'Nero Fiddles Hot Sauce

 We are about halfway through September and the garden is still throwing habanero peppers like it's mad at us. The Wife is making noises about giving some of them away, and that just won't do. So I decided to make a hot sauce recipe that uses two dozen peppers a batch. I did. This one is a real roller coaster ride. It's like a Saturday morning with a six-year old in the house. It starts off nice and pleasant and then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. That's the best way I can describe it. More specifically, it's got a bright, slightly fruity taste. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. I could probably make some absolutely deadly hot-wings. Possibly add a few drops to a Bloody Mary. Maybe just drink it straight if I wanted to scream for a while. Basically a lovely flavor plays around in your mouth as you burn.

This recipe will yield 1-1/2 pints of sauce. If you own a Insta-Pot Ace blender, you can actually do everything but the canning step in the blender by running the puree program. 

Give it a spin and tell me what you think, as long as it's positive. As always, notes are in blue.

'Nero Fiddles Hot Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 dozen habanero peppers, stems removed (don't you even think about removing the seeds, you big baby)
• 2 red bell peppers, chopped
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup white tequila (if you don't do alcohol, just omit and split the difference between more vinegar and lime juice)

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Pour contents of blender into a non-reactive pot. Heat to a simmer for about 10 minutes. 
3. Return to the blender (or use an immersion blender) to ensure everything is totally liquefied. 
4. If you're not going to can this sauce, you're done. 

   

   Fire in the hole!

5. If you are canning, fill three half pint jars to 1/4 inch headspace and secure lid and ring. Process in a boiling water bath for about 12-15 minutes. As always, review canning procedures at The National Center for Home Food Preservation to make sure you don't accidentally poison anyone. 

Good times!

Pasta with Cherry Tomato and Red Pepper

     We truly enjoy pasta in our house. There's nothing finer than a finely crafted pasta dish. If that's what you're looking for, you're probably on the wrong website. I can, however, provide you with a tasty and simple pasta recipe. Our garden has been producing tomatoes and peppers like crazy, so we were looking for ways to use them up. A basic, olive oil-based pasta dish seemed just the thing. It totally was. This is a fresh, light recipe that has a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes. Give it a try and see what you think. Maybe less oil? Maybe add some shrimp? Get creative. As always, notes are in blue.

Pasta with Cherry Tomato and Red Pepper

Ingredients

• 1 pound pasta of your choice (don't pick something goofy like giant shells or lasagna noodles)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (insert obvious virgin joke here)
• 2 medium red bell peppers, cored and sliced
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• shredded Parmesan for topping

Directions

1. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes, until garlic starts to brown.
3. Add the bell pepper. Sautee for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Sautee another 3-5 minutes. 
4. Add the pasta and toss over medium-low heat for 2-3 more minutes to incorporate ingredients. Garnish with Parmesan.

Good times!

Kitchen Sink Casserole

     I'm pretty sure most people have some sort of variant of a "Kitchen Sink Recipe." There's just something fun about grabbing all sorts of stuff you need to get rid of and putting it together in a meal. Maybe you end up with soup or stew. We ended up with a casserole. I have no idea what compelled me to make a "crust" with mashed potatoes. I just needed to use them because they had all sprouted and were approaching sentience. Surprisingly, this wound up being an extremely tasty meal. I feel it benefited from a tableside dousing of hot sauce, but it was pretty flavorful as is. The fun of this is that you could swap in or out just about anything. Go crazy. Take out the green beans and add Jolly Ranchers. I'm not here to judge. Actually, I'm totally judging, but quietly. Behind your back. I never said I was a nice person. All right. I may have said it, but I lied. As always, notes are in blue.

Kitchen Sink Casserole

Ingredients

• 6 potatoes (peel them or don't. I like the peel. At the very least, wash them.)
• 1/2 pound yellow or green beans
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 ounces mushrooms, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1" squares
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1" squares
• 1 can (about 10.5 ounces) cream of mushroom soup 
• 1-1/4 pound ground beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 tube biscuit dough (at least 7.5 ounces if you want it to completely cover the casserole)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• another 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons Milwaukee Avenue Steak Seasoning (available at The Spice House. If you don't want to buy it, it contains: salt, hickory smoke powder, Hungarian sweet paprika, garlic, Tellicherry black pepper, cardamom and marjoram.)

Directions

1. Cut potatoes into large cubes and boil in salted water until fork tender (the potato, not the water. The water is already fork tender.) Remove the potatoes from the water and mash with the butter. 
2. Take a 9"x13" baking dish and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the mashed potatoes in an even layer across the bottom.

   

   Blinding speed is the key to good potato spreading.

3. In a pan, heat the olive oil and add the ground beef, mushroom and onion. Cook until meat is browned. Drain all but a bit of the oil and move the meat to a bowl. With the heat still on the pan, add the wine and scrape up all the brown bits in the pan. Boil off about half of the liquid. Add the peppers and beans. Simmer for about 5 minutes. 

   

   These fresh vegetables will balance out the 9 Guinness Stouts I'm going to have with dinner.

4. Add the contents of the pan to the bowl of meat and onion. Add the cream of mushroom soup and seasonings. Stir it all up and spread it evenly over the mashed potatoes.
5. Have someone brave pop the tube of dough (I will freely admit that I am a grown man, but I am scared shitless of opening a tube of biscuit dough. It never pops when you'd expect it and I jump out of my skin every time. I just hand the tube to The Wife and leave the kitchen until it's all over). Flatten out the biscuits as much as possible. Wad it up and roll it out in a big sheet if you'd like. The plan is to lay that sheet of dough over the top of the casserole. 
6. Spread the other 2 tablespoons of butter over the biscuits. Put the casserole in an oven at 375F (190C, Gasmark 5) for about 20 minutes, or until the biscuit dough is golden brown.
7. Cut yourself a big old hunk and slather that bastard with hot sauce. Now get to work. 

Good times!

Vegetable Frittata

     Frittatas are just wonderful. There's so much you can do with them. You can pretty much dump anything in a frittata and it will be good. You could probably load one with Cap'n Crunch and have a winner on your hands. Actually, that doesn't sound bad. I may have to give that one a spin. This particular frittata is loaded with veggies and is much healthier, coming in at only 150 calories per serving. Consider that for a second. You could eat the entire damned pan and be out for only 900 calories. That's value! Fair warning, the veggies will build up some water, so you'll need to drain this a bit before serving. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Vegetable Frittata
via Betty Crocker: The 300 Calorie Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion (1/2 cup) chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium bell pepper (1 cup), chopped
• 2 small zucchini (2 cups), chopped
• 1 small tomato (1/2 cup), chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 eggs or 1-1/2 cups fat-free egg product (wow, when they make it sound so appetizing, how can I go with anything else than actual eggs. Maybe I can go find some artificial imitation ersatz margarine substitute, too!)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350F (180C, Gasmark 4)
2. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet (cast-iron is perfect here), melt butter over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. 
3. Stir in bell pepper, reduce heat to medium. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender (for whatever reason, the term "crisp-tender" just pisses me off to no end. I think maybe it smacks of pretentiousness. It could just be that I'm hateful. Anything's possible). 
4. Stir in zucchini, tomato, salt and pepper. Cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. In a small bowl, beat eggs with wire whisk or fork (or chopsticks if you feel like showing off) until blended; pour over vegetable mixture.
6. Bake uncovered 10 to 12 minutes or until center is set. Sprinkle with cheese. Cut into wedges. (Or just stand at the stove and grimly shovel forkful after forkful into your mouth straight from the skillet. I'm not here to judge). 

Good times!

Sausage and Peppers Diavolo

    Fra Diavolo is one of my favorite ways to enjoy pasta. The simple combination of olive oil, garlic and red pepper is just fantastic. It's just the right combination of richness and heat. I figured that base could be used for any number of recipes. I'm pretty sure I've had chicken diavolo before. Maybe not. I'm not 100% sure. I might have hallucinated it. Regardless, I had a lot of bell peppers left over from the garden last season, so we decided to dig some out of the freezer and use them in this recipe. I figured combining sausage and peppers with pasta diavolo was a sure thing. I was right. This was delicious. If you don't like it, obviously you cooked it wrong or possibly have a damaged palate. I forgive you. This time. As always, any notes are in blue.

Sausage and Peppers Diavolo

Ingredients

• 12 ounces Farfalle (that's what we cooking types call bow-tie pasta. Nothing impresses your dinner guests like pretentiousness) 
• 1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed (the choice of sweet or hot sausage it up to you. Either will work here)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil (use extra virgin if you happen to have a surplus of virgins in your house)
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (you can use less if you're a wuss)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 
• grated Asiago cheese for garnish

Directions

1. In a large, non-stick pan, brown Italian sausage and break into crumbles. On medium-high heat, this will take about 5-8 minutes. Make sure to drain off any excess oil. Add the garlic, onion and peppers about half way through.
2. Cook pasta according to directions (the directions for the pasta, not the directions for anything else. Following instant pudding directions here would not be helpful)
3. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the sausage and pepper mix. Add the olive oil, red pepper, basil, and Parmesan. Toss to ensure everything is evenly coated.
4. Throw a big helping on a plate and top with grated Asiago.

Good times!