Jumping Too Early

A recent shower and cool morning temperatures made me skittish about the possibility for the gaeguri chamoe to spontaneously go south on me, so I figured I’d better pick one and see what’s what. The larger ones seem to have slowed in growth, so I thought perhaps they’re coming to the end of the line.

At just over five inches, this guy weighed in at one pound, four ounces. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite ready, given the inside hadn’t tilted orange yet. The crispness was a delight (I guess an unripe melon is going to be particularly crisp), and the taste was understated. The family approved; my son said it was like a flavorful cucumber. I imagine the seeds aren’t optimal for saving, but it’s going to be hard to resist, since they look just like what I planted, and there are so many of them.

I don’t have many peppers, and I hadn’t picked any yet, so I sampled a handful. Some of the shishitos had started to go black about a month ago, which I took to mean they were dying, but turns out they were just transitioning to red. I grabbed a couple of those, plus one that was still green, along with the one Lady Choi that had also gone red.

Everything red was hot, the shishitos especially, with a subtle difference in flavor profile between varieties. Interestingly enough, the red shishitos had no seeds.

I threw the Lady Choi in with some roselle leaves and made a sauce for a fish dinner.

The sauce was pretty good, but I think I need to cook the roselle leaves a little less, or maybe not at all. They spent a relatively brief time in the pan, but even so I think that diminished their exciting pop. They make a pretty garnish, though.