SSSSalsa!

The Black River

Back in the halcyon days of my youth (the late 80s) I spent a couple of weeks with my sister Petunia at her house in (very) rural southern Missouri.  Its a great place;  the Black River runs through it and all summer you can enjoy nature at its Ozarkian finest.
That year Petunia and her first husband had a garden with a capital G.  The produce produced.  And produced.  And produced.  Everything went to zucchini level.  There were midnight runs leaving watermelons on neighbors porches because no one wanted them.  And my god, the tomatoes!

TOE-MAY-TOES.

We picked a gallon or more a day, and after quarts of gazpacho, oodles of marinara, and salad after salad after salad, we decided to make salsa.

Now neither of us (at the time) had anything but a decent sense of taste and a love of cooking under our belts. So we did what we thought would taste good and it did...but...

At that time in (very) rural southern Missouri there was no source for hot peppers unless you grew them yourself, and Sheri hadn't.  So we bought pickled banana peppers by the jar, and they aren't very hot.  We cooked the tomatoes, pickled peppers, onions and assorted spices and let it cool.  It was a bit, let us say, juicy.  Neither one of use thought to drain it.  And very, very mild.  But still quite tasty, and Tabasco goes a long way.  We didn't jar it, we put it in ziploc bags and froze it (which by the way is a great alternative preservation method to canning for most things).  

Petunia and I August 1971.  She's the tall one.

So this post is dedicated to my sister and the glorious summer of watermelons.











This recipe is my own and makes a great chip salsa.  It doesn't use any cilantro, which has unfortunately become ubiquitous in salsas here on the western front.

All the produce is from my garden!

You will need:

~3 qt of tomatoes (mine are yellow pear, Roma and some rather weedy looking Better Boys the master of the house grew)
~2 large onions
2-3 bell peppers
hot peppers to taste (I used 12 Anaheim, 3 jalapenos and 4 dried habaneros)  I didn't seed the peppers to give them more kick
3 cloves garlic
3T kosher salt
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/3 C white vinegar

1 large non reactive pot to cook the salsa, one large pot with a canning rack, and sterilized jars, lids and rings.

Wash and rough chop the tomatoes and onions and put in the non reactive pot.

Wash the bell peppers, remove the stems, seeds and ribs and rough chop the meat.  Add to the pot.
 Wash and dice the hot peppers.  Remove the seeds and ribs if you don't have a taste for spice.  I recommend ALWAYS using gloves to handle hot peppers and I use a designated cutting board for them as well.

Note the VERY IMPORTANT gloves

If you don't wear gloves while handling hot peppers, eventually you are going to wish you had.  Eyes, nostrils and other "sensitive" areas will burn burn burn like a burning ring of fire if you touch them even after multiple hand washings (not that it has ever happened to me, ahem.)

Dice the garlic and add the garlic and peppers to the pot.

Pour in the vinegar, sugar and salt and cook over medium high heat stirring every few minutes until the onions and bell peppers  are translucent ~20 minutes.

Drain the mixture.  Drain it as if your life depends on it (ok, hyperbole.)

But seriously, this is 2 1/2 cups of liquid you don't need!

Take the immersion blender to the drained mixture and blend to your desired texture.

Place in sterilized, heated jars.  Wipe the rims, place the lids and rings and tighten gently.  Process as directed for salsa.

Finished product!  This recipe makes just over 3 pints of deliciousness.

This is an honest-to-god thing!

*To go to zucchini:  When one's garden produces so much of anything one cannot eat it or give any more away.  In extreme cases of zucchini, friends and neighbors actively avoid you because they don't want anymore damn vegetables and you are reduced to midnight runs to drop of produce at peoples' doors.  The problem arises that if your garden is this productive, so is everyone else's and you come home to bags of "goodies" on your porch too.

Gardening in the desert: An overview

The harvest 8/13/12; cucumbers, yellow pear and Roma tomatoes and a few Anaheim peppers.

I've briefly mentioned my garden here.  As you know, I live in Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada!tm  which is located in the center of the Mojave desert.  Desert, as in dry and hot desert.  Dry. And. Hot.   Right now its been ~110F in the shade during the day and cooling down to a chilly 89F at night.  So it may come as a surprise that I have a booming fruit and vegetable garden.  
 
Most fruits and vegetables do very well here in the heat of summer, particularly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons.  Root vegetables such as onions, turnips, carrots and potatoes do well early in the year and the cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage grow over winter.  Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach and all of the hard greens (kale, mustard, endive) can be grown in the early spring.  Fruit and nut trees are also successful--we have a dwarf lime and an apricot tree, and as previously mentioned, my parents have a very productive fig.  If nothing else, herbs can be grown year round;  people use rosemary bushes for landscaping!

30% shade cloth

Of course there are a few tricks to make a garden successful.  While we have no risk of flooding, drought and heat are an intrinsic part of life here.  What's the secret?  Irrigation of course.  But very frugal irrigation; in the heat of the summer we water for 3 minutes at 7am, 1pm, and 7 pm using a low water drip system.  Another necessity is shade cloth.  Here in the valley a 30% shade weave is recommended--you can buy it precut or in bulk.  I'm cheaper than lazy, so I buy in bulk and cut to fit.

The western half of my raised garden in our backyard with shade cloth in place.  From left to right you can see Roma, bush beans, cucumbers fining, bell peppers, more beans, Brandywine and finally the massive yellow pear tomato falling over the wall.  In the far right is my dwarf lime tree.  And yes, it's 110F right now.

It is also very important to choose the vegetable and fruit varieties that are suited to hot dry weather.  For example, while very meaty dense varieties of tomatoes are high producers (Roma, pear, cherry and grape), Beefsteak varieties wither and don't produce worth a darn. 

Earthworm romance

Fertilizing the very alkaline soil of the desert isn't too difficult.  The most magic ingredient is epsom salts used judiciously.  We also have a home composter (I'll talk about this in another entry) that doubles as an earthworm farm.  I can't tell you how excited I was this spring when we were tilling up the soil and discovered several earthworms (and a few earthworm pieces--oops) in the garden bed.

I'm going to sign off for now and go for a swim.  Next time well make use of some of those tomatoes, peppers, herbs, onions and limes in a bruschetta
topping and some homemade Pico de Gallo relish.

Farming in Iowa is an entirely different endeavor from desert gardening,   Harry Meyers (My Great Grandfather) and the mules.

Chicken legs on the grill

Huzzah!  I get 8$ and a tip for cleavage!

Anyone who has been to a fair (county, state, Renaissance--whatever) has seen the succulent turkey legs.  This year I resolved to make them at home because, well, 8$ a turkey leg!

Thank you, Mr Hill.

I found several suggestions how to mimic the flavor, but they all required woodsmoke and we grill with propane (and propane accessories).

A gas grill is a treasure beyond price for we meat eaters.  In the summer in particular, it is no trick to light it and have a cooking surface in under 5 minutes--without heating up the house.
But gas grills have a downside--no flavor from the fire.  Though the charred surface may cause cancer (what doesn't?), the flavor woodsmoke imparts to meat can't be beat.  This year I resolved to find a way to add smoke to the meat that didn't include a new wood burning grill.

Here's the trick:  wood chips, aluminum foil and water.   I use commercial mesquite chips you can buy at the grocery store but you can get all fancified and use home dried fruit wood chips.  Place a double handful in the middle of a square of aluminum foil, place some ice chips on top, and fold the aluminum into a squarish packet.  Poke a few holes in the packet and place on the grill.  With the grill on the lowest heat, the chips will start to smoke in about 20 minutes and will continue for a few hours, plenty of time for cooking your poultry.

Being lazy at the farm.

.

Now I first did these with turkey legs, and they are easy enough to do, but chicken legs only take about 90 minutes, and turkey legs take at least 3 hours.  And as has been established, I'm lazy and sustained effort tires me.


You will need:

Chicken (I like legs or hindquarters for grilling--much juicier than white meat)
Salt, brown sugar, spices to taste for brining (I use garlic powder and red pepper flakes)
Olive oil
Soy sauce
Apple cider vinegar
Spice rub (I use kosher salt, turmeric, garlic powder, paprika, and ground pepper)
Sweet jelly or honey for glaze (I use my homemade rosemary-jalapeño jelly *)

Incredibly creepy brining chicken.

First, brine the meat.  I take gallon plastic storage bags and add a generous amount of salt, brown sugar, garlic and pepper flakes, then I put about 8 chicken legs in the bag and fill with cold water.  Mix well by squishing the chicken brine balloon and refrigerate overnight.

Legs, spice rub and baste.

Drain the chicken and pat dry.  Place on a clean grill after the woodsmoke has been going for a while.  I recommend placing the chip packet(s) over to one side of the grill over a low flame, and turning off any other burners--in other words, the chicken will be smoking, not grilling.

Note the wood chip packets.

You will need to rotate the legs though the cooking process to ensure good browning of the skin and appropriate cooking to eliminate risk of bacterial contamination.

After placing the chicken on the grill, brush copiously with the olive oil, soy sauce and vinegar mixture.  Sprinkle lightly with the spice rub.  Close the grill cover.

This has never happened to me.

Check back in 30 minutes or so (but be mindful of the cry "Honey, there's a LOT of smoke coming from the grill"--the Lord of the Manor is very helpful).

Halfway done.

At 30 minutes, turn over and rotate the chicken (from low heat areas to higher heat).  Brush with the olive oil mixture and sprinkle again with the rub.  Repeat every 15-30 minutes.  The more loaded up your grill, the longer this will take.  The batch in the photos was 24 chicken legs and took about 2 hours all told.
When the legs are cooked through (the meat should be165 F with a meat thermometer, but a more telling sign is when you pick up the leg, the meat stays behind--falling easily from the bone) it is time to add a glaze--if you want.

Glazing.

Brush the glaze over the meat, close the grill.  Wait 5 minutes.  Turn the meat and repeat.

Remove, cool and enjoy! 

Too good to be believed.

These can be frozen and reheated for future enjoyment.  I made the double batch for a party next week when the grill will be otherwise occupied by pulled pork in the morning and roasted veggies and veggie burgers at the time of the party.

Hi there!

A side note on poultry vs pork.



My sister quit eating pork--she says she feels pigs are very close to humans.

They took ma legs!

Poultry, however, is just fine.

*If you're lucky, I share the recipe sometime