Columbus Underground is prepping for Thanksgiving and the Holiday Cooking Season this week with our Cooking at Home series, brought to you by our friends at The North Market!
Every kitchen needs Long Hots aka Long Gots.
I find these peppers are effective for combatting winter blues, they add warmth and a happy buzz to every dish.
Long hots are a staple at the Italian markets in South Philly and they have become a staple in my own kitchen. I grow them in summer since they’re hard to find here in Columbus. At the end of the season, I roast and freeze as many as I can fit in my freezer and they keep beautifully throughout the winter. A good substitute for long hots are Anaheim peppers, easily found cheaply year round here in Columbus.
The heat of this pepper is intense but not overpowering. Long hots are a great condiment, base for chutney, or addition to any soup, salad, pizza, sandwich, casserole, salsas, or cocktail. Long hots aren’t specific to any cuisine and they can be used in everything. Keep a dish in your refrigerator at all times, they are a nice, fresh replacement for sodium laden or preservative filled store-purchased hot sauces and chutneys most folks use to add heat to dishes. You can put long hots in the food processor with a little olive oil and garlic for a nice spicy hot sauce.
I eat long hots sliced on my plate just plain, my husband loves when I put them in cornbread. Most anything I cook at home usually has some minced long hots thrown in there too. When I first tried the peppers, I was visiting Philly. The guy at the market pronounced them “long gots” and we still call them that.
- Slice the long hots length-wise and remove the core, stem and seeds (hang on to some seeds if you wish to retain some heat). Be sure to wear gloves so you don’t burn your hands.
- Slice an ‘x’ in each side (it will allow the skins to peel off more easily later)
- Drizzle with good olive oil and kosher salt
- Bake at 400 on the top rack until the skin begins to bubble and blacken (watch closely, about 20 mins but every oven is different)
- Remove from oven and let them cool
- Wear gloves and peel the skins
- Keep whole or dice into whatever sizes you need
- Use immediately or refrigerate for later
After roasting, long hots will last one week in your fridge. If you make too many, just stick them in the freezer until you have time to use them up, they thaw nicely.
From November 11th to 17th, Columbus Underground is featuring our Cooking at Home series, brought to you by The North Market. Stop by the new North Market this holiday shopping season for all of your speciality foods, prepared foods and other cooking needs! And be sure to pick up the brand new North Market Cookbook — it’s full of great recipe ideas, and makes a great holiday gift too!
