As a young girl I would spend long summer holidays at my grandmother's farm, they would be my most fond childhood memories. My grandmother would roast Capsicums each morning for breakfast for us children and would be accompanied with some fresh cow's or goat's milk.
Well I don't own a cow or a goat but I have access to capsicums and roasted capsicums are a staple in our fridge but I wanted to preserve them and I have been lucky enough to have a friend like Rosa my favourite Italian nonna, she has been able to inspire me and help me to have our own little batch of preserves.
A couple of weeks ago I preserved roasted capsicums for the first time, they are so delish and Rosa tells me that the flavour will be even better as the weeks and months go by.
These are so easy and delish to make they will make the best present for anyone and for you to eat with anything and everything.
Enjoy.
Karla
ROASTED CAPSICUM
1kg red capsicum
1 cup olive oil
1/4 red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves - thinly sliced
a good pinch of salt and pepper
METHOD
1.
sterilise jars and let them dry
2. cut capsicums in half remove seeds and white bits.
3.char grill them on the BBQ or oven grill until skin becomes black
4. place them in a bowl and cover with cling wrap to allow them to sweat for approx. 15 minutes then remove the skin as best as you can.
5. While the capsicums are sweating prepared the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic cloves, salt and pepper whisk them all together.
6. Place the roasted capsicum in jars and fill with the vinaigrette making sure there are no air bubbles and are filled right to the top.
and VIOLA!!!! you have made preserve roasted capsicum
They should last 6 months to 1 year in the fridge.
HOW TO STERILISED YOUR OWN JARS.
I usually sterilise them in the hottest setting in the dishwasher but you can also sterilised the bottles in the oven at 150 degrees for 30 minutes.
make sure bottles do not touch and let them dry fully before placing the preserve in them.
Anyone that knows me knows two things, I love the countryside and winter, the other day when we visited Kalfresh at Kalbar we found out that the Winter Harvest Festival was on at Aratula, the neighbouring town, not soon had they told us that we were on our merry way to the festival, gosh words can not describe how beautiful the setting was ,there were local fresh produce stores ,cooking lessons by the amazing Alastair McLeod, outside the podium there were free rides for the children, live music, and delish food, we had the potato leak and bacon soup, (vegetarians look away) we had the most delish pork ribs, I am still dreaming of them.
Somehow Farmer Joe got roped into the tractor pulling competition, we were cheering like crazy people the munchkins loved playing with the hay bales, while I enjoyed all the yummy food and the scenery.
The Winter Harvest Festival was part of the eat local week that runs through the scenic rim and Aratula was the last pit stop of a week of food and indulgence on local produce from the region, who knew not me! but we are definitely putting this in the calendar for next year.
On the way back home we stumbled upon a farm shed with an honesty box, they had fruit and vegies and I found the most gorgeous potato bag ever, needless to say it came home with us, it wouldn't be a road trip if we didn't get produce from the side of the road right!
How much fun it was, my two favourite things combined winter and the countryside, I was as happy as a piggy in mud.
This past weekend we went carrots picking at Kalfresh at Kalbar near Boonah, I must say it is one of the most fun things we have done in a while.
The people at Kalfresh open their doors once a year for all us to learn all things carrots, and they did an amazing job we got to have a tour of the production shed, we learnt about where carrots are grown, the process it takes from picking to your plate, fascinating, the munchkins had so much fun asking questions, half the battle for me was preventing them from trying to take a carrot or two from the cleaning machines.
After the tour we enjoyed a free sausage sizzle the kids got to enjoy climbing onto the farm tractors while Farmer Joe and I enjoyed a huge piece of carrot cake.
We had a long chat to my favourite carrot farmers Richard and Alice they were so welcoming and friendly and they know all things carrots. Alice is just fab and it's not secret she is living my life she had a wonderful blog where she talks about country life, family, work and carrots Farmer Has a Wife she also has magnificent photo gallery on instagram "FARMERHASAWIFE" check her out.
After the Kalfresh tour we got to get down and dirty, we couldn't control our excitement as we got to go to a carrot field were we got to pick our own carrots to take home and can I say this is SO much fun the kids were running around they were working hard at dislodging those carrots from the ground, they were eating carrots, dirt and all just wonderful to see.
Well we got so many carrots that we now officially have night vision, 20/20 vision, our IQ is super high or we have turned into bunnies.
(according to Me who does NOT have a medical or scientist degree).
Well I don't know if we have all those things mentioned above but two things I know Kalfresh hosted a fantastic day and we are enjoying eating our freshly picked carrots.
Cheers,
Karla
