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WHAT'S NEW
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Andrew's ingredient of the month: Peppers
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Get to know six pepper varieties better so you can pick a pepper and enjoy it at its seasonal best.
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By Andrew Chase, Homemakers Magazine Food editor
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This is the best time of year for local peppers and the variety is astounding. Join us in enjoying this annual bounty!
Bell peppers
The most common kind of peppers, bell peppers are green, red or yellow with sweet flesh that is eaten cooked or raw. Roast them by charring the skins; peel and seed. Roasted peppers are sweeter and more tender than plain raw peppers and are a wonderful addition to salads, sauces, stews and stir-fries.
Sweet and thick-fleshed, bell peppers are almost designed for stuffing, as they stand upright. Try Lentil and Rice Stuffed Peppers or the dishes in our Pick a perfect pepper recipe collection. The sturdy bell peppers can also be used as edible soufflé dishes, as in Green and Red Pepper Mushroom Soufflés.
Sheppard peppers
These slender long red peppers are a specialty of Ontario and are eagerly awaited every fall, especially by the Portuguese community. I know of Portuguese families in Massachusetts that drive to Toronto just to buy bushels of the hot sheppard peppers to make sauce that'll last all year.
Sheppard peppers come in sweet and hot varieties and are intensely tasty and thinner-fleshed than bell peppers. They are also great for stuffing, but must lie flat in the pan.
Buy a half bushel of sweet, hot or mixed sweet and hot ones, roast them until charred, peel, halve and seed them; freeze them in small freezer bags as is or puréed in a blender or food processor to add bright harvest taste to sauces year-round. Sweet Sheppard peppers are also good raw in salads. I also love to add them to Chinese stir-fries.
Hot banana peppers
Yellow, light green to orangey-red when fully ripe, these favourite peppers of the Greek community are wonderful. Roast hot banana peppers until charred, peel them and douse with good olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and you have a perfect accompaniment to grilled meats and fish. To this simple dish, add a few slices of sweet onion, some capers and a squeeze of lemon and you have a common Greek side dish or meze.
Hot banana peppers are also excellent for stir-fries and sautéed dishes as their thin skins mean they needn't be peeled and their heat is -- usually -- fairly mild.
Hungarian yellow peppers
Also called wax peppers, these ivory-coloured peppers are popular with Hungarian and other eastern European communities. Hungarian yellow peppers are milder in flavour and not quite as sweet as bell or Sheppard peppers, excellent for stuffing and general cooking.
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