what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

Fruit butters are my fave. Last week I had a bunch of peaches that were ripening faster than we could eat them in cereal/oatmeal/etc so I made a small batch of peach butter. Light on spice, a goodly amount of citric acid, good result, very peachy.

T/S peach butter vs peach moonshine

(I used to have a connection for the latter and it had frightening qualities)

peach butter sounds amazing
peaches are one of the absolute best things about summer

pork medallions in a plum, balsamic and garlic sauce with buttery mash

yes it was great but /old dmac look away now/ im more and more regretting pretty much any meal i make with basically any quadruped meat and may in time start to edge in the same direction with poultry so im marking ut a regretful 8/10

the exquisite aroma of some decent balsamic cooking over some sizzling meat is what I live for some days

So good

Chili 8/25/2024
Ingredients!!!!

6 Six-inch corn tortillas, chopped into 1” pieces, baked at 350F for 10 minutes
4 Shallots, diced
1 White Onion, diced
2 Serrano Peppers, diced
4 Dried Arbol Chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into 1” pieces
4 Chipotles in adobo sauce, diced
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
2 12oz Impossible Beef
1 12oz Field Roast Spicy Chorizo
2 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Coriander
2 tsp Oregano
2 tsp Brown Sugar
2 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Sumac
2 Bay Leaves
1 10oz Can Ro-Tel Tomatoes & Hatch chiles
1 15oz Can Fire Roasted diced Tomatoes
1 15oz Can Black Beans
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Abita Amber Lager or similar
2 Cups Better Than Bouillon Chipotle “Stock”

Chuck all the things into a slow cooker. Cook on high for five hours or so. Stir every once in a while to make yourself feel alive. Serve immediately with grated cheese on top, sour cream and green onions too if that’s your thing.

peaches are one of the absolute best things about summer

Absolutely
Peaches, nectarines, decent strawberries. We grow raspberries too which are great.

I made this pasta last night, which is a late summer staple when I need to use up peppers.

Pasta with yellow pepper sauce

It is amazingly rich and satisfying. If you are using green peppers or your peppers are less sweet, add a few small pinches of sugar like I usually do.

pork medallions in a plum, balsamic and garlic sauce with buttery mash

I'm gonna need it to be like OCTOBER before I can cook something this rich but hell yes.

Tombot, that is just a TON of ingredients for something that's one final mass/product (as opposed to like, a protein plus a side plus a sauce and a topping, and so on). Do you feel like an alchemist, slowly dropping grains of sumac into your bubbling concoction?

it has been a cool and rainy august :(

yes half the fun of chili-craft is feeling like an alchemist

and getting to put the spice drawer to good use

the transmutation of beans and meat

(or meat-like products)

I miss growing hot peppers and making hot sauce out of them. Some future year, hopefully.

The fermented mango-habanero hot sauce with carrot and onion in it for color and body was really a slam dunk and I'd love to keep it in regular rotation.

I've been making my own chili powder blend, specifically for this vegan recipe, which is absolutely awesome: https://rainbowplantlife.com/vegan-chili/

ooh jaq that looks great

What's the chili pepper blend like??

I have whole dried chilies that I grew a while back but they need to be ground up and I haven't sacrificed an old coffee grinder to using for spices yet. lol

I made my own chili pepper blend too but I just bought a bunch of chile en polvo and put it in a plastic container. I also can’t remember which chiles I chose
Lol
My cooking has gotten very haphazard in the last few years.

Feeding yourself, much less other people, is an eternal burden. I eat very haphazardly myself (thank goodness for halal takeout and nachos) and I skip dinner 5-6 nights a week and make things in bulk so I'm just heating up leftovers much of the time.

im more and more regretting pretty much any meal i make with basically any quadruped meat and may in time start to edge in the same direction with poultry

I hate it but soft same. But all the alternatives to meat proteins either activate my ick even more or make me feel horrible. Will have to find some balance here for sure.

a food processor will pulverise dried chilis enough for a chili fwiw

don't you Mericans put cinnamon and cocoa powder into your chillis? I like the ingredients of that chilli recipe. But I'm not into this idea of throwing onions/protein/peppers into a slow cooker without well and good browning them in a pan first.

I think I'm going to make a slow cooker lamb chilli tomorrow, by the time I get home, won't be in the mood for cooking.

I'm not into this idea of throwing onions/protein/peppers into a slow cooker without well and good browning them in a pan first.

What's the chili pepper blend like??

It's a lot more aromatic than store-bought. I used arbol, guajillo, and New Mexico. And yes, a food processor is enough to break it down.

Cocoa powder is there to add a bitter profile, which I like. I've seen some recipes add sweetened dark chocolate, but I almost never add sweeteners to my entrees.

xp

I wash the pan out on the hob with some beer/wine/water and pour it in, more precious flavour. but yeah washing up can become a full time agony.

what's in your lamb chilli?

it will be frozen lamb mince, brown onions, bell peppers, red/green chillis, some fresh tomatoes some tinned, stock, tomato puree, honey, cinnamon, cocoa powder, cayenne, hot chilli powder, cumin, red kidney beans, chickpeas, dried oregano, a bulb of garlic and hopefully some fresh coriander to garnish. Nothing groundbreaking, really - quite Jamie Oliver level pedestrian! With some boiled rice and oven fries and some soured cream

I have whole dried chilies that I grew a while back but they need to be ground up and I haven't sacrificed an old coffee grinder to using for spices yet. lol

the way i treat dried chiles is to toast in a cast iron, pour some boiling water just to cover, and blenderize, fwiw.

many xps

^^^
This is the way.

(Though I did just dry grind some guajillo and arbol peppers last night for a fajita spice mix.)

Good idea and I do that when I'm making posole but it's a lot of extra work for adding a shake of chili flakes to something. Maybe I'll get my mortar & pestle back from my ex. He's going to be mad about it but o well.

tonight: fettucine with toasted/broiled chickpeas & broccoli, lemon ricotta sauce

I’m doing chilaquiles because we need to use up some ingredients.

Also it’s time to try something new!

Recent cooks:

Kimchi stew
“Jitto’s steak bombs” - these are basically cheesesteaks
Okinawan taco rice

Oh and sausages with a rice pilaf made in the zojirushi - came out great

Today is overcomplicated slow cooker chili day again and the house smells wonderful

I am making HOT SAUCE

https://i.imgur.com/qXPFMJp.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/ErTGbbm.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/e4WAW7G.jpeg

red sauce: roasted red pepper, carrots, the Ghost peppers, those long orange ones, whatever those red ones are (hoping not scorpion lol), some of the purple.

green sauce: roasted poblano, yellow onion, whatever those green ones are (a shishito hybrid), most of the purple.

fermenting in water, salt, apple cider vinegar, and a bit of sugar to kickstart things

I was going to ask what those long orange ones were - super beautiful.

I'm gonna try and circle back with the farm stand I got them from (they are friends) and get some IDs on the ones I don't know.

pretty sure the red ones are

https://victoryseeds.com/products/habanero-red-hot-pepper

Those are the peppers I had my little episode with about a year ago (upthread).

duly noted, keep in mind this same sauce also has 8 oz of ghost peppers

Never had this happen before.

We get various chili peppers from our CSA. Over the years they have ranged from not hot at all to very hot. I have a decent heat tolerance, love Thai and Indian that is very hot. I mostly just sweat a lot. One time we had one chili that was so hot that when it hit the wok, we had to leave the room.

Sometimes we get habaneros. I've made habanero hot sauces and salsa that I can eat straight on chips, no problem.

We got chilis this week that looked like habaneros but were bright red. I was dicing it up before adding it to a stir-fry and luckily did a taste test. This pepper was so hot a brief touch with my index finger to the outside of the pepper and then touching my tongue with the same finger produced a point of pain. Eating a very small piece (no seeds) produced extreme physical pain throughout my mouth and throat that lasted at least 30 minutes. It was orders of magnitude hotter than any chili I have ever had.

I know chilis can be hot to the touch, use gloves, etc., but never had an issue with handling them barehanded except for accidentally touching my eyes after chopping once in a while. I still didn't realize how hot this pepper was, because after washing my hands three times, I used the bathroom and (apologies for TMI) realized the side of my penis that I had touched was on fire. This lasted at least 15 minutes after washing the area with soap and water.

In sum: this was a very hot chili.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Wednesday, October 4, 2023 7:49 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

yikes!

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday, October 4, 2023 7:54 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao amazing story. good reminder to stay vigilant

― flopson, Wednesday, October 4, 2023 8:00 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

note: I have had scorpion pepper before, my tolerance is high, it was delicious but I woke up in the middle of the night with agonizing stomach pain and regretted it all

this is pure experimentation, I want something hotter than

https://www.hot-chili-sauce.com/258-large_default/sauce-marie-sharps-beware.jpg

"Comatose Heat Level"