Marinated Green Peppers

Photo: flickr user Eric Kilby

Ingredients

6 Green peppers

1 cup White wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Water

1/2 cup Olive oil

1 Bay leaf

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Sugar

3 Peppercorns, bruised

2 Cloves garlic, peeled

Preparation

Wash peppers, cut in half, remove seeds and fibrous linings. Dry the pepper halves and place them under high heat in the broiler. Broil until the skins are brown. Remove from fire and peel off burnt surface.

Combine the vinegar, water, oil, bay leaf, salt, sugar, peppercorns and garlic in a jar. Shake well to blend.

Put peppers in a jar. Pour marinade over them. Store in the refrigerator for at lest 3 hours.

These are usually served as a pickle or relish.

I've referred to this book before, "Memoirs and Menus - The confessions of a culinary snob," by Georges Spunt (1967, Chilton Book Co.). Today, I was sidetracked by some of the memoirs, which speak of a bygone era from the early part of this century through WW2 in Shanghai. They are a total delight to read and a classic example of the Jewish experience (sparkling, assimilated, urbane sophisticates ultimately reminded that they are Jewish). His predisposition to meeting famous people followed him to San Francisco, and he tells wonderful anecdotes, including how his cooking philosophy endorsing shortcut techniques evolved, starting with preparing a souffle' made with*canned* white sauce for Duncan Hines. It's worth making the effort to find and read this book, not to mention enjoying the excellent recipes.

His chapter on Jewish cooking is entitled, "If you put in good" [... you take out good]," with recipes from his grandmother. "She made a variety of pickles from tiny cucumbers in brine with garlic and dill (*but never vinegar*), and these were stored in a large earthenware crock until they were semi-ripe and ready to be eaten. She marinated green peppers in oil, vinegar and garlic and stored them for a week in large candy jars in our great wire-mesh food-safe. Sometimes she would let me accompany her to the market, and there she would pick the greenest tomatoes for her pickling bottles."