Homegrown and exotic

What you grow up eating seems ordinary and often boring, but sometimes a twist from another food culture will renew the love affair with a taken-for-granted ingredient.

Over the past few years I’ve noticed that our chefs are taking advantage of the global marketplace we now enjoy to elevate local fare to new heights. It’s not always possible at home to replicate the results from a professional kitchen, but there are endless options for blessing our ordinary diets with a touch of the exotic.

Salt Cod, Rice and Kale-Stuffed Red Peppers

The day chef Jacques Pepin made salt cod brandade on TV was a shocking moment for me. Until then I had only ever known boiled salt fish served with potatoes, in fish and brewis or fishcakes. The most daring preparation in our home had been with fried onions or drawn butter and scruncheons.

I conclude after trying it many ways in many places that our preparation is wonderful, but sometimes I crave a change.

You can serve the stuffing from this recipe as a dish by itself but in red pepper shells it is easy and elegant dinner party fare.

The dish is a combination of Spanish-stuffed piquillo peppers, which are very difficult to find here, and cod and rice dishes that are common in Portugal and the Caribbean. You won’t have any trouble finding all the ingredients, and if you like salt fish you will love this.

Feel free to use a mixture of yellow, orange and red peppers but stay away from green — their bitter edge is just not good here.

If you would rather use longgrain white rice, no problem, but cook it according to the package instructions or it will turn to mush.

You could also substitute cooked chicken or ground beef for the cod and it will be delicious — ordinary, but delicious.

Allow one half-pepper as a first course or two for a main.

8 oz. salt cod 1 cup brown rice 1 tsp. salt 4 to 6 large red bell peppers 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 small stalk celery, thinly sliced 1 tbsp. each butter and olive oil 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes 1 tsp. smoked or sweet paprika 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves 1 bunch kale, rinsed and chopped into smallish pieces 1/4 cup orange juice 1 pinch saffron threads, optional 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley leaves

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 2 cups canned or bottled tomato sauce 4 fresh or 6 dried bay leaves

Soak the cod in plenty of cold water in the fridge at least 24 hours, but up to 48 if it is thick. Change the water now and again as you think of it. Put it in a large pot, add lots of fresh cold water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat — watch out, because salt cod will boil over in a heartbeat if you don’t watch it — and simmer for 15 minutes, up to 20 for large pieces. Drain and cool enough to handle. Remove skin, break into large flakes and remove all the bones; set aside.

Put the rice in the same pot — the cod sticks like crazy so boiling the rice in the same pot makes cleanup easier. Rinse and drain. Cover with lots of cold water and add salt. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, over lowest possible heat for about 45 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Drain and pour into a large mixing bowl to cool.

In the same pot (yet again) fry the onion and celery in butter and olive oil until onion is golden brown and celery is soft. Add garlic and cook another minute, until fragrant. Add crushed red pepper flakes, paprika, thyme and kale.

Combine orange juice and saffron in a small dish and microwave until it is steaming hot. Add to pot with kale mixture. Cook together, uncovered, until most of the moisture has evaporated and kale is tender but still has some texture — 5 minutes or so. Stir in parsley and cool in the pot.

Cut the washed red peppers in half from top to bottom, right through the stem and core. Scoop out the seeds and trim away as many of the inside ribs as you can — a spoon or a sharp paring knife work well. Leaving on the stems makes for pretty servings but it’s not essential. Place in as large a shallow dish as will fit in your microwave. Add half a cup of cold water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high 5 minutes or until the bowl is full of steam and the peppers are starting to soften. Remove and allow to sit, still covered, until they are cool enough to handle. Place in a baking dish, empty sides up.

Add salt fish and kale mixture to rice in mixing bowl. Add black pepper and stir to combine thoroughly. Taste and add a little salt if needed —it’s hard to know in advance how much salt the fish contributes to the overall mixture. Spoon into red pepper halves, mounding as high as it will go. Softening the peppers in the microwave earlier makes them more stable. Pour the tomato sauce all around the peppers and tuck the bay leaves evenly spaced into the sauce. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce spooned over the top or in a pool under each pepper.