Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Recipe – Holy $hit, That’s Hotter Than Hell, Hot Sauce!(aka fermented hot peppers)

I LOVE hot and spicy food.  I saw a recipe for Fermented Hot Chili Sauce at Nourished Kitchen and thought it would make tasty gifts to share.

Holy crap–this is some hot, hot sauce!

I bought just about all the habanaro peppers at our grocery along with a few jalapenos and a couple of pablanos for flavor. I cut the stems off and threw them into the food processor with a few sweet onions, several cloves of garlic and a few handfuls of basil and salt and a little sugar. I mixed up the only living cultures I had-keifer starter-with a little water and threw that in too. I put everything into a mason jar–it took several tries as just inhaling the fumes were tough! I let it sit on my counter for about 12 days. There wasn’t much bubbling and not much liquid so I ended up just bottling it up seeds and all.

The brave decided to try it yesterday………….

I ate some on tortilla chips and yes it was hot but super tasty. I love the taste of habaneros!  I think it will be really good in a bowl of beans and rice topped with some yogurt! Mmmmm

The Nourished Kitchen blog is loaded with really delicious recipes!! Be sure to check them out.

Thursday’s Recipe ….. Sprouting

Often times my kitchen looks like a laboratory with various nuts and or seeds soaking or sprouting on the counter tops.

Where to start—

So why sprout?  Sprouts are full of nutrition–They are alive, vitamin and mineral content doubles or triple!!  Sprouting pre-digests the nut or seed and  activates living enzymes which also assist in digestion.

What to sprout? Almost anything! Use untreated, unbroken nuts, grain or seed–not seeds treated for planting purposes. Anything out of the bulk bins will probably sprout.

What equipment  do you need? Any container that provides drainage. You can buy nut and seed mesh bags for sprouting or use mason jars with old tights or nylons on the top secured with a rubber band for draining or you can buy a jar with a screen lid or for larger beans/grains I have used a bowl strainer/colander combination.

How do I sprout? Choose something simple to start off with-   Easy beans–mung beans, garbanzo, lentil, kidney, aduki Easy seeds—alfalfa, clover, radish, mustard, feugreek      Easy grains—-whole barley, wheat berries, kamut berries, rye, quinioa  Best nuts—almonds, sunflowers, filberts

For 1 qt finished sprouts measure out:    small seeds 2-3 rounded Tablespoons — Medium Seeds 1/4-1/2 cup —-Larrger beans and grains 1 cup —sunflower seeds 2 cups

Pour into jar or strainer, fill with good water,  let soak over night    Drain using a screen, nylon or strainer of some sort.  Rinse and drain again.  Continue rinsing 2 to 3 times per day for 4 to 7 days depending on the temperature-until desired sprout length. Keep in a darker spot for days 1 through 3 And for the last 2 to 3 days place in a sunny spot to activate their green chlorophyll.  Drain and keep in the fridge for about 7 days.

Once you get started it’s super easy to sprout!  You can eat them raw in salads or on sandwiches (PB&J w/ alfalfa sprouts is a favorite of mine!!) You can add them to soups or puree to make pate or hummus. You can go on to cook sprouted beans and sprouted grains can be dried and ground into flour.  I have a recipe for the mung bean sprouts in the first photo that I will be making tonight! I love to use sprouted quinoa to make tabouli.  Happy Sprouting!

******Fermented Foods update from last week*********

I just tasted them again today and the carrots definitely have a bit of a zing to them but still not enough-I will taste again in a couple of days. The cabbage is now a beautiful purple color but not too tangy yet. The temperature hasn’t been too warm so I think that might keep things from moving along and fermenting. If I had to eat them now they would be tasty but I am hoping for a little more “sour” zest to them! I promise to keep you posted.

Thursday’s Recipe …. Live, cultured, Fermented Foods!!!!

I am so excited!! I am sort of a geek about healthy food, and fermented food is my latest health food.  It seems like I am not alone. I  have been seeing and hearing so much about fermented foods lately, I couldn’t wait to try to make some of my own. Fermenting foods makes them more nutritious. These cultured foods grow bacteria, probiotics that are so good for your gut.  I found this book at our library–WILD FERMENTATION  THE FLAVOR, NUTRITION, AND CRAFT OF LIVE CULTURES   by Sandor Ellix Katz.  He also has a very informative website called Wild Fermentation. There is so much more to say about how good these foods are for you, Sandor covers it well in both his book and website.

And I also read a yummy blog post by my friend Sheri.  But sometimes I have trouble getting started with something new. I can research things to death. Very un-unschooley of me!! So I have been looking on-line and at blogs gathering info. Today I decided to just try it–and really it was easy.

I  started with Ginger Carrots.

I grated 4 cups of organic  carrots (not peeled as there is lots of good stuff especially minerals you don’t want to wash or peel off)   Put into a bowl and add 1 T grated ginger and 2 T salt.  Immediately the juices started to release from the carrots. This is just what you want to happen. Then I filled my wide mouthed mason jar and added just a tiny bit of water to make sure they were totally covered in liquid.

Look closely—can you see the bubbles–it’s alive!! Really-that’s what makes it so healthy!

I left plenty of head space and capped loosely to let some of the gas escape.

I used good salt. Look it says ALIVE!

I read that you don’t want to used iodized salt. You need to use large, wide mouthed jars which I have not invested in yet nor have I found any at the thrift store-so I used mason jars and an old pickle jar.

Next I made sauerkraut. I used both green and purple cabbage. I grated it up in the food processor and put it in a large bowl.

To that I added 2 T of salt and  1 t of dill seed and 1 t celery seed ground up in a coffee grinder.

After thoroughly mixing it all up with my hands I packed it down into a jar and topped off with a bit of water. Again leaving head space and not sealing too tight.

I put these into a bowl to catch any overflow that might escape. And set them in a dark spot on my counter.

I can not wait to taste these. I will do a taste test in 3 days to see how they are coming along. I read to test at days 3, 6 and 9. When it suits my taste refrigerate. I am so excited at the possible combinations and to try other fruits-yes fruits and veggies and spices Mmmmm.