Blistered shishito peppers

Shishito peppers, sautéed until blistered in spots and tossed with lemon juice and salt, are a popular Japanese finger food. 

|
Blue Kitchen
The slender, pleated green peppers have a delicate peppery flavor. You can pan grill them or throw them on the grill for extra smokiness.

Once again, I am late to the culinary party. Last week, I happened across an article about a 27-year-old becoming the shishito pepper baron of New York. My immediate question was “what’s a shishito pepper?” The short answer is they’re apparently a thing — and have been for a few years now. 

The longer answer is that, when simply fried or grilled, shishito peppers are popular appetizers in Japanese izakaya, casual after-work bars that also feature small plates menus. The slender, pleated green peppers have a delicate peppery flavor. Mostly mild, 1 in 10 randomly packs a bit of heat. From the dish we prepared above, only one had any kick at all, and it was a whisper to our brutalized taste buds.

When I explored recipes for shishito peppers, there was essentially one, with variations. Sauté them until slightly blistered. Season with sea salt and perhaps some lemon juice. I took this most basic approach, and they were delicious — fresh, summery and tender (think of how all peppers soften as you sauté them).

Variations include substituting ponzu, a citrusy Japanese sauce, for the lemon juice; substituting soy sauce for sea salt; or adding some sesame oil to the olive oil as you cook them, then topping the peppers with sesame seeds (I’m totally trying this version next). You can also pan grill them or throw them on the grill to add some smokiness. For either of these approaches, toss them with oil first.

This dish is a great addition to a meal of small plates. The peppers a perfect finger food, with the stems (don’t eat them) serving as handles. We had them on their own as an appetizer.

You can find shishito peppers at most Asian markets and, since early this year, in 6-ounce packages at Trader Joe’s.

Blistered Shishito Peppers
Serves 4 as an appetizer or small plate

6 to 8 ounces shishito peppers
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt, preferably a flaky variety such as Maldon
fresh lemon juice

1. Rinse peppers and pat them dry with a dish towel.

2. Heat olive oil over medium-high flame in a large sauté pan. When the pan is quite hot, add peppers and toss to coat with oil. Season with a little sea salt. Cook, turning occasionally, until peppers are tender and blistered in spots, about 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Transfer to a bowl and toss with a generous squeeze of lemon juice — maybe 2 teaspoons or so. Season with more sea salt, plate and serve.

Related post on Blue Kitchen: Grilled steak with miso chive butter

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Blistered shishito peppers
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2015/0708/Blistered-shishito-peppers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe