve it owing to a high concentration of olive oil). It tastes divine though, and if anyone likes the idea of a smokey and spicy spread this is the recipe I follow http://kemalandsheila.com/2010/07/ajvar ... eserve-it/

[demi]

we make ajvar too but not with aubergine, just with peppers and/or chillies and oil.
its grate in a tostie with feta or goats cheese.
yummy!

[Maykal]

I looked up ajvar and it does look very similar to the zacusca made only from peppers, and a bit spicier. I'll have to try making some when the peppers are in season in the markets.

Another thing you can do with excess peppers is to make a kind of paste with them. I don't know the exact recipe (whether they are roasted and peeled first) but I know they are chopped/blended with a lot of salt, kept in jars, and then this paste is used as an ingredient for soups, goulash, and things like that when peppers are out of season.