Hot Sauce

We think that spice tends to make most food taste better.  Not burn-your-mouth-off-can't-taste-anything spice, but just enough heat to make things interesting.  Our go to hot sauce has been Sriracha, it's balance of peppers, spices, and flavors provides just the right amount of heat and complexity to all sorts of dishes.  As is our philosophy, though, we figured that with the right ingredients we too could make a flavorful hot sauce just as good as a store-bought version.

Thanks to our CSA's bounty of hot peppers, we were able to recently experiment.  We had been collecting hot peppers each week, but can only eat so many hot peppers as they are.  Hot sauce, we decided, was the perfect way to preserve the peppers flavors for the rest of the year.

This hot sauce turned out truly delicious.  It's definitely spicy, but not so spicy that you can't taste the complex flavors the variety of peppers yielded.  It's thin enough that you can stir it into mayo to make a spicy dipping sauce (for baked okra perhaps) and chunky enough to provide texture (to asian noodles for example).

We are really enjoying using our hot sauce - from adding a kick to falafel to adding spice to a soy sauce dip for sushi - and look forward to many more applications in the months to come.  Preserve a little bit of your summer and grab the last peppers of the season to spice up any of your favorite dishes.

Apple Polenta Cake

This weekend we've been busy making lots of fall-inspired recipes - pumpkin spiced granola, butternut squash, and this delicious apple polenta cake.  We don't bake often, but when this recipe came along for the food matters project it sounded too good (and healthy) not to make.  Bittman's recipe called for dried apricots, which we decided to sub out for fresh apples (this time of year they are just perfect for baking).  It turns out that this was a wonderful idea.

We really enjoyed the lightness and moisture that the polenta provided in this dessert while using olive oil instead of butter added a unique flavor which paired well with the other light flavors (not to mention making it healthier).  We think that using apples was a great addition and because we microwaved them for 3 minutes before mixing into the cake, they were perfectly soft and sweet.  And almost as important as how it tasted, it was easy and quick to make.

This cake satisfies your sweet tooth without being heavy or too rich.  That said, next time we are thinking of turning this into an upside-down cake by coating the bottom of the dish with an apple and caramel sauce (stay tuned!).

You can find the complete recipe at Prariesummers and later on this fall we'll post our experiments with an apple caramel sauce.

Edamame Cakes

Before cooking this food matters project recipe we had only eaten edamame in Japanese restaurants or as a quick snack.  Although we know that they are often added to stir-frys, we never thought of grinding them into a light and healthy cake.  Edamame are packed with protein and incredibly creamy - in a way similar to chickpeas.  The end result were crisp cakes with soft centers - a perfect texture combination - filled with flavor.

Making this recipe is reminiscent of making falafel, just with an Asian twist.  To continue the Asian theme, we had these cakes with one of our favorite summer side dishes, summer rolls, and an amazing dipping sauce.

For our dipping sauce, we combined our homemade chili sauce with soy sauce, grated ginger, and minced garlic.  This sauce was better than anything we've had in restaurants and tasted great on both the edamame cakes and summer rolls.

For Bittman's recipe (we followed it closely, just without the sesame oil and onions and garlic instead of scallions) visit Life with the Lushers.

Roasted Corn and Tomato Soup

Sometimes you come across a recipe that looks so good (both picture and ingredients) that you just have to try it.  That happened to us while flipping through the William Sonoma catalog (who knew they had such good recipes).  The timing couldn't have been better as we are still in, though not for much longer, fresh corn and tomato season.  We gave it a try one evening and loved the results.

There are a number of steps to this recipe so we made a big batch to make the effort well worth it.  Although roasting and peeling the tomatoes; charring, steaming, and peeling the peppers; and roasting the corn may seem unnecessary, this is one recipe where each step adds another layer of flavor.  The same goes for the chipotle seasoning at the end.  Nothing else would quite suffice because of chipotle's smoky heat, though in a pinch smoked paprika could work.

The end result was a creamy, rich, yet fresh soup that was perfect for a summer night.  Our frozen stash will also be perfect when we are craving the flavors of summer this winter.

Roasted Corn and Tomato Soup
Adapted from This is a Cookbook by Max and Eli Sussman

4 tomatoes
Kernels from 6 ears of fresh corn (about 3 cups)
2 bell peppers
2 onions, red or yellow, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 cup half and half
Paprika for garnish

Preheat oven to 450*F.

Put tomatoes in oiled dish and roast until caramelized, about 30 minutes.  Cool and then remove the skins.

Spread corn on a baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, until they are tender and slightly browned.

Place peppers underneath broiler to char each side, about 3-5 minutes per side.  Once charged, place in glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  After 15 minutes, remove charred skins, stems, and seeds from peppers.

In soup pot, combine tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and corn.  Add just enough broth to cover vegetable and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes.  Add chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Using an immersion blender, blend soup until very smooth.  While, blending, slowly pour in half and half.  

Serve warm and garnish with paprika and a few drops of olive oil.

Freekah and Pesto Tabouleh

Yes, you read that correctly.  We cooked with freekah, cracked freekah, to be exact.  We discovered this unique grain at a Whole Foods demo a few weeks back and loved the flavor and texture of it.  It's somewhere in between bulgur and barley - with a firmer texture than bulgur and an earthier flavor than both.  When we saw this weeks the food matters project recipe, Quinoa Tabouleh, we liked the idea of swapping out the traditional tabouleh grain, bulgur, for something else.  We figured this would be the perfect opportunity to try cracked freekah.

To change things up even more, rather than making traditional raw tabouleh, we decided to roast all of the vegetables and turn the herbs, basil in our case, into a fresh pesto.  The combination of firm freekah, creamy pesto, and roasted vegetables was delicious and a great twist on traditional tabouleh.

We will definitely cook with this healthy and filling grain again (plus it's inexpensive in bulk bins) and see our recipe below to learn how to cook it yourself.  Also, visit Simply Whole Kitchen to see Bittman's original recipe for Quinoa Tabouleh.