Beets and bacon with oyster sauce.

Double post...couldn't figure out how to delete.

I made a favorite recipe tonight - Thai curry. A red one, this time, with some things from the garden - kohlrabi, okra, eggplant, and some Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves - plus some chicken.

I used the method ATK used for drying out eggplant to make ratatouille, to keep it from turning mushy. I don't cook them down as much as they do, but I do it about 8-9 min., to cook them down to about half weight.
First of two plates of eggplants, to dry out in the microwave. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

All 5 eggplants, dried out in microwave. 31 oz down to 14.5 oz by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients lined up for a Thai curry. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Everything added to the Thai curry, except for the eggplant and lime juice. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Eggplant added to the Thai curry, to cook 10 min. longer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Thai curry, served in a ring of white jasmine rice and millet. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

That jasmine rice/millet mix I started using a few years ago, to reduce my consumption of white rice (I used to buy white jasmine in 25 lb bags at the Asian market). I tried quinoa, which covered up the flavor of the jasmine, and brown jasmine just doesn't have the same flavor. Whole oat groats were the closest, but millet was the mildest, so the jasmine rice aroma comes through strong.

Day one in the sun and prep for day two of my sun dried pepper investigation. No photo of the end of day 2, but these all largely dried out on the hot copper sun baked surface today. I mostly deseeded them all and chopped them all up to finish out in the sun tomorrow, this time on a paper plate. They smell wonderful. Mix of mostly cayenne, with a few serranos, two tabasco and one red ripe jalapeño.

That beaten copper sheet gets very hot in the sun, too hot to touch for more than a fraction of a second. Seems like an unusual surface and a unique opportunity to dry peppers in novel way. Salted the split serranos and jalapeño to aid in their dessication. Want these pepper flakes to be different and better than store bought. Maybe I’ll have an answer tomorrow.

That's a great way you're drying those chiles, [mention]karstopography[/mention]! Reminds me of some of the online Indian dishes I see, obviously from over there, in which they say to place the spices "in the sun for a couple of days", which is what they do to toast them!

I will be drying peppers this way again based on how these turned out. Dried them the first afternoon whole on the hot copper sun drenched sheet. Next day, split and butterflied the serrano and jalapeño and slit the cayenne and again on the copper. Today, put them through a medium fine chop and finished drying them outside in the sun on the copper and on a paper plate. Crushed them as you see them with the pointy meat tenderizer. Worked great for the task.

Flavor and aroma amazing. Blows McKormick commercial crushed pepper flakes away. No contest of depth of flavor. Very, very happy!

The humidity has been perfect for drying.
Nice.

[mention]karstopography[/mention] Looks like that method is toasting the peppers some, too! I'm sure those are better than the store bought pepper flakes - those are usually heat, but little flavor. Same with cayenne powder.

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:56 pm @karstopography Looks like that method is toasting the peppers some, too! I'm sure those are better than the store bought pepper flakes - those are usually heat, but little flavor. Same with cayenne powder.

True that.
I only use cayenne powder when I dont want anything but hot and no added flavor.
Which ain't often.

Dinner this evening was very simple and very filling and tasty. I mixed chunks of a large tomato with chunks of honey dew melon. Lightly salted and peppered, drizzled balsamic vinegar and Texas grown and produced EVOO. Delicious! If had some goat cheese to dress it with, it would have been perfect.

My breakfast and dinner was that leftover Thai Curry. My cooking for the day was pickling some of those cukes, and seasoning them with some dill and some of those garlic scapes. And, of course, a few hot peppers.
3 qts of pickles, 7-09 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

For lunch today I made my first guacamole of the year, using fresh tomatoes and chiles from the garden! I went into the kitchen, and the rain gauge meter was at 1.80, and when I finished making the guac, maybe 20 minutes later, it was up to 2.40 - it's coming down that fast!

That guac is delicious, as always, and I put one of those pointed peppers I picked, that definitely isn't a jalapeño. No jalapeño flavor or aroma; maybe an immature fresno, but the guac had no heat whatsoever, using the whole pepper. I'll leave the rest of those on the plants to ripen, and see if that's what it is. I've always used fresnos ripe, so I don't know if it's one of those stays mild until the very end.

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:56 pm @karstopography Looks like that method is toasting the peppers some, too! I'm sure those are better than the store bought pepper flakes - those are usually heat, but little flavor. Same with cayenne powder.

Just so people aren’t thinking I’m exaggerating on the temperature of my copper top pepper drying surface.

karstopography wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:40 pm

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:56 pm @karstopography Looks like that method is toasting the peppers some, too! I'm sure those are better than the store bought pepper flakes - those are usually heat, but little flavor. Same with cayenne powder.

5D122184-04DC-4C96-A13A-F26FB124049F.jpeg

Just so people aren’t thinking I’m exaggerating on the temperature of my copper top pepper drying surface.

During theses hot dry spells you might consider a ristra.
I have made several in my life with great success.
But never in your neck of the woods.

I'm cooking some rice tonight to go along with my left overs from last nights cheap eating meal.
Just added salt, cumin and some more red cayenne pepper powder to the rice for some silly reason as if the stuff I made last night wasn't hot enough.

[mention]worth1[/mention] I love the ristra of New Mexico. Can’t walk 10 feet in Santa Fe without seeing one. Here on the coast, they end up as mold gardens I fear.

I made another batch of Salsa Negra - the simplified one from Bayless, which uses canned chipotles, but I add a couple of moritas, to add more of that flavor. The original version is even more intense, and has a bunch of garlic, as well as moritas, fried briefly in oil, and ground to a paste with some piloncillo syrup. I'll be making some of that soon, too, as I always like to have these in the fridge, to easily add these flavors to dishes.
https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/salsa-negra/

The simplified version of salsa negra, by Rick Bayless, just started out to cook down. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Salsa negra, cooked down 48 min. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pint and about 1/3 c of finished salsa negra. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rice noodles with bacon, eggs, and beet leaf stalks.

Grilled Jumbo Gulf White Shrimp. Probably going to toss them with a little olive oil, minced garlic, cilantro and maybe even a bit of jalapeño before tossing on the grill.

Meatloaf with some fresh picked corn on the cob and the first sliced Stump Of The World tomato. That Stump sure is good! It just made the list for growing next year.

Made another double batch of Szechwan eggplant, with 7 eggplants, scallions, and a bunch of garlic from the garden. This time I tossed it with pasta.
Szechwan eggplant, tossed with pasta. by pepperhead212, on Flickr