Roasted Red Peppers Stuffed With Fennel |
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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 60 Minutes |
Ready In: 60 Minutes Servings: 6 |
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The combination of flavours makes this a wonderful first course, it has fantastic colour. Serve with lots of bread to soak up the beautiful juices. Ingredients:
4 large red peppers |
2 small bulbs fennel |
1 x 14 oz (400 g) tin italian plum tomatoes |
1 rounded teaspoon mixed pepper berries |
3/4 teaspoon whole coriander seeds |
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds |
8 desssertspoons good quality olive oil |
juice of 1/2 lemon |
rock salt |
Directions:
1. Slice each pepper in half lengthways, cutting right through the green stalk end and leaving it intact, it adds to the look of the dish, though it wont be eaten. Remove all the seeds. Place the pepper halves on a shallow baking sheet (swiss roll tin).
2. Drain the tomatoes (you dont need the juice), divide the tomatoes into eight equal portions, placing each portion inside a pepper half.
3. Now pare off any brownish bits of fennel and cut the bulbs into quarters and then again into eighths, carefully keeping the layers attached to the root ends.
4. Put the fennel eighths into a saucepan with a little salt, pour boiling water on them and blach them for 5 minutes. Then drain them in a colander and, as soon as they're cool enough, arrange two slices in each pepper half.
5. Sprinkle 1 dessertspoon olive oil over each pepper, using a brush to brush the oil round the edges and sides of the peppers.
6. Next lightly crush the pepper berries,coriander and fennel seeds and sprinkle these evenly all over the fennel and peppers and finish off with a grinding of rock salt.
7. Bake the peppers for 1 hour approx.on a high shelf in the oven until they are soft and the skin wrinkled and nicely tinged with brown.
8. After removing from the oven, sprinkle the lemon juice all over, cook and serve garnished with a little finely chopped spring onion or as they are.
9. Note: If you want to make the peppers ahead of time, cover with foil after cooling but dont refrigerate them as this spoils the flavour.
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