Sunshine is for everyone...

...sunshine come back again. The quote is from the modified lyrics to the Dylan song 'The Mighty Quinn," as used in the Denzel Washington movie "The Mighty Quinn". A great movie. But the relevance is that the above-pictured orange winter squash, from Givens Farm, is a sunshine squash. And man was it ever 'something good.' Groans....

Keely had couchsurfers again on sunday. From France. Made a couple of things: the squash {roasted whole for an hour, cooled, chopped up - leaving the skin on. toasted some fennel/cumin/corriander, added olive oil and garlic, added the squash. simple and very good}, couscous {nothing super special, except the liquid was tomato stock from the skins/seeds that the foodmill saves back when you make tomato puree}, a crazy hot sauce {paragraph that follows}, lime buttermilk sherbet again, and a banana sherbet which is ok but not great, so no recipe. A very enjoyable evening. Euros are fun.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with serrano peppers. I have alot. A couple of years ago I pickled some using a Jamie Oliver recipe. They were good, they still are good, actually. But I still haven't finished them off. So obviously a different use was needed. I found an interesting recipe from Emeril for a homemade hot sauce. I eat alot of hot sauce so this seemed pretty awesome. The first batch I followed his recipe pretty closely, substituting pimiento peppers for anaheim chilies. I put it through the foodmill instead of blender + strainer, and am aging it (he says 2 weeks). The 2nd batch I deviated more, using input from a recipe from a chile lover website, following my nose for ingredients, using the stick blender on it, and not straining it. The recipe I was basing it on said to age it for 3 months! Eek. I tried it that day, and it was amazing, and as 'that day' was the day of the couchsurfers, we had it on couscous, and life was good.
Homemade Pepper Sauce #2:
15 oz pimiento peppers (they look like a small red bell pepper, are really sweet and tasty)
5 oz (~50) serrano peppers
~1/2 c peach preserves
1c cider vinegar
1c seasoned rice vinegar (i.e. rice vinegar + sugar, for making sushi rice)
2t salt
Bring to a boil, simmer for 30 min or so, stickblender it. It keeps a long time in the fridge cause of the vinegar.

It was hot, but not the crazy hot that 50 serranos would suggest. They are local, and as the heat of peppers is partially a function of where they are grown, and it's been foggy here alot this summer, they aren't super deadly. Highest recommendation.

Ummm, errr, it might have been hotter than I thought. But anyway, adjust serranos to taste, but use peach jam and a stickblender and you'll be happy.