D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (24 page)

TIME REQUIRED:
15 minutes active; 3 days passive

YIELD:
1 quart

1 pound green beans, stems snapped off and left whole

2 fresh mild red chiles (such as Fresno), quartered lengthwise and seeded

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 or 4 sprigs fresh dill

1
cups distilled white vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

Sterilize a 1-quart mason jar and its lid with boiling water
. Drain them and air-dry.

Pack the green beans, chiles, garlic, and dill into the jar in alternating layers, distributing them evenly.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring
cup water, the vinegar, sugar, salt, and mustard seeds to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and let the mixture boil for 5 minutes. Pour the hot liquid over the green beans, fasten the lid, and refrigerate. Let it sit for 3 days to blend the flavors. The beans will remain crisp, with the flavors of the spices evident. The pickled green beans will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.

This salad has a down-home uncomplicated taste, like a mid-day Sunday farmhouse supper—roasted chicken, biscuits, potato salad, and iced tea, all laid out on a checkered tablecloth. I really like the combination of tart, spicy green beans; creamy potatoes; and hard-cooked eggs. You don’t even have to make a dressing. Just toss with olive oil and pickle juice from the Spicy Pickled Green Beans. If you want to make this salad but don’t have any pickles on hand, replace the pickled green beans with fresh steamed green beans and make
Basic Best-Ever Vinaigrette
to dress the salad
.

TIME REQUIRED:
20 minutes active; 20 minutes passive (excluding pickle preparation)

YIELD:
6 to 8 servings

4 large eggs

1½ pounds young fingerling or Yukon gold potatoes

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 bunch radishes (about 6), halved and thinly sliced

1 celery rib, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced on the diagonal

1½ cups Spicy Pickled Green Beans, cut into 1-inch lengths, juices reserved

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

¼ cup olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Put the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave the eggs undisturbed for 12 minutes (15 minutes if the eggs are very large). Drain the eggs and run cold water over them. Let them sit in the cold water until you are ready to peel them.

Meanwhile, wash the potatoes, leaving them unpeeled. In a vegetable steamer over medium-high heat, steam them until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove them from the steamer and let cool slightly.

Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces and put them in a large salad bowl. Add the onion, radishes, celery, green beans, and herbs. Peel the eggs and cut them into ½-inch pieces. Add them to the bowl. Toss and add the oil, season with salt and pepper, and add pickle juice to taste. Serve immediately, or within 2 hours at room temperature. This salad tastes best if it’s consumed the day it is made and never refrigerated. If you must make it ahead, it will keep, refrigerated, for up to 5 days. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving and taste and adjust the salt and pepper.

Pounding the garlic helps to distribute its flavor fully throughout this relish. I like a chunky relish like this to spoon over beans or
Black-Eyed Peas with Stewed Okra and Tomatoes
. It also works as a fresh salsa on grilled chicken or fish. If you like a finer-textured relish, you can grate the cucumbers instead of dicing them, but you’ll need to use a few more to fill your pint
.

TIME REQUIRED:
15 minutes active; 20 minutes plus 3 days passive

YIELD:
1 pint

1 pound pickling or Persian cucumbers (about 6), peeled

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 garlic clove, peeled and left whole

1 small, fresh mild red chile (such as a Fresno), seeded and quartered, then sliced thinly

1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

Sterilize a 1-pint mason jar and its lid with boiling water
. Drain them and air-dry.

Cut the cucumbers into quarters lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Cut each quarter lengthwise in half and then dice it into ¼-inch pieces. If using plump pickling cucumbers, you will need to cut them one more time lengthwise to get a ¼-inch dice. Put the cucumbers in a strainer and sprinkle ½ teaspoon of the salt over them. Toss with your hands to distribute, and let the cucumbers drain for about 30 minutes. Squeeze and massage the cucumbers with your hands once or twice during this time to help them release their liquid.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring ¼ cup water, the vinegar, sugar, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.

Pound the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle.

Remove the vinegar mixture from the heat and stir in the garlic.

Pack the drained cucumbers, the chile, and dill into the mason jar. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over them and fasten the lid. Refrigerate for 3 days to blend the flavors. The relish will remain crisp with the flavor of garlic and spices permeating the cucumbers. It will keep, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.

Black-eyed peas are so rich, it’s nice to have a little something vinegary and spicy alongside them. For this reason, I always serve this dish with a spoonful of Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish. If you’ve spent much time dining in the South, you will be reminded of the bottles of chile-infused vinegar that are often available for diners to shake over rich, pork-infused greens or red beans and rice. This dish is great on its own, but it becomes a balanced meal when served over rice
.

TIME REQUIRED:
30 minutes active; about 1 hour passive (excluding relish preparation)

YIELD:
6 to 8 servings

6 tablespoons vegetable oil for high-heat cooking

1 yellow onion, diced

1 celery rib, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 pound dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained

Salt

1 pound fresh okra (choose small pods if available), left whole

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound fresh Roma tomatoes, cut into ½-inch dice

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish
for serving

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm 3 tablespoons of the oil. Add half of the diced onion, the celery, and the garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add the peas and water to cover by 1 inch. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover partially, and simmer until the peas are almost tender, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking and add a little water, as needed, but don’t add too much as this should not be an overly soupy dish. Season with salt. Continue cooking, covered, over low heat until the peas are tender and most of the broth is absorbed, another 15 minutes.

In a large skillet spacious enough to hold all the okra, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. (I sometimes use a wok because it’s large enough to contain all the okra, making it easy to toss.) Add the okra and a little salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the okra begins to soften and brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the okra pods from the skillet to a bowl or plate and lower the heat to medium-low. If the okra pods are large (more than 1½ inches long), cut them crosswise on the diagonal into two or three pieces. Add the remaining diced onion, and cook until the onion is fragrant, 7 or 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and paprika and return the okra to the pan. Cover partially and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the okra is soft and the tomatoes have cooked down, about 10 minutes. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Serve the stewed okra and tomatoes over the black-eyed peas with the Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish on the side.

NOTE
:
If you dislike the viscosity of okra, be aware that this characteristic is enhanced by cutting and exposing it to moisture. There are two methods for reducing slime. Buy small okra and cook it whole, never cutting it. Or, if only larger pods are available, cook them over high heat for 10 minutes before cutting and adding them back to the pan with the tomatoes to finish cooking. The initial high heat works to cauterize the okra, preventing excessive slime
.

√ TIP
:
You can cook the peas 1 to 3 days ahead and keep them refrigerated until you are ready to cook the okra and tomatoes. The whole dish makes fantastic leftovers
.

Kombucha

About Homemade Soft Drinks

Root Beer

Ginger Beer

Almond Milk

Horchata

Hibiscus Tea

WHEN I WAS A KID, sodas were a special once-in-awhile treat. Now, giant bottles of carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, chemical additives, and artificial colors are ubiquitous and heavily consumed by both children and adults. As criticism has mounted over soda’s stranglehold over school vending machines, the industry has come up with alternative juice and tea drinks that are perceived to be more healthful, but they are still filled with sugar and processed ingredients. However, it’s easy and fun to make your own tasty carbonated and noncarbonated drinks. And you’ll cut out the chemicals, corn syrup, and excessive packaging. Homemade sodas naturally fermented with yeast are simple enough for kids to make. They’ll learn about fermentation and enjoy their homemade sodas as the special treat they were meant to be. Taqueria favorites like horchata (rice milk) and jamaica (hibiscus tea) are great for parties and special occasions. The ancient beverage kombucha, which has become popular commercially over the past few years, is a healthful, raw drink that is naturally fermented and so easy to make at home. Just say “No more!” to over-sweetened bottles of empty calories.