So the garden here is relatively small and simple. I've been spending what's left of my creative brain thinking about how to preserve things like peppers and herbs (which is about half of what we're growing).
I haven't come up with anything amazing. But, I will say that adding cracked peppercorns and red pepper are now going to be staples in the pesto mix I'm working on. Today it was an experiment in pepper relish. It could have gone better. I think I'll try a vinegar reduction for the next go round. My friend Tessa provided a bunch of serranos and I had some banana peppers. I kept coming across canning recipes that involved salting them and leaving them in a cool place for anywhere to a few hours to a full day. I decided to do it quickly and use a palm full of ice cream salt. This was a terrible idea. Although I rinsed them a bunch of times after an hour, I just couldn't get enough salt out. So after finishing the simmering, I had to dump out all the stock solution and re-do the vinegar base. Here's what it came out to:
Tangy Confetti Pepper Relish
1 cup minced red pepper
1 cup minced serrano peppers
1 cup minced sweet banana peppers
3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 lemon
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
teaspoon ground mustard
hearty pinch of allspice
1 tablespoon hot mustard
toast cumin seeds in bottom of larger saucepan
add vinegars and spices and whisk together
zest lemon half and squeeze lemon into stock
add peppers, onion and garlic
simmer for 20 minutes
let cool and transfer to another container or boil in pint jar
