Pepper hints
Autumn is the season for so much preserving. By the time I get to winter I’m often exhausted by the cavalcade of fruit and vegetables that have passed through the kitchen door needing to be jammed, jellied, bottled and preserved. My arms ache from the lifting of jelly bags, the manoeuvring of big pots and the distribution of the chook buckets that contain all the peelings and cleanings and straining that are the byproduct of the neatly stacked, gleaming jars of fruit and vegetables that have gone through the transition from something that will inherently spoil and rot to something that can live quietly in the back of a dark cupboard for a very long time.
The magic preserving ingredients in this alchemy are sugar and vinegar. Add to that a lack of air, and fresh vegetables can be transformed, kept for months and enjoyed later in a much different guise.
There are two great fresh pepper dishes in my canon: piperade from the Basque region of France and peperonata from southern
Italy. Both dishes use capsicums, tomatoes, onions and garlic, the same core ingredients as this relish. Piperade and peperonata are delicious either on their own or as a side dish in a Basque- or Calabrian-style banquet. Both, however, need you to go through the arduous process of peeling the peppers. They are then cut into strips, added to very gently softened sliced garlic and onion, and cooked down with the tomato. The addition of herbs, chilli and espelette pepper differentiate them from each other. But these two dishes are for the moment of late summer and early autumn only, as they have no capacity to “keep”.
The relish recipe here is a firm favourite in my repertoire. It is best made in the midst of autumn when tomatoes are on the wane but capsicums are in full force. It is cloyingly sweet – too much so for some – but is strangely moreish. The chutney is equally as good with good pork sausages in a roll as it is with good cheddar. It is a cheery, bright addition to the pantry, and could quickly become a household favourite. And it doesn’t require you to peel the peppers.