Featured Produce: Peppers!

Selecting Peppers: Peppers come in a very wide range of shapes, colors, sizes and heat intensity. The mildest, sweetest peppers are the fruit of the bell pepper plant, which are found in a rainbow of colors, ranging from green to red to purple-black. Chile peppers can be teeny tiny, like the diminutive (and colorfully named) mouse-dropping chile from Southeast Asia to the relatively large Cayenne pepper and also come in many colors, ranging from peach to bright red. All peppers should have very glossy, firm skin with no brown or mushy spots on the surface of the fruit. Dried whole peppers, used frequently in Mexican cooking, should also have glossy skin and should be free of brown or moldy-looking spots.

Storing Peppers: Unwaxed, both sweet and hot peppers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Make sure the pepper’s skin is totally dry before storing — moisture causes rapid deterioration. Many commercially grown peppers are coated in wax; this extends the storage life of the pepper (sometimes up to three weeks), but isn’t so great if you don’t want to eat wax.

Cooking With Peppers: Sweet and hot varieties of peppers are staple vegetables in many diverse cuisines, including Mexican, Indian, South East Asian and Italian. Peppers can be used raw in salads and as toppings for various dishes (think: tacos). They equally lovely roasted, stewed, pureed, stuffed (jalapeño poppers!) and grilled. Peppers also pair well with their tomato, potato and eggplant cousins. Dried chiles, important in Mexican cuisine, have a depth of flavor very different from their fresh versions. (Dried chiles are usually toasted over a flame, and then soaked in water before using in a dish.) Various types of dried peppers are also ground into powder and used as a spice, the most common of which are paprika (usually made from milder chile varieties) and cayenne (usually made from hotter chile varieties).

To diminish the intensity of chiles’ fiery burn in your dish, remove the ribs (aka the “placenta”) and the seeds of the pepper with a very sharp knife before cooking or eating raw. Wear gloves when working with hot peppers to avoid skin burns from the oils found in chiles. Be sure to wash cutting boards and knives that have come into contact with hot peppers with warm, soapy water to avoid a capsaicin-derived kitchen disaster.