Spiced Pepper Purée Recipes

SPICY RED BELL PEPPER SOUP

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the bell peppers, carrots, onions, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir the vegetables until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, rice, thyme, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the rice and vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. and cool 30 minutes.
• Blend the cooled soup until smooth using an hand-held immersion blender directly in the pot. Or use a blender, and blend the soup in batches until smooth.

WEANING RECIPE: SPICED PEAR PURéE

Steps:

• Put the pear into a steamer over simmering water and cook for around 8 mins until tender.
• Blitz to a purée in a food processor along with a very small pinch of cinnamon, if using. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times while blitzing to get a smooth consistency throughout. Add a splash of milk (or water from the saucepan), if necessary, to create a smooth texture although usually pears will blitz well without.
• Serve one portion and divide the rest between small containers or ice cube trays and freeze.

SPICY CARROT PURéE

Steps:

• Boil carrots until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and return to pan, tossing over medium heat until dry. Coarsely mash with potato masher or fork.
• Stir in remaining ingredients and set aside for 30 minutes to let flavors blend. Season, transfer to bowl, drizzle with more olive oil and serve with crusty bread, if desired.

SWEET AND SPICY PEPPER RELISH

Steps:

• Wearing rubber or latex gloves, trim tops off chiles. Working in batches, pulse chiles, bell peppers, and onion in a food processor until chopped into fine bits, about 1 minute per batch. Transfer to a nonreactive 3-quart pot.
• Stir sugar, vinegar, and salt into chile mixture and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring more frequently toward end of cooking to prevent scorching, until thickened, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Pour or ladle relish into clean, wide-mouth, half-pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims clean with a damp paper towel. Let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
• Apply clean lids. Enjoy immediately, store in fridge 2 to 3 weeks, or freeze up to 6 months.

CRISPY CHICKEN WITH JALAPENO BEURRE BLANC AND SPICY POBLANO PEPPER PUREE

Steps:

• Chicken:
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. In an oven-proof saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and sear the chicken, skin side down, until the skin is crisp and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and put the pan in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 15 minutes. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
• Meanwhile, liberally salt a large pot of water and add the potatoes. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat and cook the potatoes they are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and spread them out a sheet pan. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Bake in the oven until golden brown.
• Beurre Blanc: Cut off the tops of the jalapenos. Toss them in a small bowl with the olive oil and transfer them to a small sheet pan. Roast until the skin starts to darken and blister, about 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let the peppers cool a bit. Pull off the skin then cut them in half, lengthwise, and remove the seeds. Dice the jalapenos and set aside.
• In a sauce pot over medium heat, stir together the vinegar, white wine, garlic and thyme. Let simmer until the liquid is reduced and there is only a tablespoon of liquid left in the pot. Discard the garlic clove and thyme sprigs. Add the jalapenos to the reduction. Turn down Reduce the heat to low, then whisk in the butter, little by little, until blended and smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm and set aside.
• Pepper puree: Roast and peel the red pepper using the same method as the jalapenos. (To save time, roast both jalapeno and red peppers at the same time.) In a saute pan, over medium heat, add the olive oil and the onions. Saute until they become soft, around 3 minutes. Stir in the poblano peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat. In a blender or food processor, puree the roasted red peppers, the onion mixture, and chicken stock until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Spoon some of the pepper puree onto each serving plate and arrange a chicken breast on top. Drizzle with the beurre blanc and serve the potatoes on the side.

SPICED PEPPERS

Steps:

• Roast peppers in a 400 degree oven until blackened on all sides. Remove from oven to a plastic bag and allow to cool. Peel, seed and slice peppers, reserving juice. Place peppers with juice in a bowl and add cumin, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt to taste. Let stand for 1 hour, covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. Allow to come to room temperature before serving. Serve with spicy sausages or barbecued meats.

SPICED PEPPER PILAFS

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Add the onion, garlic and ginger, then gently cook for 5 mins until softened. Stir in the tomato purée and spices, and cook for 1 min more. Add the rice, stir to coat, then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, tip in the lentils, cover with the lid and leave to cook over a low heat for 15 mins, until the lentils and rice are cooked. Stir through the spinach and mint (see tip below, if freezing).
• Use a sharp knife to slice the top off each pepper. Cut out the middle stalk and scoop out any seeds. Carefully trim the bottoms slightly so they stand upright, but the filling won't fall out. Fill each pepper with the rice mix and place the lid on top. Bake or wrap tightly in cling film or freezer bags and freeze.
• To cook, defrost peppers completely if frozen. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the peppers on a lightly greased baking tray and cook for 25-30 mins or until the peppers have softened. Serve with a green salad tossed with cucumber, herbs and a dollop of yogurt.

SPICY RED PEPPER JELLY

Steps:

• In a small bowl, whisk ¾ cup sugar with pectin; set aside. In a bowl of a food processor, combine red peppers and red pepper flakes; process for 15 seconds or until somewhat finely chopped. You should have about 2 ½ cups give or take.
• In a large pot over medium-high heat, add red peppers, sugar, white vinegar, butter, fresh tarragon and sea salt. Stir very well and bring it to a boil; cook for 4 minutes. Add sugar-pectin mixture and cook for an additional 4 minutes. If there are some larger chunks of pepper, purée with an immersion blender.
• To find out if it's ready, dip a metal spoon in iced cold water. Dry it off and scoop up some jelly. Let it cool off to room temperature. If it sets up, it means it's ready otherwise cook it a little longer.
• Remove from the heat and fill up the prepared jars. Process the jars in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Place them in a draft-free area and wait until the lids snap down. Makes 6 jars of 250ml.

GRILLED CHICKEN BREASTS WITH SPICY YELLOW PEPPER PURéE

Steps:

• Lightly coat rack of a broiler pan or a baking sheet with cooking spray. Preheat broiler.
• Quarter yellow peppers, discarding stems, seeds, and ribs. Put quartered peppers, skin sides down, on broiler rack or baking sheet and broil about 2 inches from heat until just tender and edges are dark brown, about 10 minutes. In a bowl let peppers steam, covered, 10 minutes. In a blender purée roasted peppers (unpeeled) with 1/2 teaspoon chili powder and pour through a sieve into a small saucepan.
• In a small bowl whisk together mustard, remaining 3/4 teaspoon chili powder, and 2 teaspoons olive oil.
• Prepare grill.
• Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Brush tops with mustard mixture and grill, coated sides down, on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals about 6 minutes. Turn chicken and grill 6 minutes more, or until cooked through. (Alternatively, chicken may be grilled in 2 batches in a hot well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderate heat, turning once, 6 minutes and then baked in a preheated 450° F. oven 5 to 10 minutes, or until cooked through.)
• While chicken is grilling, in a large non-stick skillet heat remaining teaspoon olive oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté pepper strips with salt and pepper to taste, stirring, until golden brown and tender, about 5 minutes. While pepper strips are sautéing, heat roasted pepper purée over low heat until hot.
• Arrange pepper strips on 4 plates and top with chicken. Drizzle chicken with some sauce and sprinkle with coriander. Serve chicken with rice if desired and remaining sauce on side.

ITALIAN YELLOW PEPPER PUREE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500F degrees.
• Lightly oil a baking pan.
• Halve and seed the peppers and place them cut side down on the baking pan.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the skins begin to wrinkle and the peppers become a deeper golden color.
• While the peppers roast, warm the olive oil in a soup pot and saute the onions, carrots, and celery for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned.
• Add the water, potatoes, salt and bay leaves, cover and bring to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender When the peppers are roasted, place them in a covered bowl.
• When cool enough to handle, slip off their skins and add the peppers to the soup pot.
• When the potatoes are tender, remove the bay leaves.
• In batches puree the soup in a blender until smooth and thick.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Reheat gently, if needed.
• Serve topped with parmesan cheese.
• Also goes well with toasted bread with Parsley Pesto.

ROASTED RED PEPPER PURéE

Steps:

• Puree all ingredients in processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before using.)