Feb 28 2006
Mini-peppers
I’ve been seeing these adorable little sweet peppers in the grocery stores lately. I hadn’t bought them because they’re quite pricey — $4.99 to $5.99 for a 681 gram (1.5 lb.) bin, depending on the store. That’s more than regular sweet bell peppers, which I refuse to buy once they go over $3.99 a pound.
But they’re so adorable! So what the heck, I bought some on Sunday.
They’re the size of jalapeño peppers, but are less fleshy and are not hot. But neither are they as sweet as regular bell peppers (and again, not as fleshy). So what are they, and what does one do with them?
Eating them raw, they have just the slightest hint — more like a memory — of peppery hotness and something of a jalapeño flavor, but not quite. In other words, I think they’re some kind of jalapeño hybrid that is neither one thing nor the other. There’s nothing wrong with hot peppers, and sweet peppers are excellent too. With these guys you get neither the hot nor the sweet, so what’s the point?
They’re not completely useless. They have a nice crunchy texture, and you can cut them up and put them in a salad. But if you’re going to cut them up, why not just pay less and get a red bell pepper?
I tried roasting a couple of them, but since the flesh is quite thin they didn’t roast very well (although I may have left them in the oven too long). It seems like the best thing about these peppers is their looks. They decorative.
I don’t regret buying them. It was only five bucks after all, and they were nice in last night’s salad and were fun to eat whole next to a sandwich at lunchtime. But I doubt I will buy them again unless I need something colorful for a crudité plate.
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8 Comments on “Mini-peppers”
I’d have to guess they would be the perfect size for a salsa, as you still need rings of peppers in it. So my call would be “boiled”.
Not a bad call. Keep in mind, though, that they are not as fleshy as jalapeños or bell peppers, so they would add a lot of color but not so much “meat.” Personally, I would add de-seeded jalapeño rings and chunks of bell peppers to get a nice contrast.
Your photographs of food are always quite beautiful.
A friend of mine is a chef whose company does catering for movie sets in T.O. Mini-food is the all rage. He explains…
*Actors don’t like to share. A cut into quarters sandwich platter is an insult nowadays. He prepares mini-quiches with mini-squash on the side, mini-burgers with baby french fries, mini-stuffed peppers w/grape tomatoes and baby carrots, mini-kiwis for dessert, etc. etc.
*As many of his clentele have drug-diminished appetites or are simply going to purge the meal soon afterwards, it may very well be a budget driven fad.
an other suggestion for “mini-tiny” peppers :)
mix breadcrumbs with olive oil, parsley, garlic, olives ,capers, salt and pepper. fill the peppers (go without saying taking out all the seeds) and cook them in the oven after covering with olive oil the pan. could look nicer than the ” normal” size ones.
Ed, question 3 of your survey doesn’t allow you to rate more than 2 of the topics. If you try to select a rating for another topic, it “deselects” the previous rating.
Really? OK, thanks for the tip. I’ll see if I can fix it.
Hmmm. Looks like I can’t modify a survey once it goes live. But thanks for pointing that out — I’ll take it into consideration when analyzing the results.