Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

Yesterday, you read about the Southeast Asian Chile-Garlic Relish, which is an ingredient in today's third and final installment of How to Eat Hot Peppers all Year.

This recipe is also from The Joy of Pickling and it is for Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. I am looking forward to dipping grilled chicken breast in this sauce.  

If my hands weren't smelling like garlic before, they certainly were sticky and full of garlic after getting 1/4 cup of it for this recipe. 

I substituted honey at 1/2 the amount for the sugar in the recipe.  She is specific about the temperatures, and at one point even calls for a candy thermometer if you have it.  This recipe also differs from the others in that it is cooked.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

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Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish

Part 2 of my Goodness That's a Lot of Peppers series is another sauce I found in The Joy of Pickling.  

This one is Southeast Asian Chile-Garlic Relish and I tasted it tonight with a sausage and MAN, it is spicy!  It was incredibly delicious, so I had about a teaspoon of it (hence the name "relish").  But then it had an afterburn on my tongue that required some milk swishing and a banana.  Then I got hot~ my whole body.  Suffice it to say, try this in moderation but it is worth trying.

I halved the recipe, which is hot peppers, garlic, salt, and cider vinegar. 

I made it in a jar so I could use the immersion blender.

She says to keep the chili seeds intact, and the immersion blender did a nice job of that.

This is an essential ingredient in the next recipe, sweet chili garlic sauce.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

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Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce

What to do when life gives you peppers?

Make hot sauce, of course!

After staring at the pile of peppers for a day and deciding they weren't getting any fresher, I turned to The Joy of Pickling for some inspiration. This cookbook has been a great resource for creative and delicious recipes.   It didn't disappoint today.

I found three that looked good, and had enough hot peppers to make them all.

The first was a Pique, which was super easy to make and she describes it as an easy restaurant-style condiment.  It's basically hot pepper infused cider vinegar.

To make it, I used an old vinegar jar and sliced up the peppers and garlic, and added them and 12 peppercorns and some salt, then the cider vinegar.  It's on my counter for 2 days before I get to try it.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce




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Recipe: Banana "Ice Cream"

This "ice cream" was inspired by the cookbook Well Fed 2, which, like the original Well Fed, is a wellspring of recipes and inspiration.  The kids like to make it, or eat it (or both!).  It is good both freshly made, as soft serve, or we freeze any leftovers in our popsicle molds, or if those are full, in little cups with popsicle sticks in them.

3 frozen bananas (freeze after they get brown spots on them)

4-6 fresh pastured egg yolks

1 T vanilla

1/4 cup raw milk

Combine all in food processor.  Serve with soaked and dehydrated pecans (3 per serving).

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Recipe: Corn Muffins~ Inspired by Nourishing Traditions

2 c cornmeal
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1\2 c water
1 c buttermilk or yogurt

3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 T maple syrup or honey
1 t sea salt
2 t baking soda
1/4 c melted butter

Mix first group of ingredients together. Cover with a clean dish towel and let sit 12-24 h (longer is better).

Add other ingredients.

350 for 20 min as muffins or 30 as bread.

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Recipe: Kim Chee

1 head napa cabbage, shredded
2 bunches red radishes or 1 large daikon radish, diced
4 carrots, diced
1 red onion or a bunch of spring onions with greens, diced
1 head garlic, peeled and smashed
1 small hand fresh garlic, peeled and diced small
3-6 fresh or dried red chilies, diced small
2 T red boat fish sauce
4 T sea salt or pickling salt

Combine ingredients.  Pound.  I like to use a meat mallet straight up and down, but you can use whatever works (there is actually a cabbage tamper made for this job).  You are trying to allow the salt to help the cabbage release its juices.

Let sit with a clean dish rag over the bowl for 1-3 hours.  Pound again.

Move into a fermenting crock or wide mouth mason jars.  This recipe fits a one gallon crock or two quart sized mason jars.  Fit a plate over the veggies in the crock, or a glass jar weight in the mason jars, then weigh it down with crock weights (or homemade crock rocks) in the crock, or a ziploc bag filled with brine (1T salt to 2 c water, dissolved) in the mason jar.  You need a weight because the veggies need to stay completely submerged in the liquid.  The plate then weight keeps them all tucked in.  You use a brine bag in the mason jar because it is hard to find a weight that fits (though you could find a rock, I'm sure, and clean it) and the bag could break so you would want brine, not water, to enter your fermenting food, if this were the case.

Move to an out-of-the-way spot in the kitchen (the cupboard or counter is fine) and cover with a clean cloth.  You can check it every so often (daily or less) to make sure the veggies are still submerged.  Taste it after a week to two weeks and move it into the refrigerator when the taste is satisfactory.  When moving it, change it into two mason jars with closed lids.

Will keep in the fridge for a year.

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Recipe: Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup
modified from Eatwell Farms Kitchen recipe

2 T fat (bacon grease, lard, coconut oil, or butter)
2 sliced onions
1 c diced peppers
2+ cloves garlic, smashed
4-6 tomatoes, quartered
1 c summer squash, diced
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 qt. bone broth
1 t cumin
1 T diced fresh oregano
2 t chilie powder
1 t smoked chili salt
pepper to taste
red chili flakes, optional and to taste
cayenne pepper, optional and to taste
cooked meat, optional
1 T lime
avocado chunks
corn tortillas

Heat fat.  Add onion and garlic.

Add peppers.  Let them soften.

Add squash, tomato, kale, and spices.  Cook for a little bit, then add the stock.

Bring to a boil and add cooked meat and heat through.  Turn off heat.  Add lime juice.

Serve in big bowls and top with tortillas and avocado.


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Fava Beans: Why Cooks should Love them as much as Gardeners Do!

[Organic] Gardeners love fava beans as cover crop.  They are great for the winter: they grow easily, have pretty flowers, and add nitrogen to the soil.  Plus, you can eat them.  What's not to love?

Ok, ok.  I know they are a lot of work in the kitchen.  It's two steps.  Or three!  

But with a kitchen full of helpers, it is easy to make quick work of this delicacy.  And I call it a delicacy because they are so much work that you won't do it many times per year.  BUT-- try it!  

These two little bowls were two half-full clear plastic grocery produce bags' worth of fava beans.  It took me, a toddler, a preschooler, and a friend less than an hour to make this (and the friend wasn't there the whole time).  Plus we ate some and it was good fun.

Ingredients:

Fava Beans (bigger are easier)

Sea Salt

a bit of cooking oil (butter, lard, coconut oil)

a bit of olive oil

ice water with ice in a bowl

Directions:

Shuck the fava beans and discard the outer shells.  Blanch them (throw them in boiling water for three minutes).  Immediately put them into an ice water bath with plenty of ice.

Then take them and shuck off the inner layer.  Yes, there is another layer to remove.  It is fairly thin, and the beans pop out easily after they are blanched.

Heat the cooking oil in a cast iron skillet.  When it is hot, add the fava beans until just browned, about 1 minute.  Remove and add olive oil and sea salt.

You can eat these plain, or put them into a sauce (like tomato), or another dish. Enjoy!

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20 pounds of Cabbage in my 2 Gallon Crock... mmm... Sauerkraut

Last year, we got our 20 lb box of sauerkraut from our farm box CSA and made different types of sauerkraut in jars.

This year, our process was different.  

Delicious as the flavors were, we streamlined a little.  Everyone loves plain sauerkraut.

So we made plain sauerkraut.  

We all took turns slicing (ok, the older one sliced and the younger one fed scraps to the chickens-- but it's good to have a job and be useful), then I sprinkled the kosher salt (approximately 1 T per head of cabbage).  We all took turns pounding, then we took a break.  Then we pounded.  Then they got bored and I pounded some more.  I left it in the 2 gal crock and 1 gal crock overnight, then consolidated into the 2 gallon crock the next morning and weighted it down.

Now it is waiting to ferment...

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Recipe: Spinach Pie

This is a modification of the recipe from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook for their Spinach Bread.  Mine ended up a lot thicker than I would call a bread, and made a good side dish as a pie.  

Spinach Pie

2 bunches spinach, washed

1/2 red onion, diced

2 T butter or coconut oil, melted

handful walnuts

3 cloves garlic, smashed

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Chop spinach and onion in food processor until smooth.

In small skillet, melt oil or butter.  Add walnuts (or pine nuts) and garlic and cook until fragrant.

Combine, adding eggs and sea salt.

Bake in greased pie plate at 350 for half of an hour.  Enjoy!

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DIY Vanilla Extract

When faced with my husband's question of why, exactly, I was making our own vanilla, the only answer I could come up with at the time was that I could.

A better answer would have been to explain to him that I like the idea of going back as many steps as possible when making food from scratch, and that going back and making as much as possible at home increases the transparency of what is in the food and makes it simpler for your body to digest.

Hm.

Anyway, I found a few recipes (Caveman Keto and The Prairie Homestead) and they basically seemed the same.  

Slice a vanilla bean in half, put it into a glass bottle, and pour vodka or bourbon over it and let it sit.  Times vary from 6 weeks to 6 months in the recipes; I will smell mine at 6 weeks and see.  We chose bourbon because we are used to using bourbon vanilla and, if faced with any leftover, we prefer bourbon to vodka.

  Label it if you want. Shake it every so often.  

Looks like when it is ready, you can leave the used bean in there and re-fill it with alcohol and let it sit again (and re-use the bean indefinitely).  Or take the bean out and give the bean a second life in your sugar storage bin making vanilla sugar.


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Sourdough Bagels

I saw this post on 60 Ways to Make Sourdough and was inspired to do more than the Tartine Country Loaf I have been making (and everyone has been loving).

I started with the sourdough bagel recipe.  I used my starter (there it is in the back, in the big glass jar) the night before and made the dough, then let it sit overnight.  In the morning, we shaped the bagels, boiled them, and baked them.  They were surprisingly good, and surprisingly easy.  The only modification we did was not adding sugar to the boiling water, and pushing some frozen blueberries into some of the bagels after boiling. 

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DIY Crock Rocks- Fermentation Crock Weights

I saw crock rocks on amazon as a way to hold down the plate that fits inside the fermentation crock.  Brilliant!

But wait- I have rocks.



So I washed one, covered it in tin foil, and put it on the inside plate atop our newest batch of sauerkraut.

 

 

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Nourishing Traditions Baby Custard and Pumpkin Custard

In Part 1, yesterday, I showed you our GAPS Pumpkin Pie experiment in my quest to find a yummy Thanksgiving Dessert for all of us (my husband eats sugar so his palate requires more "normal"sweets).

I also made the Nourishing Traditions/ WAPF Baby Custard with Pumpkin.


It's good.... so good I may have to make it for Thanksgiving!!

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GAPS Pumpkin Pie Experiment

Did you know that we are getting a TURKEY?  They go past our house all the time, so the boys were pretty excited to learn that Thanksgiving is about Turkeys.

There is a lot more to it than the bird, and I want to make a yummy meal that all of us enjoy.  So I wanted to test the sweets, so my sugar-eating husband doesn't miss the sugar-- or at least thinks the dessert is worth eating.

My first experiment was making the GAPS Pumpkin Pie recipe from Internal Bliss.

First we made and cooked the crust. We replaced the sugar (honey) with brown-tinged bananas.

Then we made the filling.

Beautiful!

And the taste?

Fine. A little like bananas. Ha.  But also a bit like pumpkin pie. I need to up the spice and lower the bananas (I used 3 and could use 2 instead).  It would also be better with a more browned crust-- mine was still a little white in parts when I filled it.

Overall?  OK.  My younger son liked it.  My older son wasn't hungry.  I had a few bites. It was a bit rich. Meh.

See part 2 (tomorrow): Pumpkin Custard.

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Kombucha Secondary Fermentation

I am finally trying secondary fermentation for my kombucha. I am making it continuous brew, and made a bit much to fill the carafe.  So I siphoned some off to fill a pitcher, added some pomegranate juice, and covered it with a cloth.  In two days, it should have completed its secondary fermentation and be flavored to boot!

 

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Book Review: Tartine Bread

I recently got a sourdough starter from someone in town, who got it from Victoria Bakery in San Francisco and it is a 2000.  She told me the story of how the bakery makes a new starter every year, and they name them by the year.  She also told me about the book Tartine Bread, and about how amazing their country loaf tastes.

So I started reading the book, which is so much more than a sourdough recipe.  It is a delightful story of the author's journey to find the country loaf recipe as an apprentice baker, and a detailed explanation of sourdough making and the various steps and stages involved in making his loaf.  It expands into variations of his loaf, then into variations of types of loaves you can make using sourdough to ferment your dough, not all of which are actually sour.  The photos are beautiful and helpful, although on the Kindle, their placement isn't right where I want them to be all of the time (this is a frequent Kindle complaint of mine for photos and charts, though).  The author owns a restaurant in San Francisco, so that also makes it that much more interesting.

So I made a loaf the other day.  It took a LOT longer than expected (nearly two days), but he mentions to watch your dough and pay attention to it more than the specified times.  It is fairly cool in our house (low 60s), so I think that was the issue.  I also tried to proof the dough in the oven with a pot of boiling water, and it didn't really warm it until we used the oven, then put it back into the now-warm oven.  Next time, I will do it this way.


The holes in it weren't as large as I expected, but I think it's a learning curve.  It was tasty, and the troops all ate it-- slathered in butter.

I used the other half of the dough for pizza and it was a failure.  It was too thick and didn't cook through.  I think I can fix that by bringing it to room temperature before baking it (like he says), and stretching it thinner.

All in all, I am excited to see where this sourdough home bread making goes.  There is such satisfaction in baking your own bread, and the health benefits of properly fermenting the dough make it easier on the digestive system.  Tartine Bread is a lovely book to use as a guide.

   

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Recipe: Vanilla Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker

We are big fans of vanilla ice cream (homemade with raw cream).  But sometimes, the kids want it right away the the ice cream maker inside hasn't been in the freezer long enough... so...

Step 1: whip raw cream (see proportions in original recipe)
Step 2: add vanilla and honey, if using


Step 3: portion into whatever containers you are freezing it in (we use 1 cup like these) - start with one little dollop for initial mixing
Step 4: add egg yolk into each container and mix

Step 5: add more whipped cream and mix

Step 6: add tiny pinch of salt and mix

Step 7: freeze then enjoy!

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Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

 

1 small pumpkin, seeded, peeled, and cut into 2" cubes
1 large or 2-3 medium zucchinis, sliced
1 lb. ground beef
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 qt. bone broth/ stock
2 t. cumin
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. turmeric
pinch cayenne
2 T coconut oil or lard

Brown onion in oil over medium-high heat.  Add garlic.  Add zucchini and pumpkin, and saute until fragrant, about 3-5 minutes.  Add meat and saute until browned.  Add greens, broth, and spices, and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer 15 minutes to an hour, or until pumpkin is at desired softness and flavors have combined.

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Over the Hill Pickles

Oops!



These got to go to the chickens because there was so much white sludge in my pickles that I didn't want to eat them.  Some were also soft.

What did I do wrong/ differently than before (previous NY Sour Pickles here)?

1. I used old brine from the fridge and poured it into the cucumbers instead of making new brine.
2. I used a large mason jar instead of my regular jar.
3. I used a lid not screwed on instead of a baggie filled with water touching the brine.

Which of these mistakes was the worst?  I think the lid.

Thoughts?

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