Tag Archives: Anaheim peppers

Today’s Harvest Basket 9/2

Peppers kick into high gear, watering required.

All these vegetables are grown from seed.

Cherry tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, Swiss chard, Padron peppers, bell and, Anaheim.

Peppers, growing in the garden or in containers, do better when the weather gets cooler.

Padron, little one inch long peppers, could be called surprise peppers. Or, Russian Roulette peppers. These are a mild tasty pepper. Most of the time. But now and then, WOW! you get a hot one.

Randomly Hot

Blistered Padron Peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Padrón or shishito peppers
Course sea salt

Heat large skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add half of the peppers, tossing to cook until peppers are softened and blistered. You may cook in multiple batches in a single layer, not over crowding.

Empty skillet onto a warmed platter, add half the salt. Repeat, blistering the rest of the peppers in more hot oil. Add more salt. Serve right away.

Black Bell Peppers

There is a big color choice of bell peppers in the garden. Red, yellow, green, purple, milk chocolate color and these beautiful black peppers. The plants are loaded with medium-sized thick-walled sweet peppers.

All the bell peppers taste alike, some bigger or thicker. Regardless of color, peppers not eaten fresh are chopped or cut into strips and frozen for winter use. Freeze chopped peppers in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, pop peppers into a heavy zip lock bag and return to freezer. Easy to do.

Cherry tomatoes

Pickled cherry tomatoes with rosemary and thyme.

Cherry tomatoes are the first to ripen in the summer. As full-sized tomatoes come on, the cherries just keep producing until frost.

I dehydrate most of them, making sun-dried tomatoes. These little jelly jars are filled with tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, vinegar and salt. These pickled cherry tomatoes will be served on appetizer trays or anti pasta platters.

Peppermint Stick Chard

This chard is heat tolerant and pretty enough to be in flower containers or planted in the garden. I use chard leaves like spinach in casserole dishes, vegetable lasagna, of enchiladas.

Stems can be pickled like Jardiniere. I just pop the stems in an empty jar of pickle juice after I’ve eaten all the Jardiniere. The chard stems become a crispy refrigerator pickle in a couple of days.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 8/20

A rainbow of peppers both sweet, mild bells and mildly hot Anaheim and poblanos.

Yellow eggplants, chocolate, red and black bell peppers, butternut squash and Anaheim peppers

Today’s harvest basket is full of colorful peppers and eggplant. That means it’s time for ratatouille, a French vegetable dish  hardy enough to serve as an entrée.

I now have all the herbs and vegetables for ratatouille. There are faster but not better ways to make this French peasant stew, but Julia Child’s recipe is simply the best. Find the Ratatouille recipe in her cookbook Mastering The Art of French Cooking.

Try this vegetable dish that has summer squash, eggplant, and bell pepper tied together by a fresh tomato sauce. I add a few more herbs than Julia does but her classic recipe can be a springboard for your own version.

Green, red and black peppers all on the same plant.

All the pretty bell peppers are meant to be eaten fresh or chopped and frozen for winter cooking. I make lots of stuffed peppers and freeze some for quick comfort food this fall. Depending on the degree of ripeness, bell three peppers start out green and color as they ripen.

We always grow more than we can eat fresh so there will be plenty for freezing. Most peppers are chopped and can be added frozen to any cooked recipe. Also, some are cut in strips to use in fajitas and wraps.

Roasted peppers are quickly blistered on the grill, outside.

I’m roasting and peeling the hot peppers, Anaheim and poblanos. What we don’t use fresh, will be frozen in cubes for winter use. Many are going into pint jars of salsa.

Each ice-cube square in the plastic tray holds about the equivalent  of 1 or 2 roasted and chopped chili peppers. The frozen pepper cubes can be added to soups, chili, casseroles.

If you are growing heirloom peppers, it’s easy to save seed. Be sure to let one stay on the plant until big and fully ripe.

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Today’s Harvest Basket 7/19

The July garden is bursting with produce and in need of water every day.

Orange and yellow carrots, Anaheim peppers, purple bell peppers, Padron peppers, green beans.

Carrots, peppers, beans

Where are the tomatoes?

The missing tomatoes in this picture were stolen by a ruthless gang of squirrels. Those thugs absconded with my big heirloom tomatoes. But, I picked a few before they were completely ripe. I’ll show you in a day or two.

I am buying tomatoes at the farmers market. But, the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen faster than the squirrels can eat them. So, I pick a few cherry tomatoes everyday.

Trellised red and yellow cherry tomatoes overlooked by the tomato cartel.

The heirloom tomato cartel, is the squirrely gang involved in tomato trafficking. These well fed rodents can move fast and manage to disappear on site. I can imagine that the neighbors just see me yelling and waving my fists in the gardens.

A peck of peppers picked:
Padrón, Anaheim, Chocolate-brown bell peppers

Padrón or shishito peppers are new to my garden this year. Easy to prepare, grilled or flash fried and sprinkled with salt. Mild and very flavorful, about 1 in 10 of these tiny peppers is fiery hot.

The Anaheim peppers are about 6″ long and mildly hot. Every few days, while the peppers are firm and shiny, I roast, chop and freeze them. I’ll use some of these in homemade salsa.

The earliest bell pepper to ripen are the chocolate peppers. So named for their color, this bell pepper is sweet, juicy and thick-walled. The smooth, medium-small, tapered blunt end bells are chocolate-brown peppers that ripen early and are heavy producers.

The carrots will be served fresh or roasted. To store the carrots, seal unwashed carrots in a plastic bag in the refrigerator crisper. I’ll also sow more carrots that will be harvested in the cool fall weather.

 

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