Nom nom nom - Food Thread

I've been self teaching in new techniques for cooking. My latest project was an introduction into the world of fermentation and hot sauce. I was going to wait until the peppers I am growing came to harvest, but my local grocery had Carolina Reapers, so I decided to learn the techniques now so I can experiment more later. I've been fermenting 7 Reapers and 2 chopped orange bell peppers for the past week. It's really easy to do, you just need to make sure to check and "burp" your containers daily if you do not have a fermentation kit. I used a mason jar with a latch locking lid, which depressurized similar to opening a soda and was very satisfying to do each day. Decided my first sauce would be a safe pairing, which included the peppers, garlic, vinegar, some brine from the fermentation, honey, and pineapple. Reapers taste similar to habanero's, just way hotter, so the sauce turned out really well. The ingredients produced a deceptive, light orange colored sauce, that brings a lot of sweet, and even more heat. It's a perfect chicken sauce. I've been kicking around some ideas for oddball/unrepresented flavors in hot sauce, I don't want to just make the same thing I can buy elsewhere. The next batches are going to get weird, but hopefully tasty.


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I've been self teaching in new techniques for cooking. My latest project was an introduction into the world of fermentation and hot sauce. I was going to wait until the peppers I am growing came to harvest, but my local grocery had Carolina Reapers, so I decided to learn the techniques now so I can experiment more later. I've been fermenting 7 Reapers and 2 chopped orange bell peppers for the past week. It's really easy to do, you just need to make sure to check and "burp" your containers daily if you do not have a fermentation kit. I used a mason jar with a latch locking lid, which depressurized similar to opening a soda and was very satisfying to do each day. Decided my first sauce would be a safe pairing, which included the peppers, garlic, vinegar, some brine from the fermentation, honey, and pineapple. Reapers taste similar to habanero's, just way hotter, so the sauce turned out really well. The ingredients produced a deceptive, light orange colored sauce, that brings a lot of sweet, and even more heat. It's a perfect chicken sauce. I've been kicking around some ideas for oddball/unrepresented flavors in hot sauce, I don't want to just make the same thing I can buy elsewhere. The next batches are going to get weird, but hopefully tasty.


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ooo and if you make enough and ever feel like selling any of an oddball batch, I'd be interested! I collect sauces on my travels and lately have been adding some awesome homemade flavors as well.
 
ooo and if you make enough and ever feel like selling any of an oddball batch, I'd be interested! I collect sauces on my travels and lately have been adding some awesome homemade flavors as well.
I'd like to sell eventually, just looking for something unique first.
 
So, I smoked a meatloaf for dinner. First time I broke out the smoker this year. It was pretty damn good. I’m slowly getting the hang of it. Partially because I been reading up on it, partially because my lovely wife got me a probe thermometer for Christmas which means I don’t have to open up the cabinet to check on the food.

Keeping charcoal and wood to temp is an interesting game. I’m glad I’ve been learning it the hard way.
 
Mmmmm. Foooooooooood.

The WiFi baked bread this morning. A simple pane francese. We ate it with some French butter and it was delicious.
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Then we went out for lunch and had cold soba noodles and tempura. Because, why not?
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Lomo Saltado. Peruvian-Chinese fusion with skirt steak, red onions, a mix of peppers, scallions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger, and a soy and vinegar sauce. Served with french fries and rice. Half the french fries are tossed in the stir fry. Pictures are the mise with pre-doubled fried fries. Stir fried on the grill. And finished on the plate. Topped with a little leftover chimichurri for an inauthentic flair.

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Haven't posted in this thread lately, but I had an update to the hot sauce that I made. I gave a bottle to my brother, who loved it. He works at a sign company, and created a logo and named it Sweet Reaper. He let a couple of his buddies try it, and they loved it too. They commissioned me to make another batch, so I did, and sold my first 5 bottles of hot sauce without meaning to! I also made a few tweaks with this batch, and the flavor has so much more depth than the first batch. Looks like I may be on to something here! The batch was just enough for what they want, so @bfly when I make another batch I'll send you some to try out!

On that note, does anyone know what's required to possibly make this a more commercial effort?
 
Lomo Saltado. Peruvian-Chinese fusion with skirt steak, red onions, a mix of peppers, scallions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger, and a soy and vinegar sauce. Served with french fries and rice. Half the french fries are tossed in the stir fry. Pictures are the mise with pre-doubled fried fries. Stir fried on the grill. And finished on the plate. Topped with a little leftover chimichurri for an inauthentic flair.

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I'd just like to note that we have the same Weber/pro grate/wok setup.
 
Lomo Saltado. Peruvian-Chinese fusion with skirt steak, red onions, a mix of peppers, scallions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger, and a soy and vinegar sauce. Served with french fries and rice. Half the french fries are tossed in the stir fry. Pictures are the mise with pre-doubled fried fries. Stir fried on the grill. And finished on the plate. Topped with a little leftover chimichurri for an inauthentic flair.

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That brings back memories of Peru! The question is did you have Alpaca in there, that seemed to be the meat every time I had it there!
 
That brings back memories of Peru! The question is did you have Alpaca in there, that seemed to be the meat every time I had it there!
I used skirt steak (maybe "thin flank" or "hanger steak" in the UK, I'm not sure), but I'm pretty sure Alpaca farms in the states are fur only situations.
 
My first attempt at sourdough in a long time. It’s the tastiest sourdough I’ve done but it’s not risen as much as I’d have liked! I’ll have to experiment a bit with proving times! Still happy with the results from my first experiment with my baking steel!

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