Preserved Roasted Red Peppers

Still on week two of the Preserve the Bounty Challenge. I preserved herbs and citrus in butterfat but I still wanted to try preserving something in oil. I searched Google high and low for a recipe for food preserved in olive oil. My requirements were that the recipe had to be something I would actually use and it had to be SAFE (home preserving non-acidic produce in oil is not recommended by the US FDA).

I came across a recipe at Honest-Food.net. The site is titled "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook" and is full of information about finding, cooking and preserving food.

In this recipe, the peppers are roasted in the oven, dredged through a vinegar solution, packed into jars, covered in more vinegar and then topped with olive oil. It`s pickling and oil packing in one. The added acidity from the vinegar is sure to eliminate any bacteria growth concerns. These roasted red peppers can be eaten as is, added to a sandwich or used in sauces or soups.

I followed the recipe to a tee. It`s lengthy so I am not going to re-post here. Just go on over to Honest-Food.net and check it out.

Preserving roasted red peppers is a long and involved process. I didn't enjoy it and I won't be doing it again any time soon! All that work and I only got one 500ml jar out of it! Then again, I only processed three large peppers... any more and I would still be at it! I'm confident that when the time comes to use the peppers, I efforts will have been worth it!