We came across a bunch of shishito peppers at the store. I, as usual, went hog wild. I bought more than we could possibly eat or even want to contemplate eating. While driving home I calculated the number of peppers I had now commited to consuming. Experience told me that having a plan would keep Aki from getting too crazy when she noticed the sheer volume of peppers in the bag. Normally we cook shishitos in a cast iron skillet dusted with salt to blister the pepper, lightly season them and eat them almost straight from the pan. Clearly something more would be needed in this case.
When we returned home and I started unpacking the peppers Aki gave me a glance. A glance that clearly said-- "what the hell are you going to do with all those f-ing peppers." You see even though she was in the store with me, I kind of snuck a bunch of the peppers into the cart while she was occupied with Amaya. My cool response was, "I've got a plan." Aki nodded and shrugged, clearly communicating her disbelief and left me to it.
At this point I had no plan and needed an out fast. I set about cleaning the peppers and put two skillets on the stove out of habit. Inspiration finally struck. I would blister and cook the peppers and then preserve them in a pureed form. When the skillets were hot, Aki lent a hand and dusted them with salt. I put the peppers in the pan in an even layer and let them blister. Once they were blistered on one side I flipped them to finsih cooking them. I continued this process until all the peppers were cooked, letting the blistered specimins cool on a sheet pan. When all the peppers were cooled I put them in batches in the food processor. I started by pulverizing them into a rough pulp. The blended flavor of the char with the salt and the pepper was amazing. We could have just made a green chile sauce and called it a day. But that would not be us. Instead, we now have a great base from which to build upon and capture the flavor of deliciously charred shishito peppers.
