Featured

Green Chile Pasado

Chile pasado is a Mexican method of preserving green chiles. You char the green chiles, skin them and then dry them out for use later.

Mexican

Nopales en Escabeche

A recipe for nopales en escabeche, pickled nopales from Mexico. Prickly pear cactus pads, diced and piickled with jalapenos, carrots and onions.

Appetizers and Snacks

Pickled Shrimp

I finally managed to catch myself some shrimp, and, since it was down in Mobile, I decided to make a Southern classic, pickled shrimp.

Preservation Recipes

Making Lye-Cured Olives

Many of the olives I cure each year are done in a brine. But year after year I've been curing more with lye. I know it sounds scary, but it's not - if you follow these simple instructions. The result is a buttery, firm olive that I actually prefer over the brine cured ones.

Mushrooms

Italian Marinated Mushrooms

Marinated mushrooms are a staple on any antipasti plate, and if you can get porcini, which are popping in the Rockies now, so much the better. Here's how to do the technique the Italians call sott'olio.

Mexican

Mexican Salsa Verde

I am lucky enough to have feral little tomatillos grow in my garden, and so each year I make a big batch of Mexican tomatillo salsa verde. I eat some fresh, but the rest I can for the winter. This is a canning-safe recipe.

Preservation Recipes

Pickled Cauliflower, Italian Style

When I was growing up, I thought “antipasti” meant pickled cauliflower, carrots and onions because that's what was served in the old-style Italian joints I ate in. Well, I managed to recreate the recipe for their pickled cauliflower here.

Foraging

Pickled Ramps

Pickling ramp bulbs -- or the bulbs of any large wild onion -- is a great way to preserve the harvest. These are fantastic served with cured meats and cheeses, or chopped into a relish or just eaten as a snack.

Preservation Recipes

Fennel Sauerkraut

I grew an awful lot of fennel over the winter. So much that I needed to find a use for it. I found one. Fennel sauerkraut. It may be my new favorite kraut.

Preservation Recipes

How to Preserve Peppers

This is how I preserve the season's pepper harvest. It's a great way to have roasted peppers at your fingertips the whole year through.

Recipe

Tabasco Style Fermented Hot Sauce

A few years ago I traveled to Louisiana and learned from the McIlhenny family themselves how to make Tabasco Sauce. Now, two years later, I can finally tell you how to make it. It's easy, but like fine wine, it takes time.

Fish

Pickled Pike

If you're not from the Northwoods, you may have never heard of pickled pike. Well, this is to the boreal forest what ceviche is to the tropics: A great way to snack on fish with saltines...