Late summer is a good pepper time. Thinner-skinned peppers, such as
poblano and sweet bananas, are good in a saute or stir-fry, and poblanos
are the classic pepper used for stuffing, as in chiles rellenos. Adding
chiles to your food is a great way to pep it up with very little cost, as
a little chile goes a long way.
     Peppers are New World crops, but made their way quickly around the
world. Just 50 years after Columbus discovered peppers, three varieties
were growing in India.
     Chiles are bulging with vitamins. Raw green chiles have six times as
much vitamin C as an orange and more vitamin A than any other food plant.
They are also high in vitamins C and B complex.
     Still, people don't eat chiles (capsicums) for the vitamins and
fiber, they eat them because they are pungent, Jean Andrews says in her
book "Red Hot Peppers (MacMillan, $25).
     "Take away the vitamins and fiber and people would still eat chiles,
but take away the cap-
     saicin and they don't want them."
     Capsaicins are the pungent alkaloids responsible for the burning
sensation in the mouth and throat known as the "rapid bite." Capsaicin is
eight times more pungent than the same ingredient in black pepper, but
allows foods a more complex flavor than does black pepper; capsaicin
impairs only sour and bitter tastes in our mouths, allowing salty and
sweet flavors through. Black pepper, on the other hand, inhibits all
tastes.
     How do you know how hot your chile is? The best test is smell: After
a little experience you can "smell" the heat in a pepper, including a
poblano. Otherwise, it's pretty hard. The heat in peppers can vary
according to growing conditions and the age of the fruit. Hot, dry
conditions stress pepper plants and increase the amount of capsaicin; it
reaches its peak just before maturity, then mellows as it ripens to its
final red, yellow or orange color.


Other produce

     Buys of the week: All melons except watermelon, zucchini, yellow
squash.
     Other produce news: Kentucky and North Carolina pole and snap beans
are beautiful, and Ohio corn is filling the stores with steady prices.
Green onions are very nice; organic supplies are beautiful, less than $1
a pound. Look for beautiful Washington blackberries and raspberries.
Grapes are excellent, and price and variety are good.
     Iffy: Spinach shows lots of heat damage; use it within a couple of
days of purchase. Plums are still showing hail damage.
     Expensive: Spinach and broccoli. Organic sweet corn is back up in
price, almost 80 cents an ear, but is very nice. Winter squash is coming
in with good variety; prices are still high.
     Going, going . . . : Apricots and cherries.


Meat, poultry, seafood

     Look for specials on spareribs, pork picnics, sirloin steak, chicken
breasts and leg quarters, fresh turkey, sockeye salmon, live lobster and
catfish nuggets.
Chart: How to pick a peck
Price: Prices average $1 a pound for specialty peppers; $3 for organic.
Nutrition: Peppers contain about 20 calories for a small, long green
pepper. All peppers are rich in vitamin C. Red peppers also are a good
source of vitamin A.
Selection: Peak season is July through October, or until the first frost.
Choose peppers that are firm and shiny, not pitted, which is a sign of
surface mold. Older peppers may be wrinkled or have brown cracks; these
will still be useable, and are hot and flavorful but are not as fresh.
Poblano peppers: The standard chile used for chiles rellenos, these
chiles are a popular alternative to bell peppers for lots of dishes.
These dark green chiles have a wonderful flavor, especially when roasted.
The hotter ones will give off a characteristically spicy or "hot" aroma.
Storage: Keep peppers cold and unwashed in the vegetable drawer. Store in
a paper bag; plastic bags will cause moisture to accumulate on the
peppers' skin, causing black spots and rotting. If kept cold, they will
hold for a couple of weeks. Once out of the refrigerator, they will
quickly start to dry. Uses: Raw for salads and salsas, cooked or grilled
for other preparations. When handling hot peppers, wear gloves to protect
yourself from the burning oils that concentrate in the interior veins and
seeds.



Copyright 1995, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, All rights reserved.