Rainout: Chimichurri and Cowboy Candy

Technically, it wasn’t raining by the time I was in the garden this evening.

I’m still calling it a rain-out though, since after pulling the last tomato plants (and collecting the green tomatoes) and chatting with a neighbor in the alley (actually inspecting a gun her father left her years ago- a mint 1956 Smith & Wesson 38 Special) it was too dark (and I was too wet) to do much else.

So I decided I would take advantage of the nice crop of Italian flat parsley and try making fresh Chimichurri sauce.  I had some in a restaurant in Ft Lauderdale back in August and it was delicious and different enough that I remembered it.

If you haven’t ever tasted one of the hundreds of variations of it, I should warn you that it isn’t something you should consume if you had any ideas of romance for later in the evening, unless of course your significant other had also consumed it.  It gave me a significant case of dragon breath; it is definitely the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to “recurring flavor”.  On second thought, no romance, even if your significant other has consumed it.

My version was mix of ingredients I had seen listed in one version or another but I can’t say for sure. I think with chimichurri that is the point- it is like Brunswick stew in the South, no two recipes are identical and everyone’s is the best.

• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed fresh parsely
• 1/2 cup firmly packed fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons of fresh oregano
• 7 gianormous garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

After a spin or three hundred in the food processor, the result was as one would expect quite “green”.   It also didn’t have any trouble depositing aroma to every corner of the house by the time I was done.   It had a strong aroma for sure, but I just couldn’t stop bending over the food processor and soaking it all in.   (I think I understand for the first time the urge dogs have to roll in something rancid in the yard; it just stinks so good you can’t help it.)

I intend to use this as a marinade for a flank steak or similar cut sometime over the next few days. We’ll see……

Now for the Cowboy Candy bit-
3 or 4 weeks ago I was picking jalapenos with the intention of making (you guessed it) poppers as well as some pepper jelly. While I was in the garden filling a bucket with  green meanies, I received an email from my sister linking to a jalapeno recipe that looked much more interesting that jelly: Cowboy Candy (candied jalapenos).  The timing of this message was definitely some sort of divine intervention so I proceeded to make a nice batch of this “experiment”.

Well, it had been sitting in the pantry mellowing for almost 4 weeks and I figured tonight was the right time to break the seal on a jar and taste it.

Yum.

Highly

recommended.

And that’s how chimmichurri and cowboy candy became the joint topics of a mostly useless blog post.