Roasted Hot Sauce

A batch of scorpion peppers given to me by our gardener Fernando + a bowl full of tomatoes = base for a new hot sauce creation made by roasting and blending! For the first batch I used 4 scorpion peppers, 2 hot house tomatoes and a couple hand full of mixed grape tomatoes. Tossed all that with some good olive oil, salt, pepper and dried thyme, roasted it up and pureed in the Nutribullet. It was delicious, but even Fernando though it was really hot! I made a second more tame batch with 2 small but hot jalapeños from out own garden, 1 habanero, a pint of mixed grape tomatoes and about 12 Campari tomatoes (seasoned the same as the first batch). Also delicious but slightly tamer!

Our own pepper garden is about to start producing, so stay tuned for more hot sauce madness!

Skinny Broccoli Goat Cheese Soup

2—3 Tbsp Olive oil

1/2 Medium sweet onion, coarsely chopped

12 oz Briccoli florets

1/4 cup Flour

4 cups Chicken broth

2—3 oz Goat cheese

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a large pot, sauté opinion in olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent. Add broccoli and cook until soft. Remove broccoli from pan and set aside. Add a little more oil if needed and then add the flour, stirring constantly. Heat until flour is light brown. Slowly whisk in chicken broth. Add broccoli back into pan and use and immersion blender to purée. Simmer until thickened. Whisk in goat cheese. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve hot and enjoy—Makes a great healthy, savory snack on a chilly fall day! 

 

 

More Heat!

Ghost peppers drying for Muy Caliente Fire Powder.

Ghosts and Habaneros in the second stage of making fermented pepper mash.

 

 

Homemade Sriracha

SRIRACHA SAUCE

2 cups assorted fresh red chiles (jalapeño, cayenne, serrano, habanero, etc), stemmed and seeded
5–6 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar, plus more to taste
1–2 teaspoons salt, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well blended. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust if desired.

Transfer mixture to a small nonreactive saucepan and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until sauce loses its raw vegetable smell.

Let cool and pour into a bottle or jar.

Hot Sauce Day!

We had our biggest hot pepper harvest of the year this week — ghost peppers, habaneros, Roatan pumpkin-habaneros (mild habaneros that hail from Honduras), jalapeños and a couple cayennes.

Today I made a Sriracha sauce with ghosts and habaneros (wish I had made more... It is flaming hot but Delish!), a Puerto Rican style Pique vinegar, a pumpkin habanero sauce and a jalapeño sauce. I also set out a pound of ghosts and habaneros for a fermented pepper mash. (More on this once they dry for a few days and I start the fermentation process. :)

Passion Fruit (Lilikoi) Jelly

 

2 cups passion fruit juice (about 5 pounds of fresh passion fruit) or bottled unsweetened passion fruit nectar

1 3/4 cups water

6 cups sugar

6 ounces liquid pectin

Prepare canner and canning jars.

Combine juice, water and sugar in a large, tall pot.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly.  Immediately add liquid pectin and bring to a full, rolling boil.  Boil rapidly for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat, skim off foam using a small fine mesh strainer, and pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/8 – 1/4 inch space between the jelly and rim of the jar.  Secure 2 part lids and follow basic canning procedure.

Makes 8 half pint jars

Caprese Steak & Brown Rice Bowl

Leftover NY Strip with sweet grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, brown rice and fresh basil from the herb garden... Instant gourmet lunch!