Louie C's Profile

My favorite way with peppers (learned from Jacques Pepin): roast a panful in the oven (or any other way); cut the cooled roast peppers in strips and keep them in a jar in the refrigerator with a healthy dose of olive oil and at least a heaping tablespoonful of minced garlic. Beautiful if you have many colors of peppers. I especially love them with cold roast lamb, as in a sandwich, or one of my favorites, a salad of strips of lamb and the peppers and minced shallots, dressed with a little more olive oil and maybe some olives -- but of course they can be used in any kind of salad or vegetable dish.

What makes me think there is a genetic component is the fact that the taste is described in pretty much the same terms by those who hate it (except while I get "soap," I would say more accurately "sweaty socks," "wrestling mats," "toxic mold" ...). It runs in my family -- 4 of 6 siblings plus one parent have the same reaction, and describe it the same way. (By the way hate is a mild word for the reaction -- for me, one touch can render an entire meal inedible, and the smell of the herb in the market is literally sickening.) Ground coriander seems to be no problem, so it must be a reaction to the leaf. I tend to call it an allergy, since really it's so much stronger than a dislike.

Lentil with bitter greens and spicy sausage ...

would grace my black and red kitchen and feel wonderful in my hands ...