Category: Peppers (Jalapeño, Serrano, Cayenne)

  This is a Vietnamese-inspired salad that is bright, spicy, sweet, and delicious. You can substitute cubes of fried or baked tofu for the chicken. You can use Napa, Savoy or green cabbage. I had some roasted broccoli that I added to this batch, which was delicious. It's a very adaptable recipe so adjust the vegetables to your taste. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="660"] It's really a meal in one if you add the vermicelli noodles, as seen above.[/caption]  ... Read more »

This is a template for utilizing whatever bits and pieces you have on hand. Quantities are all approximations and you can vary them as you like. You just want to be sure you cut the vegetables small and fairly uniformly and you don’t want to crowd your skillet or wok. To avoid a soggy dish you need to be brave with the heat.   I recommend making twice (or more) as much rice as you need for any given dish and freezing the remainder to have on hand for fried rice, rice pudding, to add to soups, etc.  ... Read more »

This is a great way to use up leftover or previously frozen rice and whatever veggies you have on hand. You can easily add chicken or beef, cut fairly small. If you’re going to add meat, stir-fry the veggies first, then remove from pan, add meat and stir fry until cooked.  Add veggies back in as well as rice, garlic, etc. and proceed with recipe. The addition of coconut milk is a bit unusual here but I think it’s a nice touch.  ... Read more »

Some hot peppers are surprisingly easy to grow, in my experience. Like having fresh herbs growing in the backyard, having a robust serrano or jalapeño plant in a pot certainly enlivens my cooking (and pickling!).   Both serranos and jalapeños get hotter as the season progresses and the jalapeños get thin brown scars (see photo at left) and both eventually turn red. They can be very spicy, though I find it really varies. Typically the more scars they have the hotter they are. They also have a rich flavor that adds depth as well as heat to salsas, soups and sauces.   The Czeck black pepper is typically a little less spicy than a jalapeño. It has juicy, thick flesh and thin skin and turns from black to bright red later in the season. It's great for pickling or salsas, soups, and other dishes.   Cayenne peppers are the spiciest of the four discussed here. They are wonderful pickled and commonly used in hot sauces or dried and ground. You can use them fresh wherever a little heat is needed. They are delicious chopped and mixed with a little butter or aioli and spread on a sandwich. I often use the dried ones by removing the seeds and breaking the pepper into 2 or 3 pieces and sautéing it with whatever vegetable or meat I might be cooking and then removing the pieces. I do the same with curries and pots of beans. The pepper will impart quite a bit of heat but a bit more subtly than by leaving it in the dish.   Take care handling all of these peppers but especially the cayennes and be sure to wash your hands well before touching your eyes. All of these peppers keep quite well, often for several weeks in the refrigerator. The cayennes of course can be dried as well and then have a much longer shelf life.      ... Read more »

The first time I made these for dinner I ate  2/3 of it by myself. This is a strong, fresh flavored dish. I make it just with Brussels sprouts or a mixture of cauliflower and Brussels sprouts or just cauliflower. You can certainly use broccoli or other roasted vegetables too. To make it vegetarian substitute 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari for the fish sauce.... Read more »