Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

Grilling the green peppers and onions under the broiler imparts a smokiness and savouriness to the dish that can't be achieved if it was just simply sauteed. 

This dish is delicious. Expect it to tastes like slightly charred smoky green peppers mixed with the salty savouriness of the olives and some tartness from the tomatoes.

I serve it as part of a meze or a pre-dinner dip. I could eat a lot of this with some soft flat bread, tortilla chips, grilled fish, pasta or on its own. If vegetables always cooked this tasty, I might consider becoming a vegetarian. No, impossible. I love my bacon.

There is still bite to this chunky dip as the vegetables are not overcooked and the flavours improve with keeping. It is a good idea to make this the day before a party so it frees you somewhat from the kitchen on party day itself. I like that.

ROASTED GREEN BELL PEPPERS WITH TOMATOES AND OLIVES

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	30 minutes grill + 20 minutes stove top
Inactive:	10 minutes for grilled vegetables to cool
Level:	Easy
Makes:	3 cups
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated.

Ingredients

15.8 oz (450 g) green bell peppers
8 oz (225 g) onions with skins (about 2 medium size)
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 can of 14.5 oz (411 g) diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons sliced green olives
1 to 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Dried spices

1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon paprika/chilli powder
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method

Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Place this under the oven rack you will be setting your vegetables on for grilling. Any juices that might drip from the vegetables will be caught on the aluminium lined tray, saving you some washing up.

Turn on your broiler. Place the whole green bell peppers and the onions (with skins left on) directly on the oven rack. The top of your vegetables should be between 1" to 1 and 1/2" (2.5 cm to 3.8 cm) away from the heating element above. 

Depending on the heat from your broiler, it should take 5 to 10 minutes for each side of the bell peppers and onions to get charred. Rotate the vegetables and watch that they don't burn. You will be peeling off the black outer skins when they are done so do not be afraid to get them nicely charred.

Place the charred bell peppers in a vessel, cover tightly with plastic wrap and cool. Alternatively, you could seal them in a heavy duty plastic bag or a plastic container with a lid.

Leave the charred onions to cool on its own.

When the bell peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the charred skins and remove as much seeds as you can. Save any juices from the bell peppers. Dice the bell peppers and add any juices to it. Set aside.

Do the same for the charred onions.

Heat up the olive oil on medium high heat. Fry the garlic for a minute or until it smells aromatic. Add the tomatoes and fry for 10 minutes or until most of the tomato liquid has evaporated and the oil separates. Take a look at my frying pan of tomatoes. 

Add the dried spices and the diced onions. Fry 5 to 10 minutes until the onions softens a little. Add the bell peppers stir to mix and warm through. Finally add the sliced olives. Stir. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Remove from the burner and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.

Tips

• Put this over spaghetti or penne, sprinkle over some grated parmesan and eat. If you like it with more of a sauce, add another can of diced tomatoes together with the first can and adjust your seasonings. If the Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives are leftover from the day before (which I always look forward to), I add some tomato passata (cooked and strained tomatoes that usually comes in tall glass bottles) and simply heat through before eating.

• This dish goes well with a dish of Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt (there is a picture below of it on my meze table). Labneh has a taste and texture similar to cream cheese. A simple vegetarian meal would be a plate of Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives with a small side of Labneh lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. In fact, that was what I had for lunch. It all went down too quickly in my tummy for me to take a picture.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 

Moroccan inspired round bread loaves. They are 2 different yet similar loaves. One is baked with spelt flour and the other with stone ground whole wheat flour. Which is which?

Find out in my upcoming post for the recipe that baked these soft loaves.

To recap, this post is part of my series on Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites. With the festive season fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about some party food for those year-end parties. 

Year-end party menus are often more elaborate and require more time to prepare. Invariably there will be more dinner guests to feed. You might even find that you have to host that extra one, two or three parties. More than a little effort is probably required of you to decorate your house and dining table for the festive season. 

This is the time when I appreciate more than ever those recipes that are quick and easy but I am especially grateful for recipes that can be prepared in advance. Something that you might want to consider is to host a party where you serve a selection of meze (a selection of small dishes). A lot of the work can be done ahead. Take a look at my post on  Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites to find out more.

My recent meze party inspired my series on 'little bites' for your upcoming year-end parties. 

First row:

Zaalouk - Moroccan Roasted Eggplants and Tomatoes; Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips & Beets; Moroccan inspired Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad; Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers.

Second row:

Greek inspired Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta; Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices; Beef Kafta -  Lebanese inspired Meatballs.

Third row:

Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey; Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers and Tomatoes With Olives; Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta. 

Here are the recipes I have posted:

• Zaalouk, Roasted Eggplants and Peppers
• Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers
• Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey
• Greek inspired Shrimp With Tomatoes And Feta
• Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips and Beets
• Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta
• Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices
• Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad
• Beef Kafta - Lebanese inspired Meatballs
• Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives
• Moroccan inspired Wholemeal Round Loaf

Hummus With Spiced Up Angus Beef

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Hummus With Spiced Up Angus Beef

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com

Creamy, butter smooth and lush. That's the best way to describe this flavourful puree of chickpeas.

No gritty textured hummus here, just buttery smoothness. How to achieve that? Only one way. Remove the skins of the chickpeas. Is it a chore to remove them? Yes! 

But wait, I have a method that removes them painlessly, in copious amounts while keeping washing up to a minimum. Removing the peels one at a time would certainly drive me berserk and so would having to take out another pan or kitchen gadget!

I have made hummus with and without removing the outer skins. Skinless is the way to go. I have a rather powerful food processor that I could not live without. It can pretty much pulverise wet ingredients to the smoothness of a face cream. When I grind chickpeas with the skins on, it does get it to a very smooth paste. So you might then wonder why I bother to remove the skins? 

I bother because the hummus gets unbelievably smoother (just look at the photograph) and the extra bonus is, without the skins, there is a clean taste of chickpeas with none of that very slight bitterness from the skins. 

Use my method of dislodging the skins off the chickpeas. It takes literally a few minutes. It is so quick you might not even consider it an additional step.

Curious? Do read on.

HUMMUS WITH SPICED UP ANGUS BEEF STRIPS            

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	20 to 25 minutes
Inactive:	12 hours
Level:	Easy
Makes:	About 3 cups
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Up to 3 days without the beef topping. Keep covered and refrigerated.

Ingredients

For the hummus

1 and 1/2 cups dried chickpeas

1 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup tahini
Made from sesame seeds that have been ground to a paste with the help of a little neutral tasting oil. It can be purchased locally in better stocked supermarkets.

5 to 6 Tablespoons lemon juice
Start with 5 Tablespoons and add more to your taste.

1/2 c iced water` 
You might need up to 1/4 cup more if you like hummus with a thinner consistency.

4 to 5 garlic cloves minced
Start with 4 cloves and add more if you like. 

1 teaspoon salt

For the beef topping 

150 g angus, sirloin, wagyu beef or any other good cut of beef that is suitable for quick frying

1/8 teaspoon each of powdered cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, cumin and black pepper
If you do not have all of the dried powders, use a combination of whatever you have in your pantry. Just experiment. It could be just cinnamon, cumin and black pepper. Concoct a blend that you like and if it doesn't come out tasting right, don't stress too much over it. Learn from it and move on. 

If you do not feel confident about using the beef you have cooked with your personal blend of spices, you could choose to not use it and instead make a sandwich out of it.  Serve the hummus as is with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Still delicious.  

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 Tablespoon olive oil

For dressing the final dish

2 Tablespoons of finely chopped parsley for sprinkling

Pinch of chilli powder or sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Method

For the hummus

Pick over the dried chickpeas. Remove any dark coloured ones or those that look too shrivelled up. Discard those.

Rinse the chickpeas. In a large basin, soak the chickpeas in water twice the volume of the chickpeas. Set aside overnight and up to 12 hours. If you cannot attend to the chickpeas after 12 hours, change the water every 2 hours until you are ready to use them. 

When you are ready to cook, rinse and drain the chickpeas into a colander.  You will be reusing the large basin and colander again, so set them aside.

Transfer chickpeas into a pot and cover with water at least 2" above the level of chickpeas. Add 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. 

Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-high. You will see white scum and the skins of the chickpeas might begin to float to the surface. Use a kitchen strainer or skimmer ladle to skim off the skins and scum. 

After about 20 minutes, the chickpeas might look discouragingly mushy. Remove a chickpea. Press it between your thumb and fingers. If you can turn it to mash easily, your chickpeas are ready. If you cannot, continue boiling and retest doness. The older the chickpeas, the longer it will take to cook. 

Drain the chickpeas into the colander that you had set aside earlier. Fill the large basin with water to reach 3/4 full. Transfer the chickpeas into the basin of water. Skim off the chickpea skins that would have started to float to the surface. Use your skimmer or hands to help dislodge any other skins off the chickpeas. 

Drain the chickpeas, you should have about 3 cups and not all of the chickpeas would have kept its shape. That's fine. It is a promise of a smooth hummus. Set aside.

Into the food processor, add the 5 Tablespoons of lemon juice, 1/2 cup of iced water, 4 cloves of minced garlic and 1 teaspoon salt in that order. When you add the liquids in first, it helps the blade to run more smoothly than if you were to add the chickpeas and the rather thick tahini into the food processor first.

Now add the chickpeas and the tahini. Process until you have a very smooth paste. Thin with more iced water if you prefer a thinner consistency. Taste. Adjust seasoning. Add more lemon juice or garlic at this point. Transfer to your serving dish. Create a well in the centre for the beef.  Cover and set aside.

For the beef

10 minutes before you are ready to fry the beef, season it with all the dried seasoning powders and the salt.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add the beef and fry quickly for 5 minutes or until the beef is almost no longer pink. Turn off the heat. Taste and adjust seasonings. Continue stir frying in the residual heat until meat is no longer pink. 

To assemble

Quickly transfer the meat, without the grease, into the well you had created for it in the dish of hummus. Sprinkle the parsley. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil and finally sprinkle over the chilli powder or sesame seeds.

You could serve them in individual portions (photograph above) with petite size flat bread as I did. It looks cute and makes a nice presentation.

Tips

• Bottle the hummus and give them out as gifts or take them to a potluck party. One usually receives bottled jams and chutneys as gifts but hummus? Yes, they do make welcome gifts. No one has ever returned them back to me. Although I do check to make sure that they like hummus to begin with.

Swirls of super smooth buttery goodness.

• Use hummus in a sandwich

For a vegetarian version, sandwich fried thick slabs of firm tofu that has been salted, slather with hummus and strewn over some kabees or pickles of your choice and squirt some sweet chilli sauce. This sandwich has a good mix of textures and flavours.

For a non vegetarian version, sandwich beef kefta or any other kind of meatball or perhaps some sliced steak, slather over with hummus, shredded iceberg lettuce and some tabasco sauce.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                

A Moroccan inspired, Radish, Bell Pepper and Mint Salad. It goes particularly well with grilled meats. In fact, I have dressed a plateful of thinly sliced angus beef steaks with this salad. It can then be served as a main or side course.

To recap, this post is part of my series on Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites. 

I love the year-end period. Things start to wind down and people seem more relaxed. The shops will be dressed up. There will be lots of tinsel bling in town and food that I only get to see during the festive period start reappearing on the shelves. This is also the time of the year when kitchens invariably get busier.

With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to post some recipes for pre-dinner bites that you could consider for your upcoming parties. 

Here is a picture of my recent meze party. There was a delicious array of food to choose from and good home baked bread too. We didn't need and would not have had space for a main course. A lot of these dishes can be made in advanced and that will free you some what on the day of the party from spending too much time in the kitchen. No one wants to be slogging away over a pot in a humid kitchen in their party gown! 

To find out the names of and the recipes for the meze I served, please refer to the picture below.

First row:

Zaalouk - Moroccan Roasted Eggplants and Tomatoes; Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips & Beets; Moroccan inspired Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad; Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers.

Second row:

Greek inspired Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta; Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices; Beef Kafta - Lebanese inspired Meatballs.

Third row:

Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey; Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers and Tomatoes With Olives; Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta. 

Here are the recipes I have posted:

• Zaalouk, Roasted Eggplants and Peppers
• Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers
• Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey
• Greek inspired, Shrimp With Tomatoes And Feta
• Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips and Beets
• Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta
• Hummus with Spiced Up Angus Beef Slices
• Moroccan inspired Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad
• Beef Kafta - Lebanese inspired Meatballs
• Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes and Olives
• Moroccan inspired Wholemeal Round Loaf