July 22, 2024
It is Pepper Season!
by Linda Dansbury

If Mother Nature allows, we will receive a lot of peppers from now until frost. See below for some tips.

Peppers, sweet - peppers are so versatile - equally delicious raw, as cut up in green salads, added to bean and pasta salads and salsas, and cooked. In cooking, stir, fry, short saute and longer braise or stew. And absolutely delicious when grilled. One of the things I like to do (and there are many which you will read about over the course of the season) is grill peppers till nice and charred and then put them in a bag. Once cool, peel off the skins, cut into slices, removing the seeds and ribs. Place in a bowl, add a pinch of salt, a few thin slices of garlic, and some nice olive oil. A splash of balsamic vinegar is also delicious. Eat these peppers plain, on a good slice of bread, as a sandwich topping, in salads, etc. They will keep in fridge for a few weeks - if they last that long! Ripe (orange, yellow, red) peppers will probably arrive in August.

Peppers, hot - as I wrote last week, there are a variety of hot peppers, with varying heat so you can choose what you like. If you have too many, freeze them whole, as is, in plastic bags - they will keep for a long time and can be added to whatever calls for hot peppers throughout the year.

Shishito peppers - have become very popular the last several years, showing up at farmers markets and on restaurant menus as appetizers. They can be eaten raw, but are best known (including in my home) as being quickly blistered in a pan in oil and then salted when they come out. We also grill them in a grilling basket and then drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt when they are nicely blistered. It is said that about 1 in 10 are hot, but normally even the hot ones are not very hot - I did have a hot one in a restaurant some years ago that was extremely hot, but have never experienced that locally.