RED PEPPERS WITH GARLIC
My name is E. I prefer to remain E. as I am worried that all those discontented readers who tried my recipes and found them missing, because I forget an important ingredient will be out there to get my blood. I live in Nizas since October 1998, at which time I came for 8 weeks of sick leave and stayed. The classic “guest who stayed for dinner” .
I love the village, the people are warm and very welcoming. I am disappointed with the weather. I come from Canada were winters are getting warmer as the years go by, and expected the south of France to be as warm as Africa, at least!
My family, which includes a daughter, called Darling, Mummy’s Favorite Child, KoKo- are in Canada. I keep trying to make Nizas sound like a paradise, hoping they will hop on the next plane and visit me, but my efforts are in vain. Darling, Mummy’s Favorite Child-KoKo is not a fool. she knows that the best shopping is in Paris and not Nizas. I will try and throw in a visit to Paris next year se if I can get her to cross the ocean. As I have no Darling, Mummy’s Favorite child-KoKo to cook for, I have limited my cooking to simple dishes. This dish, an entry really, I eat when the weather is warm, for no reason at all it reminds me of the sea.
(To preserve Esther’s anonymity I wont mention here name here — Tony)
RED PEPPERS WITH GARLIC
3 large red peppers
4 or more cloves of garlic, crushed
olive oil*
wine or balsamic vinegar
Thyme or Oregano
anchovies, a small tin
Preheat oven to 350° or n° 7 on European oven.
On a cookie rack, lay the peppers and roast for 40 minutes, making sure that you turn the peppers every 10 minute or so for even roasting. The skins will get burned at some spots and detach from the peppers. Do not worry, this is OK.
Remove from oven, cover with brown paper if you have any around the house. If you have no brown paper, cover with plastic wrap and let cool. Cooled down peppers will peel better and easier.
Peel peppers, remove seeds, and cut up lengthwise.
In a servicing dish, create several layers, each layer consisting of sliced red peppers, olive oil, vinegar, crushed garlic, thyme and anchovies. Make sure that you have just enough oil and vinegar to cover the peppers and anchovies without drowning.
Keep in the fridge for several hours for the favours to blend. Serve as an entree or just enjoy on top of freshly baked bread.
