There’s nothing quite like the sweet smell of roasting peppers. The sweet smell of the pepper cooking mixed with the smoky smell of charring is truly the most satisfying, comforting, smell in the world. It’s one of my absolute favorite smells and every time I roast peppers, I close my eyes and feel like I’m with my grandmother, outside, standing next to the wood-burning stove with hoards of peppers all around us.
If you’re lucky to be somewhere in the Balkans at the end of August / early September, you will smell this intoxicating smell everywhere you go. Cities, villages, you name it, people will be preparing for the winter by roasting peppers for Ajvar, Pindjur, or simply for storing in the freezer for enjoying in the Winter months.
Living in the USA, pepper season as I like to call it is a little different. First, if you’re not growing the peppers yourself, you need to find a good farm with the correct pepper variety. Then, depending on your living circumstances, you may be either roasting the peppers on a grill or in your oven. But no matter what your circumstances are, you can and should roast peppers. Because it’s a truly delicious experience.
This year, I decided I was going to stock up. Last year I had such a hard time tracking down these peppers in the grocery store and quickly regretted not making time to go to the farm. Because my kitchen is fairly small, I’m not making Ajvar this year. I am roasting and storing in the freezer for recipes instead.
Pepper Variety
To make traditional dishes such as Belolučene Paprike or Pohovane Paprike, you need to track down long, narrow peppers. So bell peppers won’t do. Ancient Peppers and Cubanelle are the best variety to use. They have a medium flesh and they are perfectly shaped for roasting. Just make sure they aren’t spicy, because sometimes grocery stores don’t label them, and although they may look like sweet peppers, they’re actually spicy. Trust me and learn from my mistakes.
You can also definitely roast some spicy peppers too if you enough hot peppers!
Roasting Method
As I mentioned above, if you have outdoor space, roasting peppers will be a quick task, as this can easily be done over medium heat on the grill. If you’d rather do this inside, or if you don’t have a grill, you can achieve the same effect in the oven. This year, the weather has been extremely hot these last few days of August in my area, so I opted for a marathon session of roasting in the oven. Whatever method you choose, roast freshly washed and dried peppers until the skin blisters and chars. In an oven, roast in a sheet pan lined with parchment paper on 400F.
Peeling & Storing
Roasting the peppers is the easy part, but peeling the skin and processing the peppers is time-consuming. Call your friends or family members over to help. When the peppers are charred and roasted, place them in a large bowl and cover with foil or plastic wrap, something that will keep the steam inside so the skin releases easier when you peel it.
After peeling, I highly recommend you place the peppers in a strainer so all extra liquid drain away from the peppers. This will prevent the peppers from freezing in a block of liquid as they are stored in the freezer. I don’t rush the straining process, leave them in the strainer for a couple of hours.
For the freezer, I like to pack peppers depending on what I’ll be using them for and depending on my household size. Since there are only 2 of us:
- 5-6 larger peppers together in a Ziploc bag to use for Pohovane Paprike
- 10-15 small peppers together to use for Belolučene Paprike
- A mix of torn pieces together for Przenija.
I pack them in Ziploc bags, label them, and stack them flat in the freezer. Then pull out as needed.
Now that you know how to roast peppers, here are a few of my “Domaćica” tips to keep in mind:
- I highly recommend lining your baking sheet with parchment paper or foil when roasting peppers in the oven. The pepper will release liquid which is sweet and will stick so don’t ruin your baking sheet!
- Use paper towels during the entire peeling process. If you use dish towels, any pepper “juice” you get on them will stain and be hard to get out, and they will get funky. I don’t know why, I’ve tried everything and it just doesn’t get it out. So just use paper towels and save yourself the hassle.
- Typically I like to “steam” my peppers in a regular old plastic bag. But with all that’s going on in the world, this time I’m just covering them in a bowl and tightly wrapping with foil.
- If you’re having trouble peeling the skin off completely, add a little bit of water to the bowl and dip your fingers every so often.
- Keep the stems on the peppers if possible. It makes it so much easier when turning them. For the traditional look of Belolučene Paprike, keep the stems.
- Seeds or no seeds? I tend to scrape out as many seeds as possible, but that’s totally up to you. It really depends on my mood to be honest.
Make sure to follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss a post. You’ll especially want to make sure you’ll following this week because I have a giveaway going on!
