Recipe Reduction 11-10

Hot Pepper Relish
from Serious Eats

I only made this because I had tons of hot peppers in the fridge and I hated to throw them away. See, in the garden this year, I planted mostly sweet peppers. At the opposite end of the row--where they couldn't cross-pollinate--I put a jalapeno, a poblamo, two small chiles and two Thai bird peppers.  but then that freeze hit, and it hit the hot peppers hard. I replaced the ones that were clearly dead but for the ones that were still somewhat alive, I planted the replacements close alongside them but left the survivor to take his chances.

The survival rate was surprising. I had more chiles and jalapenos than I could deal with, plus a huge number of this pepper that's bigger than a jalapeno but not shaped like a poblamo.  In fact, they looked exactly like my big sweet peppers--but don't put 'em in a salad!  You will suffer.  (And then you'll pick them out.)

This recipe had you sweat them with salt for a few hours, then simmer with vinegar and sugar. It tamed the heat slightly.  In fact, on a really big bowl of beans, a teaspoon of this would be just right.

So at one teaspoon per serving I have about...one hundred servings. Heavy sigh.
 

Kale Hazelnut Pesto
by Darya

It's a nice twist on pesto, but only if you have kale and hazelnuts to use up. Mind you, there's as much basil in here as there is kale. If you're like me, and you bring your basil plant indoors when frost hits, you can make this without totally wrecking seasonal eating rules. Because--in case you don't know this--basil is a summer crop; kale a spring and fall crop. Early spring and late fall.

Anyway it came out okay but nto nearly as good as summertime pesto with basil and pine nuts.