piquillo peppers and kiwi blokes

all this past week i have been contemplating an conundrum. invited to a dinner party and told i could bring an appetizer, i struggled over what to bring. requisites: tasty, vegetarian, exciting, and easy to make ahead/transport. i thought about pita chips and hummus, but alas i have no food processor and felt that since i had the whole day (minus the hours spent watching the terribly disappointing defeat of the us world cup team), i could probably do better than the buy-and-serve route.

i thought about little tartlets, a new dish that would challenge my culinary skills, but everything used puff pastry, which - while delicious - kind of defeated the health kick i was aiming at. sushi, summer rolls, salads - none of the multitude of recipes i skimmed through seemed to meet all of my criteria. then i found a recipe for stuffed piquillo peppers. aha! at last something that might actually work.

piquillo is spanish for "bird's beak," and these deep red peppers have a little pinched end that gives them their name. the great thing is that you can generally only get them roasted and jarred, which is exactly how you want them for this recipe. and really it couldn't be simpler.

warm some goat cheese to room temperature. while that's warming up, drain and pat dry the piquillo peppers, checking the insides for any remaining seeds. then, scoop a teaspoonful or so of the cheese and gently stuff the peppers. plate and serve. i found it helpful to sometimes tear a vertical slice the side of the larger peppers and then wrap the edges around the cheese, securing with a toothpick, since stuffing them full of cheese would have entirely used up my little goat cheese log! you can either serve these cold or warm, broiling them in the oven for a few minutes with a little olive oil drizzled on top.

in the end, this is such a versatile recipe! the peppers have a slightly smoky flavor from being roasted, and the goat cheese can be mixed with a variety of flavors. my goat cheese was infused with honey, but you could easily use other flavors like fresh cilantro, cumin, or roasted garlic. yum!

and what a lovely evening it was, as well. hosted in honor of four kiwi blokes who are headed south on motor bikes with a goal of reaching cape horn at the tip of south america, the conversation was lively, the company lovely, and the food excellent. how lovely it would be to leave work and go on such a grand adventure! i wish them all the best, and plan on following them on their website/blog. Check it out!

the making of apricot jam

last night, per a conversation with a friend, i was reinvigorated to get back into my blog. going forward, i want to expand on my normal philosophically-based musings and include more stories from work, things i'm learning, and recipes that i'm eating. there are so many wonderful things in life, and i think having a dedicated space to record them can only help me realize and appreciate them in a whole new way.

so, on that note, a new outlook, a new format, and a new topic for today: kitchen conquests.

yesterday, i was over at josselyn's house and a long-awaited dream came to pass. we made apricot jam.

now, while this may seem relatively inconsequential, the six little jars we got out of the process were the realization of a dream i've had for almost three years, ever since tasting amazing apricot jam while visiting lisbee and her family at their cabin in eastern washington. apricots are one of those strikingly seasonal fruits, so fragile, and yet so absolutely good when ripe and ready to eat. to be able to capture that burst of summer in a jar seemed like an appropriate challenge for a wednesday afternoon, and so we set upon our quest.

first, the perfect recipe. there are many variations, as one might imagine. all include apricots, of course, but there the similarity ended - how much sugar? what about adding extra ingredients like apricot kernels or lemon juice? and don't get me started on the raging pectin debate. after much searching, one recipe stood out from amongst the rest. first it comes from an 80-something-year-old in france. france - it has to be good, right? plus there was an additional philosophy behind this recipe, the author explained: do as little as possible to the fruit. i love that, and the simplicity of the recipe was striking:

3 pounds (1-1/2 kg) apricots, pitted and quartered
3 cups (600g) granulated sugar

1. Place the apricots and the sugar in a non-reactive pan or bowl, stir, cover and let macerate for at least 12 hours.

2. Transfer the fruit and sugar to a large, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat so the mixture is boiling merrily and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and ladle the jam into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headroom. Seal according to the jar manufacturer's instructions.

Yields about 10 cups (2-½ liters) [SIDE NOTE: we only got 6 cups from this recipe]

From: On Rue Tatin, Cooking School in France with Susan Herrmann Loomis

the apricots were sliced and macerating (isn't that a great word?) by 10pm on tuesday night, and by morning the kitchen was filled with a slight apricot-y scent, at which time i realized i probably should have refrigerated the covered bowl overnight. sliding it into the bottom shelf of the fridge a bit late, perhaps, i set off on my bike to yoga. all in all, i think they had macerated (!) for probably seventeen hours by the time we used them that afternoon.

after procuring the half-pint jars (side note: apparently no grocery stores in los angeles carry canning jars any longer. i visited three different ones where sales clerks of various ages looked at me in puzzlement and told me they haven't carried canning jars in years. "who does that any more?" was one particularly special comment...the crisis was averted by a charming little hardware store near josselyn's house), we cleaned them and began heating them in a large pot on the stove.

then we made the jam.

i can't describe how wonderfully alchemistic (is that a word?) it is to make something like jam. into the pot went huge chunks of apricots and a really sugary syrup. after 10 minutes of a gentle boil, out came thick, tart, bright apricot jam. oh. my. goodness. this stuff is good. (a note on cooking the jam: we probably left it on higher heat longer than necessary, noted by the excessive amount of foam that kept threatening to spill over the edge of our pot. once it comes to a rolling boil, i'm pretty sure you can turn the heat down and keep it bubbling/thickening but not producing as much foam. as it thickens, the foam will die down as well. and really 10 minutes, while a seemingly short amount of time, is perfect)

pulling the jars out of the hot water, we ladled the jam into each one. a jelly funnel would be ideal, but we used a rolled up silpat (silicone baking mat) which worked perfectly. if you have those flexible cutting mats, i bet that would work, too. on went the lid and the ring (which had been cleaned and sitting in hot-but-not-boiling water).

now, we flipped our jars over while they cooled because that's how my dad does it at home, but i could never find the rationale for this online. maybe flipping the jars over keeps the heat closer to the lid and facilitates a better seal? whatever the reason, after the jars had cooled to a safe handling temperature, we flipped them back right-side up to be rewarded by the merry little pings of our jars sealing themselves shut.

supposedly a properly sealed jar can last two years in a dry, cool pantry. i'm thinking it will be gone long before then...

especially if i keep having breakfast like this morning - fresh blueberry scone (a future post, for sure) with apricot jam and a apple-berry yogurt parfait.

you should come over for breakfast.