By: Tom Kearney | Sep 18, 2010 | #
Peppers
if you’re going to the farmer’s market then you’re seeing peppers everywhere. There is a huge variety too. It’s definitely worth asking about the heat of the pepper you’re getting before you buy them. Looks can be deceiving, and you want the results of your culinary effort to make sense. There’s always sampling too. The bell pepper has got to be the most ubiquitous pepper on the grocery store shelves. It’s so iconic it’s almost abstract. It even looks a bit artificial. I think if you’re getting them when they’re in season though then they can deliver on pepper flavor without a lot of heat.
At the restaurant we’ll combine them with moderately hot peppers like cubanelles and poblanos. There’s nothing I hate more than a raw bell pepper. The flavor reminds me of salad bars from the 80’s. Roasting peppers is probably the most talked about “quick and easy” method for dealing with a pepper. There’s another not great memory that comes to mind when I think about roasted peppers which is Bobby Flay on his show Grillin’ and Chillin’, sometime during the late 90’s. On the show Flay would dazzle his co-host Jack McDavid with his bold, quick, cityfied grilling techniques, all the while insulting McDavid’s “slow and low” cooking as backwater, rube fare. I think a pepper got roasted in every other episode. So not to beat a dead horse but, fire roasting a pepper is kind of a great thing.
If you really don’t know how to fire roast a pepper, it’s easy. Put it over an open flame until the skin is charred black. Place the peppers in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and let the heat carry over and transfer until the pepper is cooked soft. That should take, depending on the size, about 30-45minutes. Peel the skin with a paper towel. Don’t worry too much about cleaning off all of the black skin, it’ll lend smokiness to the final product. Remove the seeds and you’re in business. The downside is that the pepper got cooked without being seasoned. So it’s bland right now. A nice remedy for that is marinating. Pick up some thyme or whatever fresh herb you’re thinking about (rosemary, marjoram, savory). Throw the leaves of the herb along with some olive oil or grapeseed oil, sherry vinegar or lemon juice, salt, pepper and taste. Basically herb+oil+acidity+salt is what is being introduced. Keep in mind that the pepper will absorb these flavors the longer it sits. In a few hours you may actually need to season again. Things we’ve done with peppers marinated in this way: beef tongue confit with roasted cippollinis; cold as a salad with feta and almonds; served room temperature with a seared piece of yellowfin tuna; used in a ceviche marinade with charmoula spices and fluke. You could take the marinade further by infusing the oil with a spice blend, or I think it’s nice to add a small amount of honey to add sweetness to the bitterness that some peppers have.
This is a great thing to do on a grill. It might also be some of the last days where you’re going to want to cook outdoors so fire it up and enjoy!