Fresh Approach Cooking

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Well it certainly has been an age since I put up a post for my Kitchen Project series, now hasn’t it!

The idea being that this is a recipe that takes some time and is more of a “let’s spend the day indoors” event than a “Hey, what’s for dinner”? It's a way to connect with food in a more meaningful way by dedicating a block of time to it.

So let's get on with it!

What with today being the beginning of (Northern hemisphere) autumn, I can think of no better time to wax rhapsodic about that which is the beet. Seasonal, bright and tasty.

And to gild the lily as it were, we will be, immersing said beet in to a briny solution and calling it a pickle.

Oh my oh my.

I love pickles.

Who’s with me?

It’s the sweet-and-sour saltiness that gets me.

Plus, I can make them myself which adds to their fabulocity. Mix and match flavors, and a bite full of heaven is mine.

And if you play along, it can be yours too.

In this case, by using golden beets the counter tops (and my fingertips) stay white and I end up with jewel-like glasses of treats. Heady and delightful. Perfect with a charcuterie plate or cocktails or alongside roast meats. Nothing could be more autumnal.



So try this my peaches and taste the joy.

7 pounds of small golden beets, with roots and 2 inches of tops
1 California bay leaf, dried

A few sprigs of fresh thyme
10 cloves
10 peppercorns
2 cups organic, raw sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
8 – 10 pint jars (I like Kerr or Mason brand)

Scrub beets thoroughly. Add to a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Boil until just tender (approx. 15 – 25 minutes depending on size.)

Drain beets and cover with cold water. When cool, trim the tops and remove skins. Slice into ¼ inch thick slices or wedges.

Combine bay leaf, thyme, cloves, peppercorns, sugar, salt, vinegar and water in a large, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Reduce the heat and let the liquid simmer for 10 minutes.

While the liquid simmers, pack the beets loosely into pint or quart mason jars.

Pour hot liquid over the beets, leaving ¼ inch of space at the top. Close the jars and process for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Store the beets in a cool, dry place for three weeks before eating.

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking

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2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" http://www.freshcatering.blogspot.com/This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at is guilty of infringing upon terms of my copyright. And generally cheesing me off.

Restaurant review I just felt like sharing. Aronia de Takazawa.

Told you I like pickles! Here we have fennel, carrots and onions…

Labels: Gluten Free, Kitchen Project, Vegan, Vegetarian

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It seems as if, in every high-end cookbook there is that inevitable recipe - nestled between those grand glamor shots - for something so super basic, it requires a pause.

For instance, I was flipping through Super-Star Chef, Thomas Keller's hefty tome, Bouchon and finding my silly-self wondering…is this the book - of all the books available, that I pull off the shelf for a basic vinaigrette recipe? Is this the man I first think of when wondering how to make toast? No, no, not so much. And yet, those recipes lie bound within.

But if that little interjection of epicurean knowledge were not in there, would I notice and indict the volume for falling short on such important building blocks? Yes, yes, and yes.

Double-edged chefs knife indeed.

I mean, let's face facts, the man can and does make superior foods, but my ultra-glossy, five pound cookbook isn't coming into the kitchen with me for something so plebeian...then again, perhaps I am alone in this...

So then there is this lil site. No high-falutin' space, but still, a site that let's you think about how to make chicken-date sausages, and veers wildly back to a primer on how to make bread crumbs.

Both here, both ready to direct and guide you through your own culinary adventure.

And in that spirit - and to create that fancy-cookbook feel, I offer you a non-recipe recipe for that magic bullet, compound butter.

Yes kids, compound butter.

Herbs and aromatics satisfyingly smushed up into creamery butter and rolled into a convenient shape. Primed and ready for all sorts of culinary uses. (Especially on a nicely cooked steak)

All sorts of culinary uses, I say. Roast chicken, crostini, a nice steak, cream cheese spread, lamb chops and more. Savory dishes in need of a bit of flavor injection can all benefit from a pat of this glory. And it sure beats out using a shake of some spice mix that has been lurking in your cupboard for an age plus a day.

Useful too, since perhaps you, like me, tend to have some fresh herbs around that you just can't bear to see go bad. If so, this is the perfect thing to preserve their usefulness.

So try some today my darlings, and taste the joy.

Please do feel free to change this up any which way you see fit, this just happens to be what I made, it is certainly not set in stone. Just butter.

½ pound butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons, minced fresh herbs (I used dill, marjoram, parsley and thyme)
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon citrus zest (I used lemon and lime)
Some fresh pepper
Pinch of paprika

And now for the fun part…using you hands, mush that all together. Roll into a log, wrap in plastic and, voila, compound butter.

Keeps in the freezer for 6 months, in the fridge for 2 months.

Slice off a few pats as needed or desired.

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking
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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright.

Do you shop at Rose and Radish?

Nick Davis’ Hobsons Mild was voted Britain's best beer last year and is currently being served up as a guest beer in the Houses of Parliament! The small brewery near Kidderminster now produces four draft and four bottled beers using hops mainly grown on farms within a 10 mile radius. If you can't find them at your local, you should be able to buy bottles through the brewery's website in the coming months. -Birmingham Mail.net

Labels: Gluten Free, Kitchen Project, Low-Carb, Vegetarian

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Start at the top, just where the pith (white part) meets the pulp and slice off the skin, following the curve of the fruit.



When you are done removing the peel, slice out each segment by cutting in towards the center of the fruit along the membranes/walls. Remove the now supremed segments.



VOILA! That's all there is to it!

And tomorrow my sweets, I will share a recipe that actually makes use of this silly technique.

Until then, enjoy!

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Wanna know the best time to slurp your noodles and when that might not be a good thing? Check out this site. Don't Gross Out The World.

The origin of the grapefruit poses a bit of a botanical mystery. Its appearance and flavor indicate that it's a hybrid between a large, sour citrus fruit called the shaddock (Citrus maxima) and the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis). - Hungry Monster.com

Labels: Kitchen Project

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I normally feel as if my recipes include a whole variety of different ingredients. I can get pretty excited about something new, but then again, in a lot of cases, I return with frequency to certain flavors that appeal to me/are ingrained in my brain. Fresh thyme, olives and of course, citrus. In this fourth Kitchen Project post, let's go through how to get the most out of your zest. Mmm. zesty. As with my other posts on this subject, this is something that will take some time, athough this particular project is the shortest so far.

Zest is the outer (colorful) part of citrus. After the zest you got your pith, the bitter white layer, and then the pulp and juice combined as flesh.

SO, what is the deal with the zest? It's where the essential oils are. Meaning the flavor but none of the sourness. (Unless you are eating those Persian Lemons. Have you had these? Freaked me OUT. It looks and smells like a lemon, but when you eat a slice, its...sweet. It was akin to eating lemon-scented cleanser. They bred out the sour! Oh those wacky Persians.) The idea behind using the zest is that you get all the flavor, none of the sourness, and no additional liquid in your dish.

When I have a lot of citrus, and am in a kitchen project kind of mood, I go right ahead and dry some out to make a powder out of it that will last pretty much into the next millennium. It's great to have on hand and sprinkle over any number of dishes to add another dimension of flavor. This is not something you should do with any savory foods in the oven, the commingling of flavors isn't recommended.

Remember kids, waste-not, want-not. And for citrus peels nothing could be more true. Whenever you are going to eat an orange, juice a lemon or rim that glass with lime (oh yea!) why not take the extra few seconds to save the zest. Here's how.

Scrub your citrus well. Bacteria is not our friend.

Using a super duper sharp knife or a peeler (I don't recommend your zester for this particular task) remove the outer layer from your citrus in the largest strips you can. Do your best to only get the zest and not the pith.

Preheat your oven to the absolute lowest setting. 170 - 210F is ideal.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Add all your zest in a single layer.

Bake until quite dried. It sort of depends on the thickness of your strips, but 2 hours is typically enough.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Using your spice grinder or an extra clean coffee grinder, dust those suckers!

And that's all there is to it!

Now what? Well, add it to salad dressing, mix it with some goat cheese and chives for a spread, combine it with sesame seeds and cayenne for an outrageous dry rub or sprinkle a touch over your baked fish. Try it in tomato-fennel sauce, stirred into your polenta or as a twist in tapenade. Its also the perfect addition to pound cakes and sugar cookies. Simple glamour indeed.

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In-N-Out Burger said Tuesday that it fired a top executive who had claimed in a lawsuit that the Irvine hamburger chain was trying to dump him as part of plan to push aside founder Esther L. Snyder. Richard Boyd was removed from his position on the three-member In-N-Out board and relieved of his duties. The action was taken by the two other members of the board. The dismissal was the latest chapter of a bitter fight pitting Boyd, who retained his role as co-trustee of nearly two-thirds of the private company's stock, against Taylor and 23-year-old heir, Lynsi Martinez. She is the only grandchild of Snyder, who helped open the first drive-through In-N-Out stand in 1948 with husband Harry. - San Jose Mercury News

Labels: Kitchen Project

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There are a lot of ingredients that can intimidate people. I for one, went years without buying any whole crabs because I didn't want to have one and not know what to do with it. The solution in that case was the ever wonderful resource
Fish and Shellfish by James Peterson. Pictures and a detailed description explained each and every little step. I was a new woman.

Nowadays, the handy-dandy internet would have yielded the answer. Perhaps you are on this site right now to answer a question yourself, and maybe that question is...what on earth do I do with this pineapple?

Well kiddies, if that is why you are here, it's your lucky day because I'm going to tell you.

But I'm going to make you wait for it while I chitter chat about the pineapples I used. I found them in the market today and was sort of excited because I had never seen anything like them. They are taller, thinner and darker colored (on the outside) than the jet-sweet (jet-fresh? I forget) right from the Hawaiian Dole plantation pineapple I am used to seeing. They were actually from Ghana, Africa. I was so intrigued (and at $0.99 each!) I bought three. The flesh is almost white and the taste is much less perfumed, they are remarkably less stringy, have lower acidity and are much sweeter than more common varieties. I thought cutting them up was a much less daunting task than with a larger fruit, and the resulting 2 cups from one pineapple was perfect. No need to over indulge, and nothing ended up in my freezer.

So, how DID I cut up my perfect Royal African Sugarloaf pineapple? I'll tell you.

First, get out a large knife.

Slice 1/4 inch of the bottom off, and then do the same for the top. Discard. (Compost is nice.)

On this particular pineapple, the leaves had a saw-like sharpness, so do be careful if you find them too.

Next, stand the pineapple up on it's now flat base and slice away the rind, following the curve of the fruit. (Much like I did with this orange.) There will for sure be some"eyes" left behind...just cut them off too. (In the picture there I left the rind on, I thought it made it easier to see what was going on...but for sure slice off the rind before proceeding.)

Next, cut down through the center, to create two halves. Lay these down on your board and slice again, lengthwise, creating quarters. Stand each quarter up and notice there is a core. Slicing downward again, remove the core (see in the picture, where the cut is on the slice you are looking down at? That's what I mean.) Discard the cores (or use to infuse vodka) and slice the remaining portions in half.

Cut the remaining pineapple into slices, or chunks and enjoy.

The other option is to use a pineapple corer, but, well, I haven't got room in my house for such a single subject item, have you?

Tomorrow, I will share a recipe I made using this fresh treat!

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The major fruit and vegetable growing areas in Ghana, presently concentrated within southern Ghana, are endowed with very favourable climate, deep rich soils and a remarkably knowledgeable rural agricultural labour force. This excellent combination of essential factors make the growing areas ideal for the production of top quality tropical fruits and vegetables. Ghana exports high quality pesticide-free produce. Currently exported products include pineapples, papayas, bananas, mangoes, chillies, tinda, karela, tindori, marrow and many others. - Ghana Trade.org

Pineapples were first cultivated by the Guarani Indians of Brazil and Paraguay. Most languages of the world adopted the word for pineapple from the Brazilian Tupi Indian word "nana" or "anana" (meaning excellent fruit), and not from the name "piña" (pine cone), which the first Spanish explorers gave it. Ananas is the name in French, Italian, Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croat, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Hebrew and Hindi.

Golden Pineapple is a variety developed by Del Monte in Hawaii. It is not only sweeter, but also contains three times more vitamin C than other pineapples.

Labels: Gluten Free, Kitchen Project, Something Else, Vegan, Vegetarian

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When food is cooked slowly, it not only evenly browns, it naturally becomes sweeter, richer and more complex. The introduction of heat, as a kiss rather than a bang, will change a sharp taste to something mellow and meltingly accommodating. Suddenly your basic ingredient is open to a whole assortment of additional flavors and uses. We have seen this happen like culinary stardust with prior Kitchen Project posts - like those on roasting garlic and blistered peppers. It is a wonderment indeed.

So here now, for your reading pleasure, I am going to once again offer up a recipe of sorts, though maybe I should call it a technique. Which ever way, it is indeed a Kitchen Project, (Part of my series on things to do when you want to spend time in the kitchen) and this time up, it's that culinary darling, caramelized onions. Everything you could ask for in a recipe, extreme simplicity resulting in a sublime flavor.

The standard, brown, storage onion, as we all know, is readily available year round pretty much everywhere, and is cheap as chips. It is a member of the lily family, and heaven knows it can make you weep like a small child when you go at it with a knife. Despite a host of folk remedies, the only tried and true method I have ever happened across that fixes the tears is to keep doing it. The more onions you chop, the less likely you are to cry. (Shrug) There is also some relief to be had if you chill the onions first...or so I hear.

Like that first time you steamed a huge bunch of fresh spinach and ended up with about a teaspoons worth of jewel-toned wilted leaves, you will be amazed at how a huge quantity of silvery slivers will end up a scant offering after awhile on the stove. That is the main reason I do this in huge batches. So when you have the time and have committed to doing this, just remember, it's going to take pretty much the same amount of time to cook down twenty onions as three. While three seems like a nice do-able number, I strongly suggest you just go for the gusto and make a mad huge batch. Besides, there is no reason to bother with just one onion when the resulting product freezes perfectly.

That said, on with the show.

You are going to need:

Onions
Butter
And maybe some sugar

For tools, you should have:

A good sharp knife and some dedication OR a slicer. I got mine in Chinatown for $14. Remember, in Chinatown you can negotiate better prices with most vendors. Don't be shy. (I have to say, I also have a fancy pants mandoline that is huge and cumbersome, impressive and shiny, and hardly ever sees the light of day. My smaller one is feather light, dishwasher safe and gets pulled out almost daily. Food for thought indeed.)

To begin, cut your onions in half through the root end. Do this with all of them first. My theory on cooking is that if you only do each step once (peel all, mince all, whatever) it streamlines the process. Next up, slice the tiniest bit of the tip/top off of all of the onion halves. Then peel off the skins (of all.) and starting at the tip end, slice the onions into the thinnest possible half moons.

In a large pan melt 1/2 teaspoon of unsalted butter per 4 onions, over low heat.

Add the onions to the pan and do your best to stir them so they are all coated with some of the melted butter. Its ok if the pan is full to the brim, they cook down.

And here, you turn the flame to low, and stir every four to six minutes for a good long time. The onions in the picture took just under three hours. If at any point you sense the onions are in need of some more butter, (read: they are getting crispy) don't be shy about throwing in another pat.

If you want to cheat (and I'm not advocating that so much as just letting you know it can be done) sprinkle some sugar over the entire batch about 10 minutes into cooking. The sugar will brown quickly, so while you will get the color and sweetness, your onions will not really have released so much liquid and will still be relatively crunchy. With the long form method, you are going to end up with nutty sweetness and soft onions; with the addition of sugar it will have a more pronounced sugar sweetness and less of the natural carmelized taste.

Sometimes for giggles, I add some minced rosemary or sage in towards the end of cooking, but thats just guilding the lily (hardee har).

Now what do you suppose you do with this glorious batch? The classics are French Onion Soup and Pissaldiere. From there, I challenge you to come up with your own uses.

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Vidalia® onions are sweet onions grown exclusively in a 20-county region in Georgia

The name onion stems from the Latin word unus meaning oneness or unit

Libyans consume approx. 66.8 pounds of onions person/year. The worlds highest per person consumption. North Americans average 19 - Onions-USA.org

Why not be a sport and check out Kate's post on the 2005 Food Blog Awards...she is taking nominations until Midnight tonight. (Totally un-subtle cough, cough, wink, wink, hint)

Labels: Gluten Free, Kitchen Project, Low-Carb, Vegetarian

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Welcome back to my humble little blog for yet another inspiring (I hope anyway) Kitchen Project. Up this time, the marvelous slow roasted tomato. By breaking down the sugars, and getting some of the moisture to evaporate the tomatoes are denser, meatier, more complex (a word I find is overused in reference to roasting, and yet, really is the most appropriate.), totally multifarious ingredient.

This method truly is the best way to coax the flavor from readily available, yet, not really tasty in the winter time product. The results have versatility is beyond compare. You can use them as a base for many sauces, add them into a stew, or soup, mix in macaroni with cheese sauce, put on pizza or bruchetta, stir in with lentils as a side dish, or use in omelets. The list goes on and on. They also taste amazing all on their own. Mmm. What would you do if you had a jar full in your fridge right now?

You say haven't got any in your fridge right now? Well, my sweet peaches, let's go ahead and fix that.

And before you say anything, yes, it's a long procedure. It is. But that's the idea behind a Kitchen Project. It's something you can do when it's raining out and are spending time in your kitchen anyway lazing a day away. And once you have mastered it, you won't need a recipe to do it again so try it, and enjoy.

You'll need:
Firm Tomatoes, Thyme, Garlic, Olive Oil and Salt

First things first. Preheat your oven to 170F.

Line a sheet pan (with a rim) with foil or parchment or a silicon baking mat

Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a boil. Then wash off your tomatoes.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut an "X" into the bottom of the tomato. You are trying to pierce the skin, not really cut too far into the flesh. Then use the tip of your knife to cut out the core/stem end like a cork/plug. Don't cut too deeply in here either.

Carefully add the tomatoes, a few at a time (if you add too many, say more than five, the temperature of the water will drop too much to do what you want it to do) to the pot and let them boil for, oh, say 30-45 seconds. You are not cooking them, you are loosening the skin. When you see the peels curling back they are ready to take out.

Using a slotted spoon or your tongs, remove the tomatoes from the pot and set aside to cool enough so you can handle them. Continue doing this until they are all blanched. Now you should be able to slip the skins right on off. If you are compelled to not waste anything, you can dehydrate the skins in a dehydrator, then ground them to a powder and use like you would a spice. Then again, that's pretty durned fussy.

Your next step is to cut the tomatoes in half through the equators, and over your sink, give them a gentle squeeze to get the seeds out. You can totally skip this step, but once you're in, you might as well go for it. If you stopped here, you would have tomato concasse. Worthwhile with sweeter, summertime tomatoes.

Rough chop the now skinned and de-seeded tomatoes. Spread them on the sheet pan in a single layer. Add a few sprigs of thyme, a few cloves of peeled garlic. Douse heartily with some olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Put the sheet pan into the oven and walk away for, oh, say three hours. Peek in here and again and stir, but other than that, you're golden.

I can't really tell you how to know when they are done other than to say they will be a bit shriveled (Hmm. Now there is a word you don't see often in recipes) and dry. They will not be browned though. The oil at the bottom of the pan will be reddish too.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Store the tomatoes and oil in a glass container with a lid for up to three weeks. They freeze well too.

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Concasse/Concasser (French): Tomatoes that have been peeled and, seeded and chopped

Grass scattered with rock salt is more appetizing for to cattle. They eat more and gain weight; Rock salt is used to fertilise soil with sodium, which makes sugar beet yield more sugar.

New York is the nation's second largest wine producer after California. The Empire State's 30-thousand acres of vineyards and 212 wineries produce 200 million bottles of wine a year. - AP

Labels: Kitchen Project, Vegan

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For my second (whoo-hoo!) Kitchen Project installment, where I share some culinary basics, I thought I'd cover (brace yourself) roasting garlic. I know, I know! It was the ingredient du jour about 10 years ago, and these days, it has fallen off of our collective radars. But not here! Here, I am going to (hopefully) remind you of how nutty and rich an ingredient, slow cooked cloves of garlic really are. And just because I'm cheeky, this recipe is actually for oil poached garlic, but the outcome is the same, flavor wise, as roasting.

Now, some people have gone so far as buying a fancy garlic roaster, but that just leaves you with a messy head of garlic, and yet another gadget cluttering your kitchen. Not here though. Here its all about (admittedly time consuming, but still fab) simplicity.

As with my last foray into this idea of sharing the little concepts, this is not something that you can whip out in a flash. It's a process that will take patience and time, but in the end you will be rewarded indeed. It is the perfect thing to do while you are making roasted peppers, carmelizing onions or just have an urge to spend some time by the stove.

First off, pick up a few bulbs of garlic. Did you know there are (at last unofficial count) 600 different varieties? It's crazy man. But no matter what type you choose, you should look for compact bulbs with dry paper exteriors and plump cloves.

Once you've got that settled, its time to peel. Go ahead and break the bulb apart by turning it root side up on your counter and pushing down on the root with the palm of your hand. Presto. Individual cloves. Now peel. You can use a garlic peeler (I kinda dig um) or you can just continue smashing down on each clove with either the broad side of a knife or your palm. Of course, you can also buy pre-peeled, but those tend to have less flavor. When they are peeled (I tend to do about 4 bulbs at a time. The time is well worth it) slice the tiny root end off.

Add the cloves to an oven proof pan, dish, ramekin, whatever, that will just hold them. Pour your cheaper olive oil over to cover, then cover with foil and bake in the oven at 375F for about 35-45 minutes. (Oh, and in case it bubbles over, put the pan on top of a baking sheet or some foil) They are done when a knife goes through a clove with ease. Remove from the oven and let cool. (Hot oil is a nasty burn, so be careful, ya?)

Puree the cooled garlic with just a little of the oil. Reserve the rest for another use. Bonus, two for one!

Store the garlic in the refrigerator covered with a thin layer of oil for up to six days. Delicious.

It is a perfect spread on its own, as an addition to hummus, as a thickener for soup, mixed with butter and smeared under the skin of a (to be) roasted chicken or in (tomorrows exciting recipe) Roasted Garlic and Leek Savory Bread Pudding.

Try it, and enjoy!

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Joey Buttafuoco, who made headlines when his teenage girlfriend shot his wife, is working in craft services on the sets of TV shows, according to Inside TV. Buttafuoco runs a concession that doles out protein shakes and ice cream to the stars of "Desperate Housewives" and "Crossing Jordan," the magazine reports.

Garlic has been utilized as both food and medicine for more than 5000 years. Curing garlic is the process by which the outer leaf sheaths and neck tissues of the bulb are dried. Under favorable climatic conditions in California, the garlic is usually cured in the field.

If you have trouble peeling garlic cloves, try soaking them in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes first.

Labels: Kitchen Project

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In the interest of sharing, I thought I would periodically throw out some basic info and cooking how-to's.

For my first installment, let's chitter-chat on the super-easy, beautiful, pantry essential, roasted peppers.

Peppers in one form or another are plentiful all year long, but in the fall, the sweet red ones come down in price (especially at farmers markets) and aquiring an overflowing basketful is easy and inexpensive.

Trouble is, once you have scored your bounty, eating them all prior to their demise may verge on gluttonous overdosing. To avoid that I suggest this simple method, it will preserve the peppers, adds a pleasant smokiness, softens the texture and deepens the flavors altogether.

I typically set aside an hour or so to get these done, (usually combining this task with roasting garlic or some other cooking) just so I can get through a large batch. As an alternative method, you could line a sheet pan with foil, and broil a large batch all at once, turning periodically. Either which way, this is a totally worthwhile endeavor. I use the peppers in salads, on pizza, in sandwiches, pureed in soups, as garnish for any number of things, oh heck, the list just goes on and on. And the oil they marinate in becomes faintly tinged with color and flavor too, don't go throwing it out! Try this, and enjoy!



Method:

Scrub your peppers. (Red, green, chile, they all work)

Place directly on your gas burner with the flame on high.

Cook, turning as they blacken.

Remove from fire when totally charred on all sides and put in a large bowl.

Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let the peppers steam for about 10 minutes. Take this time to clean the stove top.

When they are mostly cooled, pull off the tops, and rub off the char. Monika Powe Nelson, a tiny Texan I used to know would slap your hand if you dared to rinse the pepper to get the char off because she says that rinses away the flavor. Me, I do it anyway. Go with what works for you.

Make sure to remove all the seeds. Cut into strips and put into a glass jar. Cover with olive oil. You can add some herbs if you like, but NO garlic. That is the recipe for botulism, and nobody wants that. Seal and store in the fridge (yes, the oil will get solid. That's cool, just take it out 5 minutes before you use it. It will go back to liquid.)

And that's it. Easy peasy, simple as pie and all that.

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Are you in Southern California? Tickets are still available for Make Trade Fair Live: A Concert To Support Oxfam America. Let's all do our part to support this worthy cause.

Japan will ease a ban on US beef imports after a Japanese panel declared on Monday that beef from young American cattle is safe if risk materials that could transmit mad cow disease are removed, government officials said. The panel at Japan's Food Safety Commission ended five months of discussion on the safety of US beef with a conclusion that beef and beef offal from American cattle aged 20 months or younger are at very low risk from mad cow disease if specified materials, such as bovine heads and spinal cords, are removed. It was not immediately clear when imports of US beef would resume, but media reports on Monday suggested it could be in December. ABS-CBN News.com

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickling pepper; a peck of pickling pepper Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickling pepper, where's the peck of pickling pepper Peter Piper picked?

Labels: Kitchen Project