I love to cook with peppers! Bell pepper, green chile peppers, jalapeno peppers, I could go on and on but I won't. Have you ever purchased a pepper from the store, only to have it spoil before you could use it. I have! It looked perfect on the outside, but there was mold around the stem on the inside.
To solve that problem, I now remove the stem and seeds when I bring them home from the store. It saves me time, by having some of the prep work done ahead of time, and it saves me money by extending the storage life of my peppers.
Check back on Friday,
for my Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Barbeque Beef recipe!
Visit my friends blogs!
You will love Bo and his blog, Bo's Bowl.
Not only does he host great giveaways, his recipes are incredible!
One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.
Also visit my friend Pam's blog,Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner, for more great recipes! Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too!
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup fine chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tomatoes, seeded, chopped
24 green olives, chopped fine
2 Anaheim Chiles, seeded and chopped fine
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
In large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer 5 minutes.
This recipe has a unique blend of flavors and the perfect amount of heat. It is from the first cookbook I wrote, MILD TO WILD MEXICAN COOKBOOK. The recipe was a last minute addition. The designer called me, saying she needed one more salsa recipe to complete the Appetizer section of the book.
I had already put all of my salsa recipes in the cookbook, so I had to create a new one. As I opened my cabinet, I was praying for inspiration. The first thing that caught my eye, was a jar of green olives. I immediately thought back to a conversation I'd had earlier in the day with Fareed, the owner of my favorite radio station,Passion Radio, where I do my "Fast Food Friday" segment. We had discussed how much we both loved Mediterranean food, so when I saw the green olives, I knew I had to make a salsa with them in it. It only took two batches of salsa to get the desired blend of flavors.
My husband loves this recipe, so It is probably the one recipe that I make the most. When I am creating a recipe, and I get it just the way I want it, I will seldom make it again. I have to keep coming up with new recipes, because I am always working on a new cookbook, and you can't do that if you keep making the same recipe over and over again.
MILD TO WILD MEXICAN COOKBOOK, will soon be republished by my current publisher.
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Our friend Robert has a fantastic garden. The man can grow anything. Not only is Robert a great gardener, he is also very generous. He shares the surplus vegetables from his garden with the members of our church.
Last Sunday Robert brought the last of his crops. After everyone left church with bags of fresh produce, there were still a lot of chile peppers left and a few tomatoes and a couple of heads of garlic.
I made a batch of my Mediterranean Salsa, which is my husband's favorite (I will post the recipe on Friday). After making the salsa, I still had a lot of peppers left, so I decided to roast and freeze the remaining ones.
Below are the steps I took to roast the peppers.
Pour a small amount of vegetable oil in a small bowl. Holding the pepper by it's stem, place it in the bowl and brush with oil. Do not use olive oil, it's smoke point is low and will burn. Place oiled peppers on baking sheet.
Place the peppers on the top rack in the oven. Broil at 525 degrees for 10 minutes or until charred.
Remove peppers from oven. Turn peppers over and return to the oven.
Place the roasted pepper in a bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap. Leave peppers covered until cool.
When cool, cut through the skin of the pepper by the stem with a knife. Pull the seeds out by grabbing the stem of the pepper and gently pull the top off.
Peel the skin from the pepper.
Place peeled peppers in freezer bags and freeze.
On Friday, I will post my Mediterranean Salsa recipe.
Sign up as a follower, to enter my monthly, Cookbook Giveaways!
Visit my blogging buddy, Bo's Blog (say that three times fast), Bo's Bowl. Not only does he have great giveaways, his recipes are incredible! One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.
Also visit my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner, for more great recipes! Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too!
2 1/2 to 3 pounds chuck roast, cut into chunks, browned
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
In slow cooker, place roast chunks. Place peppers over roast. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour stewed tomatoes over top. Cover. Cook on low 9 to 12 hours. Makes 6 servings.
My husband Stan loves this recipe! He likes to have it served over rice. The beef is so tender you can cut it with your fork. The stewed tomatoes and sweet bell peppers, create a broth full of so much flavor, that you almost want to pour it in a glass and drink it.
This recipe takes just a few minutes to prepare in the morning. I slice the peppers the night before and place them in a plastic bag. All I have to do in the morning, is brown the meat then layer the ingredients in the slow cooker. When I get home, I am met with the aroma of a delicious home cooked meal.
Recipe can be found on page 162 in,
MY KIND OF COOKING COOKBOOK.
And the winner is!
The winner of this months drawing is: Hydrantgirl. Congratulations!
Check back on Tuesday, when I post the details on the November drawing.
Sign up as a follower to enter my monthly, Cookbook Giveaways!
The first Friday of each month, I draw a name from my followers, to win my cookbook and other prizes.
Check out my blogging buddy, Bo's blog (say that three times fast),Bo's Bowl He is giving away a fantastic cookbook called "Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook". Not only does he have great giveaways, his recipes are incredible! One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.
Also check out my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner, for more great recipes! Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too!
Before our family moved to New Mexico, the only time I cooked with chile peppers was when I was making salsa. After moving to a state who's motto is red or green (meaning red or green chile sauce), I figured it was probably time to expand my knowledge of the local fare . I quickly came up to speed, and along the way, I learned by trial and error how to handle chile peppers.
Wear gloves when chopping chile peppers. Not the flimsy kind, but the good old yellow ones. The thin glove can let the capsaicin (the ingredient in peppers that create the burn) through. Even the mildest chile pepper can burn your skin. If you touch your eyes or nose after chopping peppers, it can burn for hours.
The heat in a pepper is contained in the veins which transfers to the seeds. To help control the heat in your recipes, remove not only the seeds, but also the veins.
When picking a pepper a general rule to keep in mind is that red peppers are hotter than green or yellow peppers. The hottest peppers have pointed tips and narrow tops. Round ends indicate mildness. Of course to every rule there is at least one exception. One of those being the fiery Habanero pepper. It has a rounded end and is often green or yellow in color.
The best relief for a burning mouth is sour cream, yogurt or milk. Don't grab the water or pop in a effort to cool your mouth, both of these beverages tend to move the heat around instead of putting out the fire.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In 4 quart baking dish, arrange rigatoni noodles. Pour 1 jar Alfredo sauce over top. Arrange chicken over sauce. Pour remaining Alfredo sauce over chicken. Sprinkle chiles over Alfredo sauce. Sprinkle cheese over top. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly golden brown. Makes 8 servings.
The green chiles give this recipe a unique flavor. You get all the chile flavor without any of the chile heat. If you are serving this to company and are in doubt about whether they like green chiles or not, just sprinkle them on half of the dish.
Recipe can be found on page 124 in
MY KIND OF COOKING COOKBOOK
This is my most requested recipe. Friends and family ask me to make it again and again. I even received an email from England singing its praises and telling me it was their family's new favorite dish.
People often ask how I come up with recipes. One of the ways is to go to restaurants and figure out how they make the meal that I am eating. Then go home and recreate it, using shortcuts to make it quicker, but without losing the flavor. This is the first recipe I did that with.
My husband ordered this dish at a restaurant. He liked it so much that he asked if I could make it at home. I whipped out my notebook and began to make notes. When I made it for the first time at home, my husband said it was better than the restaurants version.
Now when we go to restaurants, we make it a game to figure out what is in the dish and how we would remake it. Our son has even joined the fun. Next time you're out to eat with your family or friends, try it.
