Chef Ali's Roasted Peppers with Pomegranate Molasses & Walnuts

Roasted Peppers with Pomegranate Molasses & Walnuts

This dish takes its flavor from a Middle Eastern Dip Muhuhmarra… and it is so versatile. The peppers make a terrific addition to a Meze plate, along side  hummus, olives, and toasted pita or try them on top of a flatbread with warm goat cheese, served them aside grilled lamb or fish  or bake chicken thighs with and serve with cous cous. They are lovely with roasted delicate squash and some tahini and one of my favorite ways  is to mix them in a bowl of warm farro and top with an olive oil fried egg, a dollop of yoghurt and a handful of fresh herbs.

[Ailish's note: We have roasted peppers for sale at the Crystal Spring Farmers' Market in Brunswick from late summer to fall. If you miss the freshly roasted ones at market, we also have hot and sweet frozen roasted peppers available in our freezer at all of our markets.]

• 1 pound mixed roasted peppers ( ILOVE a mix of hot & sweet in the recipe), seeded, de-stemmed, and cut into strips
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 1 or 2  large cloves fresh garlic, chopped
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 tbs Pomegranate Molasses
• ½ cup Toasted walnuts
• 1 cup torn Fresh Mint, Parsley and/ or Cilantro.

1. Whisk together garlic, olive oil, pomegranate molasses.
2. Pour over peppers and let marinate up to 4 days.
3. Mix in walnuts and herbs just before serving. Tastes best at room temperature.

How to make scrumptious roasted peppers if you don't have a fancy roaster:

There are more aggressive ways of roasting peppers, I like this way, it requires less diligence and results in a tender sweetness, even with the hot peppers.

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit,
2. Place the pepper on a sheet pan and position them in the middle of the oven, 
3. Bake for an hour, checking every 15 minutes of so and rolling them over so a different side touches the pan.
4. Roast them until they looked wilted, soft, collapsed with the skin pulling away from the flesh, they don’t have to be blacked or even browned.
5. Place the peppers in a large bowl and cover it tightly with plastic wrap for about 15 minutes, if plastic wrap alludes you, you can put them in a paper or plastic bag—just make sure it closes tightly. We want steam to build up and get under the skin so it’s easy to peel off.
6. Unwrap the bowl, place the peppers on a cutting board and slice them on one side. Open the peppers to pull the stems off or cut them away, remove all the seeds and ribs and cut them in to strips.

Chef Ali's Parsley Recipes

Parsley

Fresh parsley is full of flavor, vitamins and antioxidants. The curly parsley sprig of yore, awkwardly sitting atop a slice of orange belies nothing of the actual power of the parsley! Parsley’s main flavor is green, it adds freshness and vitality to rich, fatty, unctuous foods, it brightens and lightens. Parsley is the Bob Balaban of herbs—it may not be the star attraction, but the dish is ultimately better because of its presence.

QUICK ADDS –

Toss fresh parsley leaves with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper and strew them across a plate of pasta Bolognese or Alfredo.

Chop fresh parsley and add it to a rice pilaf or stuffing just before serving.

Save parsley stems to add flavor stock and soups, add fresh chopped parsley to soups (especially chicken)  just before serving

Dress parsley leaves and thinly sliced white onion with red wine vinegar, olive oil + salt and pepper and add to a sandwich. (especially good with leftover roast chicken and Dijon mustard).

Persillade- Parsley Sauce

This simplest of sauces elevates any dish. Simply drizzled over a grilled chicken breast or a filet of fresh fish it quickly converts eating to dining. I like to toss it in with roasted vegetables right before bringing them to the table, or I spoon it over a simple roast chicken, grilled meat. Finish a risotto, or creamy pasta dish with a few spoonfuls. I use it as a layer is a mushroom lasagna, or I toss roasted mushrooms with a spoonful or so, also great with oven fried or roasted potatoes.  And let me tell you it quickly makes fried or scrambled eggs (esp. duck eggs!) into a meal (it’s not bad on toast, but even better if that toast has something fatty like goat cheese or pate on top). It has endless uses and lasts a couple days in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch fresh parsley

• 1 small clove garlic (or one large depending on your garlic preferences)

• 1 teaspoon coarse salt (You can use a fine salt IF that’s all you have, but a salt with some texture really takes this up a level- I recommend Maldon Salt or coarse Maine sea salt)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 tablespoon vinegar (anything but balsamic, it’s too heavy) or the juice and zest of a lemon, or orange or lime.

Instructions

1. Place parsley and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 5 or 6 times, alternatively you can chop them by hand or use a mortar and pestle- you want a fine chop but not a puree (though a puree is fine too)

2. Stir in oil and vinegar and season with salt

Other things you can add

Persillade will become Salsa Verde if you add a finely chopped anchovy filet and a tablespoon or so of capers (or just capers if you are anchovy adverse)- I am particularly fond of this sauce on lamb or beef, and it is rather beautiful on grilled fish, or mix into roasted peppers and serve with thick grilled country bread.

Replace half the parsley with mint for an exotic South American twist.

A teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes will add heat, and is especially nice with pork chops, or added to a dish of pasta with clams or shrimp.

Replace the garlic with finely chopped shallot and spoon over raw, grilled or roasted oysters.

Replace the olive oil with softened unsalted butter and smear under the skin of a whole chicken right before roasting--- or top of the skin right before carving, or both.

Replace olive oil with mayonnaise and use a dip for cold poached seafood or with fried fish as an alternative to tartar sauce, or (my favorite) French fries

Parsley and Toasted Almond Pesto

I absolutely LOVE this with clams, and of course it is lovely with pasta. Simple bright fresh and green its beautiful and relatively inexpensive dinner put together in mere minutes. You can make a large batch of this and freezer for later use.

Ingredients

• 2 cups parsley (you can use the stems!)

• 1/2 cup toasted almonds (if you want to be fancy use Marcona almonds)

• 2 clove garlic

• 1 tablespoon orange zest

• 1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

• 1 pinch red pepper flakes

• 2/3 cup olive oil

• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place parsley, garlic, orange zest, nuts in bowl of food processor.

2. Process until it becomes paste

3. With processor running slowly add olive oil

4. Scrape in to a bowl, stir is cheese

5. Season to taste.

6. Toss into hot pasta along with a ladle full of pasta water for creamy sauce or dollop on to steamed little neck clams ---or both.

Other ways to use it

This pesto is also an AMAZING addition to grilled cheese, use a good strong sharp cheese like a tome. Aged gouda or cheddar.  

Slather it on chicken breasts or shrimp before or after roasting (or both).

It’s also rather good spooned in to a minestrone soup (or creamy  potato soup, or butternut squash soup or white bean soup—really almost any soup- it may seem wrong but a spoonful stirred into clam chowder is pretty great too)

Apple, Parsley & Walnut Salad with Blue Cheese

This is my favorite Thanksgiving salad. The Thanksgiving salad is a something my husband and I fail to agree upon, he thinks it an unnecessary addition, I think salad should be part of every feast. My Dad, who was my Thanksgiving cooking partner would have loved this salad—bitter greens with fruit and cheese, slightly decadent but not so over the top. I personally like it after the turkey, before dessert as a Cheese/Salad course hybrid with a few oat crackers and glass of tawny port. The apples, parsley & lettuces help ease your digestion, and the cheese and nuts get your palate ready for dessert.

I especially love this salad with foraged wild apples, I am deeply in love with those random roadside fruits, if you can get your hands on a rough skinned perfumed Russet apple they are glorious in this recipe, but any apple (even pear) will work.

Lovely on its own, serve it alongside a bowl of butternut squash soup with some good bread and you have a hearty fall lunch or lovely light supper. It is also a terrific side dish to roast pork, duck or sausages.

If blue cheese is not something you love you can use fresh goat cheese or leave out the cheese altogether or set a wedge of ripe creamy camembert, brie or other washed rind cheeses on the side.

This makes 2- 6 salads depending on the portion- actually it could just be a big salad for one, I love a big salad.

Ingredients -Salad

• 1 cup apple cut in thins slices or matchsticks (I don’t peel them but you can)

• 1 cup fresh parsley leaves (I prefer flat leaf for this salad)

• 1 cup bitter lettuces (radicchio, endive, frissee or all three) julienned or in the case of frisee torn in small fluffy pieces

• ½ cup toasted walnuts

• ½ cup celery leaves (those pale green leaves lurking deep in the heart of a head of celery)

• Salt & pepper to taste

• ½ cup good local blue cheese, crumbled

Ingredients - Dressing (can be made ahead up to 3 days ahead)

• 1 small shallot diced (about a tablespoon or so)

• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar (if you can find some good artisan vinegar that is the best)

• ½ tablespoon honey

• 2/3 cup Olive oil OR 1/3 cup grapeseed oil + 1/3 cup walnut oil

• 1 teaspoon fresh Thyme leaves

Instructions- Dressing

1. Pour vinegar over shallots and let sit while you prepare the vegetables

2. Whisk honey & thyme leaves into the vinegar and shallots

3. Slowly whisk oil in to the vinegar mixture

4. If you are using 2 oils start with the grapeseed and finish with the walnut oil

You can also just put in all in a mason jar, screw the cap on and shake hard about 20 times

Instructions- Salad

1. Toss the parsley, celery leaves and lettuces together

2. Add the apples

3. Season with alt and pepper

4. Toss altogether with dressing

5. Top with walnuts & blue cheese