Physical Description
Bell peppers, also known as sweet peppers, are like the Christmas ornaments of the vegetable world since they are beautifully shaped, glossy in appearance and come in a variety of vivid colors such as green, red, yellow, orange, purple, brown and black. Despite their varied palette, all are the same plant, known scientifically as Capsicum annuum, and are members of the nighstshade family, which also includes potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant.
Colors: Light red to deep red depending on the variety of pepper
Tasting Notes
Flavors: sweet, hot, spicy
Mouthfeel: Crunchy when raw, Sweet, Hot
Food complements: Salads, Vegetables, Meats, Fish
Wine complements: Red wine
Beverage complements: Milk and other dairy products are known to cut the heat in the mouth if drunk while eating spicy dishes.
Substitutes: Green pepper, Orange bell pepper, Yellow bell pepper
Selecting and Buying
Seasonality: january, february, march, april, may, june, july, august, september, opctober, november, december
Choosing: Choose peppers that have deep vivid colors, taut skin, and that are free of soft spots, blemishes and darkened areas. Their stems should be green and fresh looking. Peppers should be heavy for their size and firm enough so that they will gently yield to slight pressure. Avoid those that have signs of decay including injuries to the skin or water-soaked areas. The shape of the pepper does not generally affect the quality, although it may result in excessive waste or not be suitable to certain recipe preparations. Peppers are available throughout the year but are usually in greater abundance during the summer months.
Buying: You can buy Red Pepper to any local and supermarkets.
Procuring: Peppers are easy to grow. They like hot dry weather.
Preparation and Use
Most of the heat in red peppers is found in the seeds and white ribs around them. To decrease the heat in fresh peppers while still retaining the flavor, only use the red meat of the pepper and discard the rest.
Use a paring knife to cut around the stem and then gently remove it. Peppers can be cut into various shapes and sizes. To easily chop, dice or cut the peppers into strips, first cut the pepper in half lengthwise, clean out the core and seeds, and then, after placing the skin side down on the cutting surface, cut into the desired size and shape. Peppers can also be cut horizontally into rings or left whole for stuffed peppers after carefully removing the seeds from the inner cavity.
Cleaning: Before coring and/or cutting the pepper, wash it under running water. If the pepper has been waxed, you should also scrub it well.
Conserving and Storing
Many red peppers can be found in the spice section of the grocery store, dried and ground, such as cayenne, chili powder, red pepper flakes. Most peppers do very well being dried whole.
Unwashed sweet peppers stored in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator will keep for up to one week. Sweet peppers can be frozen without first being blanched. It is better to freeze them whole since there will be less exposure to air which can degrade both their nutrient content and flavor.
Social/Political
Chilies were cultivated around the globe after Columbus. Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain, and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.
From Mexico, at the time the Spanish colony that controlled commerce with Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the Philippines and then to India, China, Korea and Japan. They were incorporated into the local cuisines.
History: Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BC. There is archaeological evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador that chili peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago, and is one of the first cultivated crops in the Americas that is self-pollinating.
Chili peppers were domesticated at least in different parts of South and Central America.
Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them (in the Caribbean), and called them "peppers" because of their similarity in taste with the Old World black peppers of the Piper genus.
Comments
July 10, 2011
when I was 8 years old I was in a kids fashion show.. they asked each girl at the end of the runway what her favorite food was. Everyone said, cakes, cookies and ice cream... my answer was red bell peppers! A foodie from a young age!