Someone asked me the other day if I’ve had a favorite cookbook lately.  After some thinking, I happened on a book that I’ve unexpectedly liked over the course of the past year – Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home.  This recipe comes from the winter section of this book (I like books that are sectioned off and organized by seasonal ingredients…though the irony is that peppers are best in summer, so something’s not right here…) under the canning and bottling section and make a great holiday gift.

The best part of this recipe in my opinion is the way you can use your own peppers at your discretion, meaning you can make the chutney as spicy or mild as your wish based on your taste.  I used a few jalapenos, some serranos and even a habanero for that extra kick.  The end product is cooled down somewhat by cooking the peppers in the rest of the sauce for an hour to create that excellent, gooey, sticky chutney consistency.

It’s a great recipe to serve on the side of a cheese plate, or on top of some fish, pork or even steak.  Canning the chutney will increase its shelf life for some time – something I highly recommend learning (it’s pretty darn easy to do simply).  For more canning tips and instruction, check out the site linked to here.  Whatever you decide to do, this recipe will produce around 1.5 – 2 cups of the stuff, so if you’re just using it one time and don’t want leftovers, halve or quarter this recipe.  Here’s how to make it happen:

• Around 8-10 red bell peppers
• An assortment of other hot chili peppers – I recommend jalapenos, Anaheim chilies, red chilies, Hungarian peppers, whatever you can find or want to use, but keep them fresh!
• 1/2 cup of fairly good quality balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 cup water
• 2 red onions – rough dice
• 1 large sprig fresh rosemary – leaves removed and chopped
• 1 medium cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 a bulb of fennel – finely diced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Ok, so now that you got all the stuff, you’re going to need to plan on how to make the pepper roasting happen.  As you can see from the image above, I used my stovetop to make this happen (ass seen on Iron Chef America).  You can do the same thing, but be wary of the heat that the gas elements will produce – it’s pretty intense.  I’d recommend using a grill if you have one handy, or a broiler.  Wither way, get as much of the pepper skins blackened and then place the peppers into a paper bag or cover them in a bowl with plastic wrap.  This will steam the peppers and make the skins easier to peel

Now the fun part – peeling the pepper skins.  If you can get some help with this, use it, it’s really no fun at all.  It’s like peeling shrimp except the peppers are spicy and will hurt if you touch your eyes or really any other body part.  Wear gloves if available or just be careful.  Once the peppers are peeled, finely chop them all and reserve while you bring the rest of the ingredients together.

In a large heavy bottomed saucepan or dutch oven over low/medium heat, add the olive oil, onions, rosemary, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, fennel and season with a little salt and pepper.  Cook for a good while – 30 minutes or so – until the onions get nicely caramelized, then add in the peppers and mix to combine.  Add in the sugar, vinegar and the little bit of water and turn the heat up to high in order to being the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer

Cook the liquid down until the whole mix becomes gooey and sticky – should take around an hour depending on the sort of pot you’re using.  Once the consistency it to your liking, turn off the heat and season to taste.  Add the chutney to sterilized jars, or keep in the fridge.  Enjoy!

I do call this recipe ‘hot sauce’, but I am not talking about the packets of orange liquid they serve along with your order at Taco Bell.  This sauce is chunky and bursting with fresh pepper flavor and acidity, and can be as mild or as insanely hot as you or the crowd you are serving can handle.

October is a wonderful month for peppers of all kinds.  The fruit has had plenty of time to grow and ripen without damage from frost.   The peppers that you choose for this recipe are really up to you.  If you cringe at the idea of spicy food, this same recipe can be made with all sweet bell peppers and will make a deliciously tangy sauce with barely any spice.  If you really love the burn, you may choose to include one or two habaneros or scotch bonnets.  If you are not sure about a pepper’s heat, check out the Scoville scale to get an idea of how much heat a certain kind of  pepper has.  Either way you want to use peppers that are as fresh as can be so that your sauce has good flavor.

The best part of this recipe is that it is easy as can be, especially if you own a food processor or blender, and it has great Mediterranean flavors that make a wonderful accompaniment to fish or meat, and an awesome condiment for burgers or omelets.  I particularly love using it on fish tacos.

Ingredients:

• About two pounds of assorted fresh peppers (I used a mix of sweet, banana, jalapeno, Anaheim, cayenne, and habanero peppers)

• 1 head of garlic
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 cup of basil
• 1/2 cup of parsley
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Place all of your fresh peppers on the baking sheet.  Cut off the very top of your head of garlic.  Pour about 1/2 teaspoon of the olive oil over the exposed to of the garlic and place it on the baking sheet as well.  Place the peppers and garlic in the oven for 40 minutes or until they are soft and turning brown.  Remove the peppers and place them in a bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap so the peppers steam, which will make it much easier to remove their skin.

Once the peppers have steamed for about ten minutes, you should be able to peel the skin easily.  I do this with a pairing knife.  Remove the seeds (unless you want your sauce extra hot – the seeds contain most of the heat of a pepper) and stems.  Squeeze out the roasted cloves of garlic.  Put the peppers and garlic in the food processor with the basil, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and salt.  Pulse the ingredients until the are will  combined but still chunky, as I think this is what makes this sauce taste so fresh and delicious.  Taste the sauce cautiously, and if it is hotter than you would like, add lemon juice and salt to tone down the heat a bit.  Serve as a condiment for anything you would normally use hot sauce for.   You may want to let guests apply their own!

Poblanos are a wonderful introduction to the world of hot peppers.  Compare them to bell peppers and they pack a punch, but next to jalapenos and serranos, they are pleasantly mild.  They are a beautiful dark green color, and they are the perfect size for stuffing.

My first experience with poblano peppers was at El Charro, a Mexican restaurant in Lafayette, California, the town where I grew up.  My mother loves chile rellenos, and she would always order at least one when we ate at El Charro.  These poblanos were beautifully disguised to be appealing even to a young child, as they were coated in a golden batter and topped with sour cream and guacamole.  When you cut into them, they oozed melted cheese.

Since the years of eating rellenos at El Charro, I have come to love poblanos in many forms, most of which are easier to prepare and at least slightly healthier than my mom’s favorite treat.  My favorite taqueria in Cambridge, Olecito in Inman Square, roast their poblanos until they are soft and creamy and serve them in soft corn tortillas with black beans, lettuce, and guacamole (tacos rajas).  Roasting them is a wonderful preparation, because they become soft, sweet, and smoky.

Yesterday, at the Central Square farmers market, Kimball Fruit Farm had a small barrel full of firm, dark green poblanos that were just the right size for stuffing.  I decided to take advantage of the time of year and stuff these poblanos with other summer treats, such as sweet corn and globe squash.  A vendor from Belchertown, MA was selling homemade organic pork sausage, so I picked a couple of those up as well.  The result was every bit as savory as the rellenos I grew up eating, but the crunch from the corn and the sweetness of the squash added the unmistakable freshness of summer.

Here are the suggested ingredients:

• 4 large poblano peppers
• 2 links of uncooked Italian sausage
• 1 medium zucchini or 1/2 of a large globe squash,cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 2 ears of fresh corn, cut from the cob
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 chopped scallions
• 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
• 1 lime
• 1/2 cup sour cream (crema)
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Begin by cutting an L shaped incision into the sides of the poblanos.  Fold up the flaps and cut out the seeds.  Lightly coat the peppers with olive oil and season with salt, and place peppers in a roasting pan.  Roast the peppers for about twenty minutes, or until they are beginning to become soft and darken.

In a medium sized skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat until the butter melts.  Add the onion, jalapeno, and garlic, and cook over medium heat until vegetables soften.  Add the sausage, removed from its casing, and break it up as it cooks.  When the sausage begins to brown, add the squash.  Continue to cook over medium heat until the sauasage is browned and cooked through and all of the vegetables are soft. Add the corn, stir, and remove the pan from the heat.

Remove the peppers from the oven, and carefully stuff with the mixture.  It is okay to let the filling overflow from the pepper.  Top the stuffed peppers generously with shredded cheese, and return to a 450 degree oven for about ten minutes, or until the cheese is melted and beginning to turn golden brown.

Mix the sour cream with the cumin.  I use cumin seeds, which I toast in a pan and then grind in a coffee grinder that I use only for spices.

Plate the stuffed peppers and top them with the cumin sour cream and scallions, and serve with a wedge of lime.

I have only recently learned to appreciate savory crepes.  I grew up eating sweet crepes for breakfast at a stand at the farmer’s market in the Bay Area, and when you saw one customer leaving with ham and cheese, and the other leaving with a pile of fresh berries and whipped cream, you couldn’t help feeling like the first got the short end of the stick.  I never understood, when faced with the option, why anyone would choose a savory crepe.  It wasn’t until I discovered a small Belgian joint in the Mission in San Francisco called Frjtz that I discovered the true beauty of the crepe’s dinner potential.

Frjtz’s menu is simple, consisting of about ten sandwich and crepe options, a few salads, Belgian-style mussels, and the most delicious french fries with about twenty different aiolis and ketchups to dip.  You order at the counter and they bring you your food, but the sexy and modern decor and the delicious food are worth a little self-service.

When Adrian and I moved back to Cambridge, we found ourselves thinking about these savory crepes and we thought we would try to reproduce to the best of our memory their Rosetti crepe filling.  It wasn’t exactly the same but it was close — and just as good, if not better.

We used Alton Brown’s recipe for the crepes.  You will want to prepare the crepe batter ahead of time so it can sit in the fridge for at least an hour before you cook the crepes.  When the filling is almost done, cook the crepes so that both the filling and the crepe is hot when you serve it.

The Crepes:

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• Butter, for coating the pan while cooking

In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, flour, and melted butter and pulse for ten second.  Refrigerate for at least an hour before cooking (the batter will last for up to 48 hours).  This will make about eight large crepes, so you will probably have batter left over.

To cook the crepes, heat a nonstick skillet or crepe pan over medium low heat.  Coat with butter and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter in the middle of the pan.  Rotate the pan to coat with the batter.  After about 30 seconds, or when the crepe begins to turn a light golden color, flip the crepe and cook the other side for about half as long as the first side.  Lay flat to cool while you cook the other crepes.  Fill and serve right away.

The Filling:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 small or 1 large eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 large red pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup of feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives
• Salt
• Crushed red pepper

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add the olive oil.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook about three minutes, until they become slightly translucent.  Add the eggplant, peppers, and garlic, season with salt and crushed red pepper to taste and cover.  Cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies start to soften from their own steam.  Add the wine and continue to cook until veggies are thoroughly caramelized, another ten minutes or so.  Turn off the heat.  Add the feta and fresh herbs and stir to combine.  Keep covered so the filling will stay warm until you are ready to fill the crepes.

Assembly:

Put 1/4 of the filling in the center of the crepe.  Spread the filling out into a square shape in the middle of the crepe.  Using the handle of a wooden spoon, fold all four sides of the crepe in to form a square.  Turn over and garnish with a small dollop of the filling and a couple fresh chives.  Repeat for the other three crepes.  Serve immediately.

More good looking Crepe ideas:

• The Veggie Table
• C’est Bon
• GupShop

When I think of Mexican food, I think about my sister Sabrina, who loves cooking Mexican, and now I understand why – simplicity, convenience and most of all, deliciousness.  Living in Southern California, it’s not surprising that she has taken to this great cuisine.  The Mexican culinary traditions and flavors are very evident in the area, where you’re more likely to find the local taqueria than the steak house walking down main street.

Sabrina has told me a few times about her taco salad, and I’ve tried a few variations of it at her house.  This is my first attempt at making the dish myself and it actually turned out pretty well.  Hell, the way I see it, it’s not hard for a dish to be good when you add seasoned sour cream and guacamole to it.

The key to this dish was the meat – Aimee’s idea and specialty: ground turkey seasoned with a homemade Mexican spice blend that includes cayenne, cumin, salt, chili powder, garlic and onion powder and black pepper.  You can really add anything you want to this though, including ancho chili or fresh garlic that you can blend together in a mortar and pestle.  This spice blend gets added to the meat as it cooks together with some stock and creates a delicate, moist base to the salad (or tacos or anything else).

The rest of the salad is really up to you in terms of ingredients.  Being winter time, we chose to use cabbage and lettuce, but some fresh tomatoes and corn in the summer time would be surely welcome.  Here’s how it went:

For the Meat:

• 1 package ground turkey (or beef, lamb or pork) according to your tastes
• 1 medium onion – diced
• 2 cloves garlic – mashed
• 2 poblano peppers – rough dice
• 1 jalapeno pepper – seeded and diced
• 1 small habanero pepper – seeded and diced (omit if you don’t like it spicy)
• ~1.5 cups of chicken or beef stock
• Mexican spice blend: 1 Tbsp. each of: cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chilli powder, salt, black pepper – mix together in a small bowl or mortar and pestale
• Vegetable oil

For the Salad (add and remove ingredients as you like!):

• Romaine lettuce – shredded
• Red cabbage – shredded
• Red onion – sliced thin
• Shredded pepper jack and/or cheddar cheese
• Sour Cream
• Avocado – or Guacamole of mashed avocado, cilantro, diced onion, lime juice and salt
• Fresh salsa
• Prepared meat from above
• Chopped cilantro
• Black beans
• Sliced lime for garnish
• Corn tortilla – cut into strips and fried in a little vegetable oil

Method:

So start by preparing the spice blend from above – you can really adjust the levels of the spices as you so choose, but you might want to make a little extra to add to the sour cream (really good!) or just add more to the meat.  So start by sweating the onion in some oil over low-medium heat.  Add the peppers – mild to spicy, so the poblanos first, followed by the jalapenos and then the habanero.  Add the garlic and continue to cook down.  At this point, turn up the heat a little bit and add in your meat.

Cook the meat down, browning it a good amount.  Once it it almost cooked through, add 1/2 of the spice blend and a little of the stock.  With a wooden spoon, take up some of the meat bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Let the stock cook off and add a little more and repeat.  Once most all of the stock is cooked off, add the rest of the spice blend and cook until the meat reaches a consistency of almost a very thick stew.  Adjust seasonings as needed at this point.

At this point, you can mix up the guacamole, and assemble the salad, greens and vegetables on the bottom.  Remember, you can add what ever you want to this!!  Spoon the meat on top of the lettuce with some of the cheese and other fixings.  I found that mixing some of the spice blend with the sour cream makes a really good condiment.  But go nuts and add whtever you want!  This is tacos in salad form really, so whatever you want to add is great!  As a serving note, I would probably serve this in a big bowl next time (now I know why those big tortilla bowls are convenient).

Here are some other really good looking takes on the recipe:

• Small Kitchen, Big Taste
• The Crumbling Muffin Top
• The Street

The scenario: It’s been a hell of a day. The weather is somewhere between snow and rain – not bad enough to warrant a snow day, but plenty dreary to make it hard to get out of bed. You spent too many hours at work. You feel like putting on your slippers and taking a nap on the couch rather than going to the grocery store, but you are in no position to drop forty bucks on take-out that will feed you once and will only only satisfy you until twenty minutes after you begin eating, at which point you know you will feel bloated and slightly guilty for overeating.

You grab your reusable grocery bag and head over to your local market, which is overcrowded and understocked. One thing is for sure: you want pasta, which, let’s face it, is the ultimate comfort food. You start at the meat counter, but everything looks sadly picked over. They are even out of Italian sausage. Yikes. The seafood counter is no better, offering mostly frozen and farm raised selections, none of which seem to work well with what you have in mind. It’s decided – tonight you are going vegetarian.

Pick up an eggplant, a red bell pepper, basil, some mascarpone cheese, and a package of whole grain linguine and make a beeline for the checkout.

With these ingredients and a few other pantry staples, you have a healthy, delicious dinner under control that will fill you up and taste so delicious you will forget about the rest of your day. And the best part is you will be eating it in about 35 minutes. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed, and neither will anyone you feed it to.

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 large red onion
• 1 large or 2 small red bell peppers
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• Fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 large can San Marzano tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of capers
• Salt
• Crushed Red Pepper
• 1 package whole wheat linguine
• Mascarpone cheese

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place the bell pepper(s) on a baking sheet and roast in the oven, turning the pepper every five minutes or so until your sauce is ready for it.

Boil water for your pasta. By the time it is boiling and the pasta is done, your sauce will be done.

Peel and slice your eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes. Liberally salt and place in a bowl. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large, non-stick skillet. Slice red onion into quarter rings and add to the skillet. Peel and half or quarter six cloves of garlic. Don’t be afraid to leave these so large. They will become sweet and caramelized and will add a wonderful flavor to your sauce. Add garlic, red pepper, and some salt to the skillet. Once the onions are beginning to become translucent, add the eggplant. Cover with a secure lid. The eggplant will steam itself as it releases it’s liquid and will break down into a sweet and beautiful mush (see picture above). Cook the vegetables for about 15 minutes. Keep covered, but stir occasionally. Keep turning your red pepper, too!

Once the eggplant becomes mushy and golden (almost like the consistency of a cooked banana), you are ready to add the wine. Cook the alcohol off, and then add the canned tomatoes. If they are whole, crush them with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to low.

Pull your red pepper from the oven. If the skin is not sliding right off, put the pepper in a bowl and cover with saran wrap. The steam will loosen up the skin and continue cooking the flesh. Peel, remove the stem and the seeds, thinly slice, and add to your sauce. Add the capers. Slice the basil into ribbons and add to the sauce. Toss the cooked linguine in with the sauce. Garnish with the mascarpone (mixed with black pepper for an extra kick). Serve immediately.

Serves 4 to 6.