SWEET RED ROASTED PEPPER SPREAD

SWEET RED ROASTED PEPPER SPREAD

Sweet red roasted peppers, almond crumbles, avocado, black olive and capers. Flavored with coriander, fresh lemon and garlic. A surprise ingredient: grape jelly! Salty, hot and sweet! Serve topped with additional chopped roasted pepper and capers with pan-fried flour tortilla wedges as dippers, or use as a sandwich spread on Sharon’s Roasted Pepper and Tomato Grinder aka Sharon’s “Meatball” SUB! 

Makes 2-½ cups

Make almond crumbles: Place 2 c. whole, plain almonds in food processor. Process till as fine as you can get them without turning them into clumps. Use 1 cup for this recipe and place the rest in a jar for another use. Never process less than 2 cups of nuts at once, when using a large processor, otherwise they won’t process evenly.

½ can ( 6 oz. dr. wt.) whole black olives, drained

1 whole sweet red roasted pepper, drained (if the pepper isn’t whole in the jar, estimate the pieces you need to make a whole pepper, about 1 cup)

4 fresh peeled garlic cloves

1 Hass avocado; cut in half starting at one end and cutting around the pit, separate, remove the pit by smacking a sharp knife into it and twisting, then peel and cut into chunks

1 c. almond crumbles

2 T. grated lemon peel (zest); zest lemon before cutting and squeezing for its juice

2 T. juice of fresh lemon

1 T. ground coriander

½ t. red cayenne pepper

1 t. salt

1/3 c. concord grape jelly (not jam or preserves)

1/4 c. drained, lightly rinsed lg. capers

Place drained olives in food processor and process till finely chopped.

Add roasted pepper, garlic and avocado. Process till mixture turns to a thick liquid, then process 1 minute.

Add almond crumbles, lemon zest, lemon juice, coriander, red cayenne pepper and salt. Process 2-3 minutes, pushing contents down from insides of processor as needed, till as creamy as you can get it.

Add grape jelly and process 2-3 minutes longer till all ingredients become gelatinous in texture.

Pour into bowl, add capers and stir to evenly distribute. Transfer to jar and refrigerate overnight.

Pan-fried flour tortillas: Heat small skillet over medium heat. Drizzle with slight amount of oil. Place one small flour tortilla at a time in skillet. Press with pancake turner. Cook till browned in spots. Flip. Do the same on the other side and with all the other tortillas. You don’t need to oil the skillet every time you fry a new side. Use very little oil. Cut fried tortillas in half, then into 3 triangles per half.

When ready to serve place spread in decorative dish, garnish with additional roasted pepper pieces and capers, and surround with fried tortilla wedges.

Notes: You won’t taste the grape jelly, but it adds great depth to the flavor achievement and a gelatinous texture that can’t be achieved using anything as easy as the jelly. Use the regular type, nothing fancy.