August used to be when two or three carloads of family members descended on my house. They brought boxes of edible, drinkable gifts with them and for four or five days we would all kick back and have a really swell time.
Well, I don't know who I pissed off the last time, but we haven't had one of these big get-togethers for two summers now. Which means that I haven't been able to drag my Aunt Anna to the Portland farmers market. Or cajole her into picking up a giant load of peppers so that she can stuff them for her favorite nephew.
Lucky for me I have watched Anna plenty throughout the years. Because this summer, just as last, I have been on my own when making these peppers.
Anna usually uses green frying-type peppers, but I went with red. These are sweet peppers, by the way, but you can use hot if you prefer.
Chop up a bunch of garlic and capers, then add some oregano or other herbs if you prefer.
Remove the pepper's stem, make a cut from top to bottom and clean out the seeds. Then add some of the garlic and caper mixture.
Add an anchovy fillet or two. (If you don't like anchovies then I'd just use more of the garlic and caper filling, but I can't vouch for how it'll turn out because I am a big fan of the little fishes.)
These eight peppers are ready to go and they're about right for a quart-size jar.
Place the peppers in the jar, top side up, and cover with a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and white vinegar. The exact mixture depends on personal taste. We go with either three parts oil to one part vinegar, or two to one sometimes.
You can store the peppers in a cool place or in the fridge. Some people start eating them after a few days, but I let them sit for a few weeks at least. And they'll last a particularly long time in the fridge.
This batch of peppers is from last summer. I found a jar of them in the fridge downstairs behind some olives that were curing. They were delicious, and the peppers still had firmness to them.
Maybe I'll even hop in the car and deliver some to my Aunt.
I think dropping a few off at Aunt Anna's is a very smart thing to do for a favorite nephew. I too had an Aunt, Aunt Noon she was called and I was her fav nephew, as she always reminded me. my sister was her fav niece. and she was our favorite aunt. rest of the family be damned. thats just what we were.
ReplyDeleteMickey