Shishito peppers have got to be one of my favorite foods. I love how it's like playing pepper Russian roulette - one in every ten peppers is spicy, according to Wikipedia, but in my experience it's often closer to three or four out of ten! Seems to vary on the batch though. They're related to the Spanish padron pepper. We usually get them at our local Japanese market, so you can imagine my excitement when they were in our CSA box this week. I called them up and requested two extra pints.
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| Ready for business! |
My favorite way to make these is to grill them - usually in a pan, but we've threaded them on skewers and made them on the grill as well. First up - wash them thoroughly, and most importantly, pat dry! Otherwise you will regret it when it's grilling in the pan, and the hot oil is sputtering in your face. (Hypothetically)
Drizzle with a little oil. I did this in a separate bowl to minimize oil in the pan, but Christian reminded me that I could have used our new olive oil pump spray thing - will do that next time.
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| Ready to go! |
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Toss in the pan. Make sure you turn up the heat to HIGH - or at least close - you really want to make sure these peppers grill and not sautee.
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| t=0 |
Personally I like my peppers on the dark brownish, blistered, exploded and deflated style, but you can adjust to personal preference. Keep a close eye on these, but at the same time, you don't want to stir *too* often - you want them to blister and char in spots. Stir occasionally though so they cook on all sides.
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| Starting to blister |
Like I said, I like mine really on the done side - these aren't burned, I swear, they are delicious!
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| How I like them |
This should take 5-10 minutes, depending on the batch. Remove from heat, sprinkle with sea salt, and you're good to go!
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| Delicious! |
Someone decided to start in on the bowl before it even hit the table.
He was totally caught green-handed, looking guilty.
These were delicious! I was a little disappointed though that the CSA ones were so mild - not a spicy one in the bunch. I really like the batches where it seems like 5 out of every 10 is a mouth-scorcher - and you're cursing and crying and drinking wine to kill the pain which only makes it worse... and shoveling more peppers into your mouth... until you're a sniveling mess... and it hurts like a mother... but when they are done, you talk about how fun it was.
Maybe it's just me. Christian said he didn't miss the spicy ones...
Veena
Drizzle with a little oil. I did this in a separate bowl to minimize oil in the pan, but Christian reminded me that I could have used our new olive oil pump spray thing - will do that next time.
He was totally caught green-handed, looking guilty.
These were delicious! I was a little disappointed though that the CSA ones were so mild - not a spicy one in the bunch. I really like the batches where it seems like 5 out of every 10 is a mouth-scorcher - and you're cursing and crying and drinking wine to kill the pain which only makes it worse... and shoveling more peppers into your mouth... until you're a sniveling mess... and it hurts like a mother... but when they are done, you talk about how fun it was.
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