One of our most favorite summer treats is grilled peppers. Especially, mildly spicy peppers like Anaheim or Poblano with their deep, earthy, a bit sweet and slightly bitterish flavor that matches perfectly a variety of meats, poultry and fish.
Grilling itself is very easy: you just through a bunch of peppers, whole and with stems attached, on a hot grill and let them cook all over until their skin gets blackened and looks like tissue paper.
Remove the peppers from the grill and put into a pot or container. Cover tightly with a lid and let the peppers "sweat" for about 5-7 minutes. This makes peppers super easy to peel.
You can serve peppers just like this and everybody peel them on their plates, which is no hassle at all with a regular fork and knife, or you can peel them yourself before serving.
The major issue with such peppers is to find really MIDLY spicy ones. More often than not, Anaheims and Poblanos turn out to be too hot to eat them just as they are. And you never guess how hot they are just by looking at them in a store. Even if there's a sign that they are mild, they still can on a hot side.
Unfortunately, the only way to figure out the spiciness of these peppers is to buy one and taste it right away (check both the top and the tip of a pepper). If it's mild, go back and buy more. If not, you can use this one pepper to spice up a sauce or some other dish like, say, shakshuka.
It can also happen that among a bunch of mildly spicy peppers there will be one that can burn your tongue. So you have a choice of either tasting all of them before grilling (don't bite greedily into them though - cut a teeny piece from the top of each) or just be careful when you eat them and start with a small bite. I don't mean to sound like your mama, but believe a person who's been there: one bite of too hot a pepper can easily spoil your meal.
Another great variety of mild green peppers is famous Spanish Padron peppers. In Seattle, you can buy them in Spanish Table at the Pike Place Market or, perhaps, at Farmers Markets. They are small so I skewer them up for easy grilling.
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