Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I, on the other hand, canned a fifth of a peck of pickled peppers. October’s challenge was peppers , and I decided to do Pickled Roasted Red Peppers.

From the Big Ball Book:

4 large cloves garlic, roasted, removed from skin and mashed *

1 ½ cups white vinegar

1 ½ cups cider vinegar

1 ½ cups of dry white wine**

½ cup water
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
½ cup sugar***

2 tbsp dried oregano

4 tsp pickling or canning salt
20 medium sweet red peppers roasted, peeled, seeded, deveined and cut lengthwise into serving sized pieces.****

1) Prepare Canner, jars and lids

2) In large stainless steel saucepan, combine roasted garlic, vinegars, wine, water, onion, sugar, oregano and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes, until garlic and oregano have infused the liquid.

3) Pack room temperature peppers into hot jars to within a generous ½ inch of top of jar. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover peppers, leaving ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding more pickling liquid. Wipe rim, center lid on jar, and screw band down until resistance is met, then tighten to fingertip-tight.

4) Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid, wait five minutes, then removed jars, cool and store.

The note said that any color pepper could be used which was good as the only color they didn’t have was red. I used a combination of green, orange, purple, and chocolate brown.

After I stood there peeling the peppers forever, Dh pointed out that it would make more sense to roast whole, then peel, seed and cut afterwards. Since it was kind of an arduous process, I think he’s right, and will do it that way next year.

I’m looking forward to having roasted peppers ready to use in my cooking this winter.

Recipe’s yield was 4 pints, I used a few little peppers from my CSA in addition to 17 peppers from the Farmer’s Market, so my yield was 2 pints and 2 jelly jars.

*Roast then cool. Squeeze roasted garlic cloves to remove from peel.
**I called my dear friend from the grocery store, she helped me pick out a Chardonnay. Thank you again!
***I decreased this a bit as I don’t like a sweet brine
****Roast peppers over hot coals, on a grill at 425 or under broiler (which is what I did) until charred, turning to roast all sides. Once the skin of the peppers wrinkles and chars and the garlic has charred sports, remove from heat. Place peppers in a paper bag (or in a bowl with a towel over it) until cool enough to handle, then lift off skins.