Spicy Cheesy Beer Bread

 

Gardens. What can you do? I was telling a friend the other day that both my cucumber vines and melon vines are loaded with blossoms. I was quite proud of this until I noticed over the weekend when I was watering that they are all male.  MALE!!! I don’t have a female blossom on either of these plants. This means that for all of my watering, fertilizing, coddling, etc., I may not end up with a single cucumber or melon. Male blossoms do not produce offspring. It works the same way in humans, but I digress.

Photo credit: Missouri Botanical Garden

  On the other hand, I have a bumper crop of jalapeños, and because I do, I’m always looking for new ways in which to use them. I made shrimp boil foil packs for dinner the other day (cut the recipe in half, made two, had them two nights in a row and it was wonderful to not have to cook those two days ). They called for some sort of bread and because I used a little bit of beer in the foil packs, I thought I would use the remaining beer to make beer bread. I wanted to do something different with my beer bread recipe so decided to add more cheese, more seasoning, and jalapeños. It was fantastic! It would be a wonderful assortment with soup, stew, chili, any type of salad, or a Mexican meal. It’s easy to put together, you just stir and dump. This is a must try.

Spicy Cheesy Beer Bread

 3 c. flour

2½ T. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t. kosher salt

¼ t. Old Bay Seasoning

1½ c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 jalapeño, minced

12 oz. beer

3 T. melted butter

GARLIC BUTTER TOPPING:

2½ T. melted butter

1 t. dried parsley

½ t. garlic powder

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9"x5" loaf pan with PAM; set aside.

 In a large mixing bowl place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and Old Bay; stir to combine. Fold in the shredded cheese and jalapeño. Make a little well in the center and gently pour in the beer, stirring to thoroughly combine.

Measure half of the melted butter into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Use a pastry brush to spread it up the sides and distribute evenly on the bottom. Transfer batter to pan, spreading it out into an even layer.

 Pour the remaining half of the melted butter over the top of the batter, brushing it around so it evenly coats the top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center tests clean.

Whisk together garlic butter topping ingredients and pour over the top of the hot bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Allow bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

This bread does not keep well, so you’d be wise to eat it within two days. It freezes quite well, however, and makes excellent toast.

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Salsa Verde

Is it too early to start thinking about Cinco de Mayo?  I think not! Particularly when you are hard at work perfecting your salsas. I think I've done it with my latest, and greatest, version of salsa verde. At least it would seem so since I am eating it on absolutely everything (even at breakfast where it has twice graced the top of a poached egg), and have to stop myself from just eating it, spoonful by spoonful, right out of the bowl. In fact, I was so excited about just how good this is that I decided I must make room in my deck container garden for a pot of tomatillos, perhaps near the potted jalapenos; I can see now that I'm going to be using a lot of these! You may have your favorite jarred salsa verde, but nothing, and I mean nothing, can beat the taste of homemade, particularly when the tomatillos are roasted.

This was a tricky recipe to compose. Essentially, it is just grab and dump when it comes to ingredients, adding more as you taste until it reaches flavor perfection. As taste is subjective, what appeals to me, may not particularly appeal to you. If you don't care for cilantro, eliminate it. Try some parsley in its place. If you like less heat, seed the jalapeno.  If you like more heat, use two. The recipe below reflects what I did. Feel free to experiment.

Salsa Verde

2 pounds fresh Melissa's tomatillos, husks removed
3 small cloves garlic, peeled
1 large jalapeno
1 small bunch cilantro
1/3 cup chopped scallions
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Juice of half of a lime
1/4 cup chicken stock
Salt, to taste

To roast tomatillos, preheat your broiler, line a rimmed cookie sheet with foil and place the tomatillos on top. Place as near to the broiler as your oven shelves will allow and roast until charred. Flip over to the other side and char. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. You can roast the jalapeno along with the tomatillos, but watch it as it may roast more quickly. Do not remove the charred bits, they add flavor to the salsa.

Place tomatillos, jalapeno, garlic, cilantro, scallions, cumin, and lime juice in the work bowl of a food processor or blender. Pulse until saucy. Remove to a bowl and stir in stock until it reaches desired consistency. Salt to taste.

This post is linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday 
Melt In Your Mouth 
Recipe Sharing Monday
Amaze Me Monday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Foodie Friday

Five Star Frugal

Seasons on Saturday

Strawberry Hot Pepper Jam

I’ve been having quite a bit of luck with jam and jelly making these days, and these various successes have me experimenting.  The Strawberry Margarita Jam was such a big hit, and I love Green Pepper Jelly, so I decided to come up with a combination of the two to provide a spicy eye-opening kick for my toast or bagel in the morning.  This recipe is a winner! Richly fruity with an underlying taste of pepper, and a kick that you can set from mild to medium, to hot, hot, hot, just by increasing the amount of hot sauce. I found this recipe to be perfect for morning, but when I make it again to pour over a brick of cream cheese and serve with crackers, I’m going to double the hot sauce.  Yeehaw!

Strawberry Hot Pepper Jam

4 cups crushed strawberries

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced

1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice

½ teaspoon Melissa’s Red Savina Hot Sauce

4 ounces pectin (recommended: Certo)

6 cups white sugar

Place the crushed strawberries, minced jalapeño peppers, lemon juice, and hot sauce into a large saucepan, and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once simmering, stir in the sugar until dissolved, return to a rolling boil, and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from heat, stir in pectin, and pour into sterilized jars and seal*.

*Cook's Note: Follow USDA guidelines for proper sterilization and canning procedures.

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Tutorials Tips and Tidbits

Be Inspired Friday

Seasonal Sundays