Cowboy Candy ... AKA Candied Jalapeños

Cowboy Candy is a sweet and spicy treat made with candied jalapeños. Here is a simple recipe you can use to make these tasty treats for desserts, snacking, etc. Use these pepper rings to top cornbread, chop them up and add them to cream cheese for a delicious spread, garnish cocktails, or just snack on them. Basically, the jalapeños are preserved in a simple seasoned syrup and stored in the refrigerator, or processed in water bath.

Ingredients:

• ½ kilo of fresh jalapeño chili peppers (that about 1.1 pounds for you U.S. folks that still can't use the metric system, or 6-8 peppers)
• 1 cup white sugar
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

• First, clean the jar(s) you will use to store the Cowboy Candy. This recipe will yield about 3½ cups of candied jalapeños.
• Second, put on a pair of gloves to protect your skin from the oils in the jalapeños.
• Slice the jalapeno peppers crosswise into 6 mm thick rings (¼ inch). You can remove the seeds if you like a milder treat, but I don't. Set them aside while you make the syrup.
  
• Mix together the sugar, vinegar and all the seasonings in a pan. Bring the mixture to a quick boil, and reduce the heat to a low simmer until the sugar dissolves into a thick syrup.
• Add the jalapeno rings and mix to evenly coat them with the syrup, and bring it back to a low simmer.
• Simmer the jalapeños in the syrup for about 4-5 minutes. They will darken just a bit as they cook slightly and soak up some of the sugar syrup.
• Transfer the candied jalapeno peppers into the cleaned jar(s), then fill the jar(s) with the remaining syrup. This time we just used a single one quart mason jar for the whole batch and the recipe didn't quite fill the jar.
  
• Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 months. You can eat them right away, but if you chill them in the refrigerator for a week, or so, the flavors will develop and just get better.
• You can also use a canning process with a water bath to store them for a year or more. (Click here to learn how.)

Cranberry Mango Sauce

1 can of cranberry sauce (not jelly)
1 cup dried craisins
1 pound package of fresh cranberries
¾ - 1 cup fresh diced ripe mango
½ cup orange juice
zest from 1 orange
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup (or more) Triple Sec
½ cup molasses
¼ cup corn starch mixed with ¾ cup water

stir in all the ingredients and simmer until fresh berries are tender (about 45 minutes) stir in ½ cup (or more) chopped pecans 
DONE!

Pineapple Lemon & Habanero Jam

Lots of big juicy lemons are so ripe they are starting to fall from our remarkable lemon tree, and we had to do something with them. So today, we put up 3½ quarts of delicious jam.

Tools you will need:
Non-Aluminum Stockpot	Ladle
Large pot for lemon	Measuring cup
Sterile Canning Jars & Lids	Large Canning pot for processing the jars
Blender	Miscellaneous kitchen utensils

Ingredients:
3 medium to large fresh pineapples	6 cups sugar
8 large lemons	1½ cups water
3 fresh Habanero Chili peppers	3½ ounces (100 grams) of granulated pectin

Directions:

Sterilize the jars and lids. I usually put the lids in a small sauce pan of boiling water to make it easy to use them when the jars are packed with the finished jam.

Peel the pineapple, remove the core and dice into chunks. Pulse the pineapple chunks in a blender until well chopped. Add the pineapple, sugar and water to a large non-aluminum stockpot.

Remove the zest from the lemons leaving the white pith. Mince the zest and add it to the stockpot.

Add the lemons to a separate pot of boiling water. Boil the lemons 3-5 minutes until you can easily pierce the pith with a fork. Remove the lemons from the boiling water and allow them to cool.

Slice the Habanero chili peppers and remove the stem and seeds. Mince the peppers and add them to the stock pot.

When the lemons are cool enough to handle, slice them in halves and gently scoop out the pulp into a bowl, removing the seeds as you go. Add the pulp to the stockpot.

Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring frequently so the sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom. 

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the pectin and make sure it is totally dissolved and well blended.  Boil for another minute. DO NOT OVER COOK!

Remove from the heat.

Ladle the hot jam into the sterile jars. Make sure there is no sticky jam on the lip of the jar and top with hot lids to ensure that they seal.

Process the sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Hot Pepper Jelly / Jalea de Chili Picante

Found some beautiful sweet peppers at the Farmers' Market (Feria del Agriculture) in Grecia yesterday, so I picked up a couple of dozen for around $3 USD. Today I combined them with the Jalapeño peppers growing in our garden to make some hot pepper jelly. The recipe makes a delicious, mild hot pepper jelly. It's just not hot enough for our palates, so next time I'm going to kick it up a notch with about 3 or 4 more hot peppers.

7½ cups finely chopped sweet peppers
½ cup finely chopped Jalapeño or Serrano peppers (about 6)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 (1.75 ounce) packages powdered pectin
10 cups white sugar

Sterilize 6 (16 ounce) canning jars and lids according to manufacturer's instructions. You can use any combination of jar sizes to come up with approximately 96 ounces. I usually boil the lids in a large sauce pans and boil the jars in the rack of the canning pot according to the manufacturer's instructions. I then just leave the lids and jars in the hot water until ready to fill.

The easiest way to chop the peppers is in a food processor. Remove all the seeds and membranes and cut them in large chunks for the food processor. You should wear gloves to trim the hot peppers and avoid inhaling the fumes. Thoroughly mix the hot and sweet peppers together.

Place the peppers in a stock pot over high heat. Mix in vinegar and fruit pectin. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to rolling boil. Quickly add the sugar. Stir constantly and bring it back to a full rolling boil for exactly 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and if necessary, skim off any foam.

Ladle the jelly into sterile jars, to within ¼ inch of the tops. Cover with flat lids, and screw on bands tightly.

Place jars into the rack in the canning pot. The water should completely cover the jars, and it should be hot, but not boiling. Bring water to a boil, and process for 5 minutes.

Remove the jars and allow them to cool completely at room temperature.

Server on crackers, over cream cheese, or mixed with cream cheese and/or sour cream for a sweet and spicy dip.

Experiment with all green, all red, or all yellow sweet peppers for a different eye appeal.