Piquillo Pepper Mousse Recipes

STUFFED PIQUILLO PEPPERS

Steps:

• To make the sauce: In a blender, drop in the tomatoes and garlic and blend until well chopped. Add the olive oil, white wine, and salt and blend until finely pureed; set aside.
• To make the stuffing: In a medium sized pot half filled with boiling water, boil the dried cod for about 10 minutes until rehydrated. Drain and put the codfish into a blender. Add the white wine, garlic, parsley, and salt and blend everything together. Then, in a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk and flour. Add this mixture to the codfish mixture in the blender and puree until it's the consistency of mashed potatoes. Heat a medium skillet over medium-low heat, pour in the codfish stuffing mixture, and cook just until the mixture is heated through. Put the mixture into a medium sized bowl and let it cool before stuffing the peppers.
• To stuff the peppers: With a small spoon, carefully stuff about 1/2 teaspoon of the codfish mixture inside each pepper. It should fill the pepper's cavity but should not be falling out. Continue until all the peppers have been filled.
• To finish the dish: In a large nonstick skillet on medium-low heat, add the sauce for the peppers. Then very carefully place each pepper in the pan and cook for about 15 minutes, or until heated through. Gently take each pepper out of the pan and place on a serving platter. Spoon the sauce over the peppers and garnish with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley.

PIQUILLO PEPPER KETCHUP

Steps:

• In a saucepan, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, peppers, vinegar, honey, garlic, thyme and salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer, uncovered until very thick, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
• In a food processor, puree until smooth and adjust seasoning as needed.
• Transfer to a container and stir in the remaining ½ tablespoon olive oil.

SAUTEED PIQUILLOS

Steps:

• Place olive oil in a large skillet, turn heat to medium-low, and add garlic. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until garlic turns light brown, about 5 minutes.
• Add peppers, and turn heat to medium. Cook, shaking pan, until peppers just begin to change color on bottom; turn, and repeat. Season to taste, and serve hot or at room temperature, drizzled, if you like, with a little more olive oil and sherry vinegar.

PIQUILLO PEPPERS STUFFED WITH BRANDADE

Steps:

• Place salt cod and potatoes in pan and cover with water. Simmer until cod flakes easily, 20 minutes. Drain.
• Whisk together yolk, half the garlic, lemon juice, mustard and a pinch of salt. Whisk in peanut oil gradually.
• Heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté remaining garlic and onion until softened on edges. Add tomatoes and cook 10 minutes. Add 4 peppers and heat through; salt to taste. Put contents of pan into food processor. Pulse to purée, adding enough broth to give sauce consistency of melted ice cream. Adjust seasoning; return to pan.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mash warm cod and potatoes until smooth. Fold in a third of the garlic mixture, reserving rest. Mixture should be creamy. If it is heavy, fold in cream. Add salt or lemon juice to taste.
• Stuff remaining peppers with salt-cod mixture. Place in ceramic dish. Bake 25 minutes. Reheat sauce. Arrange peppers on a platter and spoon sauce on top. Serve.

PIQUILLO PEPPER MOUSSE

Steps:

• Place in food processor the peppers, basil, garlic, lemon juice and the salt. Puree until smooth.
• Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small saucepan and let sit for about 1 minute. Heat over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir 1/4 of the pepper puree into the gelatin mixture. Fold the gelatin into the remaining pepper puree.
• Beat the heavy cream to the soft peak stage. Fold this into the pepper puree. Spoon mousse into a serving bowl and refrigerate, covered, for at least 2 hours.
• Serve with pita chips.