Friday, May 30th here's what's cooking:
I decided to try my hand at making tomato paste, I have a lot of uses for it and its just not available here in Dushanbe, while the locals make their own version its often cut with vinegar to preserve it.
1 kg of tomatoes, cored and peeled and blended sitting in a large shallow pan at 3oo degrees. Every 5 minutes or so I scrape the pan to keep it from burning and to separate the solids, at least that's what I think I'm doing. Credit here goes to Derrick Schneider at An Obsession with Food for the recipe.
http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/2005_09_01_blog-archive.html#112718849211970151
On the stove I've got a pot of bean soup, all from scratch. I had some beans left over from making chili the other night. The base for the soup is from Bitten's book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". We brought a seasoned cast iron pan with us from the states and to make the base I cut up onions (quartered with the skins left on), potatoes, carrots, and garlic, and whatever fresh vegetables I have around. Cook them in olive oil until they've browned, add Braggs, water, and fresh parsley, and then strain it and keep the liquid, makes a great base for just about any soup.
Also, on the stove is a pot of Chickpeas for tomorrow's brunch, where I'll be making Chickpeas in their own broth Catalan style, also from Bitten's book.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Making Tabasco Sauce
I was inspired the other day to try and make Tabasco sauce. It won't be exactly like the real thing as both Tabasco and real Louisiana style hot sauces are aged in oak barrels for up to 3 years. If I could I think I'd try using some oak chips, but those go on the list of things we don't have here in Tajikistan.
The recipe is fairly simple and I got it from here: http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/fresh_chiles.asp
Chiles, vinegar, & salt.
I picked up 2kg (roughly 4 lbs) of dried red chiles at Zoloni Bazaar in Dushanbe. The first step was to prepare and then rehydrate the chilies. To do this I removed the stems and then soaked the chilis in water. They soaked for about 2 hours before I did another google search to see if I was doing it properly. Turns out it works best if you soak them in hot water. Our gas was out today, as it is most days here in Dushanbe, so I used our little electrical stove.
What i wasn't prepared for wasjust how toxic these little peppers can be. My hands were buring from mixing the chilies into the water and the next day I woke at about 5am with a swollen lip. My upper lip was extremely swollen on the right side, so much so that I couldn't actually close my mouth. I did a quick search of the internet and found that it was likely a food allergy, or in my case a topical overdose of chilies. The swelling went down after a few hours after taking some antihistamines.
After the chilies were fairly well rehydrated I drained them, mixed in the vinegar, 2 cups for each pound of chilies, and salt and then used an immersion blender to thoroughly mix the batch into chili sludge. I then transferred the batch into two 2kg glass jars. They are now sitting my refrigerator for the next two weeks.
Pictures to follow.
The recipe is fairly simple and I got it from here: http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/fresh_chiles.asp
Chiles, vinegar, & salt.
I picked up 2kg (roughly 4 lbs) of dried red chiles at Zoloni Bazaar in Dushanbe. The first step was to prepare and then rehydrate the chilies. To do this I removed the stems and then soaked the chilis in water. They soaked for about 2 hours before I did another google search to see if I was doing it properly. Turns out it works best if you soak them in hot water. Our gas was out today, as it is most days here in Dushanbe, so I used our little electrical stove.
What i wasn't prepared for wasjust how toxic these little peppers can be. My hands were buring from mixing the chilies into the water and the next day I woke at about 5am with a swollen lip. My upper lip was extremely swollen on the right side, so much so that I couldn't actually close my mouth. I did a quick search of the internet and found that it was likely a food allergy, or in my case a topical overdose of chilies. The swelling went down after a few hours after taking some antihistamines.
After the chilies were fairly well rehydrated I drained them, mixed in the vinegar, 2 cups for each pound of chilies, and salt and then used an immersion blender to thoroughly mix the batch into chili sludge. I then transferred the batch into two 2kg glass jars. They are now sitting my refrigerator for the next two weeks.
Pictures to follow.
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