CraigM
3559
And Google.
And hold them for 20 years.
But also for a quick buck buy Krispy Kreme and sell in like 4-5 years.
Houngan
3560
Protip: Just buy the packages of frozen peppers and onions at the grocery, usually $1 or $1.25 for the bag, I’ve read that the frozen stuff is actually ripe when they freeze it, as opposed to the “fresh” veg in the aisle that was picked unripe and then ripened on the way over in the train/boat. Doesn’t apply when local is in season, of course, but for year-round cooking I lean towards frozen staple vegetables rather than fresh, or canned if we’re talking tomatoes.
Agreed, Houngan. Just be careful to not act like a fool and drop frozen veggies into a bunch of hot oil… not that I’d EVER do such a thing, lol.
Enidigm
3562
I wish I liked generic frozen veggies but I’m too much of a food snob. Bits of broccoli stems aren’t especially appealing, and precut onions taste weird. But lord I’ve tried. Frozen organic green peas and corn are pretty good.
I used to chop and freeze mirepoix for later use in cooking, and it always worked fine and tasted great. I say ‘used to’ only because I just don’t do that much cooking anymore. When I do, I generally buy what I need fresh and then make a large batch of whatever I’m cooking instead, for multiple rounds of leftovers.
I’ve never seen this word before. Brilliant.
It’s a common recipe word if you do much classical cooking, e.g. Julia Child etc. I guess I have a few good cookbooks!
Usually the “holy trinity” for cooking of onions, carrots, and celery. We cut up a bunch, freeze it in batches, and use it as needed.
For me, when I finally caught on that I could freeze stuff for later, the three I usually chopped on the cutting board to freeze were onions (is any recipe in the world better without onions? No), green peppers (for sauteed fajitas, etc) and celery. That last one, not enough traditional Indian & Pakistani dishes include celery. It adds a great taste IMO.
That’s a sensible combo, but I would certainly add carrot. There is almost no recipe that wants chopped onion and chopped celery but not chopped carrot, and if there is, that recipe is wrong and needs to be amended lol.
Matt_W
3569
It takes about 4x as long to sauté carrots to the proper consistency for sauces as onions, celery, or peppers. You have to really want them in there to take the time for that.
Houngan
3570
You missed a whole lotta Emeril back in the day, boyo. Carrots out, bell peppers in.
Phooey. There’s certainly a niche for bell peppers, a role for them to fill, but they’ll ruin a lot of recipes. And the green ones? Fuck them, really. The yellow and red ones are all right.
Houngan
3572
They’re a point of contention, I grant. Like most matters of taste, it’s what you grew up with. I can eat raw bell peppers all day, they’re delightful. Nothing tastes like the color green to me as much as a fresh bell pepper.
Timex
3573
A nit here, the “holy trinity” is normally a reference to cajun cuisine, which is a mix of onions, celery, and green peppers, essentially substituting the green peppers for the carrot that you’d see in mirepoix. (also technically mirepoix has more onions than celery or carrots, where the holy trinity is equal parts of all three)
At least that’s how I learned it in my cooking nerdery.
I definitely grew up with them. My mother, who doesn’t like spicy food, had some notion that the way to deal with that was to substitute green bell peppers in any recipe that might call for something a bit warmer. So, chili made with no chiles or chili powder and green bell pepper instead. Pasta sauces meant to be spicy made with green bell pepper instead. And so on.
It put me off them for years. I’m mostly recovered, but I’ll generally opt for the yellows / reds / oranges when they’re called for.
Steering a bit back on topic, I really wish there was a market for more fast food chains that actually had healthy foods, and instead of being more expensive than the dollar menu at unhealthy fast food chains, it was almost equivalent to them instead.
I guess Subway came the closest with its $5 footlongs for a while, and I definitely partook there. But for people who don’t have time to cook at home, I wish eating out healthy was more of an option for lower income bachelors.
Sometimes I got lucky. Like the time I was working at a place which was very close to a Sweet Tomato, which was a salad buffet place. The salad wasn’t all you can eat, that you could only go through once to get your salad, but the unhealthy stuff (desert, pasta, pizza) was all you can eat. Very frustrating that. Healthy, but still took willpower.
Houngan
3577
You know what is a big difference between green, red, and yellow (which are all the same thing, right? Just different stages of ripeness?) Green doesn’t do well in a brine, but a jar of vinegar and spices with yellows cut up in it produces some of the best garnish pickled peppers I’ve had. For whatever reason the greens turn out leathery and harsh, the yellows seem to hit that perfect balance of toothiness and brine.
