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Reader reflects Pepper popularity By Seared Lightly A Texan peruser of our musings, W.C. Mabe, forwards her thoughts on a spicy fact of culinary life…hot peppers and the recipes that include them are more popular than ever. Mabe’s favorite in the Capsicum category is the Jalapeno. “I have a spicy green monkey on my back,” she confesses, “and I add Jalapeno in some form to almost every meal!”
Mabe also favors roasting to prepare Jalapenos as an additive. “Lay them out whole on a cookie sheet and place under the broiler for about five minutes on each side until the skin is charred, then place in a plastic bag to sweat for a few minutes.” She achieves a spicy salsa by peeling and chopping the peppers as they are, mixing with chopped tomato, onion and garlic (we also suggest adding some chopped Tomatillo--a tart, green Mexican fruit that has followed south-of-the-border immigrants to our land). Mabe again explains that heat can be controlled by scraping all or some of the seeds and membrane from the roasted peppers. Some specific Mabe peppery recipes include: Fiery Fish Filets
Dry filets, sprinkle with Garlic Salt, then cover with Chili Powder and a dusting of Flour. Melt Butter in a non-stick pan with Olive Oil until almost smoking hot, then lay in filets, presentation side down. When brown on bottom (about 3 min.), turn filets and cook until flaky on top and crispy brown on the first side. Pour Lime Juice over the fish, swirl the pan and platter the fish. While your pan is still hot, put in chopped Jalapeno, saute’ just seconds and strew over the fish. Mabe suggests Spanish Rice as a serving bed for the fish (but this is not the stuff they terrorized your tastebuds with in the school lunchroom!). Spanish Rice
Heat Canola Oil in heavy saucepan, saute’ Rice, stirring constantly, for 5 min., then add Onion, Tomato Paste, Salt and Pepper. Saute’, stirring, 11/2 min. more, add Cumin and Garlic. Continue stirring while slowly adding watery Broth. Bring to a boil, toss in the whole Jalapeno, and reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover with a tight lid and cook another 18 min., turn off, but don’t open until ready to serve (it will stay warm up to an hour). “Some like it hot” is now an understatement in these United States. Hot pepper sauce sales (Tabasco is the standard) reached almost $150 million here in the last year, while Salsa sales approached $2 billion. Outside our Latino population, which enjoys pepper-induced dishes from cradle to grave, pepper guru Dave DeWitt’s Hot Sauce Bible (Crossing Press, 1996) profiles the typical U.S. pepper sauce and salsa user as aged 25-34, earning $60,000 per year. The words “trend setters” comes to mind, and these users are spread across the geographical spectrum. No supermarket can ignore them. So, get with it, join the Mabe ranks now if you haven’t fancied peppery
concoctions in the past and control your own heat tolerance and intake.
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share her adoration of this particular pepper, for as Mabe observes, “unlike
so many peppers that have more in heat but less in taste, the Jalapeno
has a…lovely flavor.” She describes her Jalapeno preparation technique
that lifts flavor over spiciness: “holding the stem end, slice off the
first ¾” of the pepper, which has no seeds and little white membrane,
the elements where heat is concentrated. Then, turning by the stem,
cut off lengthwise slices of the green, leaving seeds and membrane behind.”
At this point, Mabe suggests, one can add a few seeds and chopped membrane
to reach an acceptable level of warmth. She minces this mixture to
provide a bowl of Jalapeno garnish “for almost anything.”