Does summer have you craving tacos? Or are you like us and crave them all year around? The recipe for this dish was inspired by one from Hugh Acheson, chef of Five & Ten in Athens, Georgia. Use whatever peppers are handy, even those nice mild ones from the box.
Do you happen to have some of those dried black beans from last year’s boxes? Cook them up and use them here. Yum.
It’s a very traditional recipe for salsa, and a little more work than just chopping up vegetables, but so worth it.
Use any combination of peppers you like.
I had a conversation with Jennifer Halicki about what to do with those cute little jalapenos. My suggestion was to do a very simple pickle, just putting the jalapenos in a jar (with or without stems) and cover them with vinegar. Leave them for a week or forever, they’ll keep indefinitely as long as you keep topping up the vinegar. This was the old Southern standby for making hot pepper vinegar to season fall and winter greens like turnips, collards and mustard. And it works fine with jalapenos.
Then just the other day I opened an email from Import Food, a company on the west coast that imports primarily food from Thailand. They offered a little more complex version of this peppered vinegar idea. They were recommending the Thai chiles they sell, but it would be just as delicious with your jalapenos or leftover cayenne peppers.
In their words: “Spice up your food with this simple, homemade heat. The combination of sour vinegar with hot Thai chiles is a common condiment in Thailand (called “nam som”), but this goes along great with American food too–especially southern favorites like collard greens, fried chicken, green tomatoes, etc.”
We’ll no doubt have peppers until frost, so here’s one more idea for what to do with them. Mix in a jalapeno or two if your household likes the heat. Did I mention that about 3 weeks ago I made cantaloupe-jalapeno preserves? I had seen a recipe for strawberry-jalapeno jam and I had this bowl of jalapenos just waiting for a use ….. turned out pretty well and I think we’ll be enjoying it on pork chops and tenderloin … chicken breasts …. grilled shrimp …. I can think of lots of uses.
Anyway, this chicken and pepper recipe came from Bertha’s Kitchen, a soul food restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s a reminder that a slow braise is a wonderful, fragrant thing.
When I see a bouquet of peppers like those in this week’s box, I’m so excited. You can eat them fresh, sliced into salads or stuffed with rice and cheese or grilled alongside a few links of Riverview brats. But that’s not my plan for those peppers.
I’m going to roast them. It’s a matter of a few minutes to turn those peppers into an ingredient that will flavor our meals for many weeks to come.
And fall boxes always include a variety of winter squash. Use your butternut or delicatas in this recipe adapted from a recipe by Steven Satterfield of Miller Union as demonstrated at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. You can use all the different peppers from this week’s box as well, but you’ll have to find your own hot pepper.
This recipe is adapted from Fine Cooking magazine, one of my favorite sources.
And Shirley Yarbrough reminded me this week of two simple ways to preserve the peppers in your box. There’s nothing easier. These ideas work for the banana peppers and jalapenos. Not for the bell peppers.
This is for those of you who still have some zucchini or yellow squash hanging out in the vegetable bin. Or, save the recipe for the next time we get squash in our box. Sorry that I don’t remember where the original recipe came from, but the dressing is delicious. You’ll find lots of ways to use it.
This is James Beard’s recipe, adapted from his book, “Beard on Food.” You know – the James Beard of the James Beard Awards that our chefs are all so anxious to win every year?
This is a classic Provencal dish, perfect with grilled meat or fish or as a filling for an omelet or as dinner all by itself. The Beard folks note that in France it’s often presented as an appetizer with a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Toss in one of those jalapenos if you like.