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jalapeño jelly
07 Dec 2011 21:38 EST
If you’ve never had jalapeño jelly the concept may seem strange to you. Jelly is sweet and jalapeños are spicy and savory! But jalapeños, like all peppers, are fruits after all. Chock-full of vitamin C and sugar, too. They make a fantastic jelly with a unique and delightful flavor.
If you like your jelly very hot, leave the seeds and ribs in the peppers. If you like your jelly mild, completely remove the seeds, stems, and ribs from the peppers. Use rubber gloves unless you are a masochist. If you like your jelly somewhere in between, remove the seeds, stems, and ribs, and then add back a portion of the removed seeds.
If you like red jelly, use all ripe peppers. If you like green jelly, use all green peppers.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pt jalapeño peppers (all red or all green)
2 c apple cider vinegar
6 c granulated white sugar
6 oz liquid pectin
Supplies
5 half pint OR 3 pint Ball jars
jarring lids
jarring bands
your own standard home boiling-water canning setup
Directions
Set up your standard boiling-water canning rig. If you don’t know how to preserve, find out how (maybe from http://www.freshpreserving.com) and then come back to this page.
1 Sterilize your jars, lids, and bands.
2 In a food processor, puree the peppers in 1 cup of the vinegar.
3 In a saucepan, combine the pepper puree with the remaining 1 cup of vinegar and all 6 cups of the sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 10 minutes. Stir often.
4 Add the pectin and boil for 1 more minute, stirring often. Skim off any foam.
5 With a ladle, carefully spoon the hot liquid into the hot jars, leaving at least 1/4 inch headspace.
6 Wipe the jar rims, place lids on jars, and screw on the bands.
7 Process for 10 minutes according to your normal procedures.
Let cool and set aside for party time or breakfast!
In my family, we like to have jalapeño jelly on top of a dab of cream cheese on a Triscuit. Peanut butter and jalapeño jelly sandwiches are also da bomb. Based on the Ball recipe at http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipe.aspx?r=247
Ohio Heat chili
28 Oct 2011 11:35 EST
I constructed this slightly sizzling chili for a cook-off at work. To my great pleasure and surprise, it won! Notable for its use of Ohio-produced ingredients including peppers from the Beadles garden and Bob Evans sausage.
Ingredients (all measurements, especially the spices, are approximate).
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp corn oil
- 1 large Ohio sweet onion, diced
- 1 large Ohio homegrown yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 large Ohio homegrown hot red-ripe jalapeno pepper, minced
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground Ohio beef chuck
- 1 lb Bob Evans Zesty Hot Roll Sausage
- 1.5 oz (1/2 tall bottle) Mexene chili powder seasoning
- 1 Tbsp dried oregano leaves
- 1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 Tbsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
- 1/2 Tbsp Goya Adobo Con Pimiento seasoning
- 1/2 Tbsp coarsely ground sea salt
- 20 fl. oz. (2 cans) Ro-Tel original diced tomatoes & green chilis
- 20 fl. oz. (1 lg can) plain diced tomatoes
- 1/2 bottle Ohio beer, perhaps a nice Oktoberfest beer like Columbus’ Elevator Brewing‘s Munich Märzenbier or Bleeding Buckeye
- 1 dried red New Mexico chili, whole
- 1-2 Tbsp white sugar to taste
- 1 can light scarlet kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can dark scarlet kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Heat the oils in a large dutch oven or stockpot. Sautee the onion, peppers, and garlic until the onion is transparent and soft. Add the meats, crumble, and brown over medium-high heat. (Two meats are always better than one, whether it’s meatloaf, meatballs, or chili.) When the meats are just brown, add the dry spices. Continue sauteeing with the meats and veggies, until the aroma and the color of the spices change from raw to cooked. One secret to great chili is to cook the spices on dry heat, instead of adding them to the liquid later. Everything should now be a deep scarlet-red color.
Add the canned tomatoes and the beer. Beer is always a good choice for chili liquid – it’s got alcohol to help bring out flavors from the foods; it’s got liquid to moisten the chili; it’s got grains to sweeten the chili; and and it’s got hops and malt for heartiness. The alcohol will cook off long before the chili is done.
Also add the dried pepper at this time. A dried whole pepper is the bay leaf of Mexican cooking.
Simmer over medium-low heat. When the chili is fully cooked – maybe another hour or so on low heat – add some sugar to taste. You may also need to adjust the saltiness or spiciness now. For example, if the taste is a little one-dimensional, add some more cumin.
Finally add the beans and just heat through. Serve immediately — or for another secret tip — put in the fridge overnight and re-heat in the morning. It will be even better once the flavors have mingled and the spiciness has mellowed.
Serves 1-20, depending on hunger and love of chili.
Pork Loin & Cherry Serendipity
15 May 2011 19:57 EST
Lambic beers! Their brewing takes years. They are spontaneous fermented by wild yeasts that live upon the timbers of the old brouwerijs of Brussels and the Flemish Brabant, and can be made nowhere else. The hops are aged and dried, without the familiar fresh, bitter hoppiness. Instead, the brewers add fruit – creating raspberry framboises, grape druifs, strawberry aardbeis – and then there are two fermentations. Much like champagne, the beer is first fermented in old wine casks, then bottled with fruit and there fermented once again. When they make it with the juice of sour morello cherries they name it kriek. It’s a fine drink*.
It’s said never to cook with any beer or wine you wouldn’t drink. Conversely, I’d maintain that anything you like to drink you can cook with. So I bought some Lindemans Kriek and a pork loin and set about marinating…
…and what in blazes will go with cherry lambic and pork? Cherries are sweet and tart, I reasoned, so let’s balance the flavors with some saltiness, some herbiness, some spiciness! Why not? Let’s bring together the old earthy timbers and sweet acid cherries of Belgium with the bold smoky chilis of the New World. Cuisine just means “kitchen”. Let’s cook.
Ingredients
- 2 pork tenderloins
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp ground black peppercorns
- 2 tsp crushed dried thyme
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 dried pasilla peppers
- 4 chipotle peppers canned in adobo
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
- 2 – 12oz. bottle Lindemans kriek lambic
Place the pork tenderloins in a pan that can be tightly covered. Combine the sugar, salt, black pepper, thyme, and cayenne. Rub the pork deeply with the spice mixture. Place chipotles, pasillas, and onion in the pan with the pork. Pour one bottle of kriek over the pork and vegetables. Cover the pan and set in the refrigerator for 48 hours. Yes, two whole days. It’s worth it, dude. When it’s ripe, grill it like you normally would. Rest it, slice it, eat it, and drink that other bottle of kriek with it.
Peace and long life.
–
*Beer exacerbates gout. Sour cherries reduce gout. Sour cherry beer, by my theory, is therefore gout-neutral. Worth a try for my friends who suffer from the devil’s toebone.
chipotle chili
06 Mar 2011 23:06 EST
This is so good your 1st grader will ask for two servings.
Ingredients
- 1 dried guajillo pepper, seeded and stemmed
- 1 dried ancho pepper, seeded and stemmed
- 1 large bell pepper, seeded, pithed, and diced
- 1 canned chipotle in adobo sauce, seeded and diced
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 Tbsp adobo seasoning
- sea salt
- 1 Tbsp honey <===SECRET INGREDIENT!!! DO NOT REVEAL
- 2 cans diced tomatoes with onions (blended until smooth)
- 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained.
Soak the dried peppers in water in a saucepan and boil until softened. Remove the softened peppers and blend into a paste.
In a large stock pot, sautee the bell pepper, the canned chipotle, the onion, and the garlic in oil over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the meats, turn up the heat to medium-high. When the meats are just brown, add the paste from the dried peppers and the dried spices. Sautee until the peppers release their aroma. Add the honey and cook for a minute or so more until the honey starts to caramelize.
Add the tomatoes. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1/2 hour at least. If you need to add more liquid just use some hot water. Add the kidney beans about 5 minutes before eating.
I live in Ohio so this is served over spaghetti and topped with cheese.
Yorkies (individual Yorkshire puddings)
26 Dec 2010 14:16 EST
It’s not often that we make a roast beef, but when we do we want to do it right. This year my better half made the roast,
and upon multiple requests I agreed to make my wee Yorkshire puddings.
When served Yorkshire pudding, every time, the offspring who inhabit my place demand to know why it’s called ‘pudding’. “It’s not a dessert!” “It’s not soft!” Tradition demands that I then recount the history of pudding from sausages to tapioca, and attempt an invariably-failing generic definition of the foodstuff. You can’t define pudding, of course. For the proof of the pudding is in the eating…
Ingredients
- Dripping from a fully-cooked roast beef (we used an 8-lb standing rib roast, which gives flavor from bones and fat).
- 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 c whole milk
- 4 eggs
Directions
Place 2 muffin tins (total 16 – 20 muffins) in the oven while the roast is cooking to preheat them.
In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt.
In a large bowl beat the eggs and milk together very well, until the mixture is frothy. Add in the flour mixture and stir until combined. Cover and set the batter in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour.
When the roast is done, remove it to let it rest and increase the stove’s temperature to 400°F. Save the drippings from the roast. Remove the preheated muffin tins. Into each cup put 1 Tbsp of very hot drippings from the roast. Directly onto the hot drippings fill each cup about halfway with the batter.
Bake at 400°F for 1/2 hour.
Absotively posilutely scrumptious for soaking up juices from prime rib. Do not eat more than once a year since these are so deliciously bad for your health. Enjoy!
Chocolate-chip pumpkin bread
15 Oct 2010 22:50 EST
Pie pumpkins are a different fruit than carving pumpkins; they’re built more like acorn squash. The skin is thin, the flesh is firm and sugary, the cavity inside is small and packed with seeds. Grow some, or go to your local patch. They’re worth it.
Ingredients
- 2 medium pie pumpkins (I picked mine at Lynd’s Fruit Farm; next year I believe I’ll grow my own)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
- 1/2 bag (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat your oven to 325° F.
Snap off the pumpkin stems and slice pumpkins in half vertically. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. You can save the seeds to roast (recipe to follow). Place flesh-side up on a cookie sheet and roast the squash for one hour. Let cool completely, then scoop the cooked flesh out of the now rather-flimsy skins. Process briefly with a chopping blade in your food processor until smooth, about the consistency of canned pumpkin but infinitely better.
The pumpkin should yield about 3 cups.
In a bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (except for the sugar): flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you don’t have a sifter, use a wire-mesh strainer. Sifting makes a difference to the fluffiness and the evenness of baking.
In your mixer bowl, combine the sugar, oil, beaten eggs, and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed just until the mixture is uniformly moist. Fold in the pumpkin just until combined, then do the same with the chocolate chips. Don’t mix too much! This is a quick bread; you’ll get the best results by mixing as little as you can.
Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 325° F for 1hr 15min to 1hr 30min, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out dry.
Remove from oven. Cool in the pan for 15 min. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.
Oh, how delightful! Bread made especially for pumpkins!
Grilled chicken tacos
19 Jun 2010 22:57 EST
I won’t call them fajitas. Too much controversy.
ingredients
- 5 chicken breast halves, boneless, skinless
- 2 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
- 1 medium onion, sliced into long thin strips
- 2 medium bell peppers (one red, one green), sliced like the onions
- 1 avocado, sliced (seed and slice thinly at the last minute to preserve its color)
- additional kosher salt and ground black pepper
- canola oil spray
- soft tortillas
directions
Rub the chicken breasts with the combined spices and let marinate in the rub, along with the 1 sliced medium onion, for an hour. Separately prepare the sliced bell peppers with the salt and black pepper, and spray with oil to coat.
Cook the chicken over indirect heat on a charcoal grill. While cooking, sautee the onions and peppers in a cast-iron skillet that you’ve also placed on the charcoal grill.
Grill all of this goodness until the chicken is cooked, firm, and has a nice brown crust. Remove all from heat. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes. Heat the tortillas briefly on the grill, then slice the chicken and serve with the onions, peppers, avocado, and tortillas.
I recommend mexican rice and pigeon peas (arroz con gandules) on the side.
Slow country ribs
15 Jun 2010 23:31 EST
These are country ribs cooked slowly, not ribs from the Slow Country. It was our dinner the evening of March 4, 2010.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. pork country ribs, frozen and don’t thaw them.
- 1 parsnip
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 apple
- 1/2 green pepper
- 3 cloves garlic
- sea salt
- groundblack pepper
- hungarian paprika
- ground cumin
- oregano
- adobo powder
- 1 12-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1 10-oz. can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with green chilies
Directions
Set crockpot to high heat/6 hour cycle.
Roughly chop the parsnip, carrot, onion, apple, green pepper, and garlic. Place in bottom of crockpot. Liberally rub the frozen ribs with all the dry seasonings and place on top of the veggies. Finally, pour both cans of diced tomatoes around the sides and base of the pork.
Cook approximately 6 hours until meat is falling off the ribs and sticking to yours instead. Strain the remaining cooking liquid and serve as an au jus. I recommend you serve this with buttery crusty rolls to sop up the jus while you hungrily devour the mouth-watering tender succulent pork.
Tom kha gai
15 Jun 2010 23:24 EST
Tom kha gai (chicken soup with “kha”)
First make broth by simmering together the following for a couple hours:
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 onion
- 2 stalks celery
- peppercorns
- 2 quarter-size slices of ginger, unpeeled
When the bird starts to fall apart, remove the chicken, strain the broth, and pull the meat from the bird and set aside.
To the clear broth add:
- 3 quarter-sized slices of ginger, unpeeled
- 1/2 stalk lemongrass, sliced into 2″ lengths
- 1 good-sized chunk kha (a dried root also known as galangal with an earthy perfumy flavor)
- 1 Tbsp white peppercorns
Let the above simmer for about 15 minutes to let flavors infuse, then add:
- 1 carrot, sliced very thin
- 1 shallot, peeled and sliced very thin
- about 5 fresh shiitake mushroom, stems removed and sliced thin
Simmer for 10 more minutes to soften the veggies, then add:
- 1 can coconut milk (not coconut juice or water or drink)
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- the reserved chicken meat
and heat through.
Serve hot! and add the following at the table:
- Juice of 1/6 lime
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- Sriracha to taste
There are more authentic variations (including lime leaves and thai chilies) but I didn’t have them in the pantry, so lighten up. If you’ve got them, toss them in; the more the merrier!
Oh: if you have a cold and eat this soup, you will no longer have a cold. It will pack up, leave your sinuses, and take the next passage to Bangkok.
Turkey-avocado tacos
15 Jun 2010 23:19 EST
Just a quickie for leftover turkey, especially if it’s marinated and grilled. Which is likely around here.
1. Turkey breast tenderloin, marinated in garlic-lime barbeque and smoked over hot coals for 4-5 hours, then refrigerated for a couple days.
2. Local Ohio sweet corn, kernels cut right off the cob.
3. Artichoke-rice salad (from the boxed mix), made with artichoke hearts, and sliced black olives.
4. Roll all of the above up in a tortilla with some sour cream.
about mark beadles
I write the things you read here. Polymath renaissance redneck. I build software, stories, and young men. More...on the desk
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