Ingredient spotlight: piquillo peppers

I bought my first jar of piquillo peppers from a spanish food specialty store in Berkeley. Once I tried these peppers, I knew I’d be incorporating them into my cooking on a regular basis. Piquillo peppers are sweet red peppers from Spain that are roasted and sold in jars or cans. I usually buy my piquillo peppers packed in water, but they also come packed in olive oil. Piquillos taste similar to roasted red bell peppers, but with a more intense, slightly smoky flavor – I happen to think that they’re vastly superior.

My local grocery store carries piquillo peppers, they have them right next to the jars of regular roasted peppers. Trader Joe’s has them right now too, but I noticed that they’re imported from Peru rather than Spain, so I can’t vouch for the quality. You can also order them online. Unlike most jarred products, these peppers don’t have a very long shelf life. I usually end up freezing whatever I have left over after the jar has been open for a week.

You can use these peppers in any way that you would normally use your standard roasted red peppers. I like to put them in pasta, on pizza, or stuff them with a variety of fillings. One of my favorite preparations is to stuff the peppers with goat cheese, raisins and pine nuts. There’s no real recipe for this – I mix softened goat cheese with some toasted pine nuts, golden raisins that have been plumped in hot water, salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too thick, you can thin it slightly with a touch of milk or cream. I fill the peppers using a piping bag – you can use a spoon, but it’s a little messier. These are good at room temperature or just slightly warmed.

Another great way to use piquillo peppers is to make a marmalade. I use the marmalade for lamb chops, but it would also be great on pork or chicken.

Piquillo pepper marmalade

Makes 3-4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

8 piquillo peppers, thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 fresh rosemary sprig

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pan at medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and browned, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the piquillo peppers, lemon zest, lemon juice and rosemary and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add a little water if the pan gets too dry. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig. Stir in the vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ingredient spotlight: fava beans

I’ve started to see fresh fava beans popping up in the markets around here, so I thought it would be fitting to highlight them as this month’s ingredient spotlight.

Fava beans have a nutty flavor and buttery texture, and are commonly found at farmer’s markets. They come in bright green pods that are approximately 6 inches long - each pod contains about 3-5 beans. When you open a pod, you’ll notice that the beans are a dull green color. The beans are actually covered by a thick shell that’s not very pleasant to eat. Fava beans also come in dried form, but are definitely not interchangeable with the fresh version.

Preparing fava beans is not difficult, but involves a little bit of time and patience. The first step is to remove the beans from the pods. I do my shelling in front of the tv, it goes much quicker.

After the beans have been removed from the pods, they need to be blanched. I blanch the beans in boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes, depending on size. The next step is to transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to cool. Once the beans have cooled, those thick outer shells will be wrinkled and easy to remove. It takes a bit of practice to get the beans out of the shells in one piece. If your beans split in half, it’s not a big deal, they’ll still taste great.

Once you’ve removed all the outer shells, you’ll end up with a pile of vibrantly colored beans that are ready to eat. My favorite ways to eat fava beans are in salads or pasta. The beans can also be pureed and served on bread or as a topping for fish.

I used these fava beans in a salad recipe that I adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The beans are paired with salty oil cured olives, meyer lemon and endive for a beautiful and delicious salad. The original recipe says to instruct your guests to eat the slices of meyer lemons, peel and all. I don’t think I’d be able to convince my family and friends to eat lemon slices, so I’m making it an optional garnish, because they sure look pretty in the salad. I added chive flowers because I have them in the garden, but they’re also optional.

Endive and fava bean salad

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Serves 6

5 belgian endives, cores removed and leaves separated

juice from 1 meyer lemon, plus extra lemon slices for garnish

3/4 cup shelled and cooked fava beans

1/3 cup oil cured olives, pitted and cut into quarters

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

chive flowers for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing, combine the shallot, cream, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the endive spears on a platter, toss with dressing. Sprinkle the fava beans, olives and chives over the top. Garnish with lemon slices and chive flowers if desired.

Ingredient Spotlight: fennel pollen

When I mentioned fennel pollen in passing last week, I got quite a few requests for more information about it. I’ve come to find that some of the ingredients I use on a regular basis aren’t necessarily common, so I’ve decided to start a semi-regular feature called Ingredient Spotlight. Once a month, I’ll feature a different ingredient – what it is, where to buy it and recipe ideas. If you have any ingredients in particular that you’d like me to talk about, just let me know.

First up is fennel pollen. Fennel pollen is exactly what it sounds like – the pollen from wild fennel plants. I’ve think that raw fennel tastes very different than cooked fennel. Besides the obvious texture difference, raw fennel has a distinctive licorice flavor. When you cook fennel it gets sweet, and the licorice flavor is considerably milder. Fennel pollen tastes like cooked fennel, only sweeter with a more intense flavor. It’s quite delicious.

I bought my fennel pollen at a specialty foods store in the Bay Area. You can order it online from them, or buy it at Amazon. It’s a little pricey because it’s very labor intensive to pick, but a little goes a long way. Fennel pollen is primary used in Italian cooking, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use it elsewhere. You can use it in place of fennel seeds in quite a few recipes, although I would stick to simple preparations to let its flavor shine.

One of my favorite combinations is fennel pollen and pork. Apparently Anne Burrell and Mario Batali agree. Nancy Silverton puts fennel pollen in roasted vegetables. You could also use it on fish or chicken.

Here’s a recipe I adapted from the Campanile cookbook. The original didn’t call for fennel pollen, but I thought it would pair well with the scallops. I loved this dish – if you’re a leek fan like I am, give it a try. If you want to make this but don’t want to buy fennel pollen, just leave it out.


Scallops with fennel pollen, leeks and bacon
Serves 4
Adapted from the Campanile cookbook

1 ½ lbs sea scallops
2 tsp fennel pollen
4 slices of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
6 leeks, cleaned and lengthwise into 1-2 inch pieces
1 T grainy mustard
½ a lemon
Salt and pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pan until crisp, transfer to paper towels. Divide the bacon fat between two large pans; you should have about 1 tablespoon per pan. Drain some of the fat off if you have too much. Warm both pans over high heat. In one pan, add the leeks and turn the heat down to medium, sauté until browned and tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat down to low, and add the mustard. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the bacon and juice from the lemon.

Make sure your scallops are dry before you start. Sprinkle the scallops with the fennel pollen, salt and pepper. Sear the scallops in the other pan over high heat in a single layer for about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops to the other side and cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until done. Serve the scallops over the leeks.