martedì 6 maggio 2014

How to make your own preserves: Peppers sott'olio

It is always amazing when I go food shopping and I find something that makes me shout like a teenager when she sees her idols. At my age we had Backstreet boys (honestly my girlfriends had, my idols were Queen, Beatles,U2 and so on...still are), now should be 1 Direction if I am not wrong...But anyway, this is not the point. What I mean is that, teenagers shout when they see 1Direction and other groups like them...I shout in the market when I see food that I like. Last time, with my boyfriend (fiancée, almost-husband, roommate), we were in North End Road market, a market that I love because I always find what I need...fruits, vegetables  fresh and tasty. Even tomatoes are tasty and is quite unbelievable in England. Of course they come from Africa, or Spain...sometimes Italy as well...and this is a thing that makes me cry more than shouting.  So, we were in the market...and suddenly I shout: "Oh my God, look at those peppers!" - My boyfriend usually hates when I shout in this way or when I make noises of astonishment, because he says that he gets scary...like something bad is happening...boys... Well of course I bought those amazing peppers (after carefully smelled and touched), with other wonderful vegetables and some delicious strawberry that didn't taste like pee. I say that 'cause my friend Federica from Milano told me that she bought strawberries that tasted like pee....I don't know where honestly...but she lives in Chiswick, so I would avoid that area. Anyway, for your reference the market stall where I buy vegs and fruits is almost at the end of North End road,  in Fulham area, just in front of Sport Directs. He has the best things... I guarante you.
Since I bought quite a lot peppers, I decided to preserve some, in order to long-term eat.

So guys, below you can find my own way to make peppers preserved.
Ready?

INGREDIENTS (for 1 jar)
4 large mixed peppers
2/3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2/3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
salt
2 garlic cloves
fresh parsley
1 teaspoon of chopped chilli
one clean empty glass jar

METHOD:

Put in a large baking tin the peppers. Turn on the oven at 200 ° fan and put the peppers inside for 30/40 minutes, or check until they are well cooked and smoothed.

                            Take the tin outside the oven and set aside until the peppers cool down.

 When the peppers are ready to be touched, we carefully peel them off and remove the seeds and put the naked peppers in a bowl. If you like me are allergic to everything, I kindly advise you to use disposable gloves. 

Then we put in the bowl with peppers the liquid saved in the tin to give extra-taste.

 Then we chop the two garlic cloves and the fresh parsley and we add at the bowl, with an handful of salt and we mix everything. 

We take the glass jar and we start to put the peppers in it. When is half full we put one tablespoon of olive oil and one of vinegar and half teaspoon of chilli. We continue to put the peppers in the jar and when we finish we add the rest of the vinegar, of the olive oil and the chilli. 



With a teaspoon we mix a bit and then we close the jar with the lid and we make sure is well screwed.



 We flip the jar on a tablecloth for at last 24 hours. In this way we make pressure on the lid and we can save our preserve for a while....of course not for a year. 





Once opened save in the fridge...or eat them all!

Tips: this kind of preserves are perfect as antipasti with cheese and meats selections, but they are also amazing in a sandwich with goat cheese! 
Yum