It's extremely difficult to peel a pepper, but very easy to peel a tomato. If you don't believe that, try this recipe. I should be fair and say that since this is only a dip, and it's so difficult to peel a pepper, you might prefer to leave the process out. The final dish will still be good. You could either omit the pepper from the list of ingredients, or leave the skin on. If you're like me, however, and you like to try new things, relish a challenge in the kitchen and have an inquisitive mind, then you may wish to go ahead and try peeling a pepper. If you do, you will be amply rewarded, as the pepper will impart a pleasant smoky barbecue taste to your dip.
In order to peel a pepper, you first have to char the skin. That means it has to be burnt black. Only the completely burnt bits will come off with any degree of ease, the other bits will need a deal of scraping with a knife. There are several ways to do the charring. Throwing the pepper on a barbecue works. It's not often, however, you happen to have the barbecue going just when you want to knock up a couple of dips for a party. I used the gas cooker. I turned the gas on full, skewered my pepper on a fork and roasted it in the flame. I took care to pierce the pepper in several places first. I'm not sure this is strictly necessary, but after my experience with aubergines, I thought it prudent. With hindsight, I would suggest that you pierce the pepper at the end so that the escaping juices don't hinder the charring process. If you don't have gas you can use a dry frying pan on a very high heat. Cutting the pepper into wide strips and laying them skin-side down will hasten the process. When the skin has become blistered and black, scrape it off with a knife and rinse the pepper in cold water.
To peel the tomato, simply put it in a small bowl and cover with boiling water for one minute, after which, the skin will slide off with ease. There's no excuse for skipping this stage.
1 sweet red pepper
1 tomato
1 clove of garlic
A handful of shelled walnuts
A few sprigs of green coriander, basil and mint
A squirt of lemon juice
A half teaspoon of crushed, dried red chillies
Salt
The basic approach here simply involves finely chopping everything that can be chopped and mixing all the ingredients together. If you have a pestle and mortar or some other grinding apparatus, you might want to use that on the walnuts to give the dish a creamier texture, but chopping the walnuts will also work well. This dip will benefit from being left in the fridge for a few hours, or even overnight, before serving.