Saturday 10 October 2009

Chargrilled Peppers with Pomegranite

I read an interview in the Guardian with Marcus Wareing, there are 13 recipes for popcorn in his new book (wow, race you to Borders to buy it!) and his reasoning is that nobody uses the whole cookbook, people just pick out a couple of recipes 'and the rest is just fluff!'. Wow, well why don't you just write the two recipes and then get back in the kitchen and bake me a pie, pretty boy!
Anyway, the point is, that of course everybody does that, I do. But if there is one book that I want to make everything out of, it's Nigella's Christmas. Every time I even pick it up, I get hungry. Thumbs up to her stylist, because I guess I'm not sure if it's her food or the plates she's eating it off of that I really like. Her photographer is really good too. Bastards.
I can't get to a scanner right now, but lets just say that the photograph of this dish in the book, makes my final photo look like it's of a pile of puke. So, hungry?
So anyway, todays dinner is total pepper overkill. I bought a jar of chargrilled peppers for the trout and Nigella suggests using them instead of roasting your own, if you like feel like it, yeah? But the ones I got are really sour and salty, the roasted ones are pretty sweet in comparison, but who cares, it's a salad, lets have another drink. Quick, wink at someone! And now put on a little lipgloss, yummy!
Result: OK, the only criticism I have of the recipe, is that I found that there is quite a big difference between the seeds on 2 pomegranites and 150g of seeds. I ended up having twice the amount that I needed.
Apart from that - So good! The feta was optional, but I layed it on, baby. We were half way through dinner when I noticed the jar of capers still sitting on the kitchen counter. Crap, I'd forgotten all about them. I fished one out and put it on my plate with the salad, mushed it all around, forked it and put it in my mouth. Bleurgh, disgusting. The peppers and pomegranite are so sweet, it's almost a dessert, the little lumps of feta are really mild and 'it really ties the room together', the capers are too salty. Use your common sense, unlike me. I have to type out the recipe today, and somehow Nigella manages to stratch out the formula for this salad for 2 freaking pages!(I'm going to edit out her ramblings) At least she's not giving 13 recipes for it...

Chargrilled Peppers with Pomegranite
6 Peppers (ideally a mix of red, orange and yellow, but never, ever, ever green; all red is fine though)
Seeds from 2 pomegranites, or 150g of pomeranite seeds from a packet

30ml pomegranite juice
2 teaspoons of lemon or lime juice
60ml extra virgin olive oil
15ml garlic oil
1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
3 tablespoons of drained capers

Preheat the oven to 250C
Cut the peppers in half, remove the stalk and seeds, and sit them cut-side down on an oven tray or a couple of trays. Roast in the hot oven until they blister; about 15 mintes should do it.
Take out of the oven, and quickly tip the blackened peppers into a big bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with clingfilm and leave the peppers to cool enough to handle.
Use your hands to peel off strips of charred skin (don't worry if some is left on) and as you go, put torn strips of peppers into a serving dish.
When you've done all of them, add most of the pomegranite seeds to the pepper and toss well.
Whisk together the pomegranite and lime juices, the olive oil, garlic oil, and salt. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently but well.
Add capers (feta cheese!)

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