Danger lurks between sweet and hot peppers

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, October 9, 2012

There are sweet peppers; there are hot peppers; and then there are those peppers that fall somewhere in between. They are the Russian roulette of peppers, the kinds that you can never be quite sure about until you take a bite.

That list is long, and it includes pale green banana peppers, round and shiny cherry peppers, glossy dark green poblanos, yellow-hued Hungarian wax peppers.

It can be risky cooking with them: Your dinner could end up sweet and mellow or quick-pass-the-fire-extinguisher incendiary.

Usually what I do is use a wide mix of these types of peppers and hope that the dish comes out on the edible side of the Scoville scale.

It doesn’t always work.

Last year, I sauteed a heap of different peppers, then used them as a topping for meaty swordfish. Some bites were blissful and perfectly balanced. Some bites made me cough and gasp for air. The dish had potential.

So I decided to try it again this year as pepper season winds down.

I hedged my bets. Instead of taking a chance with the gorgeous but unknown peppers, I purposely mixed the reliably sweet (bell peppers, cubanelles, peperoncini) with the reliably fiery (Serranos, chili de arbol, Scotch bonnets).

Then I worked their extremes. I sauteed the sweet peppers slowly with onions to intensify their gentle honeyed character. And I left half of the hot chilies raw, sharp and biting to create as much contrast as possible.

Eaten altogether, each bite was both hot and sweet, pungent from a touch of garlic, tart from a squeeze of lemon and faintly saline from the swordfish.

Swordfish With Sweet and Hot Peppers

Makes 4 servings.

2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil

1 sm white onion, thinly sliced

4 C sliced sweet peppers (a mix of bell peppers, cubanelle and others)

1 TBS chopped fresh oregano

11⁄4 tsp salt

1⁄2 tsp black pepper

3 TBS unsalted butter

11⁄2 lbs swordfish, skin removed, cut into 11⁄4-inch chunks

2 to 3 fresh chili de arbol or other hot chilies, seeded if desired, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

Lemon juice, as needed

Chopped cilantro, as needed

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add oil and let warm for 1 minute. Add onion and cook, tossing occasionally, until soft and golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in sweet peppers and oregano; cook until very soft, about 10 minutes. Season with 1⁄4 tsp each salt and pepper. Scrape vegetables into a bowl.

Melt butter in skillet. While butter melts, toss fish with remaining salt and pepper. Add half the chili peppers to skillet and cook until soft, 1 minute. Add garlic to skillet and stir quickly to coat with butter. Add fish and reduce heat to medium-low; cook gently until fish is just opaque, about 5 minutes. Return sweet peppers to pan and toss well. Sprinkle with remaining chili peppers and top with a squeeze of lemon and cilantro.