Shishito peppers are not quite in season yet, but you can often find them in Korean markets. Steamed shishito (꽈리고추 찜 - ggwa ri go chu jjim) is one of the most common banchan (반찬) in Korean homes, a side dish that's easy to prepare, eat and keep for a few days. Once you take off the top, you can eat the peppers in whole including the seeds inside. On more than one occasion, I almost finished a whole batch as I was just munching on them, one by one, long after my bowl of rice was gone. Only after I realized that there were just a few of them left, I covered it and put it away in the refrigerator, because, really, who would and could eat that many shishito peppers in one sitting? I told myself, it's okay, I didn't actually finish them.
These wrinkly green peppers are mild for the most part, but there seems to be always one or two in a batch with enough heat to set fire in my mouth. The problem is, I can't tell which ones are spicy just by looking. If anyone can, please let me know. For now, I'll take the surprise as it comes.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. Shishito peppers
2 T Mochiko (Sweet rice flour) or all-purpose flour
Seasoning
1 T Soy sauce
1 T Toasted sesame oil
2 t Red pepper flakes (고추가루 - go chu ga ru)
2 t Toasted sesame seeds
1 stalk Scallion, trimmed and chopped fine
1~2 cloves Garlic, peeled and grated
DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut off the top of shishito peppers and discard. Wash and drain (but don't dry) peppers. Poke each pepper with a fork or make a small slit with a knife so that peppers cook faster and steam gets out easier.
2. Mix peppers with sweet rice flour (or all-purpose flour) to coat them with a thin layer of flour.
3. Fill a pot with water that comes up to about a half of the leg of a steamer basket. Place a steamer basket inside the pot. Make sure water doesn't touch the bottom of the steamer basket.
4. Place the peppers in the steamer basket, cover and turn the heat on to medium high. Once water comes to a boil and rice flour is cooked (i.e., peppers look translucent with no white spots), it's done, which takes about 10 minutes. If you want them softer (at the cost of losing the pepper's bright green color), you can cook for a few minutes longer.
5. While the peppers are steaming, mix all the seasoning ingredients - soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, red pepper flakes, toasted sesame seeds, scallion and garlic - and set aside.
6. When the steamed peppers are done, place them in a bowl with tongs. If necessary, gently wiggle them to separate them. Carefully mix in the seasoning with tongs. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
7. Serve warm or cold. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
RELATED POSTS
KOREAN WORDS
꽈리 (ggwa ri) Chinese lantern plant (Physalis alkekengi)
고추 (go chu) pepper (in general)
꽈리 고추 (ggwa ri go chu) shishito pepper
