Grilled Peppers

Yet another simple recipe, throwing more vegetables on the charcoal.

Start with some bell peppers.

A small selection of peppers… even if they’re basically the same thing. Red, yellow, and orange peppers are more or less interchangeable, beyond the color, and they’re all the ripe version of green peppers.

I like to get the bottoms first, then the tops, and finish with the sides. Just habit, maybe.

After first turning… yes, actually let the skin char. The flesh of the pepper underneath will be just fine.

Keep turning the peppers until the surface is more or less entirely blackened. It’s not critical that absolutely all the surface is charred, but I get probably about 80-90 percent coverage. Usually by the time I’m done, I’ve got bits of charred pepper skin coming off already.

Take the peppers and put them in a metal bowl, and cover it. The closer the fit the better, because the steam of the hot peppers helps finish cooking the peppers and loosen the skin.

I took the charred, now very soft peppers, and removed as much of the charred skin as I found convenient. You can see in this picture that there are some leftover bits… you can put some more effort in to make sure you get them, I find a small amount is acceptable.

I think my dad refers to this as ‘barbecue pepper’.

Seed the pepper and cut as needed. In this case I sliced them because they’ll be served with and on some rib roast. In other cases I’ve diced them roughly because they were going into a ragout and frankly were going to break down and disappear. Another time, I might cut them into quarters to be mixed with other vegetables.

Overall, the charring caramelizes the peppers and makes them softer and quite a bit sweeter.