Roasted Wrinkly Peppers

I got my hands on some beautiful red peppers! The only small thing “wrong” with them, is that they were a little wrinkly. This has happened to me in the past though – I found some awesome peppers, bought to many of them to use quickly, open the fridge one day and poof… wrinkly peppers.

At this point they are a little soft and ugly for eating raw – it’s hard to dip them into hummus like this… however, they are perfect for roasting.

At the wrinkly stage of a red peppers life, we know the sugars in them have concentrated. This makes these peppers literally the best roasted peppers ever.

Here’s how I do it:

Roasted Wrinkly Peppers
Ingredients:

• 4 large, over ripe red peppers

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the peppers into 3-4 large pieces each and discard the veins and seeds. Keeping the pieces large and flat. At this point, I also cut out any icky spots if they exist.  Foil line a pan and put a rack on it. Spray rack with non-stick spray and lay peppers on it, skin side up.
2. Cook for 20 minutes, rotate pan, cook for another 10. At this point they should have big huge black, burnt looking spots on their skin. If not, cook them until they do, then turn the heat off and let them sit in the warm oven for 10 minutes.
3. When the timer goes off, put the peppers into a plastic bag or bowl with a lid, and let them sit for 10-15 minutes in their own steam. This will loosen their skins, making them easy to peel off when their done steaming.
4. Put the peppers in a jar by themselves to use within the next couple days or cover them in olive oil to keep for around a week or two.
5. Substitutions: Use this recipe for all kinds of peppers – especially jalapenos and poblanos. My favorite!



The color the pepper skins should be when done in the oven.



The steaming process.


These peppers are great blended up in dips (which is full circle cause at first I couldn’t dip them in dip!), put on pizzas and sandwiches or cut up in pasta. Enjoy!



They are a bit hard to peel - but totally worth the effort!

Brown Bananas

These bananas have been sitting on my counter since the inception of this blog...

Which means they have been sitting there for far, far too long... But the problem is, my husband only eats almost green bananas, and I never thinking about eating bananas at all... So, they've just been sitting there, turning spotted, then mostly brown, then... brown brown.

Since this is literally the story of all of our bananas lives, I have an entire repertoire of things to do with them! I had all of these things in my head, that I was planning to do earlier this week, then a little later... and now, it was too late to do anything with them, other than mush them and be completely stereotypical and - make banana bread.

Now, I have never been the best at making banana bread (which is why I do so many OTHER things to do with brown bananas). It always turns out super tasty, but never cooks up quit right. Its usually a little dense, a little too moist or the top kinda burns... and I've always attributed this to the crummy electric ovens I am forced to use... but then this morning, it struck me... its proabably because I NEVER follow the recipes I find. It's not cause I don't want to - its usually because I THINK I have everything in the cupboard to make them, but come to find out I don't have even 2/3rds of what I need...

Joy of Baking's Banana Bread Recipe (found here) is my go to BASE recipe. Its SUPER forgiving and has lots of opportunities for substitutions, see that section below.

Super Forgiving Banana Bread 
Makes 1 - 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf

• 1 cup (115 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional) 
• 1 3/4 cups (230 grams) all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 
• 3 ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 454 grams), mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups) 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan. Set aside.
2. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nuts. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.)
4. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. This bread can be frozen.
5. Substitutions: Use any nut or chocolate chips or nothing. Use half whole wheat flour. Use half brown sugar or half sugar substitute (like Splenda). 1 tbls ground flax seed mixed with 2.5 tbls water can be used in place of an egg. Since this recipe calls for melted butter, you can use oil to substitute some or all of the butter - this time I used 1/2 coconut oil and melted it with the butter I had on hand. Lastly, if you don't quite have enough banana, use apple sauce or grated zucchini to make up the difference.

I made all of these substitutions this time, and it turned out exactly as I have come to expect: SUPER delicious, but too dense and moist. Luckily, this is what my husband has come to expect from my banana bread too - so he'll be happy.

Final note - though you can substitute just about anything in this banana bread recipe - I highly recommend not substituting EVERYTHING like I did.

I will have a list of awesome things to do with bananas in the near future - I promise.

One Squash – Many, Many Meals

I was at work the other day I saw the most beautiful butternut squash! I had no plan for it, I just had to own it. Now its a few days later and the question remains… What to make into for dinner… Looking in my fridge – I found some old wanton wrappers I bought a few weeks ago at the Asian market, some second-hand ricotta cheese (my friend bought it, and hated it! Score for me!) and some wilty spinach. Hmmmm…. RAVIOLI!

After web searching a bunch of butternut squash ravioli recipe – I looked in my fridge again, pulled out even more stuff, and made up my own. Here it is:

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed, roasted butternut squash
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pinch chili powder
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• about 1/4 cup squash soup (or omit… though read below)
• 1 egg (yolk and white separated)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• about a 2/3 (14 ounce) package wonton wrappers
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, cut in quarters
• chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp of dried sage
• 1 cup baby spinach, chopped

Directions:

1. Mush together the butternut squash, salt, black pepper, chili powder, ricotta, soup, egg yolk, and Parmesan cheese. Mixing until the filling is well combined.
2. Get the wonton wrappers, the egg white and a cutting board. Put a wrapper on the cutting board, wet your finger with the egg white, and run it all along the outer edge of the wonton skin to moisten. Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of the wonton. Then fold the wonton in half, matching up the tips, and press the edges to seal. Do over and over again until you run out of something (if it’s the egg white, use water instead).
3. When all the ravioli are made, put a pot of water on to boil, then put a frying pan over medium heat, with the butter and garlic. Add the sage to the pan just as the butter completely melts. As the butter turns golden add the spinach, as soon as it wilts take the pan off the heat.
4. Drop the raviolis into the boiling water, a few at a time, and cook until they float to the top, then plus a minute, about 3 minutes total. Drain the raviolis, then put them in the pan with the butter. Turn the heat up to medium-high, and sauté the raviolis for about a minute a side.  
5. Put everything on a plate and swoon at your great use of fridge contents!

Substitutions: use any kind of squash (if using spaghetti squash, just blend it first). Use mascarpone or greek yogurt instead of ricotta. Omit the egg if necessary and use water to seal the wrappers. Use any (or no) greens at the end. If the filling seems a little dry, and you don’t have soup, try a dash of cinnamon (a VERY SMALL AMOUNT) and a splash of milk. 

Ok... the downside (for me anyways) – this recipe makes like 26 ravioli AND only used half the squash… I personally can only eat 8 ravioli at a time – so I froze the rest. Just put all the fresh leftovers (uncooked) in one layer, on a pan lined with parchment paper, and freeze. Once frozen solid, move them to an airtight bag. To re-cook, just take out the number you want an half hour or so before dinner, let them thaw, then cook as above, plus maybe a minute.

I’ll figure out what to do with the leftover squash a little later… I’m thinking soup. OH! The soup addition! Its amazing! The Pacific soup I used is really thin and has a hint of cinnamon and sweetness. It was a delicious addition. I actually got the idea because the carton of soup suggested it (and it was a good way to use up just a little more of the carton). 

Until next time! Chow! Heheh.

Rotten Tomatoes

Ok, not quite rotten, but pretty darn ugly. While at work the other day, I was doing my daily rounds of produce inspection, and I looked down at our organic Roma tomatoes and uuuhhhh ohhhh. Rotten tomatoes. 

I went through the whole bucket of them, about half of them were still perfect and beautiful, and a third were so disgusting or fuzzy they had to be thrown out. But, the other little bit – well – I donno, maybe had potential. Either, the tops were rotty, or there were big ole bruises, or they had weird black spots on them. I figured no one would buy them, but I kept them out for the last few hours. No one did, so I bagged them up at the end of the day and took them home. 

 

When I got home, I did a bit of research, and found out tomatoes are rather easy to can. In fact, the recipe in my Ball canning book was only like 10 lines long… At first I was thinking tomato sauce. I mean, my tomatoes were pretty ugly, I didn’t want that to show through the clear jar. But then, I realized my 16 romas did not equal the 45 pounds the recipe called for… I also didn’t want to can them whole – cause again… they weren’t gonna be whole when I cut the bad parts off. So chopped it was.

 

Here is the recipe I used - straight out of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving also found here.

Tomatoes – Packed in Own Juice

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 lb ripe tomatoes (about 8 to 11 medium) per quart 
• Ball® Citric Acid or bottled lemon juice
• Salt, optional
• Glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1. Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside
2. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner 1 hour and 25 minutes for pints and quarts, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
3. Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds. Immediately dip in cold water. Slip off skins. Trim away any green areas and cut out core. Leave tomatoes whole or cut into halves or quarters. (I diced mine… Cause they were weird shapes after trimming the gross off. I also squeezed out most of the seeds)
4. Add ½ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 2 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot quart jar. Add ¼ tsp Ball® Citric Acid or 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot pint jar
5. Pack tomatoes in hot jars until space between tomatoes fills with juice leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 teaspoon salt to each quart jar, 1/2 teaspoon to each pint jar, if desired. (I only put a pinch) Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
   
   
   
    

It was really easy actually. And most of the weird looking parts of the tomato came off with the skin! The deeper defects, I just cut off. Using my 16 romas, I was able to make 2 pints and 1 half pint jars. The tomatoes are beautiful in their jars, bright and real looking. They look wayyy better than commercial canned tomatoes!! 

 

The best part is – canning these old, ugly tomatoes gave them a second chance!