How to roast a red pepper

Do you buy those roasted red peppers for $6 a jar at the grocery store?  Stop doing that.  Roast ’em yourself.  It’s easy and fun.  No, it is.  Watch.

First step is to blacken the pepper.  Put it right on the burner.  Students ask me to repeat that all the time.  I know.  It does seem extreme.  It is.  Now put that sucker right on the burner, and let it burn, baby, burn.

Until it’s seriously unrecognizably charred –

I often do other prep while I’m charring if I’m just going to cut up the pepper.  However, sometimes it pays to babysit.  The heat will eventually damage the structural integrity of the pepper.  This is fine if you’re going to cut it up.  But if you want to stuff it later, only let sit on the burner until just charred on each side.  I watched this one so I could show you.

Once it was just charred, I put it in a ziploc bag and let the steam loosen the skin.  I then peeled all the black skin off.

(Don’t rinse them, please.  It makes them watery.  Use a kitchen towel if you want a short cut.)

After I peeled the pepper  and cut off the top to remove the seeds-

See?   It stands up.  I could stuff him full of rice, or potatoes and chorizo, or use him as a kitschy salsa holder for the meal, what have you.