It’s so good that we made it twice in one week and devoured it each time voraciously.

Ingredients

• a little cooking oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 jalapeños
• 1 good-sized eggplant*
• 8oz mushrooms
• 1/2 pd ground beef (optional)
• 1 32-oz can of diced tomatoes (or fresh equivalent)
• heaping 1/2 tsp of cumin
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Chop the onion coarsely. Chop the eggplant in 1/2″ cubes – if you’re an engineer, you might have a tendency to really obsess about this but really you just want to make sure the eggplant is cut into cubes small enough to choose.
2. Slice the mushrooms. Chop the garlic and the jalapeños finely. If you desire a spicier chili, leave the seeds and the ribs on the jalapeños.
3. Put a little cooking oil into a sauté pan and heat over a medium flame. Sauté onions, garlic and jalapeños and sauté until onions are translucent. Add ground beef, cumin, and as much salt and pepper as you think you’ll like. (The idea here is to let the cook the salt, pepper, and cumin flavors into the ground beef.)
4. Add tomatoes, eggplant, and mushrooms. Simmer gently until eggplant is well-cooked and cumin have mixed well, about 1 hour. Taste and adjust seasonings to preference.

Postprandial Notes: Mwfwfffmmmmwwha.. oh, sorry, can’t talk now… eating the best chili I’ve had all year.

*”Good-sized” being such a relative term, I’ll attempt to qualify what a “good-sized” eggplant is: Imagine a regulation-size football and shrink it about 30%. Sort of kids’ size but about twice the size as one of those happy-fun squeezy footballs and about three times the size of the tiny stress relief squeezy footballs. Roughly the size of a mens’ size 9 running shoe or a small butternut squash or a Cornish game hen.

Imagine for a moment, that my two cowhorn plants are a pair of pretty, young adult lovers. They stumble out of their shabby chic New York apartment in search of late brunch after softly lit and brilliantly filmed session of enthusiastic Sunday morning lovemaking. In a rustle of hastily thrown on jackets and tousled hair, they brush past an elderly, disapproving neighbor who glares at them over her +2 reading glasses. In return, they throw her a pair of happily sheepish grins as they turn down the stairwell.

In the movie of my life, however, the cowhorns just looked at me like, “What? This is what we do.” Or at least, I imagined they did. I also imagined that one of them looked at me, winked and said, “Just keeping the ‘horn’ in cowhorn.” before he spat a nice wad of ‘baccy on the ground.

Ahem.

My first thought was to make a ristra with all the peppers but it occurred to me that, despite the drought we’ve had this summer, DC’s weather may not be dry enough for them to fully dry out before mold sets in. Peppers don’t have to be dried outside – if I had a dehydrator, I could have used that. Or I could have built a custom drying screen for the hood of our white Jeep Cherokee and waited for a sunny day (or several). Or I could stick them in the oven.

Drying anything in the oven is pretty straightforward – just set the oven to 150° and walk away for some time. Depending on the size and variety of peppers, drying time will vary (for example, jalapeños will dry faster than cowhorns which will dry faster than larger cayenne varieties. In the case of cowhorns, I left the oven on for 12 hours, turned it off when I went to bed, and left the peppers in the oven overnight.

Preparation

1. Discard any peppers with bad spots or peppers that have started to go soft. Wash and dry the good ones.
2. Lay the peppers on the oven racks. Place them however you wish but try to keep them from overlapping or touching one another. You can also lay the peppers on a screen or cheesecloth but resist the urge to put them on a cookie sheet as this will prevent even airflow.
3. Set the oven at 150° and leave them in until dried, checking occasionally for brittleness. When done, turn off the oven and let them cool completely in the oven before removing. If you’re paranoid (as I tend to be), leave them in overnight just to be sure they are thoroughly dried.
4. The peppers are fully dried when they are hard and brittle to the touch. They should not be flexible at all – if they are, leave them in until they aren’t. Flexibility means water and water means mold, which means you’ll be throwing your peppers out in a few weeks when you go to crumble them over something and find they’ve turned into something from Where the Wild Things Are.
5. Remove from oven and use however you like. Crush into red pepper flakes and store in a bag or jar. Store whole peppers in a dry place and use for seasoning in chilies, soups, and stews.

PLEASE NOTE: During and for a period after drying, your house will be filled with the most wonderfully deep, smoky aroma of roasted peppers. It’s possible you might be the sort of person who doesn’t like this. It’s also possible you might also be the sort of person who doesn’t think kids slippers can make your cleaning life easier. Either way, I bet you clicked on that link.

And they’re usually the first ones I turn to when making something up. My usual approach to eggplant is either to turn it into baba ghanoush or to just grill it and serve it with a curry-flavored mayonnaise. But today, I not only harvested two lovely eggplants off the bush, but a nice handful of green beans and I wanted to use them both while they were super-fresh from the backyard. I did a little Googling and came across a few recipes for Thai eggplant curry with green beans and a recipe for Bangain Bharta (an Indian curry with eggplant).

So I combined them. To be honest, this is much closer to an Indian curry than a Thai curry – it’s richly layered, warming, and a perfect fall dish. I chose to eat it plain with some leftover meatballs from a few nights before but you could easily adapt it however you like.

The Dragon’s Tongue beans are still going strong despite the cooling weather. These are near-perfect specimens, showing off their characteristic purple stripes.

Ingredients

• 1 good-sized eggplant
• 1/2 cup of green beans
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 jalapeños
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dry ginger)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 cup water
• cooking oil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Rub the eggplants lightly with oil and bake for 15 minutes on each side, turning halfway through. Remove after 30 minutes and let cool.
2. Chop the onion coarsely. Chop the garlic and the jalapeños finely. (For maximum heat, leave seeds and ribs on before chopping or, if you prefer a milder curry, de-seed and rib the jalapeños before chopping.)
3. Chop the eggplant into large chunks. Top and tail the green beans and cut them into 1″ long pieces.
4. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add cumin, onions, garlic, ginger and jalapeños and saute for about 7 minutes.
5. Add eggplant, green beans, curry powder, chili powder, and water and cook covered for about 20 minutes. Serve warm, over rice or by itself

Postprandial Notes: I mainly threw this recipe together to use vegetables picked from the garden this morning but the fundamental recipe could be easily adapted to cabbage instead of eggplant and bell peppers or cauliflower could easily be substituted for the green beans. You could also add chicken or tofu for some more protein or tomatoes for a more acidic curry.

It’s not curry unless it’s bright yellow. Sadly, time has proven that I’m a terrible cooked food stylist. But I will take this opportunity to point out that beans have completely lost their purple stripes – nifty, no?

She tilted the microphone towards my face and inquired, “So, if you had to choose an animal that best represented the cowhorn pepper, which would you choose?”

Fortunately, I had pondered this question before and had an animal handy.

“Why, a naked mole rat.” I said. OK, that’s not entirely true. What I actually said was “A rabbit.”

Because cowhorns are incredibly prolific. If biologists were really interested in boosting the number of pandas or tigers or any other endangered species, they’d figure out a way to splice the cowhorn’s reproductive rate DNA into them through gene therapy.

There’d be an added bonus as well as predators would be much less likely to chow down on a spicy panda than a non-spicy one. Or, at the very least, between successful gene-splicing and evolution of their predators’ tolerance for capsaicin, there’d be plenty of time for the pandas to get it on and on and on.

But I digress…

So, what do I do with all those peppers?

Well, I’ve been throwing them into stir-fries all summer. Two months ago, I harvested most of the peppers and turned them into a green sauce that sits exactly on the thin line between just enough kick and NO JOKE I WILL MELT YOUR FACE CLEAN OFF. Two weeks ago, I harvested all the red cowhorns and pickled them along with red and green jalapeños.

For the recipe, I largely used this one from Michael Ruhlman’s website. The original recipe called for sherry vinegar and I used white wine. I also omitted the sugar.

And now for some pickled peppers..

Here’s where I usually dive in with the recipe but this one requires a little forethought. You’ll need to first figure out your total liquid volume first – for example, if you’ve got 6 quart-size jars, then you need 6 qts of liquid. Half of this should be water and the other half vinegar.

Next you’ll need to figure out how many cups this is. Here’s a handy trick: there’s 2 cups in a pint and 4 in a quart. Now, you’ll need to add 2 tbsp of salt for every 3 cups of liquid. With that in mind, on to the recipe:

Ingredients

• white vinegar
• water
• salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 4 sprigs of marjoram
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
• 1 to 2 pounds of chillis (or enough to fill whatever containers you’re using)

Preparation

1. Mix enough vinegar and water in equal parts in a pot. Stir in salt and sugar until dissolved. Add spices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, then let cool slightly.
2. Pour the pickling liquid over the peppers, screw the lid on and refrigerate. To use, slice into rings, chop or mince depending how you want to use them.

1. I want eggs for breakfast.
2. Those tomatillos are gonna go bad if I don’t use them soon.

I even spoke these thoughts aloud. It was quite nearly the perfect time for He-who-lived-in-Santa-Fe-for-three-years to say something helpful like “Hey! That sounds like huevos rancheros!” but what he actually said was SCHNOOORRRRRRrrrrrrmmmmmmMMMMMMWHAAA?.

Fortunately, I found this recipe right away. I followed it pretty faithfully, which one exception: instead of frying the tortillas, I brushed them with oil and put them under the broiler, flipping them over halfway through.

I won’t bother you with all the boring stuff about the eggs and the tortillas though – it’s the tangy, spicy salsa that really shines. The hardest part of the recipe was husking the tomatillos. And, and if you’re happy that tomato season is over because, for some reason you can’t quite recall, you thought it would be a good idea to plant 8 tomato plants this year and they all went forth and prospered, this is definitely a salsa that will see you through to winter.

When, of course, you’ll start craving tomatoes again.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 pint tomatillos
• 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 jalapeno chile
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 tsp salt, preferably non-iodized

Preparation

1. Husk and rinse the tomatillos. Cut into 1/4 thick slices. Cut the jalapeño in slices as well – if you like salsa with some kick, leave the ribs and seeds on; if kick is not your thing, remove the ribs and seeds before chopping. Chop the garlic coarsely
2. Heat oil in saute pan. Add onions, jalapeño, garlic, tomatillos and saute until onions are tender. Remove from heat and place in a blender or food processor.
3. Add cilantro and salt and pulse to desired chunkiness.

Postprandial Notes: The recipe I first referenced called for 2 tsps of vinegar. I’ve made this recipe both with vinegar and without and I definitely prefer it without the additional vinegar. If you’re using ripe, quality tomatillos, adding vinegar will skew the overall flavor too far into sour territory. That said, if you’re using tired or out-of-season tomatillos, you may want to add a splash of vinegar after tasting the finished salsa first.

We started the evening with three signature martinis. The one below is fittingly called “My Favorite Sweater” and is a wonderfully sweet fruity thing lovingly wrapped in warm cinnamon tones.

And what would an evening tipple be without some cheese? Lansdowne put out a selection of three cheeses, accompanied by various jams and figs. The entire evening course included an incredible amount of locally sourced foods – including the cheese below, which came from a Virginia dairy.

After getting to know each other a bit and sharing thoughts about drinks and cheese, we migrated into the private dining room for the seven course Fall menu. The first course was a pair of two soups (see top photo) – Lobster Bisque on the left and the rather fancy-sounding “Celery Root and Heirloom Apple Vanilla Foam” on the right. The Lobster Bisque was rich and salty but I wanted to curl up and sleep inside the Celery Root and Apple soup cup – it smelled and tasted just like liquified turkey stuffing.

Sadly, cornbread was not a course. But it was gooooood. And Lansdowne gets serious props for putting it in their bread basket. (I wish more restaurants did this!) The second course was a squash tasting, followed by a salad of locally grown Bibb lettuce with onions, pears, blue cheese dressing and, here’s the best part: HOMEMADE BACON.

Next up was probably my favorite dish of the evening – “Pan Roasted American Sturgeon with Citrus-Herb Butter, Sauté of Fall Mushrooms and Leeks, and Potato Brunoise.” Chef Wes Rosati explained that the fish comes from sustainable fishery distributor Cleanfish. Three years in Japan have turned me into a huge fish snob; I was completely prepared to be underwhelmed by this dish. But I loved it, and not just because it was sitting on a treasure trove of leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms.

In addition to smoking their own bacon, Lansdowne also smoked a variety of other meats, including the “sticky” short ribs they serve in their surf and turf below.

Last up was the ribeye. I’m not a steak girl but I liked this – it was simple, unfussy and served with all the right stuff: green beans, roasted shallots, and steak fries. Oh, and drizzled with brandy sauce – yum!

Dessert was a trio of handmade(!) ice creams (from front to back below): mint chocolate chip, earl grey, and german chocolate fudge. They were all incredible (the mint chocolate was refreshing and light, the earl grey was smooth and slightly smoky with subtle bergamot and citrus tones) but the german chocolate fudge was OH. MY. GOD. LUSCIOUS. Creamy, rich, dense, just the right amount of chocolate and punctuated with lovely little fudge bits. I was completely stuffed when they brought the ice cream out but I ate all of the GCF anyway.

Firsthand plug: Lansdowne Resort is more than just amazing and (largely) locally sourced food. It’s also a beautiful golf course, hiking paradise, base camp for winery hopping, soothing spa, full staffed event center, wedding venue, and amazing summer pool complex. It’s close enough to DC that the drive won’t wear you out and far enough that it feels like a vacation, especially combined with a spa visit, room service, a relaxing stroll on the trail, and a dip (or, if you’re a water nut like me, many dips) in the pool.

Full Disclosure: I was paid to take some pictures of this event for Lansdowne’s promotion use. I wasn’t paid to write this blog post nor was I invited to the event to promote it myself. I’m only showing you these pictures to make you jealous.

This ketchup is much, much less sweet than the junk you buy in a squeeze bottle at the grocery store. It’s also more tart. You could probably puree it longer than I did but I rather like the chunkier texture.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds green tomatoes, roughly equivalent to 5 cups sliced
• 2 large onions
• 1 teaspoons black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey

Preparation:

1. Rinse green tomatoes and remove any stems and insect damage. Slice green tomatoes and onions and place them in a large soup pot or deep sauce pan, along with pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Cook for 4 hours over very low heat, stirring when the urge seizes you.
2. After 4 hours, remove from heat and puree mixture in a blender. Remember it’s hot so be especially careful about splashes on skin. Pour back into the pot through a mesh strainer. Bring to a boil and add honey.
3. Put the ketchup in jars and store in the refrigerator. You can also can this ketchup in jars – follow the procedure below:
   1. Immediately fill 6 sterilized pint jars with the ketchup, leaving 1/4-inch space between the ketchup and jar lid. Wipe the jar tops and threads clean with clean damp towels. Place hot sealing lids on the jars and apply the screw on rings loosely. Process in boiling water bath in a deep canning pot for 5 minutes.
   2. Remove the jars and cool completely. Tighten the jar screw rings to complete the sealing process. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, it is not sealed and must be refrigerated.) Let jars of green tomato ketchup stand at room temperature 24 hours.
   3. Store unopened product in a cool dry place up to one year. Refrigerate green tomato ketchup after opening. Makes about 3 pints of ketchup. Serve on anything you’d serve red ketchup on – burgers, hot dogs, omu-rice, french fries, tater tots, etc.

In this recipe, Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce is playing the part of the “exotic import” sauce. I’ve been told that it’s a poor imitation of “REAL” New Mexico green chile sauce but it is the best I’ve found in a grocery store in DC. If you have access to locally made green chile sauce, I won’t begrudge you a chuckle at all.

That said, this is a quick recipe that requires minimal effort and yields excellent results. It reheats well too.

Ingredients

• 1 package of flour tortillas.
• 1/2 pound meat of choice – chicken is ideal but steak or ground beef works too
• 1 large onion
• 1 large bell pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne (adjust to your liking)
• 1 can green chili sauce (if you’re in DC, Hatch is the way to go.)
• some oil for sauteing
• salt and pepper, to taste
• optional: cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Cut the chicken or steak into thin strips. Peel the onion and cut into thin strips. Core and seed the pepper and cut into thin strips.
2. Add some oil to a saute or deep frying pan and heat. Saute onions for a minute until semi-transparent. Add meat and cook through. If using ground beef, be sure to break it up nicely.
3. Add half the can of green chili sauce, cayenne, and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for 20 mins, or until sauce is thickened.
4. Preheat oven to 325°. Pour some green sauce into a 13×9 glass or baking dish. Spoon some of the cooked chicken & vegetable glop onto a tortilla and gently fold into a roll. You should be able to get 6-8 enchiladas into the dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. If you desire cheese, lay some slices of cheddar cheese on top of the enchiladas.
5. Place dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve hot. Lift gently out of the tray with a spatula, or if ya like your enchiladas sloppy, just scoop whatever you can get out and slop it on the plate.

Side note: I’ve been on the prowl for good, fresh handmade tortillas (preferably around Adams Morgan) – do you have a recommendation? If so, please post it in the comments.

Share →

]]>