Fire Roasted Peppers How To and Recipe

So this year while most of our crops are floundering... still... mid-august... our peppers are having a fabulous year.  The reason for this is simple; we grow our peppers in large pots.  Peppers, like tomatoes and cucumbers require warm soil to produce well.  Here in the great northern plains the soil takes forever to warm up.  This year in particular. 

However, the soil in a pot heats up very fast because there just isn't a lot of soil to heat compared to an entire garden.  We have four large pots we grow in, two in the front yard and two in the back. The pots are sitting on the paver patios in full sun so they soak in a lot of heat. 

This year we are growing a number of different bell and banana peppers as well as some jalapeño and Serrano peppers.  I have stuffed them, sautéed them, pickled them, hot sauced them, and added them to everything I can think of.  I have also given so many away the neighbors are no longer willing to take any.

Which leads me to this post.  Today I decided to fire roast a number of them.  Fire roasting brings out a wonderful flavor in the peppers as well as add a little smokiness.  All you need is a flame, some peppers, tongs, and a paper bag.  This time I have chosen to use the flame on my gas cooktop.  A gas grill or even a camp stove would work... of course do those outside.  Since I am still in my PJ's in the middle of the day, I opted for my cooktop. 

Turn on the flame and drop a pepper or two into the fire.  You will probably want to turn your hood fan on to high and maybe even open a window; this can get a little smoky. 

You are trying to blister and blacken the peppers' skin.  You do not need to turn the skin into a dark grey ash as I have seen some people do.  As the peppers blacken you may notice them popping a bit.  Do not panic, the pepper is not going to explode.

As each side of the pepper blackens, turn to reach all sides.  Don't walk away during this process.  Once a pepper is blacken, drop it into a paper bag and close the bag up.  Keep adding peppers to the bag until they are all fire roasted.  Let the peppers cool in the bag with the top closed.  This allows the peppers to steam and the skin to loosen.

Once cool, you will remove the blackened skin.  Rubbing the peppers with your fingers or a paper towel works well.  If you roasted hot peppers you will want to wear gloves for this.  You also may want to keep a bowl of water handy to clean off your fingers.  Try to resist the urge to wash off the peppers.

Once the skin is removed, half the pepper and carefully remove the seeds and veins.  Voilà fire roasted peppers.

Skins removed ready to use

Now what?  There are a huge number of things you can do with these fire roasted pepper filets.  Use them in salsa or in bruschetta. Add them to a salad or to top a pizza.  They make a yummy soup too.
I plan on marinating some of mine. 

Marinated fire roasted peppers:

Fire roasted peppers
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
pinch of kosher salt
3 cloves garlic, crushed then diced
1 teaspoon prepared mustard (it helps keep the oil and vinegar mixed together longer)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or basil (optional), if you use fresh make it 1 Tbls finely chopped

In a glass jar mix all the ingredients together well.  Close lid and shake until combined.  Store in refrigerator for at least an hour shaking occasionally. I used the roasted bell peppers in the marinade.  They were soooooo good.  You need to try this!

Marinated roasted peppers

You can eat these as a side dish or use them in any of the ways I listed above.  Use your imagination and let me know what you come up with.  We ate them as a stand alone side dish.

Fire roasted pepper filets in wax paper

With the fire roasted banana peppers and the jalapeños I laid the filets on wax paper making a stack with the wax paper between them.  I wrapped the wax paper in plastic wrap then put the whole package in a ziptop bag to be stored in the freezer.  Whenever my tomatoes decide to ripen, I will add the fire roasted peppers to salsa I will make with the peppers.

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