Currently viewing the tag: "peppers"
…and maybe other things too, if you wish. You could add chard and chard stems, or just stems if you have them left over from another dish. Olives, artichoke hearts, beans, mushrooms…Serve with avocado chunks, labne (I use it instead of sour cream), some fiery hot sauce and slabs of toast.
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This is pretty much just what it says, a typical pico de gallo salsa, but made with summer squash rather than cucumbers, and scallions stand in for white or yellow onions, and mild sweet Gypsy peppers replace the typical jalapeño. Basil and lemon replace the cilantro and lime, making this an “alternate dimension” salsa fresca. If you like it hot, add a spicy chili or two or scatter some pizza-house chili flakes in.
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“Condiment” is used for lack of any better word, but I suppose salsa, jam, or chutney could be used as well. It is, essentially, sweet vegetables cooked until melting, to boost the flavors of earthy late season peppers. This is used as a topping for seared and quickly braised mei quin. Use as a side dish, add ground pork, tofu, or bits of leftover chicken and serve with rice for a main. A mandolin is very helpful with this recipe.
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Using a slightly leaner salmon is a good strategy for this dish as the leeks and escarole have enough fatty qualities already. The Japanese peppers mentioned are fushimi and/or shishito peppers, which are quite mild but have a pleasantly “green” flavor. Searing adds another dimension of flavor that enhances the whole dish. Add shavings of carrot to the leeks and escarole (see recipe) or cook using a roll-cut and plate on the side. You can make this recipe using roast or grilled chicken or pork chops as well, but in this case the escarole-leeks will bring the richness instead of the salmon.
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This is a dish I eat for breakfast from left-overs, or as dinner if I am alone and want something simple and satisfying as a “comfort food”. The main parts are the winter squash, onions, and greens, but feel free to add mushrooms, tomatoes, beets, or apple. Eggs poached or fried either way, as long as the yolks is soft and can run into the ingredients as a sauce. I douse them with plenty of something spicy and vinegary.
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Light supper, vegetable centric breakfast, call it what you will. This is a flavorful dish that is good for you, and it is easy if you are using peppers that were grilled the day before. For the eggs, it is best if the yolks are runny, as they make a “sauce” for the vegetables when you poke the yolk and it runs out over everything.
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All these vegetables come from the earthy funky side of the taste palette, so the orange juice adds a little sweet to act as a foil, and the soy sauce helps pull all the elements together. The fushimi and manganji peppers are Japanese heirloom chilies, and like shishito are not spicy. They taste like amplified versions of shishito, with the long and thin fushimi having a slight sweetness to it, while the fatter and all around bigger manganji has thicker walls give meatiness along with a full flavor that has subtle sweetness along with umami that I can only characterize as “green-ness”.
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Eggs in Hell, or Purgatory sometimes, are eggs poached in tomato sauce that can be mild of flaming hot. I think the name comes from the look-little islands of sunny yellow and white in a sea of lava-like tomato. The smell will be anything but brimstone-like as long as the eggs are fresh. This makes a great breakfast (some say the name is derived because it is thought to be a hangover curative) or light dinner. Use a spoon to scoop the eggs and sauce onto thick slices of grilled rustic bread. The “Spanish Style” comes from the use of pimenton and padrons.
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You can make this dressing with whatever peppers you wish, but avoid mixing colors or risk winding up with an unappetizing shade of blech. Also, if you use spicy peppers and this is a dressing for a salad, consider using some mild peppers in there to mitigate the heat. If you are making this as a condiment to drizzle onto a plate, go for it.
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Here is a soup inspired by the heat wave that just went through. Although first done cold, it could easily be served warm. To me, this tastes of a fresh raw tomato, where a pureed tomato soup misses that delicate fresh fruity quality you get from a raw tomato. This takes time as you need to let the pureé drip without disturbing it so it stays clear, so plan ahead. You can change the garnish to suit your taste or refrigerator contents.
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Poaching the salmon the night before makes this a quick dish to assemble after work or if company is coming and you want to spend time with them rather than the stove. Actually, pretty much all the prep can be done the day prior, and all you do is assemble things just before serving. Since this can be a knife and fork type salad, you can leave the lettuce in leaves if you wish instead of tearing them into bite-sized bits.
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Fattoush, often considered Lebanese in origin, is one of those ubiquitous salads found pretty much anywhere flatbread is eaten and tomatoes grow. Like the Italian salad called Panzanella it was probably a way to not waste bread after it had gone stale. Of many iterations, the two constants it seem to be flat bread and tomatoes. The greens vary from romaine to butter lettuce to arugula to none at all. Cucumber? Peppers? Radishes? Some use pomegranate seeds, some have pomegranate syrup in the dressing, while some have none. Like so many dressings of the Middle-East, this one is “slack”, meaning it is not a fully emulsified vinaigrette, so be sure to mix it up one more time just before pouring it on.
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This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. Using “paste” tomatoes such as San Marzanos are ideal because of their low moisture levels. Quickly blanching the tomatoes (boiling them until the skins split then transferring them into ice water) helps to remove the skin efficiently. A quick squeeze of the peeled tomatoes can release most seeds. Processing with a food mill can help remove any skins or seeds you didn’t catch and will give the ketchup the right consistency. This homemade ketchup tastes divine and has quite a bit less sugar and salt than the store-bought kinds.
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Another salad from the Tour Du Fridge Department, or, what leftovers can be transformed into dinner? Leftover farro and lots of peppers led to this. You can use other chewy grains such as wheat berries or barley of you don’t have farro handy. Serve this as a side or part of a mezze/antipasto/appetizer spread.
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Cocque are a Spanish flatbread equivalent to pizza, but are usually more rustic. Typically the crust is thin, or really thin, and is crisper and blisters a little. The toppings are fewer, but always choice. Cocque appear as part of the tapas pantheon, or as a starter or snack with drinks, not as a main dish. You can use whatever peppers you want, but if using the Hungarian Wax peppers you might want to nibble a few to check for heat.
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Although this salad is known to many as Israeli salad, it seems it is more commonly called Arab salad in Israel. No matter what it is called, a variant of this exists in most places throughout the Middle East, and in Israel- a country of immigrants-there are hundreds of versions all based on family heritage or personal preference.
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Here is a basic “recipe” I use a lot, especially in the summer; this is for “roasted” onions. It is more of a technique than a recipe, as it only calls for onions and flame, really. These onions are a key ingredient to my dark vegetable stock as they lend a depth of flavor, deep color, and the pectin helps to produce a density or viscosity to the stock that is usually derived from animal products. I use these onions in braises, soups, and salsas. Tossed with a little vinegar (red-wine or balsamic) then placed on toasts they make a nice quick appetizer. They elevate roasted peppers. These onions find their way into eggs, pastas, and sandwiches. Good for pizza, too. Grill a few and keep them in a sealed box in the refrigerator. They last 4-5 days.
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An all-vegetable and grain stuffing makes this lighter than the usual version with ground beef stuffing. This is a great way to use up left-over grains such as farro, bulgur, rice, or quinoa.
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