There is almost three gallons of cut up cabbage, green tomatoes, onions, boc Choy, bell peppers, carrots and 40 jalapeno peppers soaking in a brine mixture while I start with this weeks Two Cents Worth.
Had to break out a fan to circulate the air in the kitchen to give me some relief from the pungent odor of all those jalapenos being chopped. It is enough to run you out of the kitchen. If the peppers don’t, the cooking process mixed with vinegar will when I fire up the stove.
Used the Black and Decker Processor to cut the entire product up except the green tomatoes. The tomatoes were hand cut and cut in chunky pieces besides; there is a hand full of green grape tomatoes that are whole so this should be a good batch of home made chowchow from Charlie’s Kitchen on Goose Creek; and it will light your fire. At least with the food processor, my hands are not hotter than a firecracker from cutting the hot pods of pepper.
The Mrs. used to help in the chowchow making process but makes herself scarce this day and time. When we made our first batch of chowchow back in Wilmington, North Carolina, she cut up the hot pods of (cayenne) peppers. Her hands burned so badly she squalled. About the only thing that will cut the heat from the peppers is milk. Bread, butter, water, or ice, none of that will ease the heat. It is something about the enzymes in milk that does the trick. She says she’s made enough chowchow in her day.
One of the twins came over while I started the concoction; as he walked in the door he said “I know what you are making”.
Some of this year’s batch will have to go to Georgia and Montana to pay back my friends for samplings of their annual batch of canning product. Actually, one sends me a bottle of his homemade blackberry wine and the other sends a pint of her huckleberry jam. Reckon a big word for that would be reciprocation or simply paying your dues.
Did make one special jar of chowchow for a friend who says “You cain’t make it too hot for me”.
We will see, we will see. I picked over 24 of the little purple, orange, yellow and red bouquet pods of pepper and chopped them before placing in a bowl and mixed it with a pint of the regular ingredients. I would venture to say that jar is hot enough to light his fire but then again, I know a woman that can eat habaneras in her beans and cheese sauce. I tried a sampling of her heat and could not take it. Simply just too hot to eat for me because all I could taste was hot, nothing else had any flavor except hot.
