Conversation Killing Chili Sauce

This stuff is good - really good - but it is certainly not for the faint of heart or tastebuds. This recipe makes a chili sauce that is sweet and tangy up front, but then kicks your ass with the heat on the back end. This is a general recipe for the small batch that I made last week, you would need to at least double to get a whole small jar.

Stuff You Need

o  Large mortar and pestle

o  25 dried chili peppers (I used new mex twilight, machu piccu and thai chilis)

o  4-6 garlic cloves, peeled and diced

o  salt

o  sugar

o  1 tsp Ethiopian curry

o  1/2 tsp powdered ginger

o  3/4 tsp mustard seed

o  1/2-1 cup rice vinegar

o  1/4 tsp orange zest

Putting it Together

Grind the chili peppers with the mortar and pestle until they  take on a uniform texture and there are no large flakes or chunky bits. Add the garlic and grind until thoroughly blended into a paste. Add in the ginger, mustard, curry, a small pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of sugar to start. Grind well. 

Add a few tablespoons of rice vinegar at a time, mixing and grinding well before adding more. The desired texture is thick and wet (see below pic). Once you've got the texture right, taste a tiny bit and see if you need to add more salt (maybe) or sugar (probably). Add orange zest and grind.

Add sauce to a skillet and simmer over medium high heat until any excess liquid has cooked off, being careful not to let anything burn. 

Remove from heat, let cool, and pour into a sterile jar. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. 

Enjoy responsibly! 

The Stew to End All Stews

I really, really like stew. I like to cook it and eat it and share it with the people in my life. I've tried out a number of stews over the years, and this is the one that I make now.  A good stew is labor intensive and takes time, so make sure you have at least 3-4 hours to get down.

Stuff You Need

o  Cooking oil & olive oil

o  16-20 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

o  2 cups diced onion

o  3-3.5 lbs stew beef, cut into small cubes, 1"x1"

o  1.5-2 cups dry red wine

o  2 cups chopped carrot

o  2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

o  1 teaspoon black pepper

o  2 bay leaves

o  2 cups beef broth

o  2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, with juice

o  3 pounds peeled potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces 

o  1 cup water

o  1 tablespoon butter

o  2-3 tablespoons flour

o  1.5 cups green beans, stems removed, cut into 1”-2" pieces

o  2 cups portabella mushrooms, cut into pieces

Putting it Together

Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat a large Dutch oven or all metal soup pot over medium-high heat. Coat pot with cooking oil. Add garlic and sauté until it begins to brown. Set the garlic aside in a big bowl and re-coat the pan with oil. Sauté your onions until they get translucent and tender, and then add them to the garlic bowl and re-coat the pot with oil. Add 1/3 of the beef to the pan and brown it on all sides. Dump the meat and meat juice in the garlic bowl. Repeat until all meat is browned and added to the garlic/onions.

Add wine to pot and bring it to a boil. Add beef, onions and garlic to the pot, and stir in beef broth, tomatoes (with juice) and water. Add bay leaves, pepper and rosemary. Bring to a boil and then add carrots and 1/3 of your potatoes - these will cook into the broth. Turn off the stove, cover the pot and bake at 300°. 

Now is a good time to prep your mushrooms. Heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and add mushrooms. Sauté until cooked down and tender, adding salt and pepper to taste. Put mushrooms and juices aside in a bowl. Wash your pan and melt the butter, adding in the flour until it makes a nice thick roux.

Remove the stew pot from the oven after an hour to an hour and a half. Add the rest of the potatoes, beans, mushrooms and roux. Now is a good time to test the broth and see what's going on. You may want to add more broth, wine or water, salt and pepper or other spices. When you're satisfied, cover the pot and bake for another hour and a half to two hours. 

Fish the bay leaves out of the pot and serve with nice crusty bread.

So I Guess It's Spring...

All the plants seem to think do anyway. We've only had 3.25 inches of rain so far this year, and our average high for February has been 62. I've got new growth on the raspberries, pomegranate, jasmine and wisteria and flower buds on the grapefruit, lemon and blood orange. I decided theres no arguing with mother nature, so it's best to just go with the flow and get a head start on summer.

I bought a sweet new shovel to replace the one that was douchily stolen from our backyard a month ago, and last week I started a bunch of seeds for the Summer 2012 garden. We've got heirloom tomatoes, sweet and chili peppers, dill, English lavender, echinacea and Roman chamomile. For info on seed starting, check my posts from last year on the subject.

This year I'm using peat pots again, but actually using potting soil, so I should already be ahead of the game :) We're adding more tomato varieties to this year's garden and a number of chili peppers I haven't grown before. I started two of each type below, and three San Marzano seeds in anticipation of my growing saucing needs:

Tomatoes
-Black Cherry
-Black Krim
-Black Prince
-Evergreen
-Green Copia
-Jaune Flamme
-Pink Ping Pong
-Primrose Gage
-Random Annie
-Red Cushion
-San Marzano
-Super Snow White

Peppers
-Sweet Bell Mix
-Sweet Cherry
-Thai Chili
-New Mew Twilight Chili
-Machu Picchu/Charapita Chili
-Scotch Bonnet Chili
-Hawaiian Chili

Somehow four of the tomatoes germinated in four days. About half of them are up now, seven days after sowing. The chamomile has been up a few days, the dill is working on it, but I have one solitary one pepper seedling barely poking through the surface. Some of my hot pepper varieties can take up to 45 days to germinate, so here's to me finding the patience to wait for them all. Game on!