The Funky Kitchen

Here’s what is fantastic about hot pepper jelly: when you’ve got it you’re moments away from appetizers. Get a plate, and put out some crackers, a wedge of cheese (two if you’ve got a selection in your fridge) and the jelly. All the extra preparation you need is to get a pair of knives for slicing the cheese and spreading the jelly.

An appetizer where your guests get to get involved, choose their cheese and spread their jam, and actually associate with the food they are partaking in helps to create a comfortable homey atmosphere. And you save yourself the work of putting together a tray of constructed snacks, though if you like getting lost in fiddly details like I do, you could elect to go that route as well.

If you’re feeling fancy, you could always do some baked brie with hot pepper jelly as a topper and prepare yourself for some glorious creamy melted brie contrasted with the heat and acid of the jelly. Fabulous!

What about if you are looking for more of a main than a starter? Red pepper jelly makes a lovely glaze on salmon or other meats and it is also very tasty spread on a sandwich.

I know that there are quite a few people who’ve received a jar of red pepper jelly as a gift or bought it on a whim because it is so pretty in a jar, and then it sits lonely and unopened in the pantry. Add it to your menu, you’ll be happy you did!

Tequila Sunset Hot Pepper Jelly

1 red bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 habanero pepper

1 Fresno pepper

6 Cups sugar

1 1/2 Cups white wine vinegar

1/2 Cup tequila

170  mL liquid pectin (If you only have powdered pectin, don’t worry. See how to convert here)

Directions

• Remove the stems, veins and seeds from all of the peppers. When you are handling the habaneros please wear gloves or wash your hands super thoroughly when you’re done, because otherwise the next time you touch your eyes you’ll be in for some burning unpleasantness. 
• Finely dice all of the peppers.
• Set a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the bell peppers, habanero, sugar, and white wine vinegar and bring them to a roiling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes.
• Stir in the tequila and liquid pectin. Continue to boil for 1 minute before moving from heat.
• Process in sterilized jars.

The tequila makes this hot pepper jelly really special. Like anything tasty you can get in a shot glass, it smooths out any rough, rumpled edges. It makes all the burst of flavor just a little more sleek, decreasing the bite of the white wine vinegar without stepping to hard on the heat from the peppers.

And, much like watermelon jam makes you feel sunshine just looking at it, the yellows, oranges, and reds suspended in the jelly certainly make me feel cheerful. Tequila guarantees a fun time.

Mister says: “You could put this on a brick and I would still eat it.”

This time last year: Orange Cardamom Cookies

And the year before: Deeply Chocolate Ice Cream

A few days before Easter I got a phone call from Mr’s mum. She was looking for a recipe for a curried chickpea salad; something she could whip up a batch of and keep in the fridge for a few days while bringing portions of it to work for lunch. I told her I was sure I could find something and that I’d make a batch for Easter supper, so we could try it out, and she would have some left to start off taking it for lunch.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out, as was Mr’s mum and the other Easter guests. The chickpeas take up the spicy, tangy vinaigrette really well. Next time, I would suggest a little more curry, because I would like the flavor to be a little more prevalent, but that’s just me.

There was one person who was downright unenthused about our curried chickpea salad, Mr. He’s the apple of my eye, but decidedly not a fan of chickpeas; nor does he enjoy curry. In his eyes this was pretty much salad gone wrong. Luckily, the Easter feast provided a lot of other options for him, so he could abstain from the chickpeas and the curry without missing too much of the meal.

Curried Chickpea Salad

(recipe adapted from Quick and Dirty in the Kitchen)

1/2 Cup sultanas

2 – 15 oz tins chickpeas

1 red bell pepper

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp lime juice

1/4 Cup olive oil

2 tsp curry powder (I’ll increase to 1 Tbsp next time, I like a little more heat)

2 tsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 punnett alfalfa sprouts

Directions

•  Soak the sultanas in some hot water so that they will plump up.
• Drain the tins of chickpeas and rinse them well.
• Dice the bell pepper.
• Put the three aforementioned ingredients together in a large resealable bowl.
• Add the apple cider vinegar, lime juice, olive oil, curry powder, maple syrup, and salt to a bowl and whisk together the vinaigrette.
• Drizzle the vinaigrette over the chickpea, sultana and pepper mixture, and seal the bowl. The longer you let it sit the more married the flavors will be.
• Add the alfalfa sprouts just before serving, so that they don’t get soggy, tossing to coat.
• Serve!

Last post I promised a recipe that wasn’t for baked goods, and I’m sorry it’s been so long. A combination of a sore tummy and end of term, it’s taken me longer to have a recipe using the onion marmalade, that I have taken pictures of, than I thought it would.

I don’t know if I can really call this a recipe; do sandwiches have recipes? All I did was go through the fridge and find things I wanted to go into the sandwich, put it together, and put it in the panini press. The combination was truly fantastic though, so I suppose it warrants a recipe.

Panini presses are so much fun to use!

As a note on making panini: you can see in the pictures that there are two layers of cheese, both next to the pieces of bread (or in this case, triangular bun). Why? The cheese melts in the panini press and acts as the glue that holds your scrumptious panini together, of course!

What if you don’t have a panini press at your perusal? Do you have two pans (or even better, a grill pan and a pan)? Prepare the panini as per the recipe, and then place on the hot pan (like making grilled cheese) and then weigh it down with the second pan. After it browns on the bottom, flip the panini and repeat the process. If you are using a grill pan as the hot bottom pan of course, you will even get the panini grill marks, without having to purchase a panini press!

Chicken and Pepper Panini

Bread of choice (in my case, 9 grain triangle bun)

Cheddar cheese, sliced thin (enough to cover both sides of the bun with a thin layer)

1/4 of a red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 Tbsp onion marmalade

salt and pepper to taste

Chicken (mine was off of leftover drumsticks, but you could definitely use deli chicken as well)

• Plug in the panini press and let it warm.
• Cut your bun in half.
• Cover both sides of the bun with a thin layer of cheddar cheese.
• Cover one side of the bun with red pepper slices, spread onion marmalade (as evenly as you can) on the other side of the bun.
• Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the red pepper slices.
• Add the broken up chicken to the sandwich.
• Put the two pieces of bun together, like a sandwich, and place in the panini press.
• Wait a few minutes, for the signature marks to form; the longer you leave it in the crunchier it will get.
• Remove from press, cut panini in half, and enjoy!

You may notice that my panini did not get the dark stripes that panini usually have, this is in part due to the crusty bun being not prone to browning, and also because I didn’t leave it in the press very long, just enough to melt the cheese and get the bun a little crunchy. I have issues with bread that is too toasty, so panini I make for myself rarely get the regular brown marks, leave it in longer than the short time that I did, and the grill marks will come in.