Last week I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Fried Shishito Peppers recipe from The Wok.

This recipe is as simple as it comes. Kenji says, “This is the simplest recipe in the book, requiring nothing but peppers, oil, and a bit of salt.”

The recipe calls for 12 ounces of shishito peppers. Your DeKalb Farmers Market sells shishitos in plastic produce packages labelled as “2 dry pints.” Unfortunately, it turns out that two dry pints of shishitos is only five or so ounces.

Since the recipe is so simple, the volume difference isn’t a big deal, and I was hopeful that maybe the oil wouldn’t drop temperature so much like it had for the brussels sprouts and broccoli recipes.

The oil temperature did fine, but I still expected a darker blistering on the peppers. Kenji says to “cook, agitating with a spider, until blistered all over, about 20 seconds.” I gave them a couple minutes to get close to what I was expecting in terms of blistering. At that point, I was concerned that they may be overcooked.

After frying, the peppers are put in a bowl lined with paper towels and tossed with salt.

The peppers were good, with a tasty sweetness. If they were overcooked, they were still tasty.

I would try this recipe again at a higher oil temperature to try and get the blistering faster.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.