Let This Be Your Summer Of Twist Peppers

"Twist" or shishito peppers at Lotte

Even cooks who burn their food can make delicious, trendy food by grabbing a bag of magic peppers.

On fancy restaurant menus, these are shishito peppers -- a sweet green pepper that chefs dress up with all kinds of flavors.  They're mostly sweet, although a few shishito on every plate with have a spicy kick, less than a jalapeño but more than the sweet flavor in most of the dish.

For you, they're "twist peppers" for $3 a pound in Asian supermarkets like Lotte and H Mart.

This is super-easy, and the terrific side dish goes with anything from burgers to Asian food.  They're just exotic enough to be worth a drive.  But they're basically sweet peppers, so you shouldn't scare anyone off.

Literally, this is the three-step recipe to cook twist peppers:

1) Heat a film of oil in a non-stick, cast iron pan, or a wok.   

2) Add the peppers.  Cook them over medium until the skin starts to blister.  

3)  When they have a few char marks and have softened slightly, toss them in a bowl.  Add a few pinches of salt -- best with some big-grained salt like sea salt -- until you like the taste.  

The cook time is up to you.  I like the peppers to have a little bite, so I take them off as soon as them soften.  If you want shishito ideas with more flavors or more vegetables, check the Internet for articles like this Denver Post post.