Zingy Pepper Soup

I’ve still got a lot of peppers left from last week’s share. Maybe you do, too. I thought I’d make some savory pepper soup; this cool weather is just right for a hot and spicy soup.

The recipe is from a cookbook titled The Vegetarian Epicure. A friend of ours gave it to us 29 years ago, solely because he was dating a girl who was a vegetarian at the time. He was gamely eating soy burgers, but I think he knew the food could be better, and he knew we grew a lot of vegetables in the backyard. He was probably angling for a dinner invitation with an appetizing eggplant entree. Maybe.

Anyway, the cookbook has served me well over the years, and this pepper soup recipe is one of my favorites. Use a mixture of sweet and hot peppers and it will still have that zing, without making you cry for mercy as your eyes water.

Pepper Soup
1 cup peppers, finely chopped
2 lbs. ripe tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1/12 cups water
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 ½ tsp fresh grated lemon peel
Salt and black pepper
1 cup cooked brown rice
Sour cream
Fresh dill, parsley, or basil

Pick out an assortment of small and medium sized peppers—yellow, orange, red, and green, sweet and hot. The more hot peppers in the assortment, the more fiery the soup. You’ll need about 10 to 12 peppers. Wash them, cut them open, discard all the seeds and pulp, and chop the rest very fine (you can use a food processor). You should have 1 cup of finely chopped peppers.

Scaled the tomatoes and peel them. Chop the onion. Now, put all the vegetables, including the minced peppers, into the food processor and puree them. Transfer them to a pot, add the water, and simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the flour to make a roux. Cook it awhile, stirring all the time, and then pour in a little of the hot vegetable mixture. Whisk it to make a smooth sauce, then pour it back into the soup. Continue to stir and simmer the soup mixture for about 10 minutes.

Add the lemon peel, grind in the fresh black pepper, and add salt to taste. Stir in the cooked brown rice, heat through, and serve the soup garnished with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped herbs. Serves 4.

Forecast Calls for More Corn, So Make Some Chowder

We’ll likely be getting some more corn in this week’s share, though probably not the dozens of ears we got last week. Hope you’re not bored with corn yet; it’s a delicious vegetable and ever so versatile. How many other vegetables can you make soup, bread, and pudding out of?

We’ve already had a corn pudding recipe, and you can make corn bread from your favorite recipe and just throw in some corn kernels. So, today let’s look at soup.
Chowder, actually, and this one even uses the cobs. It’s adapted from a recipe I found on SimplyRecipes.com.

Corn Chowder
1 Tablespoon butter
2 slices of bacon
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 ears of sweet corn, kernels removed from cobs (but keep the cobs, too)
3½ cups milk
1 medium-sized Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
1 bell pepper (red or orange is good, but green is okay too)
1 teaspoon chopped basil
½ teaspoon sea salt
Ground pepper
Small bag of frozen cooked shrimp (optional)

Fry the bacon in your soup pot; take out the bacon strips and drain. Add the butter to the soup pot and then add the onion and sauté for about 4 or 5 minutes, until it is soft but not brown. Add the chopped celery and cook for another 4 or 5 minutes. Then break the corn cobs in half and add them to the saucepan. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a very low simmer, cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes. Make sure the heat is as low as possible to prevent scalding the milk on the bottom of the pan.

Discard the cobs, turn up the heat again, and add the potatoes, chopped bell pepper, chopped basil, sea salt, and ground pepper to taste, bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer for 15 minutes. Then raise the heat again, add the corn kernels and the optional shrimp (defrosted a bit by running water over them). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, until corn is cooked and shrimp are heated through. Crumble the reserved bacon over the top of the soup, stir in, and serve.

I decided to add the shrimp after I made the chowder because the smell of the soup while it was cooking reminded me of a shrimp and corn chowder I had made in the past; I’m sure this would be perfectly delicious without the shrimp, too.

Very Varied Vegetable Gratin

I’m sure everyone has been enjoying their corn, but we got lots of other vegetables in the share last week, and with the eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and squash, I was thinking ratatouille. But when looking up recipes, I found a few for a vegetable gratin, and that sounded so good I made that instead. I used a little of one recipe, a little of another, and came up with this.

I made this for a potluck attended by a bunch of finicky musicians (okay, they aren’t finicky—they’ll eat anything, but they are quite honest about their reviews of what they eat), and they all went back for seconds. It was very well received, and I’ll definitely make it again and hope to get more than a few bites myself next time.

Vegetable Gratin
2 smallish eggplants, partially peeled (peel off strips, leaving skin every other strip)
1 small to medium zucchini
1 medium pattypan squash
1 red or purple pepper, seeded and sliced
1 onion, sliced thin
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
12 roma tomatoes, sliced
½ cup mozzarella, shredded
¼ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Olive oil
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Partially peel the eggplants and then slice into rounds about a half-inch thick. Cut the rounds into halves or quarters, so they are about bite size. Sprinkle the pieces with salt and arrange on rack for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the garlic and slice the onion. Peel the zucchini, cut in rounds, and cut the rounds into halves or quarters. Cut the pattypan squash into bite-size pieces, too. Slice the tomatoes. Then put a little olive oil in a skillet and add the onion and sugar. Sauté the onion until soft, stirring so it doesn’t burn, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook it for another 2 minutes or so. Add about four sliced tomatoes and cook for 2 or 3 more minutes.

Spread the onion/garlic/tomato mixture over the bottom of a baking dish (8” square or 7” x 11” casserole). Then add a little olive oil to the skillet and cook the eggplant pieces, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove the eggplant from heat and let cool a little.

In a large bowl, toss the zucchini, pattypan squash, pepper, and tomato slices with about a tablespoon or two of olive oil, the chopped basil, and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Then layer the eggplant and the other vegetables in the casserole on top of the onion mixture in the casserole.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes, then take the casserole out and sprinkle with grated mozzarella, then bread crumbs, then parmesan cheese. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until cheese is brown and bubbly.

Up to Your Knees in Tomatoes? Try Unpeeled Tomato Salsa

I’ve done well keeping up with the produce this season—until this week. We went out to eat twice. Big mistake; that’s all it takes for the tomatoes and peppers and okra and everything else to start piling up.

I had used oodles of tomatoes making tomato bisque and more gazpacho over the weekend, but there were still plenty. I had the idea of making jambalaya, a great thing to make when all sorts of produce is piling up, but I had put it off. Suddenly it was Thursday and there were still a LOT of tomatoes around, even though I put them in eggs, on every sandwich, in cottage cheese, layered with mozzarella and basil, and on and on.

Salsa sounded good, but peeling a bunch of tomatoes to make it did not. So, I thought, let’s experiment. I got out my Swiss Zyllis vegetable chopper (the kind they sell at fancy kitchenware parties; a neighbor lured me to one of those parties years ago, so I have one). I chopped a lot of tomatoes, cored but unskinned, and a few peppers, plus some garlic and onion. Then I added some herbs and spices, and I think the experiment was successful. It’s a bit hot, but not uncomfortably so—serve it with a little sangria and it will balance out nicely, I think.

Quick and Easy Unpeeled Tomato Salsa

8-10 very ripe tomatoes, cored* but not peeled
2-3 bell peppers, green or red or purple or yellow
2 red chile peppers
2 jalapenos, roasted
4 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (you could substitute chopped fresh basil)
½ tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. coriander
¼ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. lime juice

*Core the tomatoes by cutting out the white center in a cone shape around the stem end of the fruit.

Slice the tomatoes, then chop them finely with the food chopper. Toss them in a good size bowl, pulling out any large pieces of skin that don’t get chopped. Roast the jalapenos by holding them over a gas flame with a fork, or put them under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Scrape off the black bits. Seed all the peppers, the bell peppers, chile peppers, and roasted jalapenos, and chop them up finely. Throw them in the bowl. Chop the garlic and onions and add them to the bowl. Stir things up with a spoon, add the spices and lime juice, and enjoy with chips. Makes about 3-4 cups.

Addendum: Refrigerate overnight (or at least for several hours) to let the flavors meld before serving this salsa.

When Life Gives You Cucumbers, Make Relish

In my refrigerator, I had homemade mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup. Clearly I needed to give homemade pickle relish a try. And heaven knows I had enough raw materials, in the form of cucumbers and peppers.

So, I trolled the Internet looking for likely recipes, and I also consulted the Mango Relish recipe that has appeared on this blog. Then I looked at what I had in the way of ingredients, and I came up with my own recipe, which made three half-pints of relish, enough to enjoy and share. It was fairly quick and easy—and accommodating. I had intended to let the vegetables pickle for about an hour, but a small emergency called me away from the kitchen for longer than that, and the relish still turned out fine. Thus, “1 to 3 hours” in the refrigerator, depending on your own schedule, will work, I think.

After I made the pickle relish and it aged for a couple of days, I found I was the only one home for dinner one evening. I’m not a big hamburger lover, but we always have a few nice sirloin patties from Findlay Market’s Eckerlein Meats in the freezer because my son does like burgers a lot. So, I defrosted one and put it on the grill, then ate it on a homemade bun with homemade mayo, mustard, and pickle relish. I even baked some skinny fries (from a bag, I will admit) to dunk in the homemade ketchup. It was all delicious.

What’s next in the world of condiments? Well, there is still chutney, and as it happens, I have a few recipes for some delicious chutneys that use all sorts of things we have in abundance, such as tomatoes and peppers. So look for more condiment news soon!

Sweet Pickle Relish

2 cups cucumbers, peeled, deseeded,* and chopped (1 or 2 of the smaller ones)
1 cup chopped white onions (about 1 large onion)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red or purple bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsps. kosher salt

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tsps. celery seeds
2 tsps. mustard seeds
¼ tsp. turmeric
¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

*Deseed a cucumber by cutting it in half longways and scooping the seeds out with a spoon.

Directions

Chop the cucumbers, onions, and peppers to about a quarter-inch mince. Using a food processor makes them too mushy and too fine; you can chop them with a knife or use one of those push-down choppers, they do the trick well.

Put all the vegetables and the minced garlic in a large bowl or pan and sprinkle with the salt. Cover with ice and let stand in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours. Drain the water and ice from the vegetables in a colander, and press out as much liquid as you can from the veggies, too.

Combine the sugar, vinegar, spices, and seeds in a large pot (big enough for the vegetables, too) and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables, bring back to a boil, then turn down the heat a bit and simmer for 10 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables to sterilized jars—you want some liquid, but not too much. Fill jars to about a ½ inch below the top, then get out the air bubbles with a wooden spoon handle and pour in a little of the liquid to fill in the spaces between the chopped vegetables. Put on lids and bands and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Make sure you hear the lids click when the jars cool.

If you plan to eat and share the pickle relish within a couple of weeks, you can just ladle it into sterilized jars and refrigerate without processing; processed jars will keep in the pantry for six months or more.

Riffling Through—and Interpreting—Old “Mango” Recipes

Because we got so many varicolored peppers in this week’s share, my mom called me looking for an old recipe for relish made from mangoes—an old name for sweet peppers—that she had given me. It took a little while, but I found it typed on its original 3 x 5 index card, probably from the 1960s. I sent it to her, and then decided I’d put it on the blog, too. It’s quite succinct, but I’ll warn you—a fifty-year-old recipe needs a little interpretation, which follows. Also, I’ve halved the recipe (it originally called for two dozen “mangoes”) but you can easily double this if the peppers keep coming.

Uphouse[1] Mango[2] Relish

1 dozen red and green MANGOES (soak in HOT water[3])
8 lg. onions[4]
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. white mustard seed
1/2 Tbsp. celery seed
1 cup white vinegar

Put all peppers thru food chopper with a large knife[5] and cover with boiling water[6]. Let stand 10 minutes. Add onions and rest of ingredients. Cook 10 minutes and seal hot[7].

1. My grandparents’ neighbors were called the Uphouses, and as a kid I assumed it was because they lived in a house up at the top of my grandparents’ yard, but it turns out their name actually was “Uphouse.”
2. When I was a kid, we didn’t have green peppers; they were called mangoes. I’m told that no one around here ever ate tropical mangoes, but as green peppers turned orange and red, they looked a little like those tropical fruit, and so they got the name. I expect a few people still call them mangoes, but this mango relish uses green and red peppers. I’m sure you can substitute purple and white peppers as well.
3. I don’t know what this direction means. Do you soak them before you chop them, or after? I just don’t know.
4. My guess is you want to chop the onions, too.
5. A food chopper with a large knife—sounds like a proto-food processor, so I’m assuming you could chop them, pulsing before they turn to mush, or use a knife or some other chopping device.
6. How much boiling water? Hmmm. To cover. And it never says to drain the water. Do you? Or do you just throw in the sugar, salt, seeds, and vinegar on top of that water? Another mystery.
7. Seal hot is concise shorthand for a canning process—you want to put the hot mixture in sterilized jars, put on the lids and rings, and then put the jars in a boiling water bath. Since it has vinegar in the mixture, you don’t need to pressure can the relish, as it’s acidic. Probably best to leave it in the boiling water bath for 5 to 10 minutes. When you take the jars out, you should hear them click as the seal forms.

If you expect to eat the relish with a couple of weeks, you can probably safely put it in sterilized jars and refrigerate it without canning. And let me know if you figure out the hot water soak and whether or not to drain the boiling water. I’ll probably give it a try at some point, so if I figure it out I’ll post an addendum to this blog entry, too. One final note: As I recall, this relish is really delicious, well worth trying with our large "mango" harvest.

Autumn, Thanksgiving, and What I Ate

This photo shows what was left after a broiled "salad" of tomatoes and pesto from the Enright CSA, layered with some fresh mozzarella. It looked so pretty when I was finished, I thought I should take a photo of it. I'm pretty sure there's a Kandinsky at the Cleveland Art Museum that looks a lot like it . . .

The salad was adapted from a recipe from fellow CSA member Carolanne Frame; she used fresh basil in her recipe but I used pesto instead. It's easy to do, just slice tomatoes and mozarella and layer with basil or pesto, then broil until the cheese gets bubbly. Then drizzle over a little vinaigrette (or just basalmic vinegar and olive oil), and it's a great salad for a cold winter's day.

Even though it's getting colder, we're still enjoying some fresh produce. I made a great pepper soup today, with the fire toned down just a bit with brown rice and sour cream. We've also had some "porridges" of turnip, potato, squash, and beets, and I'm using some eggplants I roasted and froze (just the pulp) to make baba ganoush for Thanksgiving. I've also used some of those frozen cubes of pesto to make pesto bread, which was very delicious.

And, a grand experiment--there is sauerkraut bubbling away in the root cellar. I have a very vague memory of my grandmother and great aunt having a barrel where sauerkraut fermented down in the basement, so if this works, maybe I'll get a barrel.

We'll have a bit of produce from the CSA for Thanksgiving--a few more of those peppers and a couple of late-turning tomatoes in the salad; some sweet potatoes that still look good made into a casserole; the baba ganoush with eggplant and a little garlic that's still left. Then, as winter settles in, we'll have to go to the freezer and the root cellar for the green beans, pear butter, and pickles. Maybe not all at the same meal . . .

Oh, and here's what the broiled tomato-mozarella caprese salad looked like before it was eaten--before it was broiled, too.

Apples & Corn

The harvest on Saturday included apples and corn, both welcome. However, they weren't grown at the Enright CSA. We don't have any apple trees yet (but give us time); they were from an orchard in Bridgetown. And corn requires a lot of space, so maybe when we get some more growing space we can grown our own. But it's nice that we are able to support other local farms by buying some produce to add to the shares a few times a year.

I had some of the corn in a bean dip at a party at fellow CSA member Tina Michel's house on Saturday night, and I will admit to picking up the last kernels on my plate with my fingers when my tortilla chips were gone, it was so tasty. I noticed that another young CSA member enjoyed her corn straight from the cob. (Thanks for sharing that photo, Michael Frazier!) I had an apple for breakfast this morning, and it was great, too, crisp and sharply sweet.

It was altogether a beautiful share this week, with the first of the peppers (the purple peppers are almost too pretty to eat--almost), a tomato, and even an eggplant on the share table. I think it's been our most colorful share so far, and it made a feast for the eyes, set out for pickup (good job, team) even before we all took it home to cook up a few feasts for the table.