Tag Archives: red pepper flakes

The Food Matters Project: Dal with Lots of Vegetables

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The past couple of weeks have been quite hectic around here, to say the least. I traveled to Austin earlier this month for work and got to eat some pretty amazing food in the meantime. (Read: guacamole at breakfast, lunch and dinner.) Austin is a cool place, and I can’t wait to go back sometime when I’ll get to spend more time exploring the city. My coworker and I did take a break from the craziness to run in beautiful Zilker Park and dip our feet in the water.

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When I got back, I had about a week to play catchup at work before my best friend came to visit. We did all my favorite DC activities, including shuffleboard and oversized jenga at H St. Country Club, crabcake, crawfish and softshell crab at the Maine Avenue Fish Market, veggie shopping at Eastern Market, and grabbing growlers at Chocolate City Beer. (Did you notice most of those things involved food and/or drink?)

So as you can probably imagine, I was in the mood for something quick and easy for a Monday night meal. Dal is one of my standby easy meals from the Food Matters Cookbook on a busy weeknight, so I was glad to see Anita chose Dal with Lots of Vegetables for this week’s Food Matters Project recipe. I had never made the full recipe with browning the vegetables and using the full variety of spices, usually opting to just throw everything in the pot together with some curry powder. But this version was still pretty quick.

I love that this, like many recipes in this cookbook, is easily variable for whatever you have in the fridge. I used cauliflower, carrots, and onions, plus threw in some slices of cabbage at the last minute and let it just start to soften without losing its crunchy texture. I served it over a buttery baked potato.

You can find the original recipe, posted along with other delicious Indian recipes, at Anita’s blog, and read the other project members’ takes on it here.

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The Food Matters Project: Hippie Rice

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A belated happy holidays to all—travel, unexpected schedule changes and this have forced me to take a short hiatus from cooking. I actually thought I would probably do more cooking at my parents, but I ended up mostly sous chef-ing for my mother. I always forget this, but it’s difficult to cook in someone else’s kitchen: the ingredients you’re used to might not be on hand, the tools are different (albeit in this case, hers are much nicer), you don’t necessarily know where to find everything—and it’s often occupied by the host cook.

This was one of those trips where you come home feeling like you need a vacation from vacation. Our families are about 45 minutes apart, plus this is the time of year to see all our friends who still live in New England, so D and I spent most of the week driving back and forth to attend parties and lunches and visit with friends. It takes a while to catch up from that, and I have been taking as many cooking shortcuts as I can while still keeping us fed properly.

So I was very happy to see Gracie chose Hippie Rice for this week’s Food Matters Project recipe. I’ve made this one several times and always slightly differently: the basic idea is brown rice, broccoli, raisins and sunflower seeds, so it’s easy to vary with what you have available. This time, I made it with just broccoli and tofu, plus cooked up some chicken on the side for D’s bowl. At the last minute, I made a quick peanut sauce to stir in for the nutty flavor because the only sunflower seeds we had were in the shell, and I was certainly not going to shell them by hand.

hippie-rice

Hippie Rice with Tofu and Peanut Sauce, adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

1 cup long-grain brown rice
salt
1 head broccoli, cored and roughly chopped
1 pound extra firm tofu, cubed
Big Girls Small Kitchen peanut sauce (scroll down about halfway to find the recipe; you don’t need a full-sized batch)
sriracha, to taste
lime wedges

Bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil and add the rice. Turn the heat down to low, cover and cook until the rice is getting tender, about 20-30 minutes. Add the broccoli and tofu, and add some water if it’s evaporating too quickly. Cook until the broccoli and tofu are steamed but the broccoli is still somewhat crunchy. Transfer to a bowl and stir in peanut sauce, to taste. Add sriracha and/or red pepper flakes to taste, plus a squeeze of lime juice.

Serves four.

More takes on this dish (and I bet there will be lots of variety this week!) can be found at the Food Matters Project.

The Food Matters Project: Baked Sweet Potato and Corn Cakes with Thai Dipping Sauce

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Lately, the farmers market has been abundant with sweet potatoes. They’re available all year round, but with fall’s flavors focusing so heavily on root vegetables, it seems like they’ve taken center stage along with the apples.

And in addition to the typical red variety, I’ve also found white sweet potatoes and Korean purple sweet potatoes. A friend in Hawaii introduced me to purple sweet potatoes whose flesh and skin were both a deep purple, so I was slightly disappointed to find the flesh is white (but they’re still tasty). I’ve found both the white and purple sweet potatoes have a somewhat firmer texture than the red kind, which tend to get softer when roasted.

white red purple sweet potato

With the glut of sweet potatoes I have in my pantry now, I was glad to see this week’s Food Matters Project recipe would help me use them up. Aura has the original recipe, and I just made a few tweaks: I used both red and white sweet potato and baked cakes instead of frying them as the recipe directed. To make sure they held together in the oven, I added an extra egg to the batter.

See what all the other Food Matters Project members did here, and check out the Pinterest board for more recipes!

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Baked Sweet Potato and Corn Cakes with Thai Dipping Sauce (adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook)

juice of one lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tbsp water
2 cups grated sweet potato, all red or a combination of red, white and purple
1 cup corn kernels
4 scallions, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 eggs
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
salt and pepper

1. Combine the lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and water in a small bowl.

2. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands.

3. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Shape pieces of the batter into 1 1/2-inch balls, flatten them slightly, and put them on the cookie sheet with space between them. Work in batches if necessary.

4. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes or until browned on the bottom. Flip each cake and press it down a bit with the back of the spatula. Put them back in the oven until browned on the other side and set through, another 5 minutes or so.

Serves 3-4.

Related posts:
The Food Matters Project: Quinoa with Braised Beef, Parsnips and Carrots
The Food Matters Project: Raw Butternut Salad with Cranberry Dressing
The Food Matters Project: Collard-Tofu Burgers
The Food Matters Project: Bread and Nut Mayo

The Food Matters Project: Quinoa Tabbouleh

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Sara of the beautiful Simply Whole Kitchen chose this week’s Food Matters Project assignment, Quinoa Tabbouleh. It reminded me of a recipe for quinoa tabbouleh I made a few years ago (it’s the image at the top of this page!) but I haven’t had it since. This time, I went beyond the tomatoes and cukes and threw in whatever I had in my fridge — leftover roasted Turkish eggplant from Eastern Market, red pepper, Cherokee tomatoes, white beans. I didn’t have a lemon, so I used a bit of red wine vinegar as a stand-in acidic ingredient and it worked fine. This was a great clean-out-the-fridge recipe and a yummy accompaniment to white fish breaded with cornmeal.

Find the original recipe at Simply Whole Kitchen and see other variations from the FMP members here.

quinoa tabbouleh

Quinoa Tabbouleh, adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
2 small Cherokee tomatoes (or other good fresh tomatoes)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup roasted eggplant, chopped
handful fresh cilantro, washed, stemmed and chopped
3/4 cup cooked white beans
sprinkle of red wine vinegar
olive oil, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Bring the water to a boil and add the quinoa. Reduce the heat to low and cover it, cooking for about 10-12 minutes or until it’s fluffy. (If your package directions say otherwise, feel free to follow those.) Use the time while they cook to chop the vegetables. Combine the above ingredients from the quinoa through the white beans in a large bowl, then begin to add the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes bit by bit, tasting as you go until you have a combination you like.

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Crisp Rice Cakes with Stir-Fried Vegetables and Chicken
The Food Matters Project: Mixed Grill with Chimichurri
The Food Matters Project: Roast potatoes and chicken with romesco
The Food Matters Project: Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet

The Food Matters Project: Mixed Grill with Chimichurri

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This week’s Food Matters Project is a wild card — we got to pick whatever we had missed in the past 6 months! I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Ever since I started this project, I keep hearing the other bloggers talk about the fantastic chimichurri sauce I missed the week before my first post. I’ve been dying to try it, and thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

chimichurri

The original recipe is Mixed Grill with Chimichurri, but I had to sauté since I don’t have a grill. I made it with green peppers, a baby eggplant, hot banana peppers, onion, and pan cooked white fish. Everyone was right — this was a fantastic recipe! And as a bonus, I finally found out the name for the amazing green sauce that comes with takeout from the El Salvadoran place on 14th St. The hardest part was washing and pulling the leaves off the cilantro, which I opted for over parsley. Here’s how I did the chimichurri sauce.

Chimichurri sauce, from The Food Matters Cookbook

2 cups cilantro leaves (some small stems are okay)
1/2 cup oil
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
red pepper flakes

Put the cilantro, 1/4 cup of the oil and salt and pepper in a food processor and blend. Scrape down the sides of the container and add the rest of the oil, then the vinegar and red pepper flakes, while it runs. Blend a few more seconds until it’s all combined and the cilantro is blended up nicely.

Check out all the other bloggers’ takes on the chimichurri recipe and see what everyone else picked for this week’s wild card here!

Recipe: Blackeyed peas with chorizo and collard greens

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Every time I have blackeyed peas in the house, I feel like I need to have collard greens. This week, I decided to throw in some chorizo for a spin on Mark Bittman’s ever-versatile beans and greens recipe. I swear, I could make that recipe every night of the week and it would be different every single time.

I accidentally picked up soy chorizo at Trader Joe’s instead of the real stuff, but you could make it the same way with real chorizo — just slice and brown it before you add everything else. We actually didn’t mind the taste of the fake chorizo and thought it tasted close to the real thing. If you’re vegetarian and looking for a substitute, I’d highly recommend it.

Blackeyed peas with chorizo and collard greens

Blackeyed peas with chorizo and collard greens

1 chorizo sausage (or soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s)
1/2 white onion
6-8 large leaves of collard greens
juice from one 28-oz can of whole tomatoes (or about 3/4 cup tomato juice)
2 cups cooked or canned blackeyed peas
red pepper flakes or Tabasco sauce, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
rice, bread, or pita (for serving)

1. If you’re starting with dry blackeyed peas, get them cooking first. If you’re new to cooking beans, check out this post for tips.

2. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. (You’ll probably need a bit more oil if you’re using soy chorizo, a bit less for the real thing, as it will release some fat as it cooks.) Slice or crumble the chorizo and add it to the pan once the oil is hot, stirring until browned.

3. Add the chopped onions once the sausage is brown and cook, stirring occasionally, until they’re soft. Then add the tomato juice.

4. Meanwhile, wash and chop the collard greens, removing the stems, then add them to the pan. You might have to add them in batches since they’re so bulky. Let them cook down a bit before adding more if this is the case.

5. Stir in the cooked beans and turn the mixture down to low.

6. As the liquid starts to cook off, begin tasting and adding Tabasco, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper as needed. Add them a little at a time so you don’t burn your face off, and taste as you go.

7. Once it’s thickened to more of a chili consistency, remove from heat and serve with hot pita bread, toasty whole grain bread or over rice.

Serves four, or two with leftovers.

I also served these with some more sauteed patty pan squash from Eastern Market.

Fledgling tip: We had lots of leftovers, and this is one of those dishes that tastes much better after sitting in the fridge overnight. If there’s room in the fridge, I like to pack leftovers into a couple of serving-size containers with sides and toppings already portioned out so we can just grab them from the fridge and take an easy brown bag lunch to work, no morning portioning or prep work required.

Related posts:

Market Finds: Patty pan (or flower, or UFO) squash
Demystifying: Beans

Veggie and tofu quinoa

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I’m not sure why, but I’m a big fan of making one-pot/one-pan meals. (Sometimes I use two pots, but they always end up finishing in the same pan: see exhibits A, B and C.) I grew up on the meat-starch-veg-salad style of dinner, but I rarely find myself doing that now. It’s not a conscious decision, but come to think of it, I always mix several elements of my plate together in one bite anyway, so I think I just like the way flavors combine. Plus, using fewer pans means fewer dishes!

The other nice thing about cooking this way is it gives you a lot of room to be creative. When the flavors are all mixed in like that, if you mess something up or toss in something that doesn’t work, the rest of the dish tends to mask it. I find myself tossing in things that just need to be used up or that I think might work well, just to try it out.

So tonight I needed something healthy and fast because I came in starving after yoga. Technically it was a two-pot dish because I made the quinoa separately, but I tossed it back in with the veggies when it was done to stir-fry the whole thing a bit and it worked out well.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup red quinoa (or use regular — I just happened to have the red)
3 tablespoons olive oil, as needed
1 brick extra-firm tofu, squeezed dry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
5 broccoli florets, chopped into smaller pieces
1/2 zucchini, chopped into thick chunks
1/4 cup canned diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts (for instructions on toasting them, see the bottom of this post)
4 leaves fresh basil
garlic powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa and get it started cooking — usually you boil double the amount of water as there is quinoa (so for 1/4 cup quinoa you’d boil 1/2 a cup of water), then add the quinoa and turn it down to medium, cover the pot, and cook until soft, which is usually around 10-12 minutes.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Chop the tofu into squares, then sprinkle them with soy sauce to give it a bit of flavor. When the oil is hot, fry the tofu squares, flipping them around occasionally so they’re crispy on each side. When they’re browned and crispy on the outsides — after about 10 minutes, but it will depend based on your stove — add the zucchini and broccoli. Sprinkle on some garlic powder, salt and pepper, and optionally red pepper flakes. (You can always adjust these amounts later if needed.) Chop up the basil and add it to the pan, along with the tomatoes. Stir fry until the vegetables are cooked.

When the quinoa is finished cooking (all the water has been absorbed and it’s fluffy) dump it into the skillet with the vegetables and give it a quick stir fry. Here’s where you can taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Stir in the pine nuts at the end.

Serves one.

Loads-of-veggie omelet

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Since I generally don’t have a whole lot of time to spend on breakfast during the week, omelets are one of my favorite weekend treats. I don’t really like meat at breakfast (my stomach doesn’t handle it well that early) so I load them up with vegetables, and a trick I’ve been using lately for a super flavorful all-vegetarian omelet is canned tomatoes. I think it’s even better than using fresh tomatoes, and here’s why: you can add a couple spoonfuls of the juice and you have an instant vehicle to add spices while the rest of the vegetables absorb it and get soft.

Here’s how it works:

Heat a sprayed 8-inch non-stick pan over medium heat and add whatever chopped vegetables you like (I use whatever I have on hand, but I really like onions, mushrooms, kale and broccoli). Brown them just a bit (less than 5 minutes), then add a spoonful or two of tomatoes and a couple spoonfuls of the juice. Since the pan is hot, it will probably start bubbling pretty much immediately. Quickly shake in some salt and pepper and garlic powder, maybe some oregano or whatever you like, and I usually add a couple of red pepper flakes, and then mix them all in. As the juice from the tomatoes cooks off, the rest of the vegetables will absorb the flavors of the spices as well as the yummy juice from the tomatoes. If the liquid evaporates before the vegetables are soft enough for your liking, just add a bit more as needed.

Remove the vegetables from the pan when the liquid is all gone and the veggies are soft. You may need to wipe it out quickly and respray it. Heat it back up and add two beaten eggs (I like to use one whole and one white). Once it sets, flip it over and sprinkle some cheese on top, then pile the vegetables up on half of it. Fold the empty half over the covered half and remove from heat once the cheese has melted.

As far as cheese, I will often use a slice of soy cheese just to make it a little heart healthier, because once it’s melted you can’t really tell the difference. But on the weekends, sometimes you need a special treat, and I love to grate a super sharp cheddar over this.

Omelet veggies with tomato and juice

TIP: If you do want to make this during the week, the really time-consuming part is the vegetables, so you could make a pan of these on the weekend and just stick them in the fridge. That way, you just have to make the egg part in the morning, which is relatively easy to do with minimal caffeine in your system.

Learn to love lentils

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Earlier this year, a good friend of mine got me involved in a program teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) through an outreach program in DC. She’s been doing it for awhile now, and as a language lover myself who missed volunteering, I finally asked her if the program needed extra teachers.

Let me back up for a minute for a quick philosophical statement: I am a firm believer that language is one of the most important (and least celebrated) ways we connect with each other. It’s also possibly the most powerful eraser of boundaries, because it allows us to express ourselves and understand one another, which, let’s face it, is really half the battle.

It was really when I spent a semester in Spain during college that I started thinking philosophically about the importance of language to human connection. My parents came to visit and when they met my host parents, each couple only spoke a few words of the other’s language. But they were able to piece a few things together, making heavy use of gestures and of me as a translator, and it felt like an incredible achievement for all of us to be able to communicate across this massive cultural ocean.

Language is integral to human interaction — we rely on it so regularly that it becomes commonplace, and we take the ability to communicate for granted. It’s always been a huge part of my life even beyond my studies of Spanish, but I didn’t realize the extent of how it shaped me until fairly recently. I credit my grandfather in large part for cultivating a love of words in me; language was always something we connected on in a special way. We were readers together and writers together, and I could sit for hours and listen to him telling me story after story about when he was a little boy — in fact, we kids used to beg him for stories. He kept in touch unfailingly through letters throughout my childhood and even in college, until he began to show symptoms of dementia just a few years ago.

Words are how I express myself, and that fact has made me into who I am today. When I’m not writing, I’m talking and telling stories. (Those of you who know me in person will, I’m sure, agree wholeheartedly with that statement.) I’m not the silent type, and I never will be. If my power of language is taken away from me, I’m at a complete loss.

Anyway, that was my drive for signing up to volunteer as a language teacher — I want to help people harness the power of language. I started teaching classes one night a week for two hours, and from the first class it was completely evident that Tuesday nights were going to be my favorite time of the week. As exhausted as I am from the weekend and the day and all the small annoyances of life, the smallest breakthrough (like when a student would make a joke in English, or when we overheard one of them counting under her breath in English rather than in her native language for the first time) completely erases everything else. It energizes me for the rest of the week and gives me hope about the nature of people. My students show up faithfully every single week, for no reason other than that they want to learn. They don’t pay a dime for the classes, and they don’t have parents or the law telling them they have to come learn. They just want to learn. They want to interact. It’s an incredibly exhilarating feeling to be a part of that.

But back to why I’m posting this on a food blog. Teaching has brought me more than this great outlook and energy — I also learned one of my new favorite recipes from another teacher. She had the teachers over for dinner one night and made this amazing tomato and lentil stew, which I immediately began to try to replicate in my kitchen. It’s probably evolved into something a lot different from Debbie’s original recipe, and the measurements below are all kind of an estimate, because I really just eyeball it and taste it along the way. But it’s simple, basically just lentils and tomatoes, seasoned with cinnamon for an almost Moroccan-inspired taste. Some people tell me tomatoes with cinnamon sounds gross, and ew! lentils!, but I’ve converted every single one of them (including my meatatarian boyfriend and my sister, who actually requested it twice when she was here visiting me in February). Incidentally (or maybe not?), it’s also a great thing to make on a night when you get home late and starving (after, say, teaching a 2-hour evening class?) because it’s simple, quick and hearty.

Lentils and Tomatoes, based on Debbie’s Lentils and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked over (brown lentils or French lentils usually work well; red ones tend to fall apart and get mushy)
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 small white onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, with juices
1/2 to 1 tbsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
a sprinkle of cumin, optional
red pepper flakes, optional, to taste (just because you know I love me some spiciness)

1. Fill a small saucepan with water, sprinkle a bit of salt in it and it bring to a boil. Cook the lentils in it. The time will vary according to what kind you’re using, but it will probably be about 15-20 minutes. You’ll know when you taste one and it’s soft, but hasn’t fallen apart. If you’re unfamiliar with cooking lentils, I’d recommend getting them dry in a package from the store rather than from the bulk section from a place like Whole Foods, just so you have the label to reference how they recommend cooking them. Once you’re more familiar with lentils, you’ll get a feel for how long it takes.

2. Meanwhile, add the olive oil to a larger frying pan or cast-iron pan and heat it over medium heat. Mince the garlic (or, even better, crush it in a garlic press) and add it to the pan.

3. Once the garlic starts to get fragrant, add the chopped onions and cook until they’re translucent.

4. When the lentils are done, drain them (reserving the liquid if you like to use as a broth for something else later) and add them to the big pan.

5. Drain the tomatoes into a bowl so you reserve their juices. Add the tomatoes to the pan along with some of the juice, just enough to keep the stew wet.

6. Stir in the cinnamon and season to taste with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. (The measurements above are definitely an estimate, so taste this liberally as it cooks and season it to your liking.) Bring the whole thing back to a boil, keeping it moist as needed with the reserved tomato juice, but not letting it get too soupy.

7. Serve hot over rice or with a thick slab of bread.

Serves 2.

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it’s so fluid. I love cooking this way, where I shake in ingredients from my spice rack and taste as I go to find the right combination. It will all depend on the type of lentils you use, the type of tomatoes you use, and the strength of the spices you use. It’s kind of like telling a story — the pieces are basic, but it’s how you communicate it that makes it totally delicious.

This also works beyond spices: this week, for example, I was making this when my boyfriend was working late. I figured we could both probably use something green that day, so I threw in some broccoli with the onions. I thought it might not work with the cinnamon, but I actually loved the flavor and texture the broccoli added and will probably use it again next time. And when Debbie made me this dish, she garnished it with feta cheese, which I rarely have around, but it was amazing when she made it. So get creative. Make it into your own story. And if you discover another delicious twist, please post it in the comments so I can try it next time!

Santa Fe stuffed pepper

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Tonight my hunger snuck up on me, since I went on a cleaning binge basically from the second I got home. I was going to make falafel, but suddenly was way too hungry to wait for the long prep time. I decided to save my chickpeas for later in the week and return to one of my old standby quick dinners, the stuffed pepper.

I haven’t made many of these lately, although I’m not sure why. There are endless possibilities, as I made very clear in my early days of this blog. Tonight was a new one. I had a bag of Uncle Ben’s Ready Whole Grain Medley, Santa Fe flavor (one of those microwaveable pouches — I keep them around for occasions such as this), which I spiced up with some shrimp, onions, peas and corn.

Santa Fe stuffed pepper

Ingredients:

1/2 red pepper (or green, or whatever color you want)
1 tsp olive oil
5 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
a sprinkling of red pepper flakes (optional)
a couple slices of onion, chopped
1 pouch Uncle Ben’s Ready Whole Grain Medley, Santa Fe flavor (you won’t use all of it)
a few spoonfuls of canned or frozen peas
a few spoonfuls of canned or frozen corn

1. Get some water boiling in a pot that is large enough to hold the half pepper. When it’s boiling, put the pepper in it.

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat.

3. Cover the shrimp in the chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes (if you’re using them). Stir well, then cook them in the olive oil.

4. Toss in the onions with the shrimp and stir consistently to make sure nothing burns.

5. Microwave the rice according to the directions — mine said 90 seconds. Make sure you vent the bag before you put it in there. I’m not saying I’ve forgotten that before… okay, I am saying that. It made a big bang sound. It was scary, and I would prefer that you don’t have to experience that.

6. Check on the pepper. When you poke it with a fork and it’s still firm but somewhat soft, drain the water and let it dry off a bit.

7. When the rice and the shrimp/onion mixture are both done, spoon about a quarter cup of rice into the pan. Add peas and corn and stir until they’re heated through.

8. Put the pepper face up on a plate, then fill it with the rice mixture.

Serves one.

Santa Fe stuffed pepper