September 21, 2009

Mas Porno Del Jardin

So... I can't help but wonder what the title above is going to do to my web analytics... (yes, I'm a data nerd.)

Anyways, here are the baked dinner and slow-roasted tomatoes we made in the gas BBQ ('cause the oven is still broken) from last week's harvest (in case you were wondering -- pepperoni, bacon, okra, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers and garlic are a fabulous combination!):

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This weekend's harvest was nothing to sneeze at:

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So, we decided to make tomato sauce to freeze:

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You know, all the tomatoes that will fit, plus garlic, some basil, some olive oil. Boiled down for a while:

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And eventually put into containers for the freezer:

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Delicious (if a wee bit too acidic, if we are honest -- we will have to bear that in mind and use with carmelized onions, or some other form of sugar to cut it).

In other news, the world's slowest growing plants, the hot peppers, have finally begun to put out a decent harvest (just in time for the cold fall... we shall start earlier next year):

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The top one? That's a squash pepper -- it looks like a habanero for a reason. Amazing flavor, but *very* hot. Supposedly we're supposed to leave it 'til it turns red, but even green they have great flavor and almost too much heat, so it's hard to be patient.

The long slightly wrinkled peppers? Yeah, Pimiento D'espelette -- we haven't had the patience to let a single one turn red. They are flavorful, but not very hot at all. More smokey. Complex. I like 'em. E thinks they are useful for fiber.

The jalapenos? Well, if you grow 'em in your garden, they will be hotter than the ones you buy in the store. But effort to reward ratio? It's likely that next year we'll add some other wacky peppers like the squash peppers instead of the jalapenos.

And, I think that's a wrap.

5 comments:

Arvay said...

That looks beautiful! Cooking on the BBQ, eh? I've been cooking on the woodstove. It stretches the limits of my (admittedly short) patience, but it makes me feel like I am a good conservationist.

[No Nickname] said...

Yeah. I've actually found cooking on the BBQ to be oddly satisfying. Going outdoors to bake dinner is very fun. Of course, it's hard to control the temperature and E and I agree we wouldn't want to try to actually bake anything in there, but for 400F baked dishes (more or less, where 375 or 425 doesn't really matter) it's great!

-bt

Arvay said...

I can control the temperature somewhat. A spruce log makes it a bit hotter, a birch log makes it much hotter, and of course you choose the size of the log...

A said...

Try pizza on the BBQ - we can get a much better crust b/c it gets so much hotter (700 degrees) than our oven.

[No Nickname] said...

A -- We agree. BBQ pizza was a big hit with our BBQ crowd this year. I really enjoyed handing people their own balls of dough and letting 'em cook it straight on the grill and top as they wish. Great Fun!

-bt