We seem to come back to cooking the same things, sometimes exactly to the day. And scrolling through photographs recently I noticed that around the 20th of March there are always peppers: bright red, yellow or orange.
The more elongated varieties are stuffed with toasty sourdough crumbs, capers, and sultanas, and finished with olive oil and sweet-sour moskonfyt, the more squat stuffed with pork mince and baked standing up, and those in between charred and peeled for salad or cubed for what we’ve dubbed ‘Peppers Palmieri’ (even though it includes aubergine and onion).
In early autumn we find ourselves cooking outside and opening a bottle of Chenin – aware that soon the kitchen table might feel cosier and we’ll be more in the mood for reds. These peppers (pictured) were served as part of a multi-course lunch with the Palmieri family, who make a fine mozzarella in Campania. Back home we enjoyed them with braaied chicken and a bottle of Mielie by Craig and Carla Hawkins of Testalonga wines.
If you’ve ever been curious about Testalonga, this a good point of entry. The ‘Green’ Mielie (pictured below) is a blend of Chenin Blanc from the Swartland and, comparatively, lies on the affordable side of the range, which focuses on wines of single varieties from single vineyards.
A mielie is a corncob and apparently also Craig’s nickname for their daughter, which developed from ‘Milly’. And just last week Brandon tasted a glass of the Mielie ‘Magenta’, which is a Grenache, so we can vouch for that too for when it’s time to switch over to red.
The peppers are straighforward to make but allow some time so the cooking isn’t rushed and the pot isn’t crowded – the vegetables undergo a brisk fry just to brighten and semi cook. And it can move along a sliding scale from pepper-forward to aubergine-forward depending on what there is more of.
Then it’s a matter of balancing the salty-sweet-acidity in the seasoning, which always reminds me of caponata but this is lighter lifting.
Peppers Palmieri
Cut up three peppers (we used red, yellow and orange), three aubergines, and one to two onions (red onions work well) into similar sized squares of around 1cm to 1.5cm.
Add enough vegetable oil to a small to medium pot so it fills about a third of the pot (maximum). Heat the oil to 180°C. If you don’t have a thermometer, it should be hot enough so a piece of aubergine dropped into the oil sizzles immediately.
Fry the vegetables separately as their ideal cooking times will differ and fry each in batches, leaving enough room around the pieces for them to cook quickly. As soon as they are tender, remove and drain on a thick layer of paper towel. Allow the oil to come back up to temperature before adding the next batch.
Combine the vegetables and season with sea salt, (brown) sugar, and wine vinegar, be generous with one or the other if need be, adjusting for personal taste and the inherent sweetness of the peppers.