Recipe

Skillet Charred Peppers and Onions

Name: Skillet Charred Peppers and Onions
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: Feeds 4 as a side
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 red bell peppers, in wide strips; 2 green chillies or a green bell pepper, in strips; 3 large onions, in thick strips; 4 cloves garlic, sliced; 2 tbsp beef tallow or neutral oil; 1 tsp kosher salt — at the END; Coarse black pepper; A squeeze of lime

the pan, before it goes on the heat

The side dish that goes with half the plates on this site, written down on its own because it keeps getting made.

Two rules. Wide strips, not dice — less cut surface means less water, which means charring instead of stewing. And a pan hot enough to hurt, with the vegetables left completely still for the first two minutes.

The black patches are the dish. Stir constantly and you will get soft, sweet, uniformly orange peppers, which are fine and are not this.

Feeds: 4
Hands-on: 15 minutes
In the pan: 8 minutes
Stir: As little as possible

Twenty minutes, and eight of them are loud.

Red and green pepper strips heaped in the skillet — Shot the night it was made. Open the picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The pan

3 red bell peppers, in wide strips
2 green chillies or a green bell pepper, in strips
3 large onions, in thick strips
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tbsp beef tallow or neutral oil
1 tsp kosher salt — at the END
Coarse black pepper
A squeeze of lime

How it goes

1 — Cut everything in wide strips
Peppers down their natural ridges, onions root to tip so they hold together. Nothing diced.
2 — Dry the vegetables after cutting
A quick pass with a towel. Surface water is the only thing standing between a pan this hot and a char.
3 — Cast iron, high, until it is faintly smoking
Five minutes empty on the highest heat. A drop of water should crack and vanish.
4 — Onions first, untouched for two minutes
Fat in, onions in, and then leave them completely alone. One face goes black and the rest stays white. Toss once, two minutes more.
5 — Peppers two minutes, barely moved
In they go, tossed twice and no more. They blister where they touch metal and keep their colour everywhere else.
6 — Garlic last, thirty seconds
Sliced garlic in a pan this hot burns in under a minute. It goes in at the very end and comes straight off the heat.
7 — Salt and lime off the heat, never before
Salt pulls water out, and water in a hot pan means steam instead of char. It goes on at the end, with a squeeze of lime.
pro tip — If the pan ever looks wet, turn the heat up rather than down. You are trying to drive moisture off, not cook it gently.

Goes with the steak, the fajitas, the brats and the eggs. Make more than you need. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.

What you need

The pan

How it goes

1 — Cut everything in wide strips

2 — Dry the vegetables after cutting

3 — Cast iron, high, until it is faintly smoking

4 — Onions first, untouched for two minutes

5 — Peppers two minutes, barely moved

6 — Garlic last, thirty seconds

7 — Salt and lime off the heat, never before