Peppers
Sweet peppers or capsicums are related to chillies, but they have a mild, not hot, flavour that sweetens as they ripen. They are eaten raw and cooked, and are especially delicious when roasted.
SLICING AND DICING PEPPERS
Peppers are kept whole only for stuffing and baking, otherwise they are normally sliced into rings or cut into strips or dice for eating raw or cooked. They need to be cored, halved and deseeded before slicing and dicing.
1. Cut around the core with a small knife, pull out and discard. Cut the pepper lengthwise in half. Scrape out the seeds and ribs and discard.
2. Place the pepper flesh-side down on a cutting board and press down firmly to flatten (this will make the pepper easy to slice).
3. Cut each pepper half lengthwise with a chef's knife into thin, even-sized slices or strips.
4. For diced pepper, hold the strips firmly together and slice crosswise to make equal-sized cubes. For larger dice, cut wider strips.
PREPARING WHOLE PEPPERS FOR BAKING
Sweet peppers make perfect containers for stuffing and baking. They are naturally hollow once the core and seeds have been removed, the sliced-off top makes a convenient lid, and the unskinned flesh will hold firm around the filling during baking. The technique shown here is also used for peppers that are to be sliced into rings.
1. Cut off the top quarter of the pepper that holds the stalk. Do not discard it but reserve it to use as a lid for the stuffed pepper during baking.
2. Scrape out the seeds with the tip of a small knife blade or a spoon. The pepper can now be filled and the lid replaced ready for baking.
DIFFERENT COLOURS
Peppers come in a dizzying array of colours. Red and green are the most common, but yellow, orange, purple and even white are also available. Often varying hues simply denote peppers at different stages of ripeness. The familiar squat box-shaped pepper, for example, is least ripe when it is green. At this stage it has a fresh grassy flavour. As it matures its colour may change to either red, yellow, orange or purple, and its flavour become sweeter. In general, small green peppers are less sweet and juicy than large ones of other colours.
