Fermented Jalapeno Peppers #Hotsauce #Recipe

Fermented Jalapeno peppers 

Original recipe & many others found on my FarmCraft Hot Sauce Facebook page

10 large jalapenos peppers 

Garlic bulb (Around 10 cloves) 

5 tsp sea salt 

Water 

1 litre mason jar 

Wash peppers and cut off stems. Stuff peppers and garlic in the jars as tightly as possible. 

Add sea salt, filling up remaining space with water, screw on lid TIGHTLY.

Shake the jar to dissolve the salt and place it someplace cool and dark for 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks, place peppers in blender with 50% of the liquid, leave the garlic out.

Blend for 2 minutes+ & add back liquid for your desired consistency. 

I like mine a little on the thick side.

Heat is tamed slightly. Great salty pure jalapeno flavor. 

Made 750ml. Store in fridge, should keep for several months.

Cornbread for sandwiches - baked and grilled

I was looking for corn bread to use as sandwich bread, so it had to hold together well... and I don't like mealy dense cornbread, so it needed to be firm on the outside, fluffy and buttery on the inside.

After several attempts and lots of wasted ingredients, I've settled on this recipe and method:

You will need:

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups skim milk
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted.
• Bacon grease to grease the baking sheet, or more butter.

Directions

Combine the dry stuff in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the wet. Stir and fold the wet ingredients into the dry for about a minute. Don't over mix, bad things will happen, just ensure most lumps are gone and wet has mixed into dry. This really should only take about 1 minute. Some lumps should remain. Keep the mixture in the bowl, and leave it on the counter for about 15 minutes.

Heat your oven to 350f.

Using your bacon grease (or butter), grease a large baking pan (mine is about 24" x 12", 1" in height) that you'd typically use for cookies. I used this as I wanted thin sandwich sized bread but don't have a loaf pan.

Dump the mixture on to the pan and spread it out evenly.  Place in oven for about 35-40mins.

When the cornbread is firm to the touch, and a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean, cornbread is ready. Remove from oven and cool on counter.

Once cooled, cut the bread into 4 large rectangles. This will just make it easier to remove with a spatula. Be very careful when removing. It's firm, but not CRAZY firm. At this point, I like to plastic wrap the portions and store in fridge until needed (Within a few days of course). When refrigerated, the bread will become VERY firm. 

When needed...

Cut your cornbread into whatever sizes you need (I felt fancy and used a circle mold to make the sandwich below), and grill both sides for about 3-5 minutes. 

Both a flattop grill and grated grill both work well. 

Mexican Chorizo and Rapini on cornbread.

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds

These are 'giant' Sunflowers which typically grow to about  to  5-12ft. This one grew to about 6' (Not grown in full sun). When the tiny flowers begin to fall off, it's time to protect the seeds... harvest is near.

Birds love Sunflower seeds, especially these guys that I only see when the sunflowers are almost ready
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Goldfinch 

To protect the seeds from birds, brown bag the flower heads, it'll keep out the birds
and scare your Croatian neighbors. I don't recommend plastic bags as they will keep in the moisture (and pool water), while you're trying to dry it out. 
If it rains, you may need to replace your brown bags. 

Sunflowers will begin to hang as in the above. Another sign that the seeds are almost ready.

Sign #3 that it's harvest time, the back of the flower begins to yellow. When the backs are like this, I chop their heads off and store them in the garage (hot and dry in there) for 1 week. 

Sunflower heads drying out. I may have picked the small 2 a bit too early. Live and learn. You can see the seeds behind the tiny yellow flowers on the largest flower.

When the heads are dry enough, the seeds should easily pop out by hand. Once removed, 

I dried out the seeds further in the sunlight on a baking sheet for a day.

Finally, I roasted the seeds in the oven at 300f for 40mins. No salt used. Since these are so fresh, the shells are soft enough to eat whole (fiber!). For quantity reference; The 3 Sunflowers pictured made enough seeds to fill 4 - 5 packets one would buy at the store, with a lot to set aside to grow next season.

Salsa Recipe

Too many tomatoes in the garden? SALSA! 

You will need:

6 Jalapenos
1 7 oz. can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
About 10 medium - large tomatoes, a variety if you have it.
1 Roasted red pepper
1 Large white onion
2 Green peppers
3 cups cider vinegar  
4 cloves garlic, minced   
2 cans (5 1/2 oz) tomato paste
5 tsp salt   
2 tsp dried oregano 
Large pot
5 Mason jars
Mexican hat

Directions:

• Chop tomatoes roughly. 
• Seed and chop Jalapenos and green peppers (just keep in mind how large you want your chunks to be when you're scooping salsa with a chip; chop that size)
• Chop red peppers and chipotles, keeping adobo sauce (you'll also toss this in the pot too).
• Chop onions and mince garlic.

In large pot, toss everything in; bring to boil, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 1.5 - 2 hrs. (Depending on how thick you want your salsa).

This will fill about 5 500ml mason jars. Use typical canning methods to preserve.

The heat in this salsa is comparable to a "hot" store bought brand of salsa, slightly hotter. Keep the Jalapeno seeds in for more heat, or toss in a habanero. OLE!  

Pesto Recipe

Pesto Recipe 

This is the time of year we have way too much basil... so pesto it is. We store our pesto in the freezer in cubes and thaw as needed.

This recipe will fill one ice cube tray. You'll notice I don't use salt, reason being is that I will usually salt the dish I'm using pesto on, and the cheese is salted.

You will need:

• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves (this is about 1 medium basil plant)
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan/reggiano cheese
• 3/4 - 1 cup olive oil, depending on if you like thick vs. slightly runny pesto
• 1/4 cup walnuts nuts (I've always used walnuts vs. pine nuts. 1) cost, 2) really like walnuts!)
• PAM/veggie oil/olive oil spray of some sort
• Ice cube tray
• Zip lock bag(s)
• Saran wrap

Juice of 1/4 of a lemon

• 
  

Directions:

• Toss it all in your food processor (I use a magic bullet, which requires me to do this in 2 batches) and blend.
• Spray an ice cube tray with your spray oil ( this makes the frozen pesto cube pop out easily ).
• Spoon pesto into cubes.
• Cover with Saran wrap, freeze.
• Once frozen, pop out frozen pesto cubes, place in zip-lock bags and store in freezer until needed. 1 cube is usually a perfect serving size for pasta for the family.

Grilled Bread Tomato Salad

You will need:

4 Basil leaves

1 tb chopped chives

1.5 tb Balsamic vinegar (Or red wine vinegar)

2 tb Extra virgin olive oil

2 large tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

Salt and Pepper

Crusty bread

Roll the basil...

...Chop the basil

Chop the chives, mince 1 garlic clove, add in the basil and whisk with oil and vinegar.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Let this sit for a couple hours, longer the better.

Grill your bread (or toast). Chop the top off your 2nd garlic clove and rub it aggressively against the bread.
You can also use this trick for a quick healthier (sans butter) garlic bread anytime. 

Chop your tomatoes and bread into bit sized pieces and toss with your dressing.
Let it sit for an hour or so. I like to add feta to finish it off, but it's not necessary.

If you like bruschetta you'll love this.
It's a somewhat deconstructed version of it. 

Wok for Tortillas

Protip:


Use a wok when making your tortillas for tacos to speed up the process!