Capsicums or Peppers – a Rose by any other name… How to oven dry capsicums

I read a blog post somewhere in the ether about drying peppers. Bell peppers. Capsicums. Cool, I thought. I am doing tomatoes today, so maybe next week I will do peppers. Note, they are called capsicums in my part of the world.

Off I went to The Farmers’ Market and grabbed a big bag of multi coloured peppers capsicums. Fabulously shiny and crisp, crunch ripe. Yum.

Ok, where is that recipe? How do you find a recipe when you have 100 favourite food blogs??? Yes, I know that is too too many, but I am addicted.

I even offered a prize for the first to find me the recipe. Shame shame, no-one claimed the prize.

So in desperation I sat and went through my Top Ten Most Favourite blogs. What should I search for? Drying Peppers? Drying Capsicums? Oh, so stressful.

Finally I found it, on the 10th blog that I searched. Thank you Straight from the Farm. I love your post on Peppers.

Around about the same time, Padma from Padma’s Kitchen was talking about char-grilled capsicums - you know, when you blacken the skin on the stove-top or under the griller, remove the skin and either put the peeled pepper strips in oil or use them immediately in salads, risottos, pasta dishes, antipasto plates, savoury tarts, and so on…. I love char-grilled capsicums a real lot – red ones especially

I really recommend that you have a look at both posts – good discussions and photos of the journey of cooking capsicums peppers. Here are my notes on drying capsicums.

Using Dried Peppers Capsicums

Straight from the Farm has some fabulous ideas for using dried capsicums.

I found out that dried capsicums can also be ground into a powder. Grind them in a spice grinder, with a mortar and pestle, or in a blender. When ground, they can be incorporated in any sort of preparations, such as pasta and bread dough. Sprinkle them into vegetable dishes, risotto or orther rice dishes. Put it into salad dressings, into dips, salsas and dukhas.

Notes on the process

The real surprise for me is that during the drying process, the capsicums became sort of sticky. I am no food scientist, but I guess that it is caused by the caramelisation of the sugars in the capsicums. The taste became really very sweet as well. They are excellent to use at this time, semi dried, slightly sticky and sweet.

The Taste

So intensely sweet! This was a surprise. And so intensely capsicumy peppery!

Drying Capsicums, Bell Peppers and Chillies

Wash the peppers, capsicums or chillies. Leave the chillies whole. For the capsicums, remove the core – the tops and seeds. Quarter them and remove any of the white flesh along the ribs.

Heat the oven to 50C. Place the quartered capsicums on foil on a tray and place in the middle of the oven. They can dry overnight (although the aroma might drive you crazy while you are trying to sleep), or during the day. If during the day, turn them every 60 or so minutes. Dry for 8 – 10 hours.

You can remove some of the capsicums half way through the drying process for delicious, slightly sweet, semi-dried capsicums, just right for tarts, pasta, risottos, salads and eating on their own. About 3/4 way through, remove some and cover with good quality virgin olive oil, for similar use over the next few weeks. Leave the rest to dry to completion. Store in zip lock bags (a la Straight from the Farm’s instructions) or grind to a powder.

Yum! Eat! Play! Enjoy!

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