Food Education – Forfeng’s Blog

The best way to make delicious roasted peppers is actually not by roasting them but by grilling them. Who would have thought…….

The best peppers t Bushels of Peppers o use for this are Holland Bell Peppers or domestic bells; you want to look for firm, ripe, and as thick-skinned as possible.

How do you tell whether a pepper has a thick skin or not? You can tell by looking at a pepper as it looks plumper and rounder, and when you pick it up and squeeze it lightly, it will have a firmer feeling than a thinner skinner pepper.

You can also make roasted hot peppers, but you want to be aware of the hotter the pepper, the better you should make sure your grilling area is well ventilated!

I prefer to use red, yellow, and orange bell or Holland peppers; green peppers generally have thinner skins and not as much flavor when roasted/grilled. Green peppers are unripened colored peppers and tend to not have a lot of flavor to them anyway, and can also be bitter. Green peppers have not had the chance for the natural sugars to develop as the pepper ripens. You will never find a green pepper in my house; neither my husband nor myself like them, and I can’t recall in 20 years in business ever using them on any of my menus.

Peppers are also high in Vitamin C, with even the humble green pepper having twice as much as an orange. Yellow and orange peppers more than 6 times as much Vitamin C as an actual orange.

There are also purple peppers, white, striped, black heirloom, mini sweet, cubanelle, banana, cherry (or pimento), and many varieties of hot peppers from all over the world.

All are fantastic for roasting (grilling) and stuffing for appetizers, an example like roasted jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, cheddar, garlic, and dill. Banana peppers and other larger peppers can be stuffed with rice, vegetables, and meat, poultry, or fish. Larger peppers don’t generally hold up to roasting/grilling first and then stuffing unless they are placed in some sort of large ramekin or individual baking dish to hold it up as the skin tends to get a bit on the floppy side.

Method:
Wash your peppers and pat dry. You don’t want to cut the peppers out or remove the seeds in advance, this will be done after cooking.

Heat up your outdoor grill: charcoal or gas. You can also grill them indoors if you have a gas stove using a grate on top of the burners but be warned, it can cause some floating black debris in the air.

For a little extra added flavor add some wood chips, smokiness gives the peppers a little bit more depth of flavor.

Place the peppers directly on the grill and let the skin blacken until almost the entire surface is black, there can be pockets of color, don’t let it get to the point where you are seeing ash grey on the skin (you have cooked them too much by then if you see this).

Turn the peppers until the entire exterior is well singed. (ie blackened but not totally black). The perfect peppers are ones that you stand and watch and baby the peppers, frequently turning so they don’t get overdone. The perfect balance is seeing when the skin starts to pucker and pull away from the flesh underneath it.

Remove the peppers and let cool until they are easy to pick up comfortably. (Do not cover the peppers). I’ve seen it suggested to do this but I’ve found when you cover the peppers can get overcooked and get quite mushy.

Using a rubbing motion with your thumbs, gently remove the skin for the peppers, it will come away very easily. And rub off any seeds as the pieces start to gently come apart. The stem is also easily pulled off at this point.

If you are using this for hot peppers, WEAR GLOVES! The natural capsaicin in hot peppers is very painful if you get in your eyes by accident or you touch other tender parts of your anatomy. Even heavy hand washing does not remove all the natural oils from this. Trust me on this, I could tell you some stories of line cooks being warned about this and ignoring the warning. I’ll leave that up to your imagination, but I think you probably catch my drift.

Don’t wash your peppers after removing the blackened skin as this will remove the natural flavors and oils that have come out.

Refrigerate the peppers and cover only when completely cool; within several hours the peppers will exude a natural juice. Don’t strain the juices off because marinating in these juices is the best way to keep them AND enhance the flavor.

Peppers prepared this way will store up to a week refrigerated. They taste even better on day two, after they have had a chance to sit in their natural juices and marinate.

When I have roasted pepper juice leftover, it makes a great base for a vinaigrette, or I add it into soups, stocks and sauces. It freezes well as well. If you make roasted pepper salad dressing whether it’s a vinaigrette or dairy or a mayo/egg-based dressing, go ahead and add that juice right in as well, it’s condensed roasted pepper flavor,

Roasted peppers do get a bit mushy if frozen, but if using them for soups or sautéed dishes, they work fine. The best way to freeze for sautéing is toss them in a little bit of pure olive oil before freezing and wrap well. They do pick up freezer odors. If using for soups, you may want to not use the olive oil depending on the end usage, but again may sure you wrap well.

A few variations on the basic roasted peppers is marinating in some olive oil, I prefer pure vs EV, but that’s a matter of taste preference. Garlic and fresh herbs are also a nice addition. My personal favorites are fresh thyme and/or rosemary. Roasted garlic is also a nice addition, but I wouldn’t marinate the peppers in it for more than a day, or all you will taste is roasted garlic and not roasted pepper. A recent addition that is fantastic on roasted peppers that we have fallen in love with is black garlic salt. It’s pricey but worth it with a lovely subtle sweet garlic flavor.

Rosemary, Basil and Black Garlic Salted Butter rolled in Cracked Black Pepper

Yesterday I did a short online food session for the Nebraska Bed and Breakfast Association; a good portion of the topic was on Compound Butters. Last year I had written a blog post on Compound Butter Tips and Ideas for Innkeepers. I wanted to elaborate a bit more on some of the questions we had yesterday on some accompaniments and uses for compound butter for hospitality people and any home cooks who want to up their game a tad in the kitchen.

I’ll start with the butter itself. I had in the past post mentioned Kate’s Homemade Butter (still a favorite!). It was introduced to me quite a few years ago by an innkeeper friend. When you are ready to make compound butter, you want the butter soft enough to push a finger into but not melting. I prefer to use a whip rather than a paddle as I find it makes the butter much airier.

Whip butter on high for about twenty minutes, I use a Kitchen Aid mixer, but a hand mixer will also work; just be prepared for your hands to get tired holding the mixer up. 🙂 You want the butter to be light and easily spreadable, and it will change color to a much lighter shade.

What pairs with compound butters? My flat answer for that one is well, everything, what can you mix with butter to make compound butters? My flat answer is well, pretty much anything edible (within reason). But that flippant answer doesn’t generally help anyone. If you do not have a trained palate and it’s become easy to just “know” that this ingredient will go well with another ingredient, that’s great, but I realize it’s not so easy.

Honey Matcha Butter rolled in Toasted Sesame Seeds

In terms of what goes well with what. Think ground level, any sweeter compound butters, like a few listed on the afore mention compound butter blog; like Toasted Pecan and Maple Butter, Orange Honey Butter, Ginger and Grapefruit Butter, etc. will pair well with any sweets, especially breakfast sweet dishes like waffles, pancakes, french toast, muffins and quick breads.

Can you use sweet butters on savory dishes? Yes, but I’d limit them to some vegetable dishes (to balance out any acidity or tartness in the dish) fish, or poultry. It’s not a hard and fast rule of thumb, because a nice maple ginger compound butter is fantastic on a grilled steak, but it’s also a matter of personal taste and preference.

Savory butters like Roasted Cerignola Olive and Rosemary Butter, Chipotle and Smoked Paprika Butter and Jalapeno, Lime and Cilantro butter for example, will go very well on pretty much any savory dish, vegetable, meat, poultry, or fish.

Crossover butters or ones where there is a fine line between sweet and savory are more weighted towards using them just for savory dishes, but some like Chocolate Balsamic Butter, Honey Sriracha Butter and Macha Tea and Ginger Butter, go very well on muffins, sweetbreads, and pancakes or waffles. Especially if you are doing a pancake or waffle recipe like a sweet potato pancake. Honey Sriracha Butter is awesome on Sweet Potato Pancakes. Why? Because of the base ingredients. Honey and Sweet Potato pair well. Sriracha and Sweet Potato pair well.

When thinking about what ingredients will work well with others, if you don’t know, do some experimenting. Taste the base ingredients by themselves and see if the flavors meld. And I mean don’t make a recipe with the ingredients. Try a small taste of a fresh tarragon leaf for example, and then try a vegetable or a small taste of another spice. Much of cooking is a matter of preference.

I love Anise but loathe Tarragon (which has a slight anise flavor), so it’s never and will never be in my pantry. But that’s a personal taste preference. I do know what it pairs with though because I’ve explored that in depth. The same with doing compound butters and pairing them with dishes.

Do a little experimentation. With the exception of herbs like cilantro, which to some people it tastes like soap, if something tastes good to you, there’s a pretty darn good chance it will taste good to someone else.

When you are making compound butter, don’t be afraid to make it in larger batches, whether rolled into a small tube in parchment paper and chilled and then sliced and frozen, it is a great added taste (and texture) addition to a lot of dishes.

For a little more variety, don’t just add ingredients “to” the butter; what else compliments it? This weekend I made several compound butters. The rosemary, basil and black garlic butter I rolled in some fresh cracked black pepper.

This butter will be a lovely accompaniment to some nice tuna steaks we had in the freezer. The matcha and honey butter rolled in toasted sesame seeds is being reserved (frozen) for the next time I make spicy Asian stir-fried shrimp. And last but not least, the maple lime butter I rolled in Hoosier Hill Farm granulated honey (Yummy!) and had it on fresh biscuits this morning.

Short butter roll/long butter roll (above) rolled in parchment paper

What about those ends of the butter logs, what to do with? I freeze them until I have enough to make a pie dough with. Most home cooks won’t care what the ends of butter rolls look like, but for me, it’s a force of habit to save them. The chocolate Grand Marnier logs I had made and had bits and pieces and ends of will go into a nice chocolate and toasted pecan pie crust soon.

What about amounts? Use your taste buds on this one. I don’t do set in stone amounts with compound butters unless the ingredient is one that does not vary in flavor. One chopped teaspoon of fresh garlic to 1 cup butter may be great midsummer, or if you have a particularly pungent bit of garlic, but what about midwinter, when it takes almost twice as much garlic to get that garlic flavor you are looking for?

Even brands can change the taste significantly amount wise. We have a fondness for Kikkoman Lime Ponzu and Chili Ponzu, and I’ve tried other brands, they are not as citrusy or as tasty to use in my opinion, so the amount would vary. Plus in those cases if I was making a ponzu flavored butter I might be adding more citrus zest if having to use an alternative brand.

Just like experimenting with flavor paring, taste your butter. Does it taste good? What else does it need if anything. If you don’t taste the added ingredient and you just taste butter, add more.

Last but not least, salted or unsalted butter for compound butters? If you are not adding salt to the rest of the ingredients for a compound butter (like a sea salt or other flavored salt), use salted butter. Use unsalted only if adding salt flavor to it, like Kosher, sea, flavored or an ingredient that might already be slightly salty, ie, some types of olives, soy sauce etc.

But but but, what if it’s for a sweet dish? Salt enhances the flavor of pretty much any sweet dessert, even nonbaked ones. When I make my chocolate mousse, I add a pinch of salt. When used in moderation, it does what it is supposed to, enhances the flavors already there.

Actually one more thing (sorry I lied :), when using spices, not dried herbs but spices, toasting spice mixes lightly in a cast iron pan can add some lovely additional flavor to your compound butter mixes. Just make sure your kitchen has good ventilation, especially if toasting any hot spices.

Keeps Gettin’ Pepper, Roasted Peppers

Compound Butter, Part Deux