Thursday, October 15, 2009

Pick a Peck of (Frozen) Peppers

One of the joys of having a farm share this year has been learning more about the seasonality of the foods I eat. Some produce, including the delightful garlic scape, comes on line for a tiny little window that adds a special excitement to the month of June. Others have a much longer season, which in the case of lettuce has been a pleasant surprise for me--we are still getting incredible salad greens in our share each week, in spite of the increasing chill! I'm also learning that early fall is apparently peak season for all manner of peppers, as we've come home with at least two pounds of the beautifully colored fruits for the past few weeks. And, although we've enjoyed many of them on our salads or as a light, crispy snack, our refrigerator space has been increasingly consumed by bags full of reds, yellows, and greens. One can only eat so many peppers in a day!

Lucky for me, a quick internet search revealed that preserving peppers through the winter takes just three simple steps:

1) Wash.
2) Chop.
3) Freeze.

Suggestions for chopping varied, with some preservers going for a full dice and others simply halving and de-seeding their peppers. I opted for strips, as these can be kept long for stir fries or chopped smaller if needed. Now, I have a bag full of tasty, colorful ribbons to provide a taste of the farm throughout the winter.

2 comments:

  1. Another great way to eat peppers is to roast them under the broiler til the skin turns black, then peel, cut into strips, and dress with olive oil and garlic. You can put these on sandwiches, eat them with bread, over pasta, etc. So delicious.

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  2. Yes, that is a delicious option! We also grilled a bunch of them for fajitas (as you may recall), which was lovely. We even grilled some little jalapenos, which were very tasty if you like the spice!

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