March 16, 2007

Potluck Preparation – Mango Chutney

Tomorrow is the second PPK potluck, and this time the theme is orange – flavor or color. I decided to make mini samosas with mango chutney. If a little chutney is good, certainly a lot of chutney is better. I’ve been reading up on home canning recently and decided a high-acid food like mango chutney would be a great introduction to preserving food.

I now have 8 half-pint jars of homemade chutney ready to go, but I fear the samosas will need to be prepared by my husband Stewart. When canning, you should really use the proper equipment. Jar lifters are indispensable. I decided that tongs and a oven mit would be just fine until I got a jar lifter. Oh, how wrong I was! The jar slipped from the tongs and splashed boiling water inside my heat-proof water-proof mit, burning me thoroughly. If you’re going to try home canning, please spend the $5 for a jar lifter. Please.

Despite the whole painful injury thing, home canning is fun. I’ll post a full write up on it once I’m able to complete the process with properly fuctioning limbs. The photo to the left shows my chutney processing in a boiling water bath, which does double duty killing any unwatned bacteria and forming a vacuum seal. Tomorrow I’ll be able to check to make sure my seals are tight, but until then they sit undisturbed in the kitchen.

This chutney, as long as the seals test okay, will keep for at least a year. How exciting! I can’t wait to try more home caning (after my hand heals, of course.)

Tomorrow night I’ll have a full update on the Boston Orange themed potluck, pictures and all. I hear there will be cake and pies galore, root beer floats and even orange pizza. I’m very excited. If my hand is up to it, I might even make some donuts.

March 14, 2007

How to Cut a Pepper

There really isn’t a wrong way to cut a pepper, but this way makes it easy to deal with the seeds and the ribs. This method isn’t going to work for you if you want pepper rings, but it’s great for all other types of cuts.

Start by cutting a circle around the top of the pepper, following the top edge all the way around.

Pull the top off by the stem and discard the it. There might be a few seeds left inside the pepper, but the majority of them should be on the top. Look at the inside of your pepper. See the white-ish ribs? That’s where you want to make your cuts.

Slice down the middle of one of those ribs, making sure the point of your knife lands on the bottom-center of the pepper. Continue slicing down each rib, having each slice end at the same point.

Your pepper should be in 3-4 pieces now (depending on how many ribs it had), and the edge of each piece should have part of a white rib on it.

Begin slicing off the ribs from the edges of each piece, starting at the top and slicing in a U-shape all the way around until the rib has been removed. Here is another view. See the piece next to the pepper I’m cutting the rib off of? That’s the finished result.

Had you not sliced down each rib, the ribs would have been in the middle of your pieces instead of at the edges. Since a pepper is curved, it can be had to remove the ribs if they’re in the middle of the pieces. Obviously it’s not a tragedy if this happens, but since it takes no more effort or time to cut them this way, why not do it?

You should now have 3-4 seed-free, rib-free pepper pieces perfect for slicing into strips, chunks, whatever shape you want.