The best things I made all year

Now that I have most of this year's garden in, its time to start deciding what I'm going to preserve this year, and how.  Each year, I rule in a few favorites and rule out a few duds.

Celery root soup drizzled with chile relish oil

A scattered list of my 2012 favorites:

Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish:
Linda Ziedrich. The Joy Of Pickling.

Marinated tofu, rice noodle stir fry

This stuff is amazing for everything.  Its spicy, colorful, garlicky, salty, briny, and bright.  If Sriracha is your thing, its only because you've never had this stuff.  If you want to make your own Sriracha, you can do it from this...by adding lots of sugar.  Or, you can just have all the freshness and flavor of the relish itself.  I used it to: Spice up guacamole, as an accent on beans and tortillas, in stir fry sauces, as a spicy dip for tofu, mixed with vinegar and honey for a sweet hot glaze, and dolluped on anything that needs a little spicy pungent colorful pepper.

Sauteed Arugula, preserved lemon, WW pasta and chile relish

Whey Fermented Hot Sauce:
Well Preserved. Lactofermented Hot Sauce.

Fermented hot sauces

I was all peppered out.  I'd dried them, made salsa, cooked with them, pickled them, and was sick of looking at them.  But, at the end of the summer, they're abundant and cheap.  So, I seperated the green (I had mostly jalepeno, with some serrano, and gypsy), and red (mostly jalepeno with ripe serrano, orange gypsy, thai, and cajun belle).

I had the cute bottles, which I bought in bulk.  I used Velux white wine vinegar, which is my favorite.  My only regret is that I didn't make a tad more.  This is useable anywhere you'd use tobasco- salsas, drizzled on anything, guacamole, in sauces.


French Peach Sauce:
Peach Fruit Topping

Peach topping

Yes, this is a lot of sugar.  And, yes, its a sticky mess to make with peach juice dripping down your arms and off your elbows in the heat of the summer.  But, I can tell you-  its well worth the effort.  This year, I made some according to the recipe, and some with vanilla bean and a splash of brandy.  This isn't something you'll be eating every day, but it sure is magical to have on a frosty winter day, over pancakes or biscuits.

Coconut pancake with peach topping

Grilled flatbread and pizza with pickled roasted pepper 

Pickled red bell peppers- Have you ever noticed that the tall, skinny jar of these at the italian specialty market or the co-op can easily cost $7?  Can your own, add cloves of garlic, oregano and white wine vinegar, and you'll have a perfect pizza or pasta topping.  You can use the brine as a dressing.  You can mince the peppers with the garlic and a little brine for a nice relish.  You can marinate feta in the minced peppers and olive oil, and then warm it in the oven.  Or chop green olives with the peppers and garlic for an nice olive tapenade. No matter how many of these you can, you'll surely run out and find yourself contemplating buying the $7 jar.


Frozen Grilled Eggpant pulp- There will come a particular week or two in the summer when eggplant is crazy cheap, and you can buy a laundry basket full for 10bucks.  When that happens, you should grill them whole, cover and cool them, peel them, and freeze them.  Then, all winter long, you can take some out and puree it to bake baba ganouj or salata de vinete

Frozen (unblanched) Red pepper strips-  There will be another week, or maybe the same week as the eggplant, when red bell peppers will be cheap.  Maybe 20 bucks for a big bushel basket.   Buy them, as many as you think you'll eat.  Roast and can a lot of them.  But, you'll still have more.  Just wash them, pat dry, slice or cube, and freeze on a baking sheet and pack in zip locks.  You can use them just like fresh and they maintain much of the same body and texture as fresh (when cooked).

Frozen (blanched) Mexi Corn- This is great for in soups, for a fajita veggie, to mix in with a bean stew or chili, and its easy to make and freeze a lot.

Salsa Cruda- Italian Style

Eggplant Parm, and cheese ravioli with Italian Salsa Cruda

This was an improvisation, for sure, that turned out amazing.  In The Joy of Pickling, there's a recipe for basic salsa, or Salsa Cruda.  Its nice because its straightforward and the proportions are easy- its like (get the book; don't quote me): 5 lbs. tomatoes, 3 lbs. peppers, 2 lbs. onion, a cup vinegar and 1 TB salt...or something.  You can vary the type of pepper (sweet or hot), and add spices like oregano or cumin.  It says to peel the tomatoes, but I skipped this step for the sake of time and pureed the whole lot, each batch, in the food processor.  And, I made lots of batches.  Its kind of watery, but can either be strained a bit or cooked down.

Batch 1 was roma with green pepper.  This was great for cooking beans in to add a lot of veggie flavor and depth; the color was kinda meh.   Batch 2 was red bell peppers and tomatoes- the color was amazing and taste very fresh.  The next few batches, I got bored and added sweet and hot red bell peppers, and oregano or basil.  My hope/plan was something of a fresh italian salsa, and I succeeded.  This stuff is SO fresh and light!  Its perfect on pasta and as a base for soups/stews.  I ended up making about 4-5 batches and have gifted quite a bit because its so unlike anything you can buy.