With all the holidays and then my B-day, I have completely abandoned my blog.
Well, I'm back now with my new favorite appetizer – blistered shishito peppers with garlic aioli.
Shishito peppers are slender and relatively small peppers with a mild flavor. In Seattle, you can buy them at Uwajimaya. They can be substituted with Spanish padron peppers, which have similar taste, but are shorter and rounder and look more like miniature green bell peppers.
As a rule, shishito flavor is mild to mildly spicy, but occasionally you can come across a hot one. One in ten, as they say. So be careful when eating.
Rinse the peppers and pat dry thoroughly with papers towels. In a wide pan, heat a tablespoon of oil. Add a handful of peppers so they fit the pan in one layer and toss well so they all get coated with oil. Cook on a medium heat, tossing and turning them often, until they get blistered and lightly golden brown all over. They should also become softer. Remove with tongs and transfer to a platter lined with a paper towel to absorb the oil.
Proceed with the rest of peppers.
Serve right away with garlic aioli. They are so delicious and so addictive it’s hard to stop munching on them. I can live on these guys.
For aioli, place 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard in a bowl and stir with a whisk. Start adding vegetable oil or light olive oil – about 2/3 cup - in a thin, slow stream while whisking it energetically into the yolk and mustard to create an emulsion. Once the emulsion has formed, you can pour in the rest of the oil in a thicker stream.
Stir in about ½ teaspoon or more freshly squeezed lemon juice, ½ tsp cold water and 1 large minced garlic clove. Season with salt and black pepper.
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