Spice up barbecue with hot peppers

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By Julie Falsetti, For The York Dispatch

Char and stuff hot peppers with tuna for a barbecue appetizer. The heat from the peppers varies, so no two will be exactly the same.(Photo: Julie Falsetti photo)

Char and stuff hot peppers with tuna for a barbecue appetizer. The heat from the peppers varies, so no two will be exactly the same.(Photo: Julie Falsetti photo)

In 1912, Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to measure the pungency of chili peppers. Using the Scoville scale, you can now prove to your brother-in-law that the peppers you eat are hotter than the ones he eats.

In the pepper continuum, jalapeños are pretty low on the scale, with a range of 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units. Compare that with the Bhut Jolokia, or ghost pepper, with a rating of 800,000 to 1,001,300 units, 125 times hotter than the jalapeño.

Of course, everything is relative. One person’s mild pepper might send another running for the water pitcher. As an aside, drinking water is not a good idea to cool off your mouth. The oil in peppers is not water soluble, so you would be better off having a sip of milk or beer, or better yet a spoonful of ice cream.

Having harvested an abundance of peppers from my garden, with a bit of trepidation, I brought a small batch of tuna stuffed jalapeños to a potluck picnic.

As a trial, I offered one to a friend who likes chilies. He popped it in his mouth and pronounced it “not hot at all.”

I relaxed and put the plate of stuffed peppers on the table for the rest of the guests. A few minutes later, the same friend came running over fanning his mouth. He got a hot one.

Because the Scoville scale gives a range for hotness, there can be quite a variation in how much capsicum each pepper contains. Whether from the supermarket or your garden, you never know exactly how hot the pepper is going to be. Some gardeners say “the hotter the summer, the hotter the pepper.”

If you want an alternative to cheese-stuffed poppers, give these tuna stuffed jalapeños a try. They make a great appetizer at barbecues.

Tuna-Stuffed Jalapeños

5 jalapeño peppers

1 5-ounce can tuna

1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise

1 scallion, finely chopped

Dash of lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Paprika for decoration

Using tongs, char the peppers over a grill or the gas flame of your stove. Immediately place the charred peppers in a brown bag and twist to close. Let rest for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the tuna with the mayonnaise and scallion. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice and set aside. The tuna mixture will be a bit drier than tuna salad.

Take the peppers from the bag and peel them under cold running water, rubbing off the blackened skin. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and ribs and rinse again. Allow the peppers to drain, then soak up any remaining moisture with a paper towel.

Fill the peppers with the tuna mixture and decorate with paprika.

— Julie Falsetti, a York native, comes from a long line of good cooks. Her column, From Scratch, runs twice monthly in The York Dispatch food section.

Why Lions WR Marvin Jones keeps a jar of pickles in his locker

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By Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com   –   M Live

ALLEN PARK — Guys keep all sorts of knickknacks in their lockers. Pictures of their kids. Fan mail. Notes of inspiration. SpongeBob backpacks.

But Detroit Lions receiver Marvin Jones might have the weirdest oddity of them all.

Sitting on the top shelf of his locker, right next to his shoulder pads, is a jar of pickles. And it’s not even for the pickles, either, but the juice, which he says helps fight cramps. Drinking it became a habit for him back in Cincinnati.

“I had really bad cramps a lot,” he said. “I used to drink pickle juice, and it helps. It does help, all the salt.”

Jones says the cramp issues haven’t bothered him as much in Detroit, despite the high humidity and temperatures that rose into the 90s during camp. But he always kept a jar of pickles around just in case.

“I always had it,” he said. “I didn’t know how it was going to be.”

Jones says his use of the juice actually nearly led to an endorsement deal. A pickle company wanted him as a pitchman, though he thought better of becoming known as the pickle guy.

“I’m not going to be the one who says, ‘Hey, eat these pickles! Kosher!'” he said, gesturing with his hand like a cheesy TV pitchman.

Whatever Jones is doing appears to be working. He was Detroit’s top free-agent addition, receiving a five-year, $40 million deal to pry him out of Cincinnati, and he’s become quarterback Matthew Stafford’s top target this off-season.

The Lions have said no one player will replace Calvin Johnson, though Jones seems like the wideout most ready to move into the No. 1 role. He finished with eight catches for 106 yards during the preseason, which led the first-unit offense, and showed off some of that fancy footwork along the sidelines.

“Obviously when you go and spend however many months this far, the repetition is a key part of getting a connection (with Stafford),” Jones said. “And I think we have that.”

Jalapeno Marinated Chicken Breast

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By: FOX4News.com Staff

Chef Tre Wilcox with Tre Wilcox Cooking Concepts shares the recipe for a great post-workout meal.

Jalapeno Marinated Chicken

3/4 cup olive oil
3 each jalapeno chile
12 each garlic cloves
3 peeled shallots
1 each bunch cilantro, washed
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons cracked black peppercorns
4 piece boneless skinless chicken breast

Preparation Place chicken breast into a ziplock freezer bag. Place remaining ingredients into a blender. Blend on high till smooth. Pour marinade over the chicken. Seal and refrigerate overnight or at least four hours

Easy Refrigerator Pickles

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Adapted from myrecipes.com

6 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers (about 2 pounds)

2 cups thinly sliced red onion

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon dill weed (add fresh dill if desired)

Place 3 cups cucumber in a medium glass bowl; top with 1 cup onion. Repeat procedure with the remaining 3 cups cucumber and remaining 1 cup onion. (You can also divide evenly among some type of glass jars with tight fitting lids instead of placing into a bowl.)

Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; stir well. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Pour over cucumber mixture; let cool. Cover and chill at least 4 days.

Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

The original recipe I started with called for 1 teaspoon turmeric. I don’t particularly care for that seasoning. So after quite a few adjustments I came up with a version of a sweet pickle recipe that suited my taste.

3 cups sliced cucumbers

1 cup sliced onions

1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon pickling salt, sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 3/4 cup white sugar or 7/8 cup honey to taste

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cloves, sliced

Wash and dry 4-5 small jars or 2-quart jars. Make sure the jars have tight-fitting lids. Place the cut up cucumbers into the jars.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring everything to a boil and stir until the sugar or honey is completely dissolved into the mixture.

Pour the liquid over the vegetables in the jars. Make sure the vegetables are completely covered.

Pickled Green Beans

1 pound of fresh green beans, wash and cut off stems

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1/8 cup kosher or pickling salt

1/8 cup granulated sugar

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Fresh dill sprigs

Black or white peppercorns

Wash and dry 2 glass jars (pint size). (Or double the recipe and use a quart jar.)

In the bottom of each jar, place a garlic clove, dill sprig, a few peppercorns and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper flakes.

Tightly pack green beans into jars and set aside. Place the vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Boil the liquid for one minute. Remove from heat. Pour the hot vinegar liquid over the beans and screw lids on the jars. Set aside to cool.

Once the jars are cool, place in the refrigerator. Let the beans sit 24 to 48 hours before eating.

Chef’s Hat: The power of pickles

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By Donna Evans, Food Columnist   –   Pine & Lake Echo Journal

It has been a typical gardening year. The growing started slowly and then there was an explosion of ripe vegetables – dozens of cucumbers, hundreds of green beans and scads of tomatoes.

A long time ago I spent quite a bit of time canning so this fresh produce could be enjoyed throughout the year, but I’ve gotten out of that habit. I do freeze green beans and most likely some of the tomatoes will end up in the freezer to be used for soups and stews, but cucumbers are one vegetable that does not freeze very well, and most everyone I know has more cucumbers than they need.

So it was time to do some investigating and find new recipes. Digging through cookbooks and researching online, I stumbled into the world of pickling. Almost any vegetable can be pickled: carrots, beets, green beans and, of course, cucumbers.

A lot of recipes don’t call for extensive equipment or long cooking times. There aren’t a lot of hard rules you have to follow when making refrigerated pickles, but I did run across a few tips that I found quite useful:

• As with a lot of things, water is the key. Avoid using hard water. If you have any doubts at all about the quality of your water, use purified water. You’ll end up with a much better tasting pickle.

• A typical ingredient used in making any type of pickle is vinegar. Make sure to use a vinegar with at least 5 percent acetic acid.

• Use a good quality salt. It is recommended to use pure sea salt without any additives or salt labeled “canning” or “pickling” salt. Additives in table salt may make the brine cloudy and affect the taste.

The process of making refrigerated pickles is actually quite easy. Begin by washing and chopping your vegetables into whatever shape you’d like – spears, chunks or disks. There are certain vegetables, such as beets, that should be partially cooked first, but most vegetables can go right into the brine without being cooked.

Start by using a basic recipe. You can experiment by using different fresh or dry flavorings, such as bay leaves, chile peppers, cumin seed, mustard seed, pickling spice, jalapeno peppers, dill, garlic, turmeric or oregano, and adjust to your taste.

You need a brine for the actual pickling process. A brine is a combination of vinegar, salt and sugar that is boiled and then poured over your vegetables. The vegetables can be placed into any clean jar that has a tight-fitting lid. You place the vegetables in the jar, cover with brine, tighten the lid and place the jar in the fridge. Let the pickles sit at least 24 hours. Then – ta da, homemade pickles!

If you are really strapped for time, you can cheat. Remember that jar of pickles in the fridge with just one tiny piece left in it? Take the piece out and re-use that liquid. Put your freshly cut vegetables into the liquid. Make sure the vegetables are completely covered. If they aren’t, add a bit more vinegar (and sugar to taste) until the vegetables are completely covered.

Again, let things sit a day or two and you will have a fresh batch of pickles.

Refrigerator pickles don’t have as long of a shelf life as pickles that go through an actual cooking process, but they should last at least a month. That is, unless your family gets to them first.

Here’s a great recipe! Happy Eating!