Grilled Salsa
Homemade salsa can't be beat... unless you grill some of the vegetables first.
Fresh summer vegetables from Pennsylvania's Adams County, and I'm sure your area, make some specific recipes jump to our minds. For our family, one of our favorite summer treats is a fresh, homemade salsa. There are as many recipes for salsa as there are people making it, and my version seems to change every time I make it.
That variety is a positive thing; I use my recipe as a road map. Start with a basic plan, but pick the best looking, freshest ingredients and adapt the map to fit the produce. The downloadable recipe below can be a starting point. Use what you pick up at your local market. (My ingredients were from the always wonderful Adams County Farm Fresh Markets in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.)
While raw veggies in a salsa are great as is, grilling some can add some depth to the texture, color and taste. I tend to use both grilled and raw ingredients, and will even use both versions of the same ingredient. (Particularly the tomatoes; grill some and leave others raw. In this batch, the larger tomatoes are grilled while the small ones were raw.) After prepping the vegetables, the ones to be grilled are placed on the grill rack and pulled off as each reached the perfect stage. The attached recipe notes my suggestions, but adapt to your preference.
For the tomatoes, for example, I tend to pull them off when the skins begin to pull loose. At that stage, it's easy to remove them with your fingers or tongs.
After doing a rough chop of the grilled and raw vegetables, the salt, olive oil, vinegar and lime juice are added.
I've found the best flavor to be after chilling the salsa for a few hours, but certainly eaten with a day or two. If your family is like mine, you won't have any problems finishing this treat during the first sitting.
To download an easily-printed pdf file of the recipe, click here. Let me know what you think or note what you do in your salsa recipe below in the comment section.
Beef Jerky
Wait... You don't have a jerky recipe? Better grab my recipe.
Don't worry too much about storage. You'll be eating this right away.
Beef jerky has always been a welcome treat, but taking one look at the ingredients list of commercial jerky quickly dulls the appetite. By using a high quality, local meat and a flavorful marinade, an excellent jerky can easily be made that will ensure you that the end result is something you'll look forward to.
The marinade discussed below and available via the download link is appropriate for one pound of meat. In the case of beef jerky, I pick up very thinly sliced steaks from a local, trusted butcher.
2 tsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Dry Mustard (Powder)
½ tsp Garlic Powder
⅜ tsp Cayenne Pepper
¼ tsp Black Pepper
¼ cup Wine, Cider, Etc.
¼ cup Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp Liquid Smoke
¼ tsp Tabasco Sauce, adjust as preferred
For ease in preparation, mix the dry ingredients in a one gallon ziplock bag.
Add the remaining liquid ingredients and mix well. Place the beef or other meat into the bag, being careful to separate any slices as much as possible. Marinade in the refrigerator 8-12 hours or longer, tumbling the bag occasionally to expose all areas of the meat.
Dehydrate for several hours, turning the beef slices every few hours to ensure drying on both sides. Store the jerky in the refrigerator to ensure safety.
Download a printable pdf file of the marinade recipe by clicking here.
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter! Sometimes that is all that needs to be said. Or eaten.
Aside from those with peanut allergies, I know of very few folks who don't enjoy indulging in peanut butter, and there are probably even fewer of us that don't have memories of enjoying peanut butter as a kid. There's something basic about peanut butter, and that classic nature probably stems from the simplicity of the food.
As great (and tempting) as it is to be able to stick that spoon into the jar of peanut butter and lick it clean, there's no reason not to reach for peanut butter that's even better; peanut butter is incredibly easy to make at home and will make your taste buds even happier. When I made my first batch, I quickly asked myself why I hadn't done it sooner.
Trusting Alton Brown's experiments in recipe formation, I knew that his recipe would be a great starting point. When I concluded my early attempts, I made very few changes. I roast the peanuts without adding salt and peanut oil as Alton does, instead sticking to those ingredient in the later stage of processing. In addition, I find it necessary to increase the amount of oil necessary when making the butter. In all other ways, the recipe is as he presents it. (Click here to go to the original recipe on the Food Network web site.)
While homemade peanut butter can be made with purchased roasted peanuts, roasting is incredibly simple and provides an amazing aroma in your kitchen that makes the whole project worth the price of admission. And how else can you ensure a fresher end product? In my area, the local Weis grocery store chain sells 15 ounce bags of raw peanuts (Pardoe's Perky Peanuts, in this case) that are perfect for this recipe. The peanuts are spread in a single layer on two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. I've found that 15 to 20 minutes of roasting time at 400℉ is a reasonable roasting time, stirring once or twice in the middle. I'd suggest experimenting with how dark or light you'd like the peanuts; darker roasting pushes the nutty flavor even more forward, but there is a "too dark" line. (In the photographs in this post, I'm using a roast that probably is about as dark as I'd recommend. A few dark peanuts are perfectly fine, but you may want to roast to a slightly lighter color on your first attempt.)
The roasted peanuts are placed in a food processor with the salt and honey. I use a smoked salt and a dark, thick, local honey for interest, but feel free to use what is available to you. This mixture is processed for several minutes until the peanuts are quite crumbly. Crumbly... a great word!
Three tablespoons or so of peanut oil (That makes sense!) is slowly drizzled into the peanut mixture as it is further processed, and gradually the magic that is peanut butter will form before your eyes. How smoothly would you like your peanut butter? Your call!
I'll note that I increased the amount of peanut oil substantially over Mr. Browns' suggestion. Feel free to play with the amount until you come up with your preferred texture.
This incredibly flavorful butter will knock your socks off. The difference between it and the commercial variety is quite substantial. Eat it in a sandwich or place it in your favorite recipes, as I did in the foods shown below. Want to be a radical? Grab that spoon and eat it right out of the food processor.
Download a one page printable pdf file of my slightly adapted version of the peanut butter recipe by clicking here.
Molasses Milo (Sorghum) Cake
The local Union Mills Homestead offers their own stone-ground flours, and spotting milo flour put me in pursuit of a worthy baked item with the flour. I think we've come up with one.
I'm fortunate, living in the southern part of Pennsylvania, to live near many sites linked to early America and its history. In some cases, there are related links to older or different products dealing with the foods we eat. The milo flour in the attached cake recipe is one such exmple.
Just over the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland is the Union Mills homestead, complete with an operating brick grist mill that provides the area with stone ground cornmeal and flours. On one visit, I picked up a small sample of milo flour, a new item they were experimenting with. Milo is a drought-resistent sorghum grain. Sorghum cereals are used for livestock feed and syrup-like sweeteners. Its flours are gluten-free and high in protein and fiber. While it can have a bit of a gritty texture in baked goods, this can be used effectively in the right recipes.
One downside to milo in baking is its tendency to make crumbly cakes and cookies. The great folks at Union Mills warned me of the issue, and suggested that I mix the flour with another, rather than using only the milo. In addition, they found that adding coconut oil in recipes with the sorghum was beneficial. While coconut oil is high in staurated fat, its lauric acid seems to have much less of a negative impact than many other saturated fats. Milo flour is shown beside more traditional flour in the photograph below.
Recipes utilizing a high proportion of sorghum flours are not overly abundent, but I found a cookie recipe on the Whole Grains Council web site that looked enticing:
http://wholegrainscouncil.org/recipes/snacks-desserts/molasses-sorghum-cookies
The recipe originated in Sara Baer-Sinnott's "The Oldways Table." It was excellent, although as expected, crumbled quite easily; definitely worth working with for its nice, dark flavor and unique texture offered by the milo flour.
My first attempt was to add the coconut oil and try it as a bar cookie; the effort was again tasty, but difficult to hold together. It was very light and cake-like, so I went with its strengths and moved to a cake format by adding another flour: both cake and/or bread flours worked suitably, and created a low-rising cake that can be eaten as a finger food, as are most brownies. No icing is needed, although a dusting of confectioner's sugar is a nice touch.
If served with no powdered sugar, each of the twelve suggested servings yields 227 calories. Yeah, saturated fat is high. Splurge!
I've become a fan of the cake, and it's become a regular snack item here in the house. Feel free to download the recipe in pdf form here:
http://visualrealia.drupalgardens.com/sites/g/files/g389126/f/201511/MiloCakeRecipe.pdf
If you can't find sorghum flours locally, those in the area will enjoy a visit to Union Mills to pick up some directly.