There's nothing like coming home from vacation to find a ton of ripe peppers in the garden! Since it will take me a we days to sort through the laundry, catch up on emails & so on, I decided to roast and freeze these beauties for a later date.
Since I'm oven roasting the peppers, I cored each pepper, this removes the stems, seeds & cores. Coring the peppers also allows you to stuff the peppers post-defrosting. I've tried coring the peppers post roast & post defrost, I'm horrible at both. So core now & save time later.
So why roast? Why not just slice & freeze? First - pequillos have a very thick skin. You can't just chop & sauté like bell peppers. These fire engine red peppers are prized in Spain for their meaty sweet flesh. Roasting & peeling off the charred skin is totally worth it. Second - roasting the peppers brings out a smokey flavor, not a grill flavor, but just a little char. Here's how I did it:
Oven-Roasted Peppers: 1. Wash & core the peppers 2. Place the peppers on a large rimmed baking sheet 3. Set the oven to broil & make sure the grate is on the top rack 4. Roast under the broiler until the pepper skin is blistered & blackened, roughly 5-10 mins per side 5. Flip the peppers and rotate your pan, the back of the oven is hottest 6. Gently place roasted peppers into a paper bag, fold it shut and let them steam for 5-10 mins 7. Carefully remove the blackened skin & allow to cool before storing
I like to seperate each row of peppers with parchment then I slide it into a freezer bag. The flatter the better. This method can be used with any type of pepper, though I prefer to dry my hot peppers and freeze or pickle my sweeter ones.
Now I just need to come up with a way to use these. Maybe a spicy soup in January, or some stuffed peppers for the holidays.