Category: Game Day

Homemade Pickled Pepperoncini Peppers

Dax Phillips 1 Comment

It seems as though I have always had a love for chili peppers. I assume that I got this love by watching, learning, and probably tasting hot sauces at an earlier age. It was probably hanging around our kitchen and my dad cracking open a bottle of hot sauce and asking me to try. Maybe not. Whatever the case, I love chili peppers and I probably eat at least 1/2 dozen (or more) each week. With that being said, it’s a bit sad that we had to harvest the rest of our vegetables from our garden last night. We still had a lot of tomatoes that have yet to ripen, plenty of chili peppers, and a broccoli plant that only wanted to yield it’s baby crown! I can’t say that it was anyone’s fault as to why we had so much left on the vines but in about two more weeks, those tomatoes would probably be perfect! Oh well.

Pickled Pepperoncini Recipe
Pickled Pepperoncini Recipe

That’s OK though. As much as I would like to harvest everything that we grow, I realize that we must sacrifice a few things to get what we needed from the garden. I often plant an array of chili peppers each year so I was excited to see what was flowering and low and behold it was the pepperoncini, and sure enough one of my favorite eating ‘snack’ chili peppers. There were so many peppers on the two bushes that I did not know what to do with all of them. The pickling was the first batch, and now I must figure out what to do with the rest of them. I have some ideas up my sleeve, but in the meantime, here is a quick recipe for pickling chili peppers.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large mason jar
  • ~25 whole pepperoncini peppers, washed, slit with a knife
  • 5 cloves of garlic, skins removed, lightly smashed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 3 tbsp sugar

Just to note, Spring may be one of my favorite time of year, only for the sure pleasure of knowing that we will be able to plant, and plant something new. This is the first year we planted this peppers, and as we planted two bushes this year, I will most likely decide to plant one next year. One plant/bush will yield a ton of peppers, and probably too many for the average person depending on how much you enjoy chili peppers.

Start by making sure your peppers are cleaned and cleared of any dirt. Once cleaned, take a sharp knife and make a small slit into each pepper. Why the small slit? My plan is to let those great pickling juices infiltrate the interior and make for great flavor.

Drop each pepper into the mason jar along with the bay leaf.

Pickled Pepperoncini Ingredients
Pickled Pepperoncini Ingredients

To a small sauce pan, add the vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar, then remove from the heat and let it cool.

Once cooled, pour in the pickling solution and once it is completely cool, seal and place in the refrigerator for about 7-10 days before digging in.

The beautiful thing about these pepperoncini peppers is that not only are they crunchy, slightly spicy, and are a perfect side dish (and snack (yes, I eat these for snacks sometimes)), but they are great in making them your own in terms of pickling variants, but geez are they ever easy to make. I know I was winning when we, yes I say ‘we’ because my wife participated in trying and eating more than one of them! That’s a huge deal!

To be honest, at first I had no clue as to what these peppers were when we planted. I knew what pepperoncini were, but the seeds did not state that. When trying a raw one, I fell in love, as did my wife. The pickled pepperoncini are awesome, but the raw (feel free to freeze them raw) are dynamite! I’m curious, what is your favorite quick pickle go to recipe? Enjoy!

You might enjoy:

 

3 Ingredient Everything Bagels

Dax Phillips Leave a comment

I recently came across, what I thought was a posting from TastyKitchen.com, a resource I have been a contributor and friend of for many years. It was a post that intrigued me, so much that it had me interested in trying to make it. This takes a lot from me, if you will. Granted I read a ton of cook books, review recipes, but I rarely sit down with a recipe and create it. I know it sounds ironic that a dude that publishes recipes for everyone never really uses other peoples recipes. I know it’s weird, trust me. Granted when I am reading through recipes, I get ideas that may snowball into something similar down the road, or I may take an ingredient that sounded great and use that in another recipe, but I rarely sit down and go step by step. That was until I say a 2 ingredient bagel recipe.

For one, my whole family loves bagels. I’m an everything bagel dude and so is my kid, however if you pretty much put any bagel in front of us I bet it would be devoured. So this particular recipe, that I found out was from Kirbie’s Cravings was right up my alley to try, plus I have been in search of an Everything Bagel seasoning which I found at Trader Joes, that I have been dying to try.

3 Ingredient Everything Bagels Recipe
3 Ingredient Everything Bagels Recipe

This must be a win, win, right? Or did they turn out only using 2 ingredients (3rd being the seasoning)?

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup of Non-fat Greek plain Yogurt, strained
  • 1 1/4 cup Self-Rising flour, adjust accordingly
  • 1 whole egg, beaten
  • 1/2 tbsp water
  • Everything bagel seasoning, to your liking
  • parchment paper

You have two options for making the bagel dough. Hand knead, or KitchenAid mixer. God gave me some strength that morning so I decided hands (I probably did not want to have to deal with dishes).

To a mixing bowl, add the self-rising flour. This already includes all of the wonderful baking ingredients so you don’t have to worry about things like baking powder, or salt. Next add in the strained yogurt. I strain the yogurt in a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, and let it sit over the bowl for about 30 minutes. You will see about a 1/4 cup of water strained from the yogurt. Crazy.

Start mixing the yogurt and flour with a wooden spoon (or KitchenAid) until it begins to form, then start working with your hands to knead the dough. Be gentle as you only want the dough to come fully together. Try not to overwork the dough.

Let this rest for a minute or two as you get a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and your oven preheated to 350 degrees.

3 Ingredient Everything Bagels
3 Ingredient Everything Bagels

Divide the dough into about 4-6 pieces. Take each ball and form into a rope, making the rope long enough and wide enough for a bagel shape. Take each end of the rope and pinch together, flipping over the rope and keeping the seam side down. Repeat.

Take your beaten egg and add the water. Mix. Using a brush, take the egg wash and brush each bagel on the top and sides.

Generously sprinkle the everything seasoning over the top. Heck if you just want another seasoning, go for it. Now is the time!

Place the baking sheet into the oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. You can crank up the heat to 450 towards the end if you want additional color but only cook for a couple of minutes.

Remove, and get your cream cheese ready.

Again, I was a bit skeptical of these, but they only took a few minutes to whip up, were only a few dollars to make (and now I can make a ton with all of the self-rising flour I have), and was ready to dig in.

3 Ingredient Everything Bagels Recipe
3 Ingredient Everything Bagels Recipe

My first bite. Delicious. My second bite. Delicious. This is when I told my wife and kids to get over here and try them. We huddled around the table and were all surprised out how good they were.

Yogurt, flour, everything seasoning. Who knew. So thanks to Kirbie’s Cravings for drawing me in enough to buy the ingredients and give these a shot. I suspect these will be made every weekend in the near future. If you like bagels, give these a shot.