Pickled Hot Peppers

We, along with much of the rest of the US, have been in the grip of an extended cold snap. The biting air has been a sharp reminder of just how far we are from the balmy days of summer. But this year I found a way to save the summer heat and keep it all through the dark cold days of winter. I pickled - for the first time - my late summer bounty of hot peppers.

I got a little carried away when buying pepper plants at the beginning of the summer. We love hot peppers, and even though I remembered our pepper surplus the year I put in 4 pepper plants, this year I actually bought more: jalapeno, habenero, cayenne, serrano, tabasco, and one that my electrician told me is called "pepper from the tree." We had hot peppers for every occasion and recipe, and plenty to spare. Luckily in the first part of the season we had tons of workmen around, so I was able to pawn off give away peppers as they ripened. But then the work came to an end and I was left with friends and relatives as potential pepper recipients. When you have a surplus of super-hot peppers, you start to realize just how few people around you enjoy spicy food.

Enter David Lebovitz. However unlikely it may seem, this American-turned-Parisian pastry chef had a post on his blog - "Pickled Pepper Recipe" - that solved my pepper woes, allowing me to stretch my pepper harvest until the next growing season.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- David Lebovitz based his pickled pepper recipe on a recipe by Michael Ruhlman (author of the recent book Ratio, the cookbook with a cover you can actually cook from). In his blog post about pickled peppers, Ruhlman in turn credits Michael Symon for the recipe.

- I used an assortment of hot peppers.

- The pickling process couldn't have been quicker, and I've been enjoying the peppers in recipes calling for fresh hot peppers. They add not only heat but an interesting flavor from the brine.

- Ruhlman says that the peppers last "for ages" in the fridge, and he seems to be right. Mine have been there for around 3 months, and are still going strong (so to speak).

the verdict:

I love having hot peppers in the fridge in the winter nearly as much as I love having hot peppers in the garden in the summer!

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Mexican Street Salad

Browsing for recipes is one of my favorite pasttimes. My cookbook shelves are filled to overflowing and I love paging through them, contemplating the possibilities. On the bottom shelf is a basket piled high with magazine clippings and handwritten pages, an invitation to delicious exploration.

But lately the recipes come directly to me. Via Twitter. I "follow" a couple dozen content-heavy contacts - @finecooking, @nytimesfood, @ruhlman, @bittman, @beardfoundation, @MarthaStewart, @bflay, @seriouseats and the list goes on. From their tweets, I've learned about food, restaurants, cooking events, and at least several days a week I've learned what's for dinner at my house.

A fun person to follow on Twitter is Jamie Oliver (@jamie_oliver), the UK chef who champions cooking at home. Jamie's website features a recipe of the day, and it comes across daily on Twitter. Here are some sample Tweets from Jamie:

"rite u loverly lot recipe of the day is delicious blackbery and apple pie ... perfect for this time of year jxx" (Sep 25, 2009) [I bookmarked it]

"simple chicken salad recipe of the day http://bit.ly/gW1oS enjoy jxxx" (Oct 7, 2009) [I made it; will post soon]"perfect for this time of year, grilled and marinated rabbit ... jxxx" (Oct 13, 2009) [um, I'll probably skip this one]

One of Jamie's recent projects is "Jamie's American Roadtrip," a television show that's currently airing in the UK, and an accompanying cookbook, "Jamie's America." Some of Jamie's tweets are about the show:

"thanks for all the loverly mesages about the show last nite glad u all liked it the navajo were amazing jxx"(Oct 7, 2009)
" http://twitpic.com/ka3mj - me and the navaho queen from this tuesdays programe hope your all well jamie oxx" (Oct 4, 2009)

Here's one that really caught my attention:

"u can see loads of recipes from the new book http://bit.ly/1tuUpo just clik on the book cover jxxx" (Sept 1, 2009)

I clicked on the link and found some wonderful recipes from his American roadtrip. The Mexican Street Salad caught my attention immediately. I had cabbage on order from my farm box, so I made sure I had the other ingredients on hand.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- Essentially the salad is made up of lots of sliced fresh vegetables and hot chiles with a zippy dressing of lime juice, olive oil and salt.

- Jamie says that it's easiest to use a food processor or mandolin to slice the vegetables. I found an "as seen on TV" mandolin set at Marshalls, which I inaugurated with this recipe. The mandolin made quick work of the shredding with minimal cleanup. Given how sharp the blade is, however, I plan to use the hand guard every time I use it.

- Although the recipe suggests using or substituting other vegetables, I followed it as written: white cabbage, red cabbage, radishes, carrots, onions, hot peppers (I used our homegrown serranos). I'd love to try other veggies too: celery, fennel, green beans, sweet peppers, broccoli.

the verdict:

Although it has similar ingredients to a coleslaw, it has none of coleslaw's creamy subtlety. This salad is lively! It really emphasizes the taste of the fresh vegetables. I made half recipe and ended up with a ton of salad. It lasted well for several days and each time it was as delicious as the first. We never got tired of it, and the next week I made another batch!

Corn and Vegetable Gratin with Cumin

Back during the holiday season I saw or heard in a news story about some scientific study which found that people tend to be less satisfied with gifts that they pick out for themselves; preferring the excitement and surprise of a gift chosen by others. I have no doubt that's a true, but just the same I was thrilled to find these individual-sized square gratin dishes under the tree on Christmas morning, even if I had shopped for them, bought them, and wrapped them for myself!

Fast forward 8 months, and I still hadn't used my gratin dishes, at least not for gratins. So imagine my excitement when I came across the NY Times recipe for Corn and Vegetable Gratin with Cumin. Yay! a chance to use my gratin dishes AND the bounty of corn I ended up with from my farm box (mistakenly ordered twice as much as I meant to)

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made 1/2 recipe in 2 gratin dishes.

- In place of the 1.5 eggs for half the recipe I used one very large duck egg

- Although I was dying to use gruyere, I didn't have any and I did have jarlsburg cheese (1 oz)

- With all that richness, I felt pretty safe using skim milk.

- My garden had some wonderful, sweet red and green anaheim peppers

- I used wild garlic from farm box (bigger but milder cloves)

the verdict:

Although I usually think of "gratins" as dripping with cheese, but this one was more of an egg dish - kind of like crustless quiche. Enough quibbling about semantics! This gratin was delicious, with a Southwestern accent from the cumin and the peppers. I was glad I had such a tasty recipe to inaugurate my gratin dishes...

White Chicken Chili

Even though I blanketed this chili with chopped fresh parsley (which usualy does the trick) it still looks pretty dreadful in the picture. But don't let the appearance stop you from trying this recipe - it's a delicious and healthy alternative to red chili; perfect for summer!

I've been making this recipe for so long, I can't remember exactly where I found it. It's very similar to one that Williams-Sonoma had, but I've made enough changes over the years that I like to think of it as mine! This is one of my favorite recipes for using leftover chicken (white meat or a combination, as in the batch pictured). When my husband used to go camping with another dad and all the kids, I always made this chili for them to heat over the campfire.


White Chili

1 lb dried great northern white beans, rinsed and picked over (or can use canned white beans, see note below)
2 lb boneless chicken breasts (or use cooked chicken)
1 T. olive oil
2 med. onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 4-oz cans chopped green chilies
2 tsp ground cumin
1 ½ tsp dried oregano, crumbled
¼ tsp gr. cloves
¼ tsp cayenne
1 cup frozen white shoepeg corn, thawed
6 cups chicken stock or broth (or less, if thicker chili desired)
1 T. lime juice
3 c. grated Monterey jack cheese (12 oz)
sour cream, salsa, chopped cilantro

1. place beans in pot, cover by 3 in water and soak overnight

2. cook chicken, cut into cubes

3. drain beans. heat oil in same pot over med-hi heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent (10 min)

4. stir in garlic, chilies, cumin, oregano, cloves, cayenne and sauté 2 min.

5. add beans and stock and bring to boil. reduce heat and simmer 2 hrs, until beans very tender.

6. add lime juice, chicken, corn and 1 c. cheese, and stir until cheese melts.

7. season with salt and pepper.

8. serve with remaining cheese, cilantro, salsa and sour cream.

note:
This is easier if you have cooked chicken on hand and you use canned great northern beans. You’d use about 1 ½ of the 15 oz size cans of beans per recipe (so it’s easiest to double the recipe and use 3 cans! Or freeze ½ can for next time.) If using canned beans, skip step #1, and step #5. Reduce the amount of stock by at least 1/3. Add the stock and canned beans with the chicken, corn, and cheese in step #6, and just cook until heated through. This recipe freezes well – prepare through step 5, and freeze with or without cooked chicken. After thawing, continue starting with step 6.

Bobby Flay Rebounds for Corn Muffin Throwdown!

After losing in my kitchen's red chili throwdown, Bobby Flay just begged for a rematch. "Really?" you say. "Well," I reply, "we didn't actually speak about it. But out of the kindness of my heart I decided to give him another chance."

Right after baking Dorie Greenspan's spicy corn muffins, I came across the Mesa Grill Blue Corn muffin recipe, and just had to bake them immediately! (Edit: I saw these muffins mentioned on Katrina's TWD post - thank you for the tip!)

Since I baked Bobby Flay's muffins right after Dorie's, and the recipes are so similar, I think conditions are ideal for another throwdown post!

(As a little bloggy aside, I'm posting this from out of town, and don't have access to all my photos, so if you come back in a couple of days, I'll have added some more pix)

Dorie Greenspan's Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

First up was Dorie Greenspan's muffin recipe. You can read my recent post about these muffins, and see the recipe here. To summarize my experience with Dorie's muffins: I made some changes in the interest of health (reduced the fat, upped the whole grain quotient) and stepped up the spice and heat a bit.

the verdict on Dorie Greenspan's muffins:

Recapping: We liked the muffins a lot, finding them very moist and tasty. They had lots of flavor, but were not really hot per se. A great recipe and one that I'd gladly make again (I have a zipper bag of the dry ingredients all pre-measured out for another batch).

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Blue Corn Muffins

You've probably already noticed that Mesa Grill muffins, pictured up top, are not blue. I love the thought of using blue cornmeal in muffins - I love blue corn chips - but I didn't locate any in the ordinary course of grocery shopping. My choice was: (1) to wait until I located blue cornmeal (if I even could locate any), or (2) bake the muffins with yellow cornmeal - the same cornmeal that I used for Dorie's, in fact. I had all the other ingredients, and there was a pot of black bean soup on the stove, so I went ahead and baked the muffins.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Trader Joe's Desert Mesquite Honey was perfect for these muffins. [edit: I saw two very similar versions of the Mesa Grill recipe online. I linked to one, above, but actually baked from the other, whose link I didn't save. It had 1T honey instead of granulated sugar. Other differences: 2 cloves garlic instead of 1, 1/4 cup diced onion in place of 3T. ]

- My jalapeno was very large - and very hot - so I used most but not all of it.

- [As with Dorie's muffins, I chopped the corn kernels roughly]

- I baked the muffins in the same silicone muffin pan as Dorie's. They cooked with a lovely golden brown bottom and edges but an incredible moist yet sturdy but not tough crumb.

- The kitchen was filled with the most amazing smell while these muffins were in the oven.

the verdict: Mesa Grill Corn Muffins

With the fresh and cooked ingredients, these muffins had lots of crunch and flavors. I love the complex flavor that the sauteed onion and garlic gave to the muffins. The slight hint of an outer crust was my favorite part. Well, and the taste! They were just about perfect, although I might experiment with adding a tiny bit of chili powder the next time.

As for the ever-pressing question of sweetness, these were not "sweet" corn muffins by Northern standards. There was a sweetness to them, however, and we thought 1 T was plenty of honey. I could see cutting it next time by a third or so. With all those savory ingredients stirred in, I personally wouldn't want them any sweeter.

Despite the quantity - and the undeniable heat - of the jalapeno I put in the batter, the muffins were not hot or spicy, just flavorful. My husband, who recently read an interesting article about hot peppers, reminded me that dairy products bind the capsaicin in the pepper, and so does bread. I guess that by stirring the jalapenos into the muffins (along with milk) they lose most of their heat, but transmit their pepper flavor.

Winner of the Throwdown

Although I previously described Dorie's savory corn muffins as "perfect", Bobby Flay was the indisputable winner of the throwdown! His muffins had great texture and flavor, and I will make them again in a heartbeat. Now I'm ready to track down some blue cornmeal to see if it improved the taste.

To be perfectly fair to the contesting muffins, I need to admit right up front that I made changes to both recipes, mostly to reduce the fat content of the muffins. I believe the fat content ended up roughly equivalent, as I cut some butter in Dorie's and used skim milk and egg substitute in Bobby's. I meant to use part whole-wheat flour in Bobby's muffins as I had done in Dorie's, but I forgot when the time came. I don't think that would have changed out vote, however, and I intend to make the Mesa Grill muffins with part whole wheat flour next time.

I'm glad that Bobby redeemed himself on the rematch!