chiles |

Downeast Beef Chili

4 December 2012 by local kitchen

As you might have heard, I’ve been staying with Tai’s grandmother Louisa, in Downeast Maine, since before Thanksgiving. Louisa is awesome: she is bright, warm, and generous, and has always made me feel welcome and an important part of this big, wacky family into which I married. But Louisa is 88 years old, and while she has maintained an amazing amount of independence and vitality throughout her ‘golden years,’ in the last six months or so she has suffered some […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, beef, bell pepper, carrot, heirloom beans, hot chile peppers, main course, stew, winter • Tags: beans, beef, chiles, cooking, food, local, recipes, winter

Homemade Sriracha

23 October 2011 by local kitchen

UPDATE 2: Good news, everyone! I’m not going to kill you with my hot sauce! Well, at least not with botulism; I can’t make any guarantees about the capsaicin. I popped open a jar this afternoon and tested it with my new pH meter: it ranged from 3.3 (when calibrated with the pH 4.0 solution) to 3.5 (when calibrated with the pH 7.0 solution) well below the safe water bath canning pH of 4.6. Now, I’m not sure why this […]

Categories: bell pepper, canning, fall, garlic, hot chile peppers, preserving, sauces, summer • Tags: canning, chiles, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Plum Hot Jelly

7 September 2011 by local kitchen

A few weeks ago, it was hot. Bright sunshine. High summer. It’s kind of hard to fathom now, just a short time later, as I huddle at my desk in fleece pants and fuzzy slippers, watching the rain drip, drip, drip endlessly from the eaves. Back then, in high summer, I met Miss Julia up in Red Hook for some blackberry picking, carelessly comfortable in flip flops and a tanktop: was it really only last month? As we often do, we traded some goodies: […]

Categories: apples, canning, hot chile peppers, jellies, plums, preserving, summer • Tags: apple, canning, chiles, cooking, food, jelly, local, plums, preserving, recipes

Chile Blackberry Syrup (+ Bonus Spicy Booze!)

22 August 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve wanted to try this chile blackberry syrup from Heidi for ages: last year’s blackberry harvest was a bust, so I filed the recipe away in my bookmarks and waited, longingly, for August to roll around once more. The blink of an eye (and a whole lotta blog posts) later, August is here once again, and I’ve been up to Greig Farm in Red Hook twice, with Miss Julia, picking and picking and picking, determined to squirrel away as much […]

Categories: berries, canning, hot chile peppers, preserving, sauces • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, condiments, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry Jam with Mint, Basil & Habanero

10 July 2011 by local kitchen

It’s cruel to do this to you, I know, since strawberries are long gone in most parts of America. But I still have some fresh, local strawberries in the fridge (albeit they are starting to look a little peaky), and they are just coming into full season for our friends in the North. If you are one of the lucky ones that still has fresh strawberries in your neighborhood, or one of the industrious ones who put-up a few pounds in […]

Categories: basil, berries, canning, hot chile peppers, jams, mint, preserving • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, food, local, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Pumpkin Soup with Chocolate & Chipotle

13 May 2011 by local kitchen

Pumpkin soup in May. I know what you’re thinking: she’s finally lost that last (lonely) marble. But hear me out: I realized yesterday that June is nearly upon us; and with June comes the first onslaught of seasonal produce. My CSA will start, and with it kale, chard, cabbage and all those gorgeous Spring greens. Strawberries will show up in June as well, ripe for the picking. And then the summer squashes and cucumbers start coming, and cherries and raspberries, […]

Categories: chocolate, fall, hot chile peppers, main course, soup, vegetarian, winter, winter squash • Tags: chiles, chocolate, cooking, food, local, main course, pumpkin, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Flourless Chocolate Chipotle Cake

2 April 2011 by local kitchen

Have you noticed a lot of non-local ingredients cropping up on the blog of late? Citrus jam, orange chicken, honey roasted nuts? While I don’t make it a goal to eat 100% from my local foodshed (in part because I believe it is harshly restrictive for no good reason, but mostly, I suspect, because I don’t like rules) I do try to limit the non-local ingredients to occasional luxuries rather than every day ingredients. They’ve been showing up more often of […]

Categories: baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, hot chile peppers, year round • Tags: chiles, chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, quick & easy, recipes

Cara Cara Chile Marmalada

9 February 2011 by local kitchen

After my last orange marmalade candy-in-a-jar experience, I did quite a bit of research before starting this one. I had some beautiful organic oranges from my local whole foods market and I knew which recipe I wanted to use as a base: an orange chile marmalade from the Ball book. That recipe, however, specifies nine (9!!) cups of sugar, which I knew was never going to work for me. So, I looked at traditional marmalade recipes in Gourmet Preserves, The Glass […]

Categories: canning, citrus, condiments, hot chile peppers, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: canning, cara cara, chiles, condiments, cooking, food, local, marmalade, preserves, preserving, recipes

Cranberry Habanero Mustard

28 January 2009 by local kitchen

Cranberries & habanero peppers: two of my favorite things. It’s so unfortunate that I really loathe mustard, because this condiment would be right up my alley: spicy, gingery, puckery, gorgeously pink-hued. Alas, the mustard and I, we just don’t get along. The husband, though, is a mustard-loving fool (hence the plethora of Evil Seed recipes herein), as are many other people: homemade mustard is a gift that never fails to impress, yet is simple & thrifty to make. As one […]

Categories: canning, condiments, cranberries, fall, hot chile peppers, mustard, preserving, year round • Tags: canning, chiles, condiments, cooking, cranberries, food, mustard, recipes