Piperade
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 as a side dish or 1-2 for a light dinner with bread
- 50ml/1.7flozs olive oil
- 1 large brown or white onion, peeled and diced
- 1 large green capsicum pepper (around 280g/10oz), seeded and sliced
- 1 large red capsicum pepper (around 280g/10oz), seeded and sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
- 3 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 sprig of thyme, leaves only
- 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon piment d'espelette or chilli powder (or to taste)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 egg
- Chopped chives to decorate
Buyer's note: Piment d'espelette is a Basque chilli powder that is mildly spicy. If you are unable to source this (at gourmet cooking stores) then a regular chilli powder also works but keep in mind the heat of your chilli powder and how spicy you like food. Piment d'espelette is very mild so I used 1 tablespoon's worth but if your chilli powder is hot then adjust to your taste.
Step 1 - Heat half of the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion and saute on medium heat until it becomes translucent. Add the capsicums and sauté for 5 minutes, then add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute and then add the tomatoes juice and all, bay leaves, thyme and piment d'espelette. Sauté for 20 minutes or until the capsicum peppers become soft. You can cook this for 10 minutes longer if you like the capsicums really soft. Add the tomato paste and vegetable stock and allow to thicken a little. Season with salt and pepper. You want there to be a soupy element to it. You can make this 2-3 days ahead of time.
Step 2 -When ready to serve, preheat oven to 180C/350F. Place the piperade mixture into 4 oven proof bowls. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water into each dish. Separate the egg yolk from the whites and add the white on top of the piperade mixture and bake for 15 minutes until the white is just set. Place the egg yolk on top and sprinkle with chives and serve with bread. When eating mix the egg into the piperade and dip the bread in.
Note: if you are serving it just after you are making the piperade, bake the egg white until just set (it won't take as long).