COLORFUL AUTUMNAL PEPPERS

 

"Stoplight" peppers--red, yellow, green.

I was making meat loaf for dinner and wanted a sauce or side to go with it. Not gravy, thank you very much. I’m not a gravy person. And not mushroom sauce, because my version of meatloaf includes mushrooms in the mix. I settled on roasted semáforo peppers—part side dish, part sauce, a little bit relish.

Marketed in threes, these peppers are called semáforo, or stoplight, for their red, yellow and green stop-and-go colors. Their bright colors and zesty flavors make them a perfect accompaniment to autumn. 

Roasted pepper salad is a favorite in tapa bars. It’s also popular served alongside fried and grilled fish. It’s a terrific topping for pizza or the Catalan version, coca. The peppers are a perfect foil for grilled entrecôte (steak). Scramble the peppers with eggs for a pipérade. Use them as sandwich filling. 

Roasted peppers make a zesty sauce for chicken meatloaf with mushrooms.

Heap peppers on toasts and top with anchovies.

The perfect meatloaf sandwich--thick slice of meatloaf, toasted bun with a little mayo and lots of roasted peppers.

Roasted Bell Peppers

Pimientos Asados

Red, yellow and green peppers make a colorful mélange.

The peppers are oven-roasted and need almost an hour in a moderate oven. They won’t char, as they do on a wood fire, but the skins will loosen and the flesh will become soft. They can be finished after peeling or, as in this recipe, sautéd in olive oil with garlic.

 Use all red or mixed color peppers. 

Serves 4.

4-5 small bell peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, sliced crosswise

Chile, to taste

Salt

¼ teaspoon Sherry vinegar

Anchovies (optional)

Toasts (optional)

Chopped scallions (optional)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Arrange the peppers in an oven pan and place it in the oven. After 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 350ºF. 

Oven-roasted peppers don't char, but skins come off easily.

Roast the peppers, turning them over every 15 minutes, until they are soft and the skin has visibly loosened from the flesh, about 45 minutes more.

Remove the pan from the oven and cover the peppers with a cloth. Allow to stand 10 minutes.

Peel off skin, discard seeds.

Peel away the skins of the peppers. Working over a bowl to catch the juices, split the peppers open and carefully remove seeds. Save the juices, strained of seeds. Cut or tear the flesh into thin strips. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the garlic and chile. When garlic begins to color, add the peppers. Sauté them on moderately high heat for 5 minutes. Add salt to taste and the reserved juices (4 to 5 tablespoons). Cook on moderate heat 5 minutes more. Stir in the vinegar.Serve the peppers hot, room temperature or chilled, with toasts, anchovies and scallions, if desired.

Meat Loaf, My Way

Rollo de Carne de Pollo

Meatloaf, as I knew it growing up in the Midwest, was an economical family meal of ground beef. It doesn’t really exist in Spanish cooking. There are meat versions of brazo gitano (gypsy’s arm), with fillings of ham, cheese, cooked egg, and extra-large meatballs such as the relleno that cooks in a cocido. But plebian meatloaf, no.

My version is not how my mother made meatloaf. I usually use ground chicken thighs, never beef. And I tend to add Spanish flavors such as olive oil, pimentón, garlic, capers. I like to add a spoonful of Asian fish sauce too--it contributes umami. If not using it, you may need to increase the amount of salt in the recipe.

3 tablespoons olive oil 

1 cup finely chopped onion

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped carrot

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 cups chopped mushrooms (6 ounces)

½ teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

Pinch of thyme

Pinch of fennel seeds

1 tablespoon dry Sherry

1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce (optional)

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 ¾ pounds ground chicken thighs

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper 

1 tablespoon drained capers

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion, celery, carrot and garlic until onions are beginning to brown, 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue sautéing until mushroooms are softened, 5 minutes more. Add the pimentón, thyme and fennel. Add the Sherry and cook off the alcohol. Add the fish sauce, if using. Stir in the bread crumbs. Remove the pan from the heat and add the parsley.

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Lightly oil an oven pan.

In a bowl mix the ground chicken with salt and pepper. Add the onion-mushroom mixture and the capers. Mix thoroughly. Shape the meat into a compact loaf and place it in the oven pan. 

Place in the oven. After 10 minutes, lower oven temperature to 350ºF. Bake until meat tests done (160ºF), about 45 minutes longer.

More meatloaf recipes:

Lamb Roll Wrapped in Chard.

Partridge and Chicken Pâté.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Meat.

Meat Roll in Cocido.

THE REMAINS OF THE BARBECUE

When I fire up the grill on the patio, it’s never just to cook one meal. It requires so much  charcoal and/or olive wood to make a bed of coals on only one side of it that I try to get as many foods on it as possible. 

Use coals to cook foods in several shifts.

So, if there’s steak or ribs or a boned leg of lamb for tonight’s meal, then there are adobo-marinated chicken legs to grill for tomorrow. Eggplant, peppers, corn in the husks, potatoes wrapped in foil, whole onions, garlic, leeks. Some of the vegetables are flame-roasted while the fire is just getting started; others are grilled over the dying coals after other foods have been removed.

Roasted corn that we don’t eat at the first meal I will add to a salad of black beans and green beans. The eggplant and onions and garlic become escalivada, a Catalan dish that can be served cold or room temperature.

Charred eggplant, pepper, onion and garlic to make escalivada the next day.

Grill-roasted eggplant, green and red peppers, onions and garlic--add olive oil, lemon juice and it's escalivada.  Mash the soft, roasted garlic with some of the pepper juices and oil and drizzle over the vegetables.

Serve escalivada as a side dish or heap it on toasts as a tapa.

Bell peppers--roast them today, use them tomorrow.

Tomatoes can be roasted right on the grill or in an aluminum foil pan. They're easy to peel.

A heap of roasted red bell peppers, peeled and torn into strips and dressed with olive oil becomes a favorite summer salad.

This time, the remains of the barbecue—roasted peppers, tomatoes and potatoes—inspire me to make an Aragonese dish, cordero al chilindrón, a lamb stew with summery flavors.

Red bell peppers and tomatoes make this lamb stew a summertime dish.

Tender lamb cooks with grill-roasted peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.

Chilled rosado wine goes with a summer stew.

This festive dish is usually served accompanied by patatas fritas, fries, or potatoes cooked right in the stew. I took advantage of left-over roasted potatoes from the grill, adding them to the lamb and peppers at the end of cooking.

A summer stew needn’t be served piping hot. Let it set 10 or 15 minutes before serving. A chilled rosado wine and sliced garden tomatoes complete the meal. 

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers
Cordero al Chilindrón

Peppers and tomatoes may also be roasted in the oven or under the broiler--but the smoky aroma of the grill gives them an extra dimension.

Use any boneless cut of lamb for this stew—shoulder, leg, loin, breast. 

Serves 4.

4 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
1 ¾ pounds lamb, cut in 2-inch chunks
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of thyme
Flour for dusting meat
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, julienned
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ cups peeled and chopped roasted or raw tomatoes
Red pepper flakes (optional)
½ cup white wine
2 baked potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces
2 ounces serrano ham, diced (½  cup)
Chopped parsley to garnish

Tear the roasted peppers into strips and reserve.

Season the meat with salt, pepper and thyme. Dust it with flour (the meat doesn’t need to be coated with flour).

Heat the oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Add the lamb and brown it on all sides, Remove the meat and reserve.

Sauté onions and roasted pepper strips.

Add the onions to the pan and sauté 5 minutes until they are softened. Add the garlic and the strips of red pepper. Sauté on medium heat 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes, if using. Fry on medium heat 5 minutes. Add ½ teaspoon salt and the wine. Bring to a boil. Return the lamb to the pan. Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Turn the meat and continue cooking until lamb is very tender, about 30 minutes more. If using the cut-up baked potatoes, add them about 10 minutes before lamb is ready.

Add the diced ham and heat 1 minute.

Allow the stew to set 5-10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley.

The remains, for another day.

Recipes for escalivada, here and here.

Another recipe for lamb stew with red peppers, this one for winter is here.

Another recipe for chilindrón, this one with chicken is here. My chilindrón recipes from Aragón are made with red bell peppers, but in Navarra and La Rioja, chilindrón usually is made with dried red peppers called choriceros. Choricero peppers are a mild (not hot), bittersweet chile also used in making chorizo sausage.