ONE PERFECT INGREDIENT…RINGING THE BELL FOR PEPPERS!

My ‘One Perfect Ingredient’ would be ‘BELL PEPPERS’.

When Maninas: Food Matters left me a message the other day, I did a little jig. Said it was OK to post for the ‘One Perfect Ingredient Competition’ for the book from Marcus Wareing ‘One Perfect Ingredient’…even if we weren’t resident in the UK or Europe.

Quoting from Maninas…’Marcus Wareing is one of the best British chefs today: he is a two Michelan-starred chef, he worked with the (in)famous Gordon Ramsay, and he won the Great British Menu competition with his custard tart with Garibaldi biscuits. The winning dessert was served to the Queen and her guests at a banquet celebrating her 80th birthday.Focusing on one ingredient at a time, Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing presents at least three imaginative, delicious but simple ways of cooking with it, offering a wealth of fresh ideas on how to use the everyday ingredients that repeatedly show up in your shopping basket. (…. Read the rest of the review and find out more about Marcus’ new book here.) To win the book, all you have to do is tell us about your favourite ingredient, including why it’s your favourite and what is your favourite way of cooking it.’

Red & yellow bell peppers are rich in nutrients, vibrant & colourful, delightful to eat…& simple to cook. Ever since these have been grown locally last year on, they’ve become part of my everyday shopping basket. I use them religiously in any form; cut up in salads, char grilled, pan grilled, roasted, as crudites, in pastas…innovating all the time. They say to try & include different colours in your everyday food to draw maximum nutrition…red & yellow is usually there first!

Want to color your life healthy…join me!

Brightly colored bell peppers, whether green, red, orange or yellow, are rich sources of some of the best nutrients available. To start, peppers are excellent sources of vitamin C and vitamin A (through its concentration of carotenoids such as beta-carotene), two very powerful antioxidants. A wonderful combination of tangy taste and crunchy texture, bell peppers are the Christmas ornaments of the vegetable world with their beautifully shaped glossy exterior that comes in a wide array of vivid colors ranging from green, red, yellow, orange, purple, brown to black.

• Roasted Bell Pepper Coulis

Ingredients:
Bell peppers – Red & yellow / 1 each
Tomatoes – 2
Garlic – 4-5 cloves
Fresh basil leaves – a handful
Olive oil – 1-2 tsps
Sea salt

Method:

• Roast the bell peppers in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes; turning once to ensure grilled all around. Remove once the skin is charred, put into a Ziploc & seal baggie. Leave to sweat until cool. Once cool, peel off the charred skin, remove any seeds. Chop & reserve in a bowl.
• Roast the tomatoes for a minute or so on the fire, turning frequently to ensure the skin chars right around. Peel off the skin, chop & add to bowl.
• Repeat the same with the garlic, & chop it up. Blend all these until smooth. Season with sea salt & pepper. Add chopped basil leaves & enough olive oil to get the required consistency.
• Serve warm or at room temperature with breaded/grilled fish, chicken etc. I served it with Chicken Kiev, sauteed beans & French loaf.

• ‘Grilled Pepper Slices’ & ‘Bell Pepper Dip with garlic & basil‘

Ingredients for grilled bell pepper:
Bell peppers – Red & yellow / 1 each, sliced around into circles (reserve the left-over bits)
Olive oil – 1 tbsps seasoned with sea salt, pepper & Italian grill herbs.

Method:

• Brush both sides of the slices of bell pepper with the seasoned oil, & place on a hot grill pan.
• Grill both sides for a minute or two till slightly soft. Don’t over grill. Serve with grilled chicken, fish or cottage cheese (like I did) .

Ingredients for the bell pepper dip:
Hung Yogurt – 1 cup (can use Greek yogurt)
Cream – 1 tbsp
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lime
Left over bits of bell pepper from the slices above/ chopped fine
Garlic – 2 cloves /grated fine (I use my microplane)
Basil leaves – 4-5 / chopped fine
Salt to taste

Method:

• Whisk the yogurt + cream + lime juice + salt until smooth.
• Mix in the finely chopped bell pepper bits, garlic & basil.
• Chill until served. garnish with fresh basil leaves! Serve with grilled fish, chicken or cottage cheese. Also great with oven roasted potato wedges & crudites.

• ‘Spring Salad with Bell Peppers & Cherry Tomatoes’

Ingredients:
Bell peppers – Red & yellow / 1 each; cut into jullienes
Cherry tomatoes – 100 gms (about 15-20) / halved
Spring Onions with greens – 4 / sliced into circles, greens included
Cucumber – 1 / halved lengthwise & finely sliced
Green grapes – handful / halved horizontally

Dressing:
Vinegar – 1 tbsp
Juice of 1 lime ( to taste)
Garlic – 1 clove /minced
Honey -1/2 tsp
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Fresh basil leaves – 5-6 / torn up

Method:

• Toss all chopped salad veggies into a big bowl. Chill.
• Whisk all ingredients for dressing in a small bowl.
• Just before serving, drizzle in dressing, toss well. Adjust seasoning if required.

This post partially sums up my fascination for this one perfect ingredient on my mind for now. It pairs well with vegetarian & non-vegetarian fare, adds colour to presentation & comes with the added bonus of vitamin C and vitamin A (through its concentration of carotenoids such as beta-carotene), two very powerful antioxidants. Red peppers are one of the few foods that contain lycopene, a carotenoid whose consumption has been inversely correlated with prostate cancer and cancers of the cervix, bladder and pancreas.

BON APETIT with my ‘One Perfect Ingredient’!’