Peppers Peppers Everywhere!

This weekend was all about using up some peppers before they started to go bad out in the garden.  One bad thing about having a garden so big is not having the amount of time needed this time of year to get everything used up, and I HATE to waste!

Saturday I spent the day making some homemade pasta sauce to be later used with stuffed peppers.  I turned out great but needed about 24 hrs straight of simmering to get thick enough.  I used my victorio strainer to process the tomatoes - its so awesome.  You don't have to blanch and remove and skins, and all that you are left with is seeds and skins.   I strained the meat/juice coming out so the sauce would start out thicker than normal.  The juice I boiled to make homemade tomato juice. 

Future sauce....

Straining....

Out of all the maters, this is the only waste... skins and seeds.

Once I got the sauce started, it was time for poppers...  and boy did I forget how long these things take!  The longest (and most tedious) is halving and deseeding all the peppers!  I have found that using a grapefruit spoon is the best tool for deseeding!

Lots of peppers...

At least it looked like I was having fun... with sexy rubber gloves and all!

My assembly line... 
halved peppers, then cheese filling, then egg, then crushed cornflakes. 

The final product... oh so so yummy!!

I made 6 cookie sheets full - at that point I ran out of the cheese filling ingredients.  We bought more the next day (and actually that is what I will be working on when I'm done writing up this blog).  I didn't finish the poppers till 1am with cleanup & such.

Recipe is (I normally do a double or triple batch).  I think even with single batch you need more than 15 peppers...

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 15 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1 1/2 cups crushed corn flake cereal

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, sharp Cheddar cheese and mayonnaise. Stuff jalapeno halves with the mixture.
3. Whisk together eggs and milk in a small bowl. Place crushed corn flake cereal in a separate small bowl.
4. Dip each stuffed jalapeno half into the egg and milk mixture, then roll in corn flake cereal to coat.
5. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and lightly browned.

Sunday morning I started out making some hot sauce.  I started with a Jalapeno hot sauce using the green jalapenos that were too thin or short to be really good for poppers.

Sauteing with the onions and garlic.

After they were doing cooking for 20mins with water.  Water is pretty much gone at the end.

After blending it all up and added the vinegar.

ready to give away as gifts...

I doubled this recipe as well since I had so many I needed to use up.  I fill 4 1/2 pint jars which I canned/sealed - one left over not completely full that we just put in the frig to use now.

Ingredients

    1 teaspoon vegetable oil
    20 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1/2 cup minced onion
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    2 cups water
    1 cup distilled white vinegar

Directions

    In a medium glass or enamel lined sauce pan over high heat, combine oil, peppers, garlic, onion and salt; saute for 4 minutes. Add the water and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
    Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree until smooth. With the processor running, slowly add the vinegar.

Next I made stuffed bell peppers to freeze for winter.  I was searching for a different way to make them this time (vegetarian recipe) and came across a couple that we want to try.  I was gonna do one batch of one, and another of the other - but after making the 1st batch I had so much stuffing left over that I just did all 17 peppers with the one recipe.  Was super easy and oh so good!

Peppers fresh out of the oven!

We made some mashed potatoes from the garden potatoes to go with dinner... you can't eat stuffed peppers without mashed potatoes... I think its a law or something!

Dinner was so good!  We even added some of the 1st hot sauce to the taters & pepper!
The pasta sauce turned out wonderfully as well!

The recipe for these peppers is:

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 4 green bell peppers
• 16 slices Swiss cheese
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a saucepan bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Combine cooked rice with black beans and chili powder. Cut the tops off of the peppers and remove the ribs and seeds. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the rice and bean mixture into the bottoms of the peppers. Lay a slice of cheese on top and repeat 3 more times, ending with cheese on top.
4. Bake in preheated oven until peppers soften, about 45 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, heat tomato sauce in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Slice peppers in half, top with tomato sauce and serve. 

The 2nd hot sauce I made was with the red jalapenos.  This one I have sitting in my frig in a quart jar now with a note for me to remember to strain on Sept 25th.  

 

This last one just looked so perfect... reminded me of the Chili's restaurant logo

After it cooked and cooled down...  right before I blended it.

recipe for this one is:

Homemade Tabasco Style Hot Sauce Recipe

Because the chiles are not aged in oak barrels for three years, this will be only a rough approximation of the famous McIlhenny product. You will have to grow your own tabasco peppers or substitute dried ones that have been rehydrated. Other small, hot, fresh red chiles can also be substituted for the tabascos.

1 pound fresh red tabasco chiles, chopped
2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Combine the chiles and the vinegar in a saucepan and heat. Stir in the salt and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cool, and place in a blender. Puree until smooth and place in a glass jar. Allow to steep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Remove, strain the sauce, and adjust the consistency by adding more vinegar if necessary.

Now with all these peppers cooking in the kitchen - it sometimes got a little hard to breathe in there... I think Alexander was trying to save himself....

I was gonna also make hot sauce with the serrano peppers today as well - but just ran out of time.  Luckily I hadn't picked them yet.  Wanted to make sure I used up the jalapenos since they were all picked already.  I'll have to make that sauce something later this week.