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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Consider, for a moment, the sweet pepper. No other plant demands so much, gives so little, yet keeps us coming back for more.
Sweet peppers are the coquettes of my garden. I coddle them, dote on their every need, and in return they toss me a few fruits to play with — so few, in fact, that I can barely bring myself to eat them fresh. I preserve almost every one the little minxes give me to eat huddled, alone, in the dead of winter. Or something like that.
Every year I say, “I need to plant more sweet peppers.” Every year I plant a few more. It’s never enough. I could lay waste to everything else in my garden and plant only an array of red bells, piquillos, padrons, pimientos and sweet cherry bombs — and still it would not be enough. It is not possible to have too many sweet peppers; chiles yes, but not sweet peppers.
What’s more, after these princesses deign to drop me a pepper or three, it has become so late in the season that they die soon afterward, our relationship barely consummated. It reminds me of some character in an Edith Wharton novel (and yes, I’ve read several. Blame my mother for that one…)
Disconsolate, I used to count the days until February, when I could start a new set of seeds under hot lights inside; even in birth, sweet peppers need to be the center of attention.
But then, one day, I found a way to cheat death.Yes, it is as simple as a heavy pot, a warm climate, and a quirk of biology.
Photo by Holly A, Heyser
I live in Northern California, and in my little spot of land, we get a hard frost only once every few years. Light frosts, which are enough to kill a pepper, come no more than a couple dozen times a year in my garden. But in the front of my house, which faces south, those light frosts come less than a dozen times a year, and even in the dead of winter the highs soar past 50 degrees — warm enough to keep a pepper alive.
But aren’t peppers annuals? No. And that is a dirty secret perpetrated by seed dealers everywhere. The coquettes aren’t eager to die after all, it seems. Only cold kills them. What they want is an even deeper commitment from you the gardener before they willingly give up their fruit. I once had a Thai chile — a capiscum frutescens, for you pepper freaks out there — that lived five years. My rocoto peppers are two years old and going strong. Peppers, like most of us, want a long-term relationship.
So I dig up my peppers from the garden every October, pot them up and move them to the front yard, which is such a blast furnace in summer — routinely reaching 110 degrees — that it would burn most peppers; that’s why I don’t keep them in the front all year long.It works for me. And it would work for anyone who has a sunny window. My Thai chile lasted in Minnesota until one day even the inner windowsill dropped below 30 degrees. (Outside it was -19 degrees, -30 with the wind.) So it can be done.
Once spring returns, you will find your peppers strong and ready to flower early and grow large. And mature peppers bear more fruit.
What to do with that fruit? Well, I’d venture to guess that everyone reading this has a favorite pepper recipe. I have lots on this site. But I also preserve a lot of peppers, less out of fear now than because preserved peppers take on a character totally unlike fresh ones.
My main method is to roast the peppers over an open fire, then preserve them with a little salt, vinegar and oil. Peppers lack natural acid, so need to be pressure-canned if you aren’t using vinegar or salt. I don’t do much pressure-canning, so I use a hybrid pickle method that works well for me.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
This way of preserving does a number of things. Roasting kills any enzymes in the peppers that might deteriorate them over time, as well as softening and sweetening the peppers — not to mention getting rid of the indigestible skins. I then dredge the peppers in vinegar to up the acid level and give the peppers more tang. After that I salt them liberally to make things even more stable; salt also adds to the flavor. And finally I cover everything in olive oil to keep air out. Some tips:
- Dry the peppers after washing them, and oil them lightly before grilling or roasting under the broiler.
- Grill them hard, as in blackened. Very few peppers have the thick skin a pimiento does (pimientos are bred to be roasted and peeled, so they have unusually thick skins), and a thin skin can be a bear to peel off unless it is good and charred.
- Steam the roasted peppers for a long time, in a paper bag. Don’t use plastic, as it will often melt. And you can wait on this step for up to an hour or so. Nothing quite so fun as to be scalded with nuclear-hot pepper juice when you’re trying to peel them.
- Don’t wash the peppers once peeled. You want all that pepper juice you can collect, and running the peppers under water will rob you of that. This is the secret to really, really good roasted peppers.
Another preserved pepper preparation (say that one five times fast!) I often do is make sauces. One of my favorites is a variant on a Hungarian sauce I once bought solely for the color: shocking, neon red. A classic “shiny things!” moment. Basically this sauce is made from roasted gypsy peppers, which are both hot and sweet at the same time, pureed with white wine vinegar, salt and a little olive oil.
Photo by Hank Shaw
Again, the vinegar, salt and oil are what preserves this sauce, which I have kept in the fridge for a year. The only pain is peeling gypsy peppers, which are both thin-skinned and thin-walled, unlike the thick-walled bell peppers we’re used to. A small price to pay.
I use this coulis, which is what the French would call it, as an ingredient in other sauces — particularly a Spanish, pepper-based dish called chilindron — as well as with fish or pheasant. You could use chicken. I find it marries better with light meats, not red meat like venison or beef.
For most of you it is not too late to rescue your peppers. Those of you in colder climates may be forced to choose which pepper’s charms most attract you, as you may not have space to save everyone. And don’t be worried about the pepper dropping leaves in winter; it happens. Just keep it in a sunny spot, protect it from whiteflies, and keep it as warm as you can. It will repay you for your kindnesses next year.
Photo by Hank Shaw
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PRESERVED ROASTED RED PEPPERS
There are a lot of ways to preserve red peppers. You can pickle them, which is nice, but a little limiting; pickled sweet peppers are good for an appetizer, but little else. Once you roast the peppers, however, things change.
Roasted peppers are a delight. I use them as appetizers like the pickled peppers, but also in sauces, stews and simply draped over roasted or grilled meat. Roasting — especially over an open flame — sweetens and softens the pepper, and more importantly, allows you to be rid of the indigestible skin.
Yes, you can pickle the roasted red peppers, too, but I’ve developed a method inspired by an obscure English book by Nora Carey called Perfect Preserves
Makes about 2 pints.
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
- 8 red peppers, or really any colored peppers
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup vinegar (any kind)
- Kosher salt
- Canning jars
- A chopstick or butter knife
- First wash, dry and then lightly oil your sweet peppers. You can do this with hot peppers, too, but be sure to use thick-walled varieties such as jalapenos.
- Roast your peppers. Ideally this is over a smoky wood fire, on a grill. Second choice is a gas grill, third an open burner on a stove. Alternatively, arrange your peppers on a broiling pan and broil them. No matter what your heating method, you will need to turn your peppers from time to time as the skins char and blacken.
- When the peppers are mostly blackened, remove them to a paper grocery bag and roll up the bag to seal in the steam. You want to steam the peppers in their own juices. Let the bag sit for 20-40 minutes.
- After the peppers have cooled and steamed, take them out one at a time and remove the skins, stems and seeds. Have a little water running in the sink so you can wash your hands off periodically. Do NOT run the peppers under the water, as this robs them of flavor. Once each pepper is cleaned — get as many seeds out as you can — drop it in a bowl. Do all the peppers before proceeding.
- Once all the peppers are cleaned and in the bowl, get a shallow bowl or small casserole pan and pour in some vinegar. I use red wine, cider or sherry vinegar for red peppers (sherry when I want them to be Spanish, cider for Portuguese, red wine for Italian or Greek) and white wine for green peppers.
- Dredge each pepper through the vinegar a few times to get it good and coated. Place it in another bowl. Do this for all the peppers.
- Sprinkle the bowl with all the peppers with kosher salt. Gently mix the peppers together like a salad. Sprinkle a little more salt and repeat. Sprinkle a little salt into the bowl with the pepper juice — the original bowl.
- Gather canning jars and pour a little vinegar into each one; enough to cover the bottom of the jar. Pack in the peppers, leaving about 1/2 space at the top. Use a butter knife or chopstick to run down the sides of the jars, releasing air bubbles. You will notice the level of liquid drop. Fill it with the salted pepper juice — but still leave room at the top of the jar.
- Once the air is out to the best of your ability and the vinegar-pepper juice it right at the top of the level of the peppers, pour in olive oil on top of everything to a depth of 1/4 inch. Screw the lids on the jars and you’re done. No sealing needed. These peppers will last a year in the refrigerator, although they will soften over time.
wow, I have just learnt a lot about peppers. Heck, I might even try to grow them next year – but up here in Seattle they certainly wont last through the winter – even more reason to preserve them.
There is also nothing more satisfying (OK, that might be a bit of a lie) than peeling the skin in one piece of a pepper. Hardly ever happens for me though. Maybe I don’t steam them long enough.
Gaaaaa! I am sooooo jealous! That your climate allows you to grow these beauties year ’round, that you have so many varieties planted, ack! Must…plant…more…next…year…
OK, now that I’ve got that out of my system, I’ve become addicted to Jimmy Nardello’s, a sweet Italian heirloom with a great back story that is sold by Seed Saver’s Exchange. Also must have at least a couple of anchos every year. Spanish pimientos de padron are on my wish list, but it’s hard to find the proper (small, not hot) variety.
Thanks for the preserving hints!
On etime my mom gave me a Nicholas Sparks novel … for Christmas … and I read it.
Jimmy Nardello’s, probably my favorite pepper. I’m going to try out that light coating of oil before roasting next year. Thanks.
I do still have peppers in the ground, you mindreader. Have you experimented at all with greenhouse-type contraptions?
I think I’m going to try to construct one this year for the peppers using PVC and heavy clear plastic or something. We’ll see. If you have any tips, do let me know.
I live in San Martin.
I dig up 3 large habanero chili plants and put them in my green house each fall.
They keep the fruit for a while, and eventually the leaves fall off and the chilies start getting moldy unless you pick and process them.
My plants go back in the garden in the spring.
My 3 plants are about 4 years old now.
with about 2 dozen pepper plants (yes, I agree you can’t have too many), digging them up takes too much room. However… starting a new batch of seeds in late summer and overwintering the seedling in the greenhouse… now, that works better for me!
Thanks for the roasted sauce idea… I do that with hot pepper… I never thought of doing it with sweet peppers.
oooo. How I wish I hadn’t pulled those spindly plants that survived being planted too close to the squahes. UGH! Next year! Next year!
Sarah: Nope. I don’t bother with greenhouses, although I prolly should, more for light purposes than warmth.
Wino: Will be interesting to see just how long those habaneros will survive. Four years is a long time…
Sylvie: Great idea! Again, though, I’d need to build that greenhouse.
I don’t have a garden, but I still preserve peppers every autumn. After preserving bushels of ‘em every year with my dad when I was a kid, it’s sort of in my blood.
sounds great, and now I’m wishing we still had peppers in the farmer’s market. Maybe I’ll try starting some now for next spring… we’re awfully mild winters down here, could work. Last years we had such an overabundance of jalapenos that I actually sold some at the local co-op, and this from two plants that had survived the winter and produced a second year. This year our garden was a spectacular FAIL.
I brought in two of my pepper plants this year. I’m hoping they survive the low light conditions we have here during winter in Canada. I guess we’ll see.
You must make muhammara with those fresh peppers. My favorite middle eastern dish, and all-around condiment/dip. sahtein.
http://jugalbandi.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/img_4175copy.jpg
Your roasted red bell pepper recipe says “sprinkle a little salt” on the peeled roasted peppers. How much is a little??
Evelyn: You want them well-salted, which helps the preservation. I sprinkle salt over each pepper on both sides until they look a little more salty than a normal person would want to eat on the spot. Sorry, but I do not measure exactly.
Thanks for the great info.
In ‘Down Under’ Sydney, I’ve left capsicum plants in the ground facing west over winter. They have survived a few frosts (near zero degrees not usually below zero), lost a few leaves and bounced back ‘as good as gold’ in the Spring, I’ve also tried pickling them and they were a huge success last year.
Enjoy your day, whatever you do, wherever you do!!
Thank you for the tips for preserving the red peppers. I have never put them in jars but will now. I’m from Tsawwassen and although cannot grow good peppers I will wait for the peppers to come on sale and then roast them in my Bar B Q….. beautiful red bell peppers, pablanos etc. If I’m doing hamburgers, I put the peppers on the top grill to cook first and then will do the charring. I then put the charred peppers in a metal bowl and cover them tightly with plastic wrap, leaving them to sweat for a good 45 minutes to cool. I then peel them, take out all the seeds and put them in zip lock bags…….I divide the natural pepper juice into each bag and press all the air out before I seal them. I then freeze them. When I need the peppers, they are as fresh as the day I put them into the freezer. They will keep for several years. When you need the roasted peppers, thaw them and drain them. Do not wash the peppers in water. Add a bit of salt and olive oil and enjoy… Dominic
Beautiful pictures and I love your writing! We are working on our own website focusing on fresh, homegrown or local veggies.. I’m going to put up a recipe for what I’m doing with my roasted red peppers, I’d love to link it to this article so they can see how to make their own peppers! I can’t wait until my own peppers grow (green, red, and black) so I can preserve them for those cold winter months too
Can I use your canning method and still put the canning jars in boiling water to seal them?
Ray: Yep, you can. I’d process for maybe 10 minutes or so.
I planted a flat of Hungarian wax pepper seedlings this year, I have never grown vegetables before, just hay. The place they were planted was formerly horse pasture for 35 years, rich and organic soil. All I did was water and weed them once in a while. They all lived, and each plant has 30 to 40 huge glossy peppers on it. Alas, they are hotter than I expected, neither my husband nor I can eat them, so I have about 400 peppers that I’ll probably have to plow under for green manure. A pity, as they are so beautiful, but nobody wants them. Barbara ( Michigan)
Bonjour, great recipe!
Could I add whole garlic cloves and a little hot pepper to spicy the whole thing?
Also, do you recommend a few herb/leaf? or would you add those when using the peppers?
thanks for your web site, I just did 2 jars of mustard. It is going to be much cheaper than the store one and I will not have to read the label for additives like sulfites (except if I use wine in the recipe).
Have a great day!
(Montréal, Qc, Canada)
We love hot peppers back here in the Philippines.
Meals are incomplete if we won’t have some to spice it up. Really appetizing!
The problem is due to many typhoons, they are hard to buy from the market and get really expensive all the time.
But when we have the chance to buy many they won’t even last for more than a week, so I tried googling on how to preserve.
And so, I came I across your blog and got more than what I’m looking for.
Now, I’m planning to plant some red peppers in the backyard and wanting to try your tips. They seems so sweet and delicious.
Am also planning to prepare more and start a small business from it.
I’ll let some of my friends and neighbors to know if they’ll like it and when they do,I’ll start selling in our flea market happening weekly.
Thank you so much for such a great idea!
More power to your blog!
Thank you! Three days ago i found 8 lbs of mini sweet peppers in the dumpster at my local grocery store. There were only 9 bad peppers in the 4 bags! i had just purchased one of the 2-lb bags a couple of days earlier at the same store. i’ve used them in meals for the last few days but i still have more than i can possibly eat before they go bad. i’m not really a big fan of pickled peppers and wanted to do something wonderful with them to preserve them. Of course, roasting and skinning all those little suckers is going to be challenging and time consuming, but they won’t go to waste!
I have sliced long seet red peppers, and banana peppers, I thought to preserve them I would put oil in the jars, and keep in the refirgator to use in salads. Is this a possibility?
Thanks for any help
Judi
Judi: No, that will not work. You need to cook the peppers to preserve them this way. If you want to leave them uncooked, you need to pickle them either with vinegar or in a brine.
Thank you for the great chile tips. I’m a California expatriot living in WI so I have had to get pretty creative in order to have my sweet and hot peppers for salsas etc. I grow sweet frying/roasting peppers for red pepper relish, Anaheim and Serrano peppers for red and green salsas.
I just picked my first round of sweet roasting peppers today. Most gardens back here are just getting the plants in the ground.
I use a “cold climate” growing method I have been experimenting with for 3 years. I grow the peppers in the black plastic tubs used for mixing concrete and plaster. The roots spread out over the shallow tub, the black color retains the heat and the peppers go crazy! At the peak of the season, I will be picking a grocery bag full of peppers off of each tray which holds 6-8 plants every week.
This year, I am going to bring some of the peppers inside to try to winter them over.
[...] I was canning mine for future use so there were some additional steps. Here is where I turned to Honest Food for instructions on canning the [...]
Hank, thank you for a fantastic recipe. I made two batches yesterday. I opened one jar to taste it, since it was my first try pickling peppers, gave my husband a little bite and pretty much ate the rest on the spot. The mix of olive oil and red wine vinegar, which I used to make it Italian/Greek, was just perfect.
Question. This was the first time in my short canning experience that some jars didn’t seal properly. Two out of 8, no big deal, more peppers for me today, but just out of curiosity, would not letting all the air bubbles out have something to do with it? I can’t think of anything else.
Will this work for Green Bell Peppers also?
Sylvia: Not sure why you had some jars not seal. But it is not because you got all the air bubbles out, that’s for sure. Even the slightest bit of oil or pepper left on the jar lid can break the seal, however. My advice is to keep these jars in the fridge and eat them first.
Teresa: Yes, it will work with green peppers. I am doing it with yellow ones, too.
[...] Oh, en die twee kilo paprika’s? Die maakte ik in, zo ongeveer volgens dit recept. [...]
No offense but I preserved 1/2 my roasted sweet peppers in olive oil (only) and 1/2 in this mix and the peppers w/ vinegar come out like a pickled side dish vs. the main event they actually are, which I think oil protects and enhances. We had to drain ours, wash, brine in salt water, and then re-oil the original vinegar set peppers…juts too much of “another pickled item” type of flavor for something that is so exquisite and massive as roasted sweet peppers are.
However – it may be that un-roasted fresh peppers would be better served w/ this method…I don’t know. Just chiming in.
Have just put up some of these (have yet to taste). However, I must say that your writing alone is worth this post – truly poetic and eloquent. Thank you.
I have been preserving fresh hot peppers in just plain oil and a little bit of vinegar for a long long time. Just wash, dry and place peppers in a glass jar (best foods jar works too) and let it sit in the pantry.
It pretty much lasts FOREVER. I have a jar of this tiny hot peppers from Brazil in oil (not in the fridge) for about 14 years. We use the “super hot oil” on top of rice and beans and when we run out of oil, we add some more oil.
Last year I sliced jalapenos and placed then in oil and they did lose their heat. But the oil is VERY flavorful and I put on quesadillas.
[...] and so decided it was time to try a recipe I found online for Marinated Roasted Red Peppers HERE and HERE are similar recipes. Pepper Roasted and bagged to ‘sweat’ until cool enough to [...]
Hello,I have finally found you,I have spent 3 days trying to find this recipe on the net. I want to do these roasted peppers and I am ready to start but I need to know if when all is done can the jars be stored in a pantry and if not how long before they have to go to the freezer. I am thinking of bringing some jars to friends on our way to Florida and keeping some with us in the Car on our way to Florida from Ontario and will be on the road for 7days. Thank you
Charlie: Not sure, actually. But if it were me, I’d probably do it.
Hank, do you have a suggestion for preserving red hot banana peppers? (Chill Out™ Chilies are a variety of the species C. annuum called ‘Hot Banana.’)
I plan to make a pepper jelly, but I would like to preserve some peppers for future use in other recipes. Pickling some would be fine too.
Thanks,
Jennifer
Hi! I used this recipe with the surplus of peppers Fromm my garden this year, and the one jar I ate with a few days was so delicious. That was about 2 weeks ago and all the other jars are bubbling and filling with air and pressure, and when I open them they pop like they are fermenting. It seemed I had gotten all the air out and covered them with over 1/4 inch of oil. What may I have done wrong?
Thanks!
Denise: Sounds like you are keeping them at room temperature – I keep mine in the fridge. It also sounds like there was not enough salt and/or acid on the peppers to stop microbial activity. They are fermenting. I’d toss them.
I did toss them, I didn’t get out of the directions to keep them in the fridge…it looked to me like they only needed to be refrigerated after you opened a jar and broke the oil seal….
At least I know for next year….
Denise: You’re right, I did not make that clear. I’ve rewritten the recipe to clarify. For the record, I’ve eaten the fermented peppers before and they were pretty good — weird, strong-tasting, but good. Next season I will try to pressure can them. That ought to keep the peppers shelf-stable.
[...] fairly thin skin, get roasted, bathed in vinegar and then canned (recipe below). There is also a very interesting method here from Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. I canned a couple of jars using his method. The rest [...]
Hank, have you ever tried to make your own vinegar? I’ve had a batch of red wine going for a couple years now. I bought a mother from a canning place on line and I add my own red wine… it makes for a deeper flavor vinegar that may compliment this dish quite well. Anyway, just a thought!
Jon: Weirdly, I am making it right now!
I have six plants full of big, plump, red peppers. Can I roast them in the oven at high temperature and then follow the recipie?
found this post about a month ago when i had an extra big bag of sweet peppers that were on sale from the store and i knew i would never get through them all before they started going bad. i followed your recipe, not very carefully because i had a lot of distractions. i put them under the broiler to blacken and forgot about them and parts of them were too charred. i salvaged what i could and used apple cider vinegar, poured olive oil over them. pushed them to the back of the fridge. i wasn’t thrilled because i messed up and they didn’t look as nice as yours by a long shot. forgot about them until today when i was scrounging up a lunch for myself and my two and a half year old. decided to give them a try and, oh boy! salty, vinegarry, savory! sliced a few pieces of sourdough bread, added a few preserved peppers on top, a big basil leaf and some mozzarella under the broiler. i will make this recipe with every pepper i can get my hands on from now on. my daughter loved it too. my infant son was even smacking his lips from afar. too bad for him he isn’t onto solid foods yet!
Love preserved peppers. I’m enjoying Portuguese picked sweet peppers in oil with some added basil and lightly toasted bread as I type this…wonderful.