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.
jalapenos
Peppered Tuna with Crowder Peas
As pretty as those lady peas are earlier in the year, it’s crowder peas that really make me happy. Try this adaption of a recipe from ages ago in Southern Living. I think they served it on salad greens and topped it with bernaise sauce. You could serve do the same but instead of bernaise sauce, just whip up a little vinaigrette.
Hot Pepper Apple Pie
Last week we had an apple-cheddar pie recipe. This week it’s apples and hot pepper jelly. The idea came from Moore Farms and Friends, written in their style.
Honey-Jalapeño Chicken Tenders
Adapted from a recipe in “The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food” by Ian Knauer. Long list of ingredients, simple directions and it will use up some of those jalapeños!
Pickled Peppers and Okra
It seems that many people in the Riverview CSA are into canning and pickling. I found this recipe idea from the Food Network’s “Big Daddy’s House” an intriguing way to use jalapenos and okra in one fell swoop. The original directions were a little confusing, so I’ve modified them here. The idea seemed worth sharing, especially if you’re a household that uses pickled jalapenos.The quantities of jalapenos and okra called for here may not match what you got in your box, but I think you could add in some of the green peppers as well to make a total of 1 1/2 pounds of vegetables (in addition to the carrots and onion).
Greens with Peppers and Ham
Our final pepper recipe also features greens. Now you have an amazing assortment of greens in this week’s box. My box had a few collard leaves, a bunch of mustard greens, all the tops from those hareuki turnips and the greens from the kohlrabi. I have to say that the kohlrabi bulbs are so small (believe me, they’ll get bigger as the season goes on) that I just cleaned them and sliced them up to eat raw with the hareuki turnips. Then the greens went into the sink with all the others. I’ll be making the gumbo z’herbes we featured last year. I can’t find the recipe in the archive, so I’ll make a note to include it next week.
Anyway, here’s a recipe from chef Eddie Hernandez of Taqueria del Sol, also demonstrated last year at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. It uses greens and peppers. Hernandez’ version was all collards, but this mixture of greens in the box would work just fine. You cook the greens separately, then add them as an ingredient. Just steam the greens unless you have some leftover from another meal. Love that this will use up some of your jalapenos and tomatoes as well.
Sweet Potato and Chile Hash with Fried Eggs
This recipe came from Fine Cooking magazine about a decade ago. You can whip up the mayonnaise any time and use it for all kinds of purposes. The recipe looks like it has a lot of ingredients, but adapt it to what’s in the pantry. Do you still have a few jalapenos hanging around? Perfect. No red pepper, leave it out. Cook the eggs anyway you like, although fried eggs would be traditional.