Harissa

I don't know what kind of strange magic happens when I make this harissa...it's really spicy and yet somehow it doesn't hurt my wimpy tongue or make me gag and cry, which is what usually happens when I eat the really hot stuff (not pretty). But I just can't get enough of this. If you've never had harissa, it's a traditional African condiment that you can put on/in almost anything (vegetables, chickpeas, chicken, fish, steak, lamb, pork, soups/stews, sandwiches). Here it is slathered on a beautiful grilled swordfish steak. Mmpf. I've been known to just dip some nice crusty bread in it. I've also been known to eat frosting with a spoon, but that's another post.

HARISSA

Yield: 3/4 to 1 cup

4 to 6 oz. bird’s eye chiles (or other very hot peppers), seeded and stemmed

12 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dried mint

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1.      Place the chiles, garlic, cilantro, salt, mint, coriander, and cumin into a blender or food processor. Process until thoroughly mixed.

2.      Add some olive oil, one tablespoon at a time, and process until the mixture is very moist, but still thick. Taste and add adjust salt.

3.      Store in a bowl or jar in the refrigerator with the remaining oil poured in a layer over the top. 

4.      Each time you use the harissa, make sure that the top surface is covered with a layer of oil before you put it back in the refrigerator. Keeps in the refrigerator for 6 months (with layer of oil on top). When you run out of harissa, you can use the oil for cooking other dishes.

Serving suggestions:

Great served with chickpeas, chicken, fish, steak, lamb or pork. Try putting a dollop in soups or stews.  Also nice on sandwiches or straight up on bread.

barely adapted from allrecipes.com (submitted by NORMM1)

hot peppers, garlic and cilantro

There were no bird's eye chiles at the store, so I went with
1 jalapeño and 2 habaneros. It's hard to say exactly how
many chiles to use since the heat varies. So you'll need to use
your best judgement, based on the type of hot peppers you buy.

everything in the food processor (except olive oil)

I don't think the addition of dried mint is
traditional, but it works (trust me). This stuff rocks.

mixed

oil added

This recipe is a paste (sometimes
harissa is made thinner, as a sauce).

storing with a layer of olive oil on top

glopped on grilled chicken

glopped on grilled swordfish

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Roasted Pineapple Salsa

This salsa is really good. Especially on carnitas tacos. But what I've been totally obsessed with ever since I went grocery shopping is the fact that the store only had gigantic containers of habaneros. I mean truly enormous (I'm guessing about 50 habaneros in each). And I wasn't at Costco (or similar warehouse type store). Those peppers are damn hot. Who the hell is using that volume of habaneros at home? I actually asked that out loud in front of two produce guys (it's not as bad as it sounds, my husband was standing nearby). One of the guys echoed my sentiment back to me. The other one said I'd be surprised how many people make large quantities of salsa at home. I didn't even know what to say to that. So I just stuck a few jalapeños in the cart. But I can't get it out of my head for some reason. Like I want to stakeout the produce department and catch someone actually buying these habaneros and find out what their plan is. When I'm feeling fairly normal, it's stuff like this that reminds me that I'm slightly mental. Of course I haven't actually been on a stakeout yet, so there's still hope. 

ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA

Makes 2 1/2 cups

4 (1/2-inch-thick) round slices fresh pineapple (1/2 pineapple)

1/4 cup mild olive oil or vegetable oil

1 medium red onion, finely chopped (1 cup)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

2 fresh habanero chiles, minced, including seeds

1/2 teaspoon fine salt, or 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1.      Set the oven to broil (alternatively, you can preheat the oven to 500° F) and preheat, or heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat. If you're using the oven broiler, position the rack 8 inches from the heat source.

2.      Brush the pineapple slices with some of the oil and roast or grill them until they're browned on both sides and tender, 5 to 6 minutes a side on the grill pan, or 8 minutes a side under the broiler. Let them cool to room temperature.

3.      Dice the pineapple (about 1/8 inch), discarding the core, and mix it in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. Season to taste with additional lime juice and salt. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to one day.

from Epicurious, April 2011 (from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibañez with JJ Goode)

pineapple

I used my apple corer to core the pineapple.
Then I realized it wasn't necessary because I was just
going to chop them up later and cut around the core.

pineapple rings

roasted pineapple rings

I used the broiler. I was going to grill them,
but it was raining and didn't seem worth it.

cilantro

pouring lime juice over chopped pineapple, red onion,
cilantro and the aforementioned habanero substitute 

roasted pineapple salsa

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Hot Pepper Jelly

I had never tried hot pepper jelly until my mother-in-law Judie served it at a party. She put out a block of cream cheese and poured the hot pepper jelly over it. I spread the combination on a cracker, took a bite and I was hooked. After that I made sure to buy hot pepper jelly whenever we visited. Until one day I found a source closer to home. But now I don't even need to leave the house (if you don't count shopping for the peppers). And the great thing about making it myself is that I can control the heat and leave out the food coloring. Sweet. (And spicy.)

HOT PEPPER JELLY

Yield: 3 pints

2/3 cup* roughly chopped hot peppers (such as habanero, jalapeño or serrano)

1 red or green bell pepper

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or white vinegar)

6 cups sugar

1 (6 oz.) box Sure-Jell Certo liquid fruit pectin (2 packets)

*Keep in mind that not all hot peppers are created equal. In fact, the small habaneros are much hotter than the larger jalapenos. So please adjust the amount to taste.

1.      Roughly chop all the peppers (you can leave in the seeds from the hot peppers if you like your jelly extra hot). Use gloves and keep your fingers away from your eyes when you chop hot peppers.

2.      Place the hot peppers and bell pepper in a blender with both the vinegars. Blend well and pour into a medium pot.

3.      Add sugar and mix well. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute.

4.      Remove from heat, strain through sieve and return to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.

5.      Remove from heat; add the liquid fruit pectin and quickly stir.

6.      Immediately pour into 6 half-pint jars (or 3 pint jars) and seal.

adapted from food.com, submitted by Jellyqueen 

I didn't measure, I just used 2 habaneros and 2 jalapeños.
I wanted to use only habaneros, so the color would be a more
vibrant orange/red, but there were only 2 left at the store.
Oh well. In the end, the green didn't take away from the
color all that much. I think it still came out looking decent.
If you want your jelly to come out green, obviously you
should use only green peppers.

I'm a little wimpy, so I removed the ribs and seeds.
This was just the right amount of heat for me. I'm
sure plenty of you out there can handle it much hotter.

hot peppers with red bell pepper and vinegars

after blending well in food processor

mixing in evaporated cane sugar

boiling for 1 minute

straining

You can skip this step if you like the bits of pepper in your jam.

strained mixture back in pot

boiling for 5 minutes

adding the liquid fruit pectin

You can add some red or green food coloring along with
the pectin if you want the color more vibrant. I didn't add
any (I don't really need my jelly to be visible from space).

mixed and ready to jar

ladling into a jar

I used 4 half-pint jars and 1 full-pint jar.

I don't know anything about real canning, so I used the hot
water bath method: Place jars in a large pot with a rack on
the bottom. Cover jars with 1-2 inches of water and boil for
5 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.

I didn't have a rack that fit my pan, so I put little
metal cups under my jars to keep them off the bottom.
It worked. I didn't need to seal the large jar (that's
already open and in play in our refrigerator).

hot pepper jelly close up

on a cracker with cream cheese (do this)

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White Turkey Chili

Seeing as how I don't really like turkey much in the first place, the job of eating most of the leftover turkey at our house fell on my husband's shoulders. So I took pity on the poor guy and jazzed it up into something new so he wouldn't get bored. Of course it's not a bad dish for people who don't like turkey either. There's so much other stuff going on in there to distract you, you might not even notice you're eating turkey at all. That might have worked on me if I hadn't actually cooked it.

WHITE TURKEY CHILI

Yield: 6 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 stalks celery, diced (about 1/2 cup)

3 medium poblano peppers (seeded & white ribs removed), finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more to taste

2 (15.5-ounce) cans white beans such as cannelini, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 lb. cooked white meat turkey, chopped (about 4 cups)

1 (15.5-ounce) can hominy, drained and rinsed

sea salt to taste

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

lime wedges for garnish

1.       Heat the oil in large pot or Dutch oven over moderate heat. Add the onion, celery and poblanos; cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander and cayenne and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2.       Add the white beans, broth and oregano. Cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes.

3.       Add the turkey, hominy and salt and more cayenne pepper, to taste, and continue cooking, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until liquid has reduced to desired consistency.

4.       Ladle into individual bowls and top each serving with 1 tablespoon yogurt and 1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro. Garnish with a lime wedge.

slightly adapted from Ellie Krieger

poblano peppers

onion, celery and poblanos

adding garlic and spices

adding beans, broth and oregano

adding turkey and hominy

Hominy are hulled corn kernels that have been stripped of
their bran and germ. It comes in white and yellow (I used white).

white turkey chili

My chili would have been whiter, but I ran out of
white meat, so I added some dark meat too.

topped with Greek yogurt, chopped
cilantro and a sprinkling of lime juice

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