For the love of Produce...

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  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,262 Member
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    @acpgee

    If you have a vacuum sealer, seal and freeze some to use later. They are good to add to so many things.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,625 Member
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    So I stretched the peppers in a salad containing roast cherry tomatoes, chopped olives, toasted pepitas (because pine nuts are exhorbitant), mozarella, red onion. The hubby complained the roasted peppers got stretched too far, as their flavour was a bit lost.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,625 Member
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    Second atttempt at a salad with the roast paprikas. This time with mozarella, a little red onion, and capers. It needed the crunch of some nuts or seeds.
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  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 912 Member
    edited February 18
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    acpgee wrote: »
    I roasted and peeled a bunch of red peppers this week. Any ideas on what to do with them besides eating them plain as a side?
    I’m too late .. … but I love all peppers in a gumbo! Also have you had Moroccan taktouka?

    In Morocco, Taktouka is a warm salad, like zaalouk, using: roasted peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic and olive oil.

    I have some orange bell peppers - I’m now inspired to go eat them. :)
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 912 Member
    edited February 27
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    acpgee wrote: »
    @SafariGalNYC
    Thanks for the taktouka tip, which I have never had before. While I was at it, made some Moroccan carrots with chermoula.

    I finally have the roasted peppers routine down, so that it is quick and easy. Do as many as your air fryer will hold. Put in whole peppers and air fry on high about 25 minutes turning twice so that skin is blackened or withered all over. Immediately transfer to an air tight container such as a large tupperware box. This is important because cooling in an airtight container will cause a layer of liquid to form between the flesh and skin making them easy to peel. Try not to puncture the skin while moving the peppers. When cool and you have the 10 minutes to do the manual work, save the liquid at the bottom of the container which is delicious. Rub off the skins. Discard the seed core and get rid of excess seeds stuck to the flesh by scraping with a spoon or blunt knife. Do not rinse, as the liquid clinging to the peppers is delicious. You can put all the waste (seeds and skins) in a strainer to eek out a little more of the elixir.

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    @acpgee - that looks amazing!!! Thanks for sharing the routine for the peppers! Those carrots looks delicious!

    I love all recipes with peppers. 🫑
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,625 Member
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    I discovered a tip for peeling acorn squash. Pop into the microwave for a minute on high heat. Softens just enough to make peeling less of a chore.
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 912 Member
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    mtaratoot wrote: »
    My tepache finally started bubbling the other day. My house is really too cool for any appreciable fermentation, so I put it on the stove (not on a burner that was running) a couple times when I was running the oven.

    I didn't want to leave it too long, so I strained it today after letting it go for three days. Next time I will use less sugar. It's sweeter than I'd like, but full of pineapple flavor.

    After I strained it into a quart measuring cup, I poured it carefully into a one liter swing-top bottle and sealed it up. I'll leave it out for another day or two to get a little carbonation, then it will be ready to drink.

    Now I kind of want to get another pineapple if I can find one as ripe and delicious as the last one.

    The split pea and barley soup was really good, especially with the quick pickle onion as a garnish. It was ~too~ good; I ate one of the two quarts I had set aside after having the first bowl.

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    Yum!

    I looked up tepache.. seems like something in the kombucha family?

    I’ve been seeing a bunch of pink pineapple in the grocery store lately.
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 912 Member
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    mtaratoot wrote: »
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    My tepache finally started bubbling the other day. My house is really too cool for any appreciable fermentation, so I put it on the stove (not on a burner that was running) a couple times when I was running the oven.

    I didn't want to leave it too long, so I strained it today after letting it go for three days. Next time I will use less sugar. It's sweeter than I'd like, but full of pineapple flavor.

    After I strained it into a quart measuring cup, I poured it carefully into a one liter swing-top bottle and sealed it up. I'll leave it out for another day or two to get a little carbonation, then it will be ready to drink.

    Now I kind of want to get another pineapple if I can find one as ripe and delicious as the last one.

    The split pea and barley soup was really good, especially with the quick pickle onion as a garnish. It was ~too~ good; I ate one of the two quarts I had set aside after having the first bowl.

    w211kxl95tp8.jpg

    Yum!

    I looked up tepache.. seems like something in the kombucha family?

    I’ve been seeing a bunch of pink pineapple in the grocery store lately.

    It's not at all like kombucha. It's a lightly fermented agua fresca. Kombucha is made from tea, and the fermentation involves a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria a.k.a., SCOBY. Tepache is more like a very mild wine. The yeast is naturally occurring, and it eats the sugar and gives of carbon dioxide and alcohol. If it gets contaminated by acetobacter, the alcohol eventually gets metabolized to acetic acid (vinegar). The wine making process is really simple - crush grapes and let 'em "rot." Or add a cultured yeast if you don't want to risk it to wild yeast. There's other steps, but that's really about it.

    I used to make beer, wine, and mead. I made some really good mead. I've been finally digging out some bottles from 20, 25, and even over 30 years ago. Some is showing signs of age, and I'm expecting to open one I dump out in the not too distant future. Some is surprisingly still very good. I opened a bottle of 27 year old stuff the other day that was the last bottle of that batch. The cork was about to disintegrate; I didn't have a lot of hope. I need to look up the recipe; I could taste vanilla and ginger, but I think it may have had none of that in there. I kept really good notes. Now that I no longer have pets, I might start to make some again.

    Tepache is just a fun way to make less waste from something that traveled so far. The recipe I based mine on was a little more than a quart of water and a quarter cup of sugar. I used a mix of different kinds of sugars, and next time I might use half as much or else let it ferment longer. It will get more alcoholic and less sweet. I may dilute this batch, but first I'm letting it sit a while longer in a sealed bottle to carbonate a bit. I'll open it in a day or two and assess how much additional fermentation has gone on. I don't want it to build up enough pressure to explode - it certainly could do that if the ferment picks up. Fermentation is somewhat limited by pressure, and also by temperature. The goal is to get some of the CO2 dissolved into the tepache to make it more fun.

    Super interesting!!! Thanks! @mtaratoot
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,625 Member
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    Roast grapes are new discovery for me. Great scattered warm on a green salad with salty cheese. Here with some cubes of feta.
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  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 912 Member
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    acpgee wrote: »
    Roast grapes are new discovery for me. Great scattered warm on a green salad with salty cheese. Here with some cubes of feta.
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    🤯!!!

    Amazing!!