FLAME-ROASTED PEPPERS

If you watch any cooking shows or eat in any trendy restaurants, you are well aware that flame-roasted salsas and flame-roasted veggies of all kinds are really hip and cool -- the very latest in new cuisine...WRONG!! Folks have been eating delicious flame-roasted stuff every since the discovery of fire.

Most of the celebrity chefs will tell you to roast your peppers in the broiler. This is a really bad idea and I'll tell you why. The broiler is the very hottest part of your oven, so when you put the peppers close to the flame to blacken it does a pretty good job. The problem is when you turn the peppers over to blacken the other side the first side continues to cook in a very hot oven so that by the time the peppers are completely blackened they are also way, way over-cooked.

The secret to plump, juicy, great tasting flame-roasted peppers is to do them just like you would roast a marshmallow. This means that if you have an electric stove you can forget about it. Although you can get great results from a barbecue if the grate will let you get really close to the fire. Those among you with gas stoves -- here's how you do it. When it's pepper roasting time at my house I use every burner, so I have 8 or so peppers going at a time, but I suggest you start with just one nice green, red, or yellow bell pepper.

When selecting peppers to roast look for smooth, shiny peppers with no breaks in the skin and a nice stem to hold on to. The heavier the pepper (high water content) the better the results.

Turn a burner on high and hold the pepper in the flame until the skin is completely black and blistered then, holding the stem, turn the pepper and keep repeating until the whole pepper looks like one of those marshmallows your 3-year-old roasted. A real lump of coal.

Now most of the 'celebrity' chefs will tell you to NOT peel the peppers under running water because you will wash off the delicious charred taste WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Flavor is not water soluble. Think about it -- we all wash our vegetables and greens, yet they still taste like asparagus and salad. If you need further proof, try to wash the meat taste off a pork chop or the chocolate taste off a candy bar. Anyway, just hold the pepper under slowly running water and gently rub all the black skin off. If you don't get all of it, no problem -- a few black spots only adds to the rustic authenticity of your dish. Then cut a slit in the pepper up around the stem and remove the seeds and stringy membranes.

Okay, now you got the flame-roasted peppers -- what do you do with them? I pull the stem off, open the pepper and lay it flat in a bowl or jar, sprinkle some chopped garlic on it, then some good olive oil and another layer of peppers, garlic and oil and so on 'til I have a bowl or jar of peppers marinating in garlic and olive oil which I stick in the fridge and use as needed. Great on a chicken sandwich on a nice fresh baguette or cut into strips and added to almost any salad.

Use them in an antipasto with some sliced provolone cheese and Italian cold cuts. You can throw some in a blender with mayonnaise for a delicious 'home-made flame-roasted red pepper mayonnaise'. Add some chopped parsley and green onions and call it 'home-made flame roasted red pepper mayonnaise aux fine herbs'.

For a summertime lunch you can leave the peppers whole -- just slit them down one side and stuff them with some chicken salad or tuna salad and serve them on a bed of green salad. This also works great with jalapeño chiles -- just pick out the largest ones. Once you get out the seeds and veins they shouldn't be too, too hot. Try stuffing these puppies with some cream cheese with chopped bacon and green onions -- even better some cream cheese and smoked fish, mmmmmmmm.