Culinary Adventures with Camilla

I'll admit that I didn't intend to make a hot sauce with hops . I was just making a sauce with my pepper bounty from our High Ground Organics CSA . Then I got the bag of Cascade hops from the Lamberts . And, instead of using other herbs, I decided to turn the hot sauce into a hoppy affair. This really packs a punch, a bitter and delicious punch. Ingredients 1 pound fresh peppers (I had Padròns and banana peppers) 3 whole garlic cloves 1 T grey fleur de sel 1 1/2 C white vinegar Procedure Wash and dry your pepper. Lay them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roast for 40 minutes - until the peppers are shriveled and golden. Once roasted, pull the stems from the peppers. Combine the peppers, garlic cloves, and salt in a blender. Blend for a few pulses. Once the ingredients are roughly combined, drizzle in the vinegar. Blend till smooth. Transfer sauce to a mason jar and allow to sit in the pantry; th...

Do you know what I love about the second Saturday of the month? It's our #winePW - Wine Pairing Weekend - reveal. I love it. The bloggers who participate love food and love wine. It's a great event from which I always make a wine shopping list. The theme for this month is: celebrating summer's bounty. Here's  David's August #winePW invite .  I recently finished an article for Edible Monterey Bay   about some local (fairly local-to-me) vineyards. And one of the wines we tasted was a favorite for both of us and we went home with a bottle. Let me introduce you to DeRose Vineyards' Négrette... In the Glass... Have you ever had a Négrette? Before my assignment, I'd never even heard of a Négrette. DeRose Vineyards has a handful of unique wines from old-vine grapes, but I was instantly enamored by the exotic, century-old Négrette, whose name - very unpolitically correct -  means ‘little black b----.’ Not a nice name, for certain. Before 1997 it wa...

Padròns are another one of those deliciously seasonal treats. They have a subtle heat...usually! The smaller ones are less hot with a grassy sweetness. We love 'em! Whenever I get them, I cook them the same way. Why fix what is amazing, right? But when I served them for Easter, they were ridiculously hot. Uncomfortably hot. So, it became a dare sorta thing. Great! Ingredients padròn peppers olive oil fleur de sel  Procedure Rinse and dry your peppers. Heat a splash of oil in a skillet. Add the peppers and sear until they begin to blister. Remove from heat and season with a sprinkling of salt. Enjoy! Maybe just have a glass of milk handy...in case you get a hot batch like we did this weekend.

When I was faced with a bunch of Jimmy Nardello peppers this week in our CSA, I decided to pan-sear them and make them into a salad. Delish! 1 bunch of Jimmy Nardello peppers (approximately 6) 1/2 cantaloupe, peel and thinly sliced 1/2 C chopped flat-leaf parsley olive oil balsamic vinegar freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper I did to the Nardellos what I normally do to padròns: pan-sear 'em . They took a little bit longer because they are bigger, but the process is exactly the same. After the peppers were softened and blackened, I destemmed and deseeded them. Then I sliced them into strips lengthwise. Place them into a large mixing bowl with the sliced cantaloupe. Toss with olive oil, vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. Toss in the parsley and serve.