Photo of the Day
Delicious any time of year but especially festive at the holidays, thanks to their unique shape when sliced: Starfruit
Tag: appetizers
Pickled Hot Cherry Peppers
Hot cherry pepper seeds proved to be somewhat of a challenge to find until just a couple of years ago. It seems that they’re making a comeback, though. Finally. These little red orbs of fiery deliciousness are well worth the search, in my opinion. Here’s …
Ghost Chili Salsa
Oh yeah. I went there.
I can homemade salsa every fall with all of the tomatoes, peppers and cilantro from our garden. This year we had ghost chili peppers, so I thought “what the hell.”
I add a mix of jalapenos and ghost chili peppers, so you can adjust the heat however you like. If you want to try my Trinidad Scorpion Salsa Recipe, that one’s even hotter.
Ghost Chili Salsa Canning Recipe
- 10 cups peeled, seeded, cored, & chopped tomatoes (about 6 pounds)
- 5 cups seeded and chopped bell peppers
- 4 cups chopped onion
- 2 cups chopped jalapeno peppers
- 1 ghost chili pepper, finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups cilantro, chopped
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Ladle the hot salsa into sterilized pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace and wipe rims clean. Add sterilized lids and bands and process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner, making sure the boiling water covers the jars by at least 1 inch.
Using a jar lifter, remove the jars and set them on your counter, leaving them undisturbed until completely cool.
Be sure to check that all of your jars sealed before storing.
This recipe makes about 6 pints – usually I have a little extra, which is a nice treat.
Do I really need to tell you? This salsa has some serious kick to it obviously, so of course, you can adjust it to your taste. If you don’t have ghost chili peppers or would rather skip the inferno-factor all together, feel free to leave them out.
Of course, if you’d like to substitute your favorite hot pepper for the ghost chili peppers, you can do that too.
Keep a glass of milk nearby to quench the fire and enjoy!
Adventures in Sprouting – the Finale
Ta Da! I have achieved Broccoli Sprouts! Just to recap, in case you’re just finding me: I started these broccoli sprouts on Friday afternoon. I soaked 3 tablespoons of broccoli seed in a big bowl of water for 6 hours. Then I drained them, rinsed …
Adventures in Sprouting – Part 2
Well, my broccoli sprouts sprouted overnight! This is what they looked like on Saturday (they’re the seeds on the left): And this is what they looked like Sunday morning: I started these on Friday afternoon, so I’m very pleased with the results so far. As …
Adventures in Home Sprouting
My husband’s convinced that my recent interest in home sprouting stems from my need to be growing something. He thinks I’m going through summer-garden-withdrawal, which may or may not be true. Whatever the reason, I’m pretty excited to have a go at it.
I’ve always enjoyed sprouts but have never considered growing my own until just recently. The first sprouts I ever had were mung bean sprouts, typical in a number of Chinese dishes. Then, as a teen, I discovered alfalfa sprouts and truly fell in love. In my thirties, I heard about broccoli sprouts and their concentrated nutritional power and I ate them like they were going out of style.
Fast forward to present time and sprouts are becoming harder and harder to find. Due to the risk of e-Coli and salmonella occurring in sprouts, there are a number of stores and restaurants that have stopped offering them. Commercially grown sprouts are subjected to a number of possible contaminants, typically contaminated water or unclean practices.
After much research, I’ve decided to grown my own and recently received my first order of seeds, nuts, grains, and sprouting tray from SproutPeople.Org.
Here is the mix of seeds that I ordered:
I finally found the time on Friday to get some started and decided to try the Broccoli Sprouts and Madison Market Mix first.
Following the directions on the website, I soaked 2/3 cup of the Madison Market Mix for 4 hours and 3 Tablespoons of the Broccoli Sprouts for 6 hours.
After soaking, the seeds need to be rinsed well and then drained very, very well.
I’ve only had one glitch so far, which is my own fault for not considering it. This is the only sprouting tray that I bought, which is the 8 x 10 Sprout Master Tray:
If you look closely, you can see that some of the Broccoli Seeds have transferred over to the Madison Market Mix side. That little slide-in divider is not very tight and, while shaking the tray to remove excess water, some of the Broccoli Sprouts migrated. Well, now I know better. And did I have to buy the tray? No, not really, but I wanted to start this experiment off on the right sprout, so to speak.
Both of the seeds shown in my last photo have been soaked once, then rinsed and drained twice. I have to tell you, the Madison Market Mix is delicious! This mix is really considered a “Soak” and not a “Sprout.” Soaking seeds and nuts have a myriad of health advantages and benefits. The site Food Matters has a good explanation, so I won’t go into all of it here.
I will tell you the Madison Market Mix is almost gone already. Soaks don’t take as long as Sprouts, which I’m currently pretty happy about. This mix is chewy and flavorful and maybe when I make the next batch, I’ll have enough left over to toss into a salad or mix in with some steamed veggies.
I will be sure to try and follow up with some more photos of my Broccoli Sprouts as they develop. crossing fingers
Quick French Bread
I always say I’m not a bread person but if you give me a great loaf of warm, crusty bread that’s still soft and chewy in the middle, I’ll probably gnaw your arm off to get some. The beauty of this bread is it takes …