Roasted Peppers

So this was originally part of my jambalaya recipe, but I thought it should get it's own post since it's so good. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with me working mid shifts all week, not being able to do any decent cooking and needing a filler post. Nope, not at all. Anyway, roasted peppers are awesome in tons of things. Tomato sauce, rice dishes, sandwiches, on crackers, it just keeps going. They are wicked good and you should try them.

Have you ever roasted your own peppers? If not, you really should. It's wicked easy and much better than the jarred stuff, if you ask me. You can always use the jarred stuff, nothing wrong with it, but if you want to do it yourself here is how. For this method you need a gas stove. I'm sure there are ways to do it in an oven or over an electric burner, but I don't know them. Sorry. Now, some methods for this tell you to turn the grate over your burner upside down. I never have and have never had a problem with it, but if you want to, go nuts. Put the pepper right on the grate and turn the heat up to med, med-high.
I'm using an orange one but you can use whatever kind you like, green is traditional (in jambalaya). The goal here is to blacken the entire skin of the pepper. Once one side is blackened, turn it with some tongs until the whole thing is all gross looking like this. Now wrap it loosely in some paper towels and let it sit for a couple minutes. This will make it steam itself and make the skin come off nice and easy. After a couple minutes pick up the whole package and gently rub the pepper. The skin should could sliding right off. You want to get as much blackened skin off as you can, it doesn't add anything good to the flavor. Note: This is just my opinion. My brother says he always leaves a little blackened skin on. He likes the bitter, but rich, tones. So, decide for yourself.