One thing I love about living in Arizona, especially in Tucson and Phoenix is Mexican Food. I could give all my recommendations for eating out but that's for another post. Today's post is about cooking great Mexican-inspired meals at home. I love roasted peppers. If it weren't 115 degrees, I would roast them over hot coats or a gas flame outside, but since it's already an oven outside I have been experimenting with roasting inside on a hot pan. Here's my perfect pepper preparation (say that 3 times fast!):
- place thin vertically sliced new mexico green chilies (or as pictured, a mix red/orange/yellow bell peppers) on a hot pan where olive oil and minced garlic cloves are browning at medium heat
- once the peppers are a bit moist and softened i like to crank the heat up all the way, this blackens the chilies, loosens the skin from the peppers (optionally you can peel the skin off) and releases the flavor. once you can smell the aroma and the edges or a side of the chilies look black and charred drop it back down to medium
- continue to toss the chillies in the olive oil, garlic and small burnt bits of chile add in a bit of lemon or lime juice for a citrus taste
- now to perfect the chillies! pull out a bottle of
Sweet's Brand Sour Salt and liberally apply and toss the chillies. this will give the chillies a sour sharp taste to compliment the citrus just applied and the spicy chillies.
- be sure to pull off the heat and serve soon after the juice and Sour Salt has been applied
- you can optionally add shredded beef or pork at this point and toss it all together or add these roasted chilies to grilled chicken for fajitas.
Tags:
mexican food,
recipe,
arizona,
food
