Healthy Meal / spicy

This past Father's Day weekend I did what all good children do: grilled with my dad!  It was really fun, especially since I was trying out a new marinade that Chef and Butcher James Burden recommended to me.   I went to Berkshire Organics in Dalton to stock up on everything we needed for dinner.  I picked up fresh, organic veggies: eggplant really soaks up marinade so it's great for grilling, plus onions, zucchini and some red and orange bell peppers. Red Apple Butchers, at Berkshire Organics, had 30 day, dry aged steaks, so I had to try a few of those.  And I also bought about 2 and 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs with the skin on.  Here's the marinade recipe plus a bonus curry mix from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, which is as useful as it sounds.   Last week I wrote to Mr. Bittman about Fire Cider and his assistant wrote me back saying she had tried it the last time she was in the Berkshires and would be happy to share a sample bottle with her boss.  How cool is that?! Marinade for 2-3 pounds of Chicken  Yes, of course you can use this marinade on tofu, fish or veggies.  For fish and veggies, about 20 minutes in the marinade will do.  For meat, like the chicken, make the marinade the day before and let the meat marinate overnight.  I made double this recipe, one half for the chicken and one half for the veggies. Ingredients: a generous 1/4 cup Fire Cider 2 Tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 2 teaspoons salt 1 big tablespoon fragrant curry powder blend (see photo below for the recipe! Yes, you can use store bought as well.) a pinch of asafoetida a pinch of chipolte pepper 1 teaspoon garam masala   Method: First, make up the fragrant curry powder blend, this will make enough for this recipe plus plenty left over for all your curry spice needs, it's awesome on pop corn! [caption id="attachment_618" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Mark Bittman's curry blend.[/caption] Get the spices together and toast the spices in a dry skillet. [caption id="attachment_619" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Whole spices ready to toast![/caption] [caption id="attachment_620" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Mmm, toasty and very fragrant![/caption] [caption id="attachment_621" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Use a small spice grinder to turn toasted spices into powder and then add powdered ginger and turmeric.  Homemade curry powder![/caption] Once you've made the curry blend,  combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. [caption id="attachment_624" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Yes, that's a gallon of Fire Cider. Beware the underdose![/caption] Pour all the marinade over the chicken and marinate over night in a sealed bag or sealed container. The next day, when you are ready to cook, remove the chicken, discard any leftover marinade and grill the chicken til it's done! For veggies: chop bite sized pieces of onion, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant, make up more marinade and marinate for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to coat each piece.  Slide onto skewers and grill with the chicken. [caption id="attachment_622" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Grill ready chicken, veggies and steak.[/caption] The 30 day dry aged steaks were perfect as is so I let them sit out at room temp for about an hour, lightly salted them and then grilled them for a few minutes on each side for perfectly rare, melt in your mouth awesomeness. [caption id="attachment_623" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Happy grilling, all summer long![/caption]

Recipe by Noel Prophet Last summer Dana and I went to a pot luck beer and food pairing: everyone brought a dish and a beer that went with it.  Dana made a summer saison that was a bit citrus-y  and it went well with the berries n biscuits I brought for dessert.  However, I thought the best dish was the jerk chicken that Noel and Kristen brought along with some very appropriate Red Stripe.  Just recently Noel sent me his jerk sauce recipe which I was pretty darn excited to see if I could replicate.  As per his suggestion, the recipe can be modified to suit, the one that follows is enough to marinate 3 pounds of chicken/meat/tofu with enough leftover to serve as a side sauce for greens.   I only made a few changes to Noel's recipe and the end result was deliciously hot and there were no leftovers! [caption id="attachment_551" align="aligncenter" width="516"] Bright ingredients makes for a spicy brown sauce.[/caption] Suggested Ingredients:

• Up to 6 scotch bonnet peppers or whatever hot peppers you like - I used the one Habanero that was ready in our garden and then some of the chili peppers that Pete and Jennifer from Woven Roots Farm gave us at the Harvest Festival.
• 2 Tablespoons each: dried thyme, ground allspice, Fire Cider, salt and black pepper
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (fresh or powdered), to taste.
• 8 garlic cloves
• 3 medium onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup or less olive oil
• 1/2 cup or less tamari
• Juice of 1 lime or lemon, or more, to taste.

Method: Chop up everything and then put all in the blender.   Or, put all ingredients into a wide mouth mason jar and use a wand blender to puree, same difference.  The marinade is done, ready to eat now on cooked greens or... Poke holes in your chicken (or tofu!) before you jerk it so it will hold the flavor better. Marinate overnight. When you are ready you can bake, grill, roast, etc your jerked chicken.  This would also work well with tempeh or tofu or other meat. Here's what I did with the chicken I let marinate in the fridge, well covered, for over 12 hours: Pre-heat the oven to 365.  Spread the chicken breast (I had about 2 pounds) and the jerk sauce I used to marinate it, in a wide glass baking dish.  I covered the dish with aluminum foil (or a glass lid if you have one) and baked it for about 45-50 minutes, until the thermometer read 142 and when I sliced into it, it was juicy and cooked through! Dana made coconut brown basmati rice to go with the baked jerk chicken.  I made a huge side of broccoli rabe dressed in olive oil and salt, which we ate with the remaining jerk sauce. [caption id="attachment_552" align="aligncenter" width="538"] All covered in Jafakin' Jerk Sauce![/caption]

Here's the next spicy, healthy recipe from Chef Joe Dewey.  It is pretty similar to Nina's recipe, which she sent us after meeting team Fire Cider at the Big E this year.   Nina marinated and grilled the shrimp and then made fire cider shrimp tacos! According to Nina "they were SO good!" Here is the Chef Dewey's version of a chili shrimp marinade plus Nina's taco serving suggestion: