Living in Niagara during August and September is one big harvest of yumminess. Yesterday I decided to process a bushel of red shepherd peppers (sweet). They are easy to roast using the barbecue and freeze wonderfully.
The whole process takes about 1.5 hours. To organize your workstation, you’ll need a cutting board, a pail for the peelings (to the compost of course!), a large sheet pan for the prepared peppers and a hot barbecue. This can be done in your oven, but it is messy.
Once the peppers are sliced in half and the seeds removed, place them skin side down on the grill. Cover and cook about 10 – 15 minutes until the skins are blistered and blackened.
Take the charred peppers and place on sheet pan. Allow to cool and the steam will loosen the skins. I needed to do about 4 batches of peppers to do the whole bushel but you can do smaller amounts.
The skins will just slide off after about 20 minutes. If some parts didn’t cook evenly, or are blackened, just leave them. It all adds to the smokey flavour.
Pack peppers in freezer bags. They store well for at least a year.
To bring a wonderful sunshiney taste to winter, use the red peppers on pizzas, sandwiches or in pasta sauces. Here’s a quick sauce that I use on cooked vegetables.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
In a powerful blender, like a Vitamix or Ninja, blend 1 cup roasted red peppers with 2 T olive oil, 1 small clove garlic, 1 T balsamic vinegar and salt/pepper to taste. Keeps in the fridge for one week.