Preserving roasted peppers in oil

[demi]

We are starting to get lots of peppers now. So for i'v been chopping the small and odd shaped ones, de-seeding the big ones and keeping whole for stuffed peppers, and roasting the big chillies and bagging everything in portians for the freezer.

But we are running out of freezer space! So i want to start preserving the peppers in jars in oil.
I'v been looking for recipes but the all seem to contain vinigar ( i hate vinigar! ), can't you just roast them, clean them, stuff them in steralized jars and cover with oil? Adding some garlic cloves and fresh herbs like thyme and whole peppercorns for flavour? Then i though when we use them in the winter we can use the infused oil from the jars for cooking and not hopfully not have to buy any oil.

Can i water bath the filled jars to futher sterilize them? Can you water bath oil in jars, or would it explode or somthing?

Or if vinigar has to be used, can i just use a minimum amount, just to lightly coat the peppers? Then topping up with oil, or mixing with oil first plus topping up the filled jars?

Or can i use a brine solution instead of oil? Which would then need to be water bathed to steralize it right?

[diggernotdreamer]

recipe from River Cottage Preserves book (p198). It is originally for Asparagus preserved in oil but suggests substituting with char-grilled peppers.

bring 200ml of water and 300 ml of cider or white wine vinegar to the boil, then it's removed from the heat and covered to keep warm. The char grilled veg are dipped into the hot vinegar bath and left for 3-4 minutes. "This sharpens the flavour of te asparagus (or in this case pepper), while the acidity assists in preventing bacterial growth."

Remove from the vinegar bath, pack it into the jar with herbs, etc. Add 70ml lemon juice to the jar (again for acidity to fight bacteria) and then add olive oil (unheated). Store in cool, dark place, leave 6 weeks to mature. Consume within 4 months. Store in fridge once opened.

[Green Aura]

It looks like you need the vinegar, as digger quoted. They're low acid fruits so need vinegar to help prevent bacterial growth.

This gives some other ideas

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8004.pdf