Spiced Pecans

Our friend Leila brought these delicious pecans to our Christmas hike and picnic, and then brought us some more the next day. Even better, she gave me the recipe. It's wonderful to find a Christmas nut recipe that isn't coated in sugar!

Spiced Pecans

3 T butter, melted

3 T Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
dash Tabasco sauce
1 lb. pecan halves

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all ingredients, add pecans, toss. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring often. Enjoy!

(I think there are a few left. I'm going to go eat them now.)

Christmas Goodies

I love to make food gifts for Christmas. This year I made marmalade, lemon curd, chocolate chip cookies, fudge, and sour cream cupcakes with peppermint and cream cheese frosting. I might also make some coconut cupcakes.

If you find out late some day that you have to contribute something for your child's bake sale or your office party, this Microwave Fudge might save you. After ten years I still can't believe how easy and good it is.

Microwave Fudge

1 pound powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter or margarine, cut in small pieces

1/4 cup evaporated milk

2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts

In a 2-quart glass container, combine sugar and cocoa. Stir in butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Cover with waxed paper and microwave on high for 2 minutes.

With wooden spoon, stir hot mixture until butter melts, then beat vigorously for one minute or until fudge loses some of its gloss. Stir in 1/2 cup of the nuts. Pour into greased 8 or 9-inch square pan and sprinkle with remaining nuts. Refrigerate one or two hours until firm.

Homemade Tabasco Sauce

Lawson grew a tabasco chile plant this year. It was beautiful: all graceful sweepy branches and upright chiles ranging from a pale green to bright bricky red.

So I read up on tabasco sauce, which involves fermenting crushed-up tabasco chiles and then mixing the strained goo with vinegar.

When ripe, tabascos are soft and juicy, not firm like most other chiles. I used the food processor to briefly mash them up. They formed a wet red paste full of seeds.

I added a bit of salt (sorry, forgot how much) and put them in a jar for two months with the lid slightly vented. The top of the goo got a little moldy after a month, but it was a mild mold that didn't spread, and after I spooned that part out, it didn't come back. Heck, aged beef gets moldy, and people just hack the moldy part off and eat the rest.

The goo was really intense at first, but the smell began to mellow after a few weeks. It took on a peppery, fruity, more complex odor.

So after a few months I mixed the whole gooey mess with a bunch of white vinegar and let it sit for another week or two. This was not a required step; I just couldn't find good jars for bottling it. Eventually I just strained it into the jars you see here.

It's good. It's not great. I'll try it again next year with a longer fermentation. It was excellent on hoppin' john on New Year's Day, though.

Food as Religion Again

Now I’m into the good part of Christmas: making food for gifts. Had I been a Wise Man, I would have brought the Christ Child lemon curd or homemade salsa. Tonight I’m making pear chutney, and I have my marmalade and lemon curd recipes at the ready.

Which brings me to the topic of today’s discussion—my recipe card file was getting really messy and I failed to find both my pear chutney and eggplant salad recipes on the first go. I sorted them, archived some of them (put in a more deeply buried file), and even threw some away. In doing so, I came across James Peyton’s recipe for green chile enchilada sauce. I had written it out for my card file for convenience, but I had forgotten to make those particular enchiladas for several months. Well! I had the same religious experience as last year about this time, involving love, longing, intense nostalgia, and activation of the saliva glands. We’re going to have them tomorrow. Silly, since we live in Arizona and can have enchiladas any day we want. Maybe this is how Norwegians feel about lutefisk, and is why some people are Lutherans. I really don't know.

Here is the eggplant salad recipe. It’s the one pictured on our masthead. Very flexible and wonderful.

Roasted Eggplant Relish

1 large eggplant (peeled if desired), or several small ones
Salt
Olive oil

Cut the eggplant into ½-inch cubes. Toss with 1 teaspoon salt. Place in colander to drain for 30 to 60 minutes. Rinse lightly, drain, pat dry. (I sometimes skip this step if I’m lazy).

Place the eggplant cubes on a large rimmed baking sheet and toss with 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil. Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until tender and the edges are touched with brown.

Now you can do anything with these tasty little morsels. You can eat them as is, like a pig, standing at the kitchen counter. You can put them in a pasta sauce. My favorite way is to make them into this relish that’s halfway between a salad and a condiment. You can make this very simple with just a little parsley and tomato, or you can make it rich and complex with olives and chiles.

Chopped tomatoes
Parsley, cilantro, basil, dill, and/or other fresh chopped herbs
Minced red onion, or sliced green onions
Ripe or green olives if desired
Finely minced jalapeno, optional, or powdered cayenne or crushed red pepper
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Mix gently. Serve at room temperature.