Author Notes: One of the best things about summer is the seasonal vegetables and fruits. It’s true that we can now “enjoy” all these any time of the year thanks to globalization and farming “advances”. But you know that the crop that belongs to summer tastes like cardboard and hay in winter. Plus, we tend to encourage no-so-wholesome farming practices or shipping of stuff from half the world away when we demand fresh strawberries in winter.
The good news is that the people of old yore have figured out this dilemma so successfully. They dried, jarred and canned things as much as they could in summer. And they made do with what they had in winter. We kicked of our winter preparation by doing a confit of roasted eggplant, red bell pepper and tomatoes. Here is how: —Dreamy Leaf
Makes: 1 medium jar
Ingredients
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2
large eggplants
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3
red bell peppers
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4
large tomatoes
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1
jalapeño pepper
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3
cloves garlic
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3
tablespoons olive oil
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salt and your favorite spices
Directions
- Chop the vegetables and garlic. Pan roast them slightly with olive oil. Make sure not to overcook them at this stage. Transfer to an oven tray and cover the top (with aluminum foil or your favorite method). Add salt and spices and oven roast them at 400 F for 45 minutes.
- If you haven’t made a confit or a preserve before, please note that the jar and the cap needs to be sanitized first by boiling them in water. When jarring them, you don’t want to leave a lot of air but don’t fill the jar up to overflow either. Top off with olive oil, and close the lid. Have the jar wait upside down for the next 24 hours to make sure there is no leakage. After that, store in the fridge and enjoy a taste of summer.