This weekend I turned 23 pounds of tomatoes into 14 half pint jars of thick tomato sauce. They came from an old man on the side of a rural highway, which is almost as nice as having grown them but with less work.
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Monday night I made garlic-basil chicken with tomato butter sauce (not dairy butter, but the partly congealed tomato) with ripe roma tomatoes and oh wow, what a bold, fresh flavour. I wonder if itās too late to learn canning and try it this week.
Also: I am trying fermenting. Iām using Timothy Ferrissā 4-Hour Chef recipe for sauerkraut. If that one doesnāt work out Iām upgrading to Nourishing Traditions sauerkraut recipe.
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Canning is pretty easy, as long as your are putting up something sufficiently acidic (tomatoes are) and you donāt have any kind of oil or fat in the jars. When you do meat or fat, or non-acid items, you need to pressure can. Thatās not exceptionally difficult either but you need a pretty pricey pressure canner with a gauge.
I did my first few canning sessions using only the info in a book from Ball, but there are a ton of sites with good instructions. Itās way easier if you have the great big pot, the basket and all the accessories, but as long as you have a large pot and a way to safely get the extremely hot jars out of the boiling water, you donāt absolutely need all the stuff.
Tomatoes and jam are the easiest things to put up. Plus, home made jam is a great present, inexpensive but impressive.
I also enjoy fermenting, but Iām pretty meh on sauerkraut. My favorite thing to ferment is hot sauce, or onions and garlic. Theyāre Zippy!
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With my household all doing Weight Watchers type stuff, Iāve been striving to cook low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, all of that sort of thing. Two easy recipes Iāve sort of made up on the fly have become favorites:
Mexican Spaghetti (I dunno what to call this)
Sautee a chopped up onion with some chopped up garlic until itās browned. Put it in a blender along with about 1/2 can of chipotles in adobo (adjust for your desired heat level) and a 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes, seasoned with salt, oregano, cumin, and smoked paprika. Blend until smooth, set aside.
Dice pork loin or chops, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sear on one side until browned (just put them in a pan & donāt touch for a few minutes) along with whatever veggies you want ā mushrooms, bell peppers, squash, onion. Simmer with the sauce on low until pork is cooked through and tender. Stir in cilantro. Serve atop spiralized chayote squash ānoodlesā thatāve been boiled for a few minutes until tender.
Greek (?) chicken
Get a few jars of marinated artichoke hearts. Pour off the liquid into a bowl or ziploc bag and add chicken breasts or thighs, marinate for an hour or so. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet, season well with salt, pepper, oregano, chopped garlic, and lemon juice, and add the artichoke hearts on top. Roast it under the oven broiler for about 8 minutes on each side or until the chickenās cooked through and the artichokes have some char on them. Sprinkle well with crumbled feta, roast for another minute, serve. Add more lemon and a bit of chopped mint or parsley if you feel fancy.
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Ooooh, I had not thought of this, but it sounds great. Better than zucchini!
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Ooh, yes, that looks great!
Iāve become a big fan of chayote! No seeds, no core, no rind. Spiralized & boiled or sautĆ©ed, stays firm, nice bite & flavor, doesnāt get soggy like zucchini.
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Alternatives in case of catastrophe:
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I need this in my life
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Yep. Being able to breathe would certainly be a problem. I donāt have an overhead oven, just one below the range, so I have no hood fan, plus I have breathing problems of my own. Last time I made a sauce with vodka and ghost pepper, I was having a little trouble breathing, but the vodka added to the fumes. I suppose if you were to cook the peppers without generating a lot of fumes, it would be more manageable. For example, if you sauteed them in butter or even fried them dry. Then again, with spiciness like that, you would still need the hood vent.
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Where do you (and other pepperheads who make crazy hot sauces) get ahold of these sorts of exotic peppers? Iād love to try this kind of thing, but despite exotic produce markets all around me, the best I can do is Thai chiles or habanero.
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Oh nice! And now I recall you posting about your chili growing, Iād forgotten.
I spent quite a bit of time over the past two years clearing yard space and trying to grow various herbs and veggies, but the neighborhood bunnies have made gardening pretty much impossible. If thereās one thing I donāt have much of, itās windowsill/balcony space for plants, but itās something Iāve been considering doing some carpentry around. Then again, I have a large basement and thereās a bunch of hydroponics stores nearbyā¦
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Itās something Iām checking out, for sure! As soon as medical marijuana became legal here, hydro stores appeared all over. I went into one just recently to ask about a small growing setup for veggies and the dudebro there was like āSo uhhhā¦ you wanna grow someā¦ herb? Greenā¦ herbā¦ in a POTā¦ heh heh hehā¦ā Yeah, dude. I get it. Itās cool. I like tomatoes.
And I am a son, so that works out well.
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I used to grow my own. You canāt get anything spicier than an habanero in most grocery stores, so I grew my own from seeds.
If powdered is okay, you can find the powdered stuff more easily. You can try Christinaās Spice and Specialty Foods in Inman Square. I know they have bhut jolokia, but I donāt know if they have reaper peppers or anything like that.
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You know, I always forget what a wonderful store that is, mostly because I loathe parking in Inman Square. But youāre right, theyād be the place to go. Iāve picked up dried peppers there, too, that I couldnāt find anywhere else.
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The back yard. This year, weāre stocking up on Scotch Bonnet.
To keep the bunnies out, you have two options - chickenwire, or peletized deterrents. Fox or coyote piss works rather well (you can get this at your local organic gardening center).
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I would go with the piss. IME chickenwire isnāt that great at keeping bunnies out. They always find a way under, over, or through. Dense chickenwire buried a foot or so deep might do it, but I havenāt had that much luck.
But itās true, bunnies will eat hot peppers.
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If I bother, this is how I do it. Weāve done well with ārabbitā fencing fabric or the 1/2" chicken wire (buried) and deterrents in the past. This year, I skipped the fence and had tolerable results with just the deterrents. Dried blood worked pretty well at keeping the chipmunks and skunks away. Squirrels, however, are hunted mercilessly.
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