Recently a kind and thoughtful friend gave me a selection of Italian sweet peppers (capsicum annum) from her local farmers market.

While I love all things capsicum and these are great fried up with a little onion I thought I would make a slightly more complex but typical antipasti that captures the slight sweetness of the pepper and combine it with the richness of tuna.

Roasted Italian Sweets with Oil Poached Tuna

6 Italian Sweet Peppers
1 jar imported Bonito del Norte (Tuna in oil - Spanish or Italian are the best for this)
Olive Oil for drizzling
Capers

Juice of a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkling of smoked paprika (optional)

Roast the peppers until charred on all sides. Place in bowl and cover with plastic wrap to allow peppers to steam. Remove charred skin from peppers careful not to rip or tear the pepper. Slice of the stem end of the pepper and make a cut down one side and open up the pepper flat on a cutting board. Remove seeds and any of the white veins inside the pepper (they can sometimes be bitter). Slice the pepper in half logway so you have two long strips of the pepper. Repeat on all peppers. Drain the oil from the tuna but keep the oil for later. Carefully remove the tuna from the jar and do you best to make long strips of the tuna. Lay pepper flat on board with inside of pepper facing up. Place strip of pepper across the pepper and roll from the skinny end to the thicker end of the pepper. Place on serving platter and repeat until all peppers and tuna are rolled. Season with salt, pepper, paprika (if using) and drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil (oil from the tuna is fine but use fresh oil if preferred) and top with capers. Serve right away or let set at room temperature for and hour or so to let flavors mingle.

The rest of the meal was comprised of (going clockwise from 9 o'clock) hummus, caprese salad with fresh tomatoes from our friends Ian and Rachael's tomato plants, a simple fennel, celery and spring onion salad and padron peppers from Spain sauteed in olive oil with a sprinkling of sea salt and a fresh bagguette.

Tapas and Shish Kabob

We had a few friends over for a little bbq and drinks. For some reason when I plan a dinner party of any sort my creative juices start flowing and from what was a simple throw some burgers and hot dogs on the grill becomes a shish kabob, mint feta orzo salad, 2 homemade salsas, chorizo, boudin blanc, wagyu hot dogs, sweet Italian sausages, tapas frenzy…….

I can’t seem to help myself but in the end it was loads of fun and I hope tasty for the guests. First lets begin with the tapas. I had originally thought about doing some kind of gourmet devilled eggs…you know topped with a bit of tobiko (flying fish row), or Spanish tuna in oil with capers…..that kind of thing. The above flavors still came into play but I decided to cut the perfectly cooked boiled eggs (9 minutes with a bit of vinegar in the water and a hole punched in the big end of the egg with a push pin and slowly dropped into the barely boiling water) across the egg latitudinally and lay them in the egg cup with various toppings. Possibly a picture of my mis en place will give you an idea of where I ended up on the devilled eggs idea.

Upper lelft you have crispy shallots going clockwise you have seaweed strips, smoked trout, anchovies in chili oil, spanish tuna in olive oil, boquerones, piquillo peppers and out of the picture is a bowl filled with sliced scallion, radishes, parley leaves and capers and a small tub of tobiko.

No real recipe here just put on it what you like......here is one of my creations.

Now onto the meat part of the evening, as I said we did have quite the selection of sausages that included the following:

Boudin Blanc (nice pork sausage with a hint of brandy and I think allspice), Chorizo, wagyu beef hotdogs (amazing!!) and some good ole' sweet italian.

Luckily enough we have a nice baker nearby that does these amazing fresh hot dog and hamburger buns.......put a few kinds of mustartd, some catsup, mayo and a soome HP sauce and you are go to go once the sausages come soff the grill.

Okay now for the shish kabob......5 pounds shank end of leg of lamb bone removed by you or butcher but make sure to keep it for a future stock. Cut lamb into approx 1 inch cubes trimmed of silver skin and some of the fat. Make the marinade by pulsing together the following in a food processor:

1 bunch mint

5 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons rosemary

Handful of parsley

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

Process into paste and toss with meat. Marinate overnight (huge difference in flavor if you leave for 24 hours). Make kabobs on metal skewers with the following pattern - red onion, meat, peppers - repeat....will look something like this:

Grill a total of 8 to 10 minutes turning every couple until all 4 sides have felt the heat. Should give you a medium rare kind of thing going on.

Will save the recipe for delicious orzo, mint feta salad for a future post.