Drying Chili Peppers
As I sit here, on vacation, looking out at the ocean I’m thinking about chili peppers. I tend to think about all sorts of random things, most especially when I have an opportunity to block out the noise of the outside world. Chili peppers…my first REAL exposure to a wide variety of chili peppers was years ago spending time in New Mexico and then later in Arizona. I love the Southwest and very much appreciate the importance of chili peppers. One way to preserve chili peppers for future use is by drying them. There are two basic ways to dry them.
Wash the peppers with warm water and dry thoroughly with a cloth towel. You may want to remove the stems from your peppers. If you’re drying them in the oven or food dehydrator you may wish to slice the peppers length-wise as this will allow them to dry faster. It’s usually a good idea to wear gloves when handling peppers, especially if you are a contact wearer.
If you are in a time crunch, using a dehydrator is the fastest method. I like to let my chili peppers dry on their own for a week to 2 weeks BEFORE putting them in the dehydrator. Lay the peppers out on metal mesh racks and dry them whole. After 10 days slice them open and remove their seeds and stems. You may save the seeds for next year’s planting. Removing the seeds also cuts down on their spiciness. They are then dried in the dehydrator until crisp. This saves energy, as they only need about 12 hours in the dehydrator compared to almost a full day with freshly picked peppers.
Another way to dry chili peppers is by stringing them through the base of their stems with a needle and fishing line and hanging them to dry inside. It will take weeks for the peppers to dry out completely, but in the meantime you get to enjoy the aroma of the peppers. Whole dried chili peppers can last for up to two years for culinary purposes and up to 10 years for decoration. The peppers can be rehydrated and used for blended salsas and mole, used in brines for poultry and pork, or ground into a fine powder for seasoning. Dried chili powder can be used alongside salt and pepper for cooking most foods.
“Work With What You Got!”
© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved
How To Eat More Protein On A Meat-Free Diet
If you’re new to a meat-free diet or you struggle with ways to get the protein you need here are some important tips that may help you. It really isn’t as hard as you might think.
Snack on protein rich munchies and skip the carbs. Eat roasted chickpeas, edamame, roasted peanuts, or raw nuts. Keep away from heavily salted nuts.
If you’re looking for a frozen treat then purée coconut milk, almond butter, cashew butter, honey, and cocoa powder. Freeze in an ice cream maker for a protein rich frozen treat.
Make an easy cream sauce by whisking cashew butter with vegetable stock, garlic, and minced parsley. Toss with cooked pasta.
Crumble tempeh (fermented soybean protein) into pasta sauce or soups, or wherever you might use hamburger meat.
Purée cooked black beans and add to brownies. For blondies or light colored muffins or cakes, use cooked, puréed chickpeas.
Sprout sunflower seeds and add them to salads. Just soak raw seeds overnight in water to cover. Drain and let sprout for 24 to 48 hours.
Add ground flaxseeds to muffins, waffles, breads, or cookies for a protein boast and added omega 3 fats.
Make a protein packed pudding. Purée silken tofu with cocoa powder, honey, and vanilla extract.
Use hemp or rice protein powder instead of flour to make waffles, pancakes, and baked goods. Instead of eggs, use flax as a binder.
Lentils are awesome! Eat lentils more often. They are fast cooking and easy to use. Add to soups, toss in salads, and stir in cooked rice.
Spread sandwiches and wraps with hummus instead of mayonnaise. I do this all the time. Purée hummus with roasted red peppers or chipotle peppers for an added zing.
If you can tolerate gluten, seitan (wheat protein) is a great substitute for sliced deli meat. Use it in wraps or sandwiches for an easy lunch.
“Work With What You Got!”
© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen
A sandwich doesn’t have to be full of fat and calories. Replace high-fat mayonnaise with one of the reduced-fat varieties. You may want to stir in some chopped fresh herbs into reduced-fat mayonnaise for a flavor boost. You may also want to hold the mayo and spread your bread with mustard, as mustard is naturally low fat. You may also want to try a spread of non-fat yogurt mixed with a bit of mustard. Chutney, delicious by itself or when blended with mayonnaise or mustard, adds a sweet and spicy dimension to a sandwich.
Many lunch meats are high in sodium and calories. Look for alternatives such as grilled vegetables or skinless chicken breast, roasted turkey breast, or shrimp in a low-fat dressing. Another good alternative is water-packed tuna.
Cheese is a high-fat sandwich ingredient that should be eaten in moderation. Choose lighter cheeses such as Swiss or low-fat cheese.
Rather than ordering your sandwich at the deli counter, take a stroll by the salad bar. There are many candidates for a great sandwich just waiting to be piled onto bread (or into a pita) and drizzled with low-fat dressing.
A few healthy choice ingredients are: artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, pepperoncini, sprouts, shredded carrots, asparagus, sliced tomatoes, and tofu.
"Work With What You Got!"
© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen
Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality. – John W. Gardner
Constitution Week – Foods of Our Forefathers Part II
The standard grains included wheat, barley, oats and rye. Finely ground wheat flour, “boulted” or sieved through a fine cloth, was used to make white bread for the rich early in the fifteenth century. Most of the gentry ate what we would call cracked or whole wheat bread. The poor ate bread of coarse-ground wheat flour mixed with oats, ground peas or lentils.
During the ocean crossing to the New World, immigrants subsisted on an even more monotonous diet for weeks. The Mayflower provisions were typical – brown biscuits and hard white crackers, oatmeal, and black-eyed peas, plus bacon, dried salted codfish and smoked herring for animal protein. The only vegetables on the trip were parsnips, turnips, onions and cabbages. Beer was the beverage.
As pilgrims set foot on their new homeland, they hardly knew what to expect. Each brought a stock of basic foods to get them through the first year, as well as a variety of basic utensils and kitchen tools. Also included were the essential accompaniments for whatever they found or could raise when they arrived – a bushel of coarse salt, 2 gallons of vinegar, a gallon of “oyle” and a gallon of aquavite.
Nothing they had been told, however, prepared them for the staggering variety of totally unfamiliar plants that were being used as food by the Indians – corn, sweet potatoes, peppers, pumpkins, squash, sunflower seeds and cranberries were examples. In addition to the strange food, there were strange ways of cooking. In Europe, meat was boiled; the Indians, lacking iron pots, roasted theirs on a spit over a fire. The Indians also had a long, slow cooking process that yielded what we now call Boston baked beans, and they used a fire-heated, rock-lined pit for what we would now call a clam-bake. Where the pilgrims were accustomed to raised wheat bread, the Indians introduced them to corn based spoon bread. Corn also provided hominy, used as a vegetable, and later, of course, as grits. For sweetening, the Indians used maple syrup and honey, as sugar was unknown.
Although many of the food the Pilgrims and other colonists found were totally strange, others had travelled the route before them. The Spanish had brought pigs, which thrived especially in areas where peanuts grew. Peaches and oranges were also native which spread throughout climatically suitable areas in a short time.
Even the white potato was an early migrant to the New World, following a zig-zag route, from its original home in Peru to Spain in 1520, from Spain to Florida forty years later, from Florida to England in 1565, always being treated as a culinary curiosity. By the 1600’s they had become a popular food staple in Ireland, and were carried by Colonists both to New England and Virginia, where they quickly established themselves. There they served as a valuable source of vitamin C, protein and trace minerals, in addition to the starch.
Potatoes, incidentally were significant in another, later migration to America: the climate in Ireland proved so amenable to their culture, and their nutrient content was so high, that many poor Irish farmers grew only potatoes on their small farms. In fact, as fathers subdivided farms for their sons, many found themselves supporting whole families on the potatoes grown on less than an acre of ground, while the family itself lived in a roofed-over ditch. When blight struck in 1845, the sole food source of millions of people literally withered away before their eyes. A half-million of the 8 1/2 million population died of starvation or disease, and 1 1/2 million emigrated to England or America – following the “Irish potatoe.”
Spices were in short supply in America’s earliest days. The English pretty well monopolized the trade with the New World. Within a few years, however, settlers had planted the seeds they had brought or imported, and most had adapted to the climate and were flourishing in orderly rows and patterns in kitchen gardens all along the Atlantic Coast. There were a few – ginger, pepper, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice – that simply couldn’t cope with the weather or soil – and were scarce. Olive oil, lime juice, prunes and saffron were available, but only at high prices.
To Be Continued…
