This paste made with sweet peppers, hot chillies, garlic and parsley, can be considered as short to medium time preserve. It is made in one go in a food processor or powerful blender, and can be stored refrigerated for 2-3months. Though, in our household, it does not last that long. The recipe was created purely by accident, when I bought long red chili peppers to stuff them, and have discovered that they were very hot. I processed them with garlic and parsley, and had to add several red capsicums to reduce heat. It was so delicious that I always have a jar in the fridge and make sure I never run out of it.
The recipe is very versatile and can be adjusted to any taste. If you like pronounced garlic taste – add more garlic; do not like you dishes hot – reduce chillies, or use them deseeded. The amount of seasoning can also vary. For the fresh consumption as a garnish, taste the paste and do not overseason. To use it more as a preserve in cooking, initial paste has too be salty. Fermentation process starts imidiately, as you can see from the image above, bubbles are already visible. In time, the heat and saltiness in the paste decrease and the taste changes a bit.
Today I used the following ingredients:
- 1 large red capsicum
- 4 sweet long red chili peppers
- 1 large head of garlic (can use 2 heads of garlic)
- 2 whole bird’s eye hot chillies
- bunch of organic parsley
- 1 tea spoon of organic cold pressed olive oil (I keep it specially for this paste)
- 1 1/2 table spoons of sea salt (15g)
- 1/2 tea spoon coarsely grounded black pepper
Preparation:
- thoroughly wash and dry capsicum, peppers, chillies and parsley
- coarsely chop capsicum, peppers and parsley
- finely chop hot chillies
- peel the garlic
- put all vegetables in food processor, add salt, pepper and olive oil (it might be better to use 2/3 of the salt initially)
- process to coarse paste, it might be necessary to stop processor and use spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl
- taste the paste and adjust saltiness to your liking (add the rest of the salt if necessary)
- run food processor again to fully combine all ingredients
- use clean and dry glass jars to store the paste refrigerated, it might be a good idea to use several smaller jars than 1 larger one
I make this paste for a year and a half, and simply use clean spoon every time I open the jar. The paste stays perfectly fresh and saves enormous amount of time in cooking.
I use this paste in cooking for everything, so to speak:
- omelettes and scrambled eggs
- roasted meat and poultry
- stews, stroganoffs, meatballs, frikadeles
- lamb, veal, beef and chicken meatloaves
- fish, baked in parcels
- soups and stock preparation
- chicken pate and mousse preparation
- rice, quinoa and other grains pilaf preparation (not suitable for the readers of this blog)
- roasted and stewed vegetables
- baked vegetables and quiches
- pasta sauces, which can be used on vegetables or meatballs
- grain and nut free bread
I also serve it fresh as a garnish with poached or steamed fish, as condiment in layered sandwiches on grain free bread or with grain free savoury pancakes.
I want to add, that I, personally, could never have garlic in my food, I always had unpleasant aftertaste and a heartburn. As the result, we very rarely bought garlic, and I did not use it in my cooking. But for some reason, the day I bought those very hot red peppers, I happened to have 2 heads of garlic, siting in the tray with vegetables for several weeks. As it happens, there was some purpose in it. I can consume this paste by table spoons, with no ill effects, and can’t give any reasonable explanation for it, except to mention the fermentation process, that chemically transforms the paste.
I rarely give advice, but I will this time. Try this healthy and easy to make paste. It will make your cooking so much easier, and lift any dish to a new level.
e-cooking blog 