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
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.