Sunday, July 20, 2014

I Did It!

Awake at my usual 3:30 AM time to a lovely cool morning.

Opened some windows to air the house and  listen to early morning sounds.  The cat and I thought maybe we heard coyotes off in the distance but are not sure.  Birds are singing in the dark.

Farm news is they are moving the round bales off the fields.  DH still has some fields to brush hog, especially the ones west of the house.  We usually take hay from them but didn't this year.

We are still very dry here.

Garden news is I am  starting  my watering round again; this time on the eastern (sweet corn) side.  First I need to trim  some weeds along the fence.

It will take me a few  days to get everything watered.

Cooking (I Did It)

We bought some very spicy and delicious Jalapeno pepper relish at our local winery a couple of weeks ago.
I thought I could replicate it and I did.  It has very few ingredients.

The test was our GD.  She absolutely loved the winery relish and turned thumbs down on some sweet pickled J. peppers I bought.  I made a snack plate of crackers, cream cheese and relish with mine on one side and theirs on the other.  She ate them and said all were delicious!  She picked mine as theirs....then said it was hotter though.  Great success.




It is really too hot and the next time I would  remove the seeds and membrane from half the peppers.

If any of you are daring to give this a try, here is a guideline.  Use your own taste buds to get it just right.

I got the amounts to begin with from a site called Little House Living.

What You Need:
  • 24 large jalapenos
  • 3 medium onions
  • 3 cups vinegar
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 tbsp sea salt
  • 1  cup  sugar. (maybe less use taste test if you can stand the heat!)
    about a tablespoon of mustard seed and a tad of yellow mustard
     for color.
    Cornstarch to  thickens
  • disposable rubber gloves

    Wear gloves!!  Remove stem ends, slice peppers (I also chopped a few),  Chop onions.  Put all into large pot and cook down until quite reduced.  At the last minute I added enough corn starch to make it mound onto a spoon.

    It made two small jars.  I couldn't can mine because I have misplaced my canning lids! These will be kept in the refrigerator.  Otherwise follow canning directions for water bath method for relishes.

    Note:  I got enough peppers from one plant which is good because I accidentally gave my neighbor the rest of the J. pepper plants.

12 comments:

  1. Well, my husband might like that jam, but it will be HE and not ME that will be making it. Can't stand the hot peppers.....even when slathered with a half-pound of cream cheese. But congrats on replicating it!

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    1. Maybe when you reach a ripe old age you will begin liking them! My tastes have changed considerably.

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  2. This makes my mouth water! Glad you had success in making this 'copy'. Way to go Glenda!! As my husband used to say, "Atta-girl".

    FlowerLady

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    1. My GD daughter said "you go girl!" she was very generous with her 'girl' comments.

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  3. Good for you figuring out the recipe. I don't have much luck doing things like that. I usually end up something different. Sometimes it's good.... Still hoping you'll get all the haying done and then get some good soaking rains. Fingers crossed for ya.

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    1. Good news. Hay is all off the fields....still no rain though.

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  4. Glenda,

    Congratulations of figuring out the recipe!!! Looks good girl :-)

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  5. Not only does it taste good, it looks beautiful.

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    1. Thank you Gail. GD made some snack crackers with it for her and her BF before dinner last night. He took a sample home to his family.... be interesting to see if they like it too.

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  6. We don't make jalapeño relish but we make a hot relish which we will be doing this year!..:)JP

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    1. It's funny how for years I wouldn't touch anything very hot; now I am loving it and use the relish on every sandwich. Good luck with your relish.

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