Garden Blog: Eggplant is in Full Bloom
Very happy girl this morning. Woke up to find all my Japanese eggplants are in full bloom.
Recent Posts
Garden Blog: Growing Easter Egg II Radishes
Radishes Pulled up radishes this morning. I planted the Rainbow Radishes Easter Egg II (see link below). Or rather, my son planted them. His favorite things to plant in the garden are radishes, and who can blame him – with a super quick and almost …
Salsa de Chile Rojo Recipe Using Dried Ancho and Pequin Chiles
Use your dried Ancho and Pequin chiles for this hot sauce.
Salsa de Chile Rojo
Ingredients
- 5 dried Ancho chiles
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 dried pequin chile
- 3 medium tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
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Pull the stems of the Ancho chiles and remove the seeds while rinsing them off under cold running water. Place in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Soak for about half an hour. Pour out all but 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid. Place the soaked Ancho chiles, crumbled up pequin chile, and the reserved 1/4 cup soaking liquid in a blender with the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Blend until smooth.
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Heat the oil in a large skillet until moderately hot. Add in the chile puree and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes.
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Remove from heat, and add the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Serve chilled. The hot salsa will keep for about 3 days tightly covered in the fridge if making ahead of time.
Japones or Hontaka Hot Sauce (Using Homemade Chile Paste)
This recipe uses the Japones or Hontaka Chile Paste, and produces a hot sauce that is great served with grilled vegetables and meats. For best flavor, let it rest for up to an hour before serving to truly let the flavors marry.
Japones or Hontaka Red Chile Paste
If you are growing some of these chiles and are wondering if there is anything to do with them besides adding these spicy peppers to Szechuan chicken or to chutneys, give this recipe a try. Pick some from your garden and completely dry them out before …
Garden Blog: Garden Update! Cucumbers, Japanese Eggplant, Fushimi Peppers, and More
The weather is starting to blaze up in my zone – zone 9b. And when this happens, my watermelon, eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumbers always pick up and go into a true growth spurt. They love the warm weather. So do my peppers. This is the first year I’m planting fushimi peppers, and I’m looking forward to trying them whole in tempera batter.
Here’s some pictures of the garden so far this season.
Avocados: How to Grow, When to Pick, Best Ways to Ripen
Avocados come from evergreen fruit trees that like full sun and well drained soil. The fruit is creamy and is used more as a vegetable than as a sweet fruit. Growing Avocado Trees Avocados may be grown from the seeds, but the fruit may not come for …
Avocado Trees Producing Nicely
Update on the avocados we planted last year: they are very happy where they are in the garden. Here is a sneak peek at what they are doing so far. As you can see from the photos below, there are several different types of avocado …
Grapes Are In Full Production
Garden Update: Grapes
One of our grape vines is in full production mode. Pretty happy about this, although it is right about that time the birds or squirrels get to them before we do. So far, they haven’t found our ‘secret grape stash’ among the leaves. Here’s some pictures of the progress this spring.
What Are Chilling Hours and Why Are They Important?
Chill hours are the total number of hours below 45 degrees F that a plant is exposed to during their dormant period to produce properly developed fruit. Some deciduous fruit trees (fruit trees that loose their leaves seasonally) must go through a certain minimum number of chill hours to release their dormancy, go into bloom, and …
Deep Frying Veggies with Amanda Cohen
Deep frying some vegetables from the garden today and don’t know where to start? Amanda Cohen gives a great deep fat cooked veggie primer via Vice and Munchies. She deep fries in three different ways: her vodka batter, a panko or crumb crust using the …