Gardening: (2016– )

[TicTac]

 

 

An awesome new discovery for green tomato usage -

 

Slice 'em fairly thin

Liberally salt them and weight them down in a colander for 5-6 hours

Rinse them with white vinegar

Place on a plate and add white wine vinegar and good evoo

Add (up to you - though so far my favourite combination) a mix of chopped oregano, garlic chives, pepper and a bit of salt

 

Enjoy.

 

So good.

 

Edit - The above appears to be Vietnamese Coriander.

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by TicTac (log)

[KennethT]

@dcarch and @TicTac Exactly. Vietnamese Coriander aka Rau Ram

[dcarch]

24 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@dcarch and @TicTac Exactly. Vietnamese Coriander aka Rau Ram

 

Kind of like my goji berry plant.

 

dcarch

[Okanagancook]

48 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I had pounds and pounds of jalapeños last summer.  

 

Here is a list of what I did--if any of them trip your trigger I'll send you the links to recipes--and these are all things I've canned..

 

Cowboy jalapeños--these are candied-super good on ribs

Jalapeno mustard--LOVE this --probably the best thing I came up with last year.  Great on burgers and sandwiches

Pickled-always a fave--great on pizza

Jelly---I made a cranberry-jalapeno and also just a jalapeño 

 

 

Hey Shelby, thank you so much.  I am curious about the cowboy recipe and the mustard if you could send me the links I would be grateful.  If you like steak sauce, Paul Prudhomme has a wonderful jalapeño sauce, if you would like that, let me know.  Thank you.

[dcarch]

On 9/10/2017 at 7:34 PM, helenjp said:

While not perennial, I love Malabar Spinach (basella alba) for similar reasons.-----

Malabar spinach is a wonderful vegetable.

It is also a very beautiful decorative plant in your garden.

 

dcarch

[Shelby]

28 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Hey Shelby, thank you so much.  I am curious about the cowboy recipe and the mustard if you could send me the links I would be grateful.  If you like steak sauce, Paul Prudhomme has a wonderful jalapeño sauce, if you would like that, let me know.  Thank you.

Will do--I'm off to bed but I will give recipes first thing in the morning

 

[Okanagancook]

Do you folks think I could make these to freeze, probably fried first, frozen and then reheated in a hot oven.  The pepper will not be 'crisp' but they aren't really when made fresh.  I could make a batch of these puppies for cocktail hour in January.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/fried-jalapeno-poppers-cheese-recipe.html

[Thanks for the Crepes]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

Do you folks think I could make these to freeze, probably fried first, frozen and then reheated in a hot oven.  The pepper will not be 'crisp' but they aren't really when made fresh.  I could make a batch of these puppies for cocktail hour in January.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/fried-jalapeno-poppers-cheese-recipe.html

 

My motto is if you find the item in the grocer's freezer case, your homemade version will be better coming from your own freezer. I would certainly give it try. I'd fry, cool and lay out on a sheet pan in into the freezer until solidly frozen then package up for long term storage. And the fry, freeze, reheat from frozen in oven method is the way the commercial ones work and they aren't bad at all. I betcha yours will be even better. 

 

Edit: I just read the first prep instruction from the Serious Eats site: "Wearing gloves, if you have them ..." So casual and nonchalant. NO! If you do not have gloves to process that many peppers, go get some. Now. I just burnt myself with just three Hatches recently. You do need the gloves.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Okanagancook]

Thank you.  I will give it a try on a sample batch.

[suzilightning]

The FIRST tomato from the new kitchen garden....there are about 15 more on the plant.  We have been harvesting the basil and Italian parsley.....the sage is coming along but unfortunately all my tarragon died.

[Martin Fisher]

On 9/11/2017 at 9:31 PM, dcarch said:

Malabar spinach is a wonderful vegetable.

It is also a very beautiful decorative plant in your garden.

 

dcarch

 

Yes it is, grew it last year but not this year.

 

[Shelby]

@Okanagancook  So sorry!  The next morning turned into days later lol.

 

Here is the jalapeño mustard recipe .  I reduced the sugar by quite a bit....like I maybe used 1 1/2 cups or so.  And, I didn't de-seed the jalapeños.

 

And, this is the cowboy candy recipe.

[Okanagancook]

THANK YOU.   I wasn't worried  

I happen to have all the tops from making my poppers yesterday which I will use to make the Cowboy Candy.  

I used the serious eats recipe reference above.  Here is my pictorial of the process.  This recipe sucks.  They tell you to fry them for 5 minutes in two inches of oil at 350F.  I thought I would use my deep fryer so I could control the temperature.  Well, after two minutes the filling started coming out into the oil making a hell of a mess and more importantly leaving NO FILLING in the jalapeños!  I reduced the heat to 300F and that was a little better but I had to watch them and as soon as they started leaking I took them out.  Secondly the filling needs more flavour.  Just garlic and onion powder along with a little cumin just doesn't pack enough flavour.  I think I would leave the peppers intact and just hollow them out if I made these again.  My little tool works really well.

 

 

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

THANK YOU.   I wasn't worried  

I happen to have all the tops from making my poppers yesterday which I will use to make the Cowboy Candy.  

I used the serious eats recipe reference above.  Here is my pictorial of the process.  This recipe sucks.  They tell you to fry them for 5 minutes in two inches of oil at 350F.  I thought I would use my deep fryer so I could control the temperature.  Well, after two minutes the filling started coming out into the oil making a hell of a mess and more importantly leaving NO FILLING in the jalapeños!  I reduced the heat to 300F and that was a little better but I had to watch them and as soon as they started leaking I took them out.  Secondly the filling needs more flavour.  Just garlic and onion powder along with a little cumin just doesn't pack enough flavour.  I think I would leave the peppers intact and just hollow them out if I made these again.  My little tool works really well.

 

 

OMG those look amazing.  You have more patience than I do for sure.  I need to be more like you.

[Okanagancook]

Cowboy Candy!  Double batch.  Used the food processor rather than slicing the peppers.  Thanks Shelby.  My brother already put dibs on a couple of jars.

[Shelby]

4 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Cowboy Candy!  Double batch.  Used the food processor rather than slicing the peppers.  Thanks Shelby.  My brother already put dibs on a couple of jars.

Beautiful!!!  I might make the relish kind this time.....be great poured over cream cheese with crackers.

[Okanagancook]

Or over jalapeño poppers (I just happen to have some of those).

UPDATE:  Just had some on crackers with cream cheese, delicious!  Perfect level of heat.  I seeded and "demembraned" half of the peppers.

Edited September 13, 2017 by Okanagancook
add information (log)

[joiei]

On 9/11/2017 at 8:31 PM, dcarch said:

Malabar spinach is a wonderful vegetable.

It is also a very beautiful decorative plant in your garden.

 

dcarch

A fellow gardener in my community garden planted this.  How do you use it.  I have no knowledge.  It is a beautiful plant. 

 

[Okanagancook]

17 hours ago, Shelby said:

Beautiful!!!  I might make the relish kind this time.....be great poured over cream cheese with crackers.

Here is a much better picture of the CC.  Having on eggs this am.

[chromedome]

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I thought I had asked this question before, but I am old and anyhow I can't find the question or the answer:

 

How does one tell when an eggplant is ready to pick?  I harvested some earlier in the summer but the flesh was somewhat green and astringent.  Now I am afraid my fruits are rotting.  Can anyone help?  I asked Alexa and she didn't know.

 

 

[Shelby]

28 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I thought I had asked this question before, but I am old and anyhow I can't find the question or the answer:

 

How does one tell when an eggplant is ready to pick?  I harvested some earlier in the summer but the flesh was somewhat green and astringent.  Now I am afraid my fruits are rotting.  Can anyone help?  I asked Alexa and she didn't know.

 

 

I am willing to bet they are ready to pick right now.  They are over ripe when the purple starts turning a brownish whitish color.  They say when you gently squeeze one, if you leave prints, then it's not ripe yet--but that's hard for me to judge.  The outside should be firm and glossy....like I said, it's been growing all summer, bet'cha it's nice and ready to pick.

[KennethT]

I never knew there was such a thing as an unripe, or ripe for that matter, eggplant...  I thought they were like zucchini in that respect. They don't really ripen - they just get bigger.

Edited September 14, 2017 by KennethT (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

I am willing to bet they are ready to pick right now.  They are over ripe when the purple starts turning a brownish whitish color.  They say when you gently squeeze one, if you leave prints, then it's not ripe yet--but that's hard for me to judge.  The outside should be firm and glossy....like I said, it's been growing all summer, bet'cha it's nice and ready to pick.

 

Thanks @Shelby

 

It figures, almost all mine are brownish white.  I'm so sorry I didn't ask a month ago.

 

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I never knew there was such a thing as an unripe, or ripe for that matter, eggplant...  I thought they were like zucchini in that respect. They don't really ripen - they just get bigger.

 

Yeah, it happens.  They are different than the zukes.  I made the mistake of not tasting one a couple years ago before I roasted it and threw it into a huge batch of spaghetti sauce.  Bitter bitter bitter and the whole batch was ruined.  Made me so mad.

2 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Thanks @Shelby

 

It figures, almost all mine are brownish white.  I'm so sorry I didn't ask a month ago.

 

Well, I speak from great experience.  I have some on the vine right now that are the white/brown color and they are bitter as hell.  I just couldn't use them up in time.

 

Jo, listen, I don't want to deter you...maybe yours are more edible.  I would for sure test one.