Those gorgeous peppers make me think it’s time to make pepper jelly. If you think you won’t use it, see the next recipe for a yummy vinaigrette. If you don’t have enough peppers in this week’s box, maybe you still have a few from last week? Or save this week’s and cross your fingers we’ll have some in next week’s box.
This is a recipe from Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene.
Zeb Stevenson demonstrated this recipe at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market back in September 2011. I offer it for those who are wondering what they’re going to do with more okra this week.
Joe Truex of Watershed demonstrated this recipe Labor Day weekend at the Morningside Farmers market.
Stir together bread, garlic, vinegar, and 3/4 cup cold water in a medium bowl. Set aside. Process cucumber, peppers, and bread mixture in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree half of the tomatoes in the blender, and transfer to the bowl with cucumber mixture. Puree remaining tomatoes, slowly adding oil while Read More…
Those gorgeous red peppers put me in the mood for this luscious recipe. It’s adapted from “The Flying Biscuit Café Cookbook.”
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.