Free Vegetables
and Red Hot Peppers Recipes Online
The last few
years have seen an amazing change in our attitude to
vegetables. The popularity of Mediterranean, Neal'
Eastern, and Pacific Rim cuisines, the awareness of
the links between diet and health, the growing
sophistication of vegetarian cooking, as well as
travel to exotic destinations, have all played a
part. Vegetables are now living up to the meaning
encapsulated in the Latin origin of their name -
vegere, meaning to grow, animate, or enliven.
Cooking
techniques are changing too. Briefer, lighter
methods such as stir-frying, char grilling, and
steaming mean that we can enjoy vegetables to their
fullest, making the most of all the delicious
flavors, textures, and colors that vegetables offer
us. The range of varieties - both unusual and
familiar - now available from seed merchants,
farmers' markets, and supermarkets is becoming more
and more exciting, opening up wonderful
opportunities to both the gardener and the cook.
Specimens once thought too fragile to grow anywhere
outside the tropics have been found to flourish
quite happily in chillier northern climes, given the
right conditions. We have successfully grown
chilies, eggplants, and sweet peppers, as well as
lemon grass and Mexican tomatillos.
Thanks to
improved transportation and storage, many unusual
and wonderful vegetables from the Near East and Asia
are becoming a familiar sight in western
supermarkets, and if you buy from shops catering to
the ethnic communities the possibilities are even
greater. Bottle gourds and bitter melons, yard-long
beans, and white eggplants, black radishes, and
mustard greens are all there to tempt us, along with
a wonderful variety of herbs.
This
vegetable cornucopia provides us with an
overwhelming selection, particularly when growing
from seed. In order to make informed choices, the
gardener needs to know which variety will grow best
in a particular soil or climate, and the cook needs
to know which variety is best for the job intended.
For example, most cooks know that floury potatoes
are good for roasting and waxy ones are best for
salads, but when it comes to deciding which type of
tomato has a firm enough flesh for stuffing, or
which would be the perfect pepper for a stir-fry,
we're on less familiar ground. We have spent many
enjoyable hours experimenting in the kitchen and
assessing how different varieties of the same
vegetable behave. Most of the vegetables used for
testing we grew ourselves, so we are speaking from
first-hand experience.
Chilies and Sweet Pepper
All peppers, both the sweet peppers and the
hot chilies, are members of the genus Capsicum. The
word may be derived either from the Latin capsa
(box) or the Greek kapto (to bite), perhaps
referring to the hot pepper's habit of biting back
when bitten into. The genus consists of five
domesticated species: C.annuum, the most common,
with the greatest number of varieties; C. baccatum,
known as aji in South America and one of the
least-known in the northern hemisphere; C. chinense,
which includes some of the world's hottest peppers;
C.frutescens, used in Tabasco sauce; and C pubescens,
with hairy leaves and black seeds.
Buying and Storing
When shopping
for peppers, farmers' markets and ethnic stores are
rewarding hunting grounds for the more interesting
varieties. Look for firm lively fruit, with vibrant
color and smooth, glossy skin. Reject any wrinkled
specimens or those with brown marks or watery
bruises. Fruit in prime condition can be stored for
a week or two
in a ventilated plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Always bring raw fruit to room temperature before
use.
Preparation
The easiest
way to prepare a whole sweet pepper is to cut a thin
slice from the stalk end. If it is to be stuffed,
cut away ribs and seeds. Otherwise, slice it in half
lengthwise before removing them.
To prepare
chilies, slit them lengthwise, remove the seeds and
ribs with the tip of the knife, and cut off the
stem. Rinse under mid water and prepare according to
the recipe. It is essential at this point to wash
utensils and scrub your hands thoroughly. Unless ant
to experience a burning glow for hours, do nor rub
your mouth, eyes, or face until you have cleaned up.
To roast sweet
peppers and chilies, put them under a preheated very
hot broiler, directly in a gas flame, or - best of
all - over hot coals, until the skin blackens and
blisters. Chilies need less time, as they tend to
disintegrate if over-roasted. If the skin doesn't
peel away easily, put the peppers in a sealed
container and leave them for 10 minutes: the stem
helps loosen the skin. Don't be tempted to rinse
roast peppers under running water, or you will wash
away the lovely smoky juice.
Cooking
With their robust flavors and bright colors,
sweet peppers bring life to a wide variety of
dishes. Added to a slowly stewed soffrito of
onions, they
contribute to the underlying flavor of many
Mediterranean dishes. Boxy bell peppers provide the
perfect receptacle for stuffing with fragrant
mixtures of grains, ground meat, or nuts.
For a richly
flavored salad, try raw or roasted red and yellow
peppers dressed with fruity olive oil, balancing
their sweetness with the saltiness of olives,
capers, or anchovies.
Roasted and pureed sweet peppers make vibrant
sauces -
try rouille, a spicy Mediterranean sauce that transforms a fish soup, or
serve a multicolored trio of purees to scoop up with
good crusty bread and a platter of crisp crudités.
Although
mainly known for their heat, chilies used
judiciously can add pleasing flavor accents to bland
dishes. A small amount of finely chopped chili is
good with grains and legumes or mildly flavored root
vegetables, or add with garlic to a simple dish of
pasta dressed with olive oil and coarsely ground
black pepper.
Chilies are
also great for livening up white fish - chop a
little into a marinade of lime juice, olive oil, and
cilantro, and brush the fish with this while
broiling.
For Chinese
stir-fries, sizzle small whole chilies with garlic
and ginger for a few seconds and then remove them
from the pan. The flavor will permeate the oil,
adding zest to the dish. Thin slivers of raw chili
or chili tassels also make a stunning garnish.
Chilies can even be added to sweet dishes. A
chili-flavored syrup is surprisingly good with
chilled slices of tropical fruit; or try the
sensational schizophrenic combination of cold hard
guava ice-cream
spiked with 'Habanero' -
the hottest chili of
all.
Vegetables and Red Hot
Peppers Recipes
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Free Vegetables and
Red Hot Peppers Recipes
Online