Lots of my
memories are related to different smells – cinnamon of a cup of cappuccino
sipped on a first date, the clear skin of a baby I kiss, freshly ground coffee,
perfume of a friend. I perceive huge part of the world based on smells –every
season, every month has a specific smell and the smell of late summer and early
autumn is the smell of roasted peppers. At least it was. During my
childhood there were no air conditioners in Bulgaria and the only way to lower
the harsh summer heat in the apartments was to keep all the windows wide open.
And August and September were the months for home canning when part of all the
abundance of vegetables available in this sunny country was put in small and
larger jars for the winter months. Homemade is always better than anything you
can buy. So this was the time for roasting peppers in large amounts. The
distinctive smoky aroma of the roasted peppers went through the open kitchen
windows, filled the streets and evoked memories and imagination.
In today’s terms, everything prepared
with roasted peppers shall be probably called slow food. Because although there
are no refined ingredients in the dishes with roasted peppers, they are slow to
prepare and require patience and a lot of devotion.
You can do so many things with roasted
peppers… for instance Roasted peppers salad, Mish-mush with roasted peppers, fried
roasted peppers with tomato sauce or roasted
peppers with charred eggplant dip (Kjopoolu), and of course - Chushki
Bjurek .
Chushki Bjurek (hard to pronounce, easy
to eat) is a vegetarian dish, which represents roasted red peppers filled and
fried with a tasty mixture of crumbled Feta cheese and whisked eggs.
