Well, at least we think so and so must many of you too.
Since the gardens across the country in many areas are now peaking (ours of course are long over except for hot climate peppers etc.), I thought I would recap a reference page to the top 5 recipes that visitors search when looking at canning recipes on my site.
Click on title to open recipe in new window.
TOP 5 from the top:
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Recipe for grilling pork ribs, Mexican style.
Folks, this recipe will knock your socks off. Well, around these parts, and this time of year y’all know we’re barefooted anyway so I guess you can say, “it already did.”
Now, by no means is this to endorse any product. It is what it is. But have any of you tried the pepper sauce from Tabasco made with vine-ripened, red jalapeño peppers smoked over a smoldering fire? It’s a rich, thick-bodied sauce ideally balanced in heat and flavor. Prized in ancient Mexican civilizations, even before the time of the Aztecs, the chipotle pepper is known for its dark, smoky flavor. It’s a natural for barbeque foods and sauces. Get a coupon here.
I know you will like the way it helps bring out the smoky flavors of grilled ribs. Here’s the recipe from my house this past weekend. Enjoy!
Chipotle Grilled Ribs with Citrus Pepper Salsa
serves 4 hungry folks
For Two -3 1/2 to 4 pounds pork ribs (I used St. Louis cut)
for the Rub:
1/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup ground ancho chiles – or chile powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon granulated onion
for the Mop:
4 garlic cloves, chopped garlic
1 large green mild chile, stemmed and seeded
2 tomatillos, washed and quartered
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons Tabasco Chipotle Pepper sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup, freshly squeezed lime juice
Juice of 2 large oranges
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup nectarine juice
1/2 cup native honey
for the Citrus Pepper Salsa:
2 tomatillos, washed and quartered
1 large green hot chile, stemmed and seeded
4 Roma tomatoes, quartered
3 tablespoons Tabasco Chipotle Pepper sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 ground oregano
3 cloves garlic, minces
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
Juice of 1 large lime
Juice of 1/2 orange
Prepare the rub by mixing all together in a small bowl.
Sprinkle and rub generously on both sides of each prepped rib. Allow to set for 4 to 6 hours covered in the refrigerator. Remove 1 hour prior to grilling.
Add the chopped vegetables to a medium saucepan.
Add remaining ingredients for the mop to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes to soften vegetables. Using the container of your blender, add the mixture and pulse until mostly liquefied. Set aside until ready to grill.
Prepare the Salsa in the same manner. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes until vegetables soften. Blend until creamy as desired. I used a hand-held blender and kept some of the veggies in larger bits. Set aside.
Prepare the grill by creating the center or one side with low heat and the outer or opposite side with medium heat. Place the room temperature ribs, bone side down, on the cooler part of the grill. Close the grill lid and cook for about 10 minutes. Rotate ribs and flip placing meaty side down. Cover with lid and cook another 10 minutes. At this time, turn off heat under ribs (or move coals to the outer sides) and begin applying the mop. Always keep lid closed as much as possible. Ideal cooking temperature is around 375 degrees F. Add more briskets if using charcoal.
About every 30 minutes, rotate and flip the rips and apply another generous coating of the mop. Cook the ribs about 2 hours using this method.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
By now, the ribs will be nice and coated with the chipotle pepper mop.
Remove to a non-reactive pan. Add about 1/2 cup or more of water to the bottom of the pan. Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes uncovered or until the water is mostly evaporated. Remove from oven and cover pan with foil. Allow to set for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving with the Citrus Pepper Salsa.
Top with tomatillo salsa or fresh limes and more of the Tabasco Chipotle pepper sauce if desired.
Howdy Folks! I'm gonna make this short and shorter. This week has gone by quicker than the blink of an eye, mine included and ya'll know how slow I can be. Why it has been one heck of a busy one for me. I do want to thank all participants in last weeks game challenge, there were a lot of great recipes and I plan on eating until I can't eat one more bite, and that's a lot as many of you know.
Okay, this is suppose to be short. So let me add congratulations to Lori for winning last week's game with her Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños. You can win this week by joining in too and sharing your recipes before Monday night – doing so gets you a chance to choose this week's game winning recipe.
OKAY, let's get to the good stuff – READ MORE > »
Howdy Folks! I'm gonna make this short and shorter. This week has gone by quicker than the blink of an eye, mine included and ya'll know how slow I can be. Why it has been one heck of a busy one for me. I do want to thank all participants in last weeks game challenge, there were a lot of great recipes and I plan on eating until I can't eat one more bite, and that's a lot as many of you know.
Okay, this is suppose to be short. So let me add congratulations to Lori for winning last week's game with her Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños. You can win this week by joining in too and sharing your recipes before Monday night – doing so gets you a chance to choose this week's game winning recipe.
OKAY, let's get to the good stuff – READ MORE > »
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| chili chicken banana boats |
Saturdays are always Mexican night around our house and lately we're been going out to eat rather than me doing what I love to do, which is making a good homemade meal that taste so much fresher than the foods sitting around on hotplates in restaurants. You know what I mean, how else can they get the food out so quickly, right? I mean, we sure can't. So I thought it was high time to get back in the saddle and ride wild… here's what I came up with… oh, and you can join in too…
…start off with a salsa made from delicate sweet ataulfo mangoes, plum tomatoes and ripe avocados. I use it as a dip like the recipe below and I also like to add it as a topping to many types of foods.
OKAY, let's get to the good stuff – READ MORE > »
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| chili chicken banana boats |
Saturdays are always Mexican night around our house and lately we're been going out to eat rather than me doing what I love to do, which is making a good homemade meal that taste so much fresher than the foods sitting around on hotplates in restaurants. You know what I mean, how else can they get the food out so quickly, right? I mean, we sure can't. So I thought it was high time to get back in the saddle and ride wild… here's what I came up with… oh, and you can join in too…
…start off with a salsa made from delicate sweet ataulfo mangoes, plum tomatoes and ripe avocados. I use it as a dip like the recipe below and I also like to add it as a topping to many types of foods.
OKAY, let's get to the good stuff – READ MORE > »
This post goes out to a good friend we all know as Bonnie and to her readers over on Sweet Life where you will always find a cool outlook, Texan style.
Living in a state as big as Texas, one can easily get lost trying to compete with the fusion of Mexican cookery, sweatin’ hot Texan cookouts and influences of outside folks, like me, but not our sweetie pie. Straight shooting, stable and unwavering (maybe ‘cause she’s a youngin’ as far as I am concerned), you just can’t help be drawn into a sense of calmness after some of her reads. And her down-to-earth, Mex-Tex border-style recipes are so appealing, photos are so darn astonishing, it’s like visiting a cooking show for amazement, sometimes a street vender for a sensory test and sometimes when we’re lucky, a reality show for comic relief.
Livin’ the Sweet Life Chicken Tacos
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| marinated chicken |
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 garlic pods, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons native honey, optional
Wash and clean up the chicken. Pat each piece dry with a paper towel. Slice each breast horizontally in half and with a mallet, pound to an even thickness.
Combine everything in a sealable plastic bag, add the chicken pieces and marinate for 1 to 2 hours.
Grilling: Remove chicken from the bag and discard the marinade. Grill the chicken over medium-high direct heat until brown on each side. Remove to a platter and cover with foil.
Assembly: Slice chicken into 1/4-inch thick slices. Fold taco and stuff with slice chicken, add Roasted Chiles and Corn Salsa, and a light squeeze of lime.
Grilled Chipotle Steak Tacos
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| marinated steak |
1 pound thin sliced breakfast steak (from bottom sirloin) or skirt steak
8 roasted garlic pods, peeled & mashed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 tablespoon red chile powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked cumin
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle with adobe sauce
2 tablespoons Heinz chili sauce (or ketchup will do)
Pound the meat with a mallet to about 1/4-inch thickness.
Make a rub with remaining ingredients and spread over the steak covering both sides. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours.
Grilling: medium-high direct heat, turning once, cooking no more that 6 minutes total
Assembly: Slice meat against grain into 1/4-inch strips or into a fine dice.
Serve with corn tortillas and your choice of red salsa, shredded lettuce, cabbage, radishes, chopped tomatoes, limejuice, sliced avocados or cheese.
Roasted Chiles and Corn Salsa
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| fire roasted |
Olive oil
5 or 6 ears fresh sweet corn
6 to 8 roma tomatoes
10 to 12 Anaheim, Chile Verde, California Red or New Mexico chiles
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh minced oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Cut the kernels from the cob into a bowl. Peel the skins from the chiles and tomatoes. Remove and discard the seeds and give both chiles and tomatoes a rough chop. Place in the bowl with the corn along with remaining ingredients. Stir and allow to marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least an hour to develop.
Note: Add a chopped mango or grilled peaches to sweeten this up if desired.
A wonderful taste sensation and so refreshing!
I’m not going to say anymore…
Grilled Grouper with Tropical Salsa
2 servings
Tropical Salsa
1/2 cantaloupe or mango, peeled, seeded, cubed
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh limejuice
1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest
Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
10 to 12 ounces grouper fillets or other firm whitefish
1 tablespoon oil
Prepare grill (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler.
Mix first 6 ingredients in non-aluminum bowl. Season to taste with salt. Let stand at room temperature at least 15 minutes or cover and refrigerate up to 2 hours.
Brush fish with oil. Season fillets with salt, pepper and crushed oregano.
Grill fish until just cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes per side depending on thickness.
Transfer fish to plates. Spoon salsa over fillets and enjoy.
Not only because it is my recipe, this one is a little sweet and is wonderful with so many foods. That is what I like about it. With the added sweetness, it just brings a nice, pleasant taste to your palate with just enough heat all surrounded in a thick and rich tomato sauce.
I make this just about every year. That’s how much we eat it. In fact, year before last, we doubled the recipe. During a drive back from Tennessee, we stopped and bought a couple of baskets of Sand Mountain tomatoes, rich red and almost ripe. They were juicy, sweet and I knew they were meant for my salsa. When I got to going in the kitchen, I realized I didn’t quite have enough, so I added several cans of diced canned tomatoes. I really could not tell the difference that year. If you like your salsa saucy hot, add more peppers. I sometimes add in a few pickled jalapeños at serving time.
Yes, it is great as a dip. We have a hard time not eating a whole jar in one sitting. It is a great addition to anything you would normally use a Picante type salsa in and because it is a little sweet, it blends perfectly well with all kinds of meats and vegetables. It is a very good table salsa.
This is the last of the canning recipes for this week folks but I saved the best for last. Enjoy!
Tomato Salsa
yields about 8 pints
8 cups peeled, chopped & drained tomatoes
2 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped jalapeño and or Serrano peppers
6 to 8 garlic cloves -minced
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 tablespoons canning salt
1/3 cup sugar, less if tomatoes are sweet
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 -15 oz can tomato sauce
1 -12 oz can tomato paste
Mix ingredients in a large pot and bring to a slow boil. Skim off any foam. Taste and adjust peppers if needed. Some folks may want it a little hotter (I have added a jar of pickled jalapeños with success). Simmer for 10 minutes. Spoon into pint jars leaving 1/2-inch head-space. Add lids and seal for 15 minutes using water bath method for canning.
From my family cookbook Grits to Guacamole
Avocado Gorgonzola Salsa3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 red onion, diced
2 Serrano chiles, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 large avocado, chopped
Drick's Cafe 
