Pickled Beet Stems

I had so much beet produce last year and I had to look for ways on how to preserve them.  The leaves were good for sautéing with bacon and I found a recipe online on how to pickle the stems.

The rabbits got tired of eating beets so I couldn't let these go to waste.  

They turned out well actually.  I like how it stayed crispy and the pickling ingredients really gave it a pop of flavors.

I like eating pickled veggies when I am eating fried or grilled meat.  

I didn't have enough pickling juice but after a day or two, the juice from the stems kinda filled the jar so it worked out perfect.

Acharang Ampalaya #PickledBitterMelon

As the name entails, this kind of melon or gourd is bitter.  Why do Asian like this kind of vegetable?  Well, it's delicious when cook or prepared right and for its health benefit.  

Here's a list of Benefits of Ampalaya  according to research

• Antiviral effects. 
• Alleviates common cold. 
• Treats gastrointestinal problems.   
• Regulates blood sugar. 
• Have Antioxidant Source
• Prevents Free Radicals
• Acts as Anti-Inflammatory
• Boosts Immune System
• Source of Calcium, Iron, and Phosphorous
• Prevents Infection
• Helps Losing Weight (ampalaya has lectin, a substance which obtains a non-hungry effect)
• Promotes Digestion System
• Treats Constipation and Diabetes
• Lowers Cholesterol Level
• Prevents cancer and treats tumor
• Promotes heart and liver health
• Treats Rheumatism, Gout, respiratory, and eye problems
• Promotes skin health
• Relieves Wounds and Burns
• Treats Psoriasis
• Promotes Hair Health

Ampalaya is not   a favorite vegetable of mine but I eat for the sake of the health benefits I listed above.

Anyway, this year, my bitter melon plant did so well and I couldn't cook them all.   I sold some of it and also gave some to friends.  Even now that it is getting cold, it is still producing fruit so I picked the young ones and decided to make an achara or pickled it.

I added some sweet chilis to eat to counter the bitter taste. You can find the recipe at the bottom.

It is so nice to grow your own vegetable, you can pick them whenever you want or need them.

I let some of it ripen so I can save seeds for next  gardening season.  

When I was a kid, my favorite part of the ampalaya is the red skin that covers the seed, it is edible and its sweet.  If you haven't try it, you should  and discover the surprise treat from  a ripe amapalaya.

Pickled Bitter Melon or Acharang Ampalaya Recipe

Ingredients:

• Amapalaya
• 1 medium kohlrabi or carrots
• 2 Italian sweet peppers
• 2 teaspoon salt
• A handful of tobasco peppers (optional)
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups white sugar
• pickling spice 
• a piece of ginger, minced
• 1 onion, sliced 
• 3 bay leaves
• peppercorn kernels

Procedure:

•  Gather or pick your ampalaya or you can buy it at the Asian store.  Open each of  it with knife and scrape the gut, leaving just the meat of the ampalaya.  You can use  spoon to easily remove it.  Then slice them thinly or whatever size you desire.  Soak it in water with salt for 15 to 30 minutes.
• Slice the other ingredients (onion, ginger, peppers, kohlrabi).  You can add whatever vegetable you like.  I added kohlrabi instead of carrots because I had one left from my garden.  If you like garlic, you can add some too (I'm not really a fan of bawang so I opted out.   
• Prepare the pickling juice.  Pour the vinegar in a pot, add the sugar and stir it until it dissolve, let it boil.
• Some prefers to blanch the ampalaya to retain its green color but since I soaked it in salt water mixture, I didn't want to fool with it.  
• In a clean jar, arrange your vegetable and  add the bay leaves and pickling spice on top.  
• Pour the vinegar mixture on the jar and close the lid.  Refrigerate for a week to let the vegetable absorb the pickling juice.
• Enjoy

Okay, this is my first time  preparing ampalaya this way.  I just didn't want to waste the young ones. I gotta say, it's probably my favorite way of eating amplaya now.  It's crunchy and sweet, it's still a bit bitter but the sweetness of the juice cancels the bitterness.  I love eating achara when I am eating fish.  Give me a feedback when you decide to use this recipe through the comment below.  Thanks for reading and visiting this food blog.

BBQ Gloves: My New Max Heat Resistant Oven Mitts from Cavetools

Canning  the fresh produce is one of the most satisfying thing I have learned from my late father-in-law.  He's the one who taught me how to  do it when I first  came here in the States.  In the tropical country where I was born and raised, we don't really do canning as we can just grow the veggies   all though the year.  I miss  that about my first motherland, the weather and the  availability of fresh produce in our backyard garden.  Over here, I can only enjoy it during warm season since I don't have a green house.

Anyway, I received this BBQ gloves  from Cavetools to  test and review and I love that it is max heat resistant.  It is perfect to use for grilling and  also for my canning  at home.  I am so glad having a heavy duty  gloves now, I don't have to worry about my hand  getting burnt when I take out something  from the oven or when I grill outside.

Let's admit it, having a good  pair of oven mitt is  important especially when you love to bake or grill.  I  can  assure you, you will never burn your hands again with this one.  My husband loves it, he is the one who loves to bake sweet treat at our home so  this is like a gift for him to have.  Its heat resistance is up to 662°F for smoking, grilling, baking, or cooking.  I also love that  they designed it with extended cuffs because it protect your forearms when reaching into the back of the grill or oven.

I am almost finish  canning  for this season.  Our  weather  is getting colder each day and my  garden is almost done so I will be picking everything and clean the garden soon.

You can buy this heat oven mitts via  amazon through this link  or directly  from Cavetools  website.  You can avail the 15% off by using  this discount code upon check out GrillGlove15.  Since Thanksgiving and Christmas are   almost around the corner, it would be advantageous to get more than one pair of this gloves.  Right now, there's an instant 10% off when you buy one or more.  This would be a great for your love ones who love to bake and grill.

Aside from the produce that I  picked from my garden, my son's godmother also gave me a basketful of  her peppers.  She loves gardening as much as I do but the difference is that, she doesn't  like spicy peppers so gave me most of her produce.  I decided to  pickle and freeze some of it so I will have some to consume  in the winter months.

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Whose in it for some spicy peppers 🌶, anyone? A friend of mine who also love gardening, gave me a whole basket of different kinds of #peppers . What to do? Freeze it or pickle it? I need some suggestion please?! #FallHarvest #HotPeppers #habaneros #GhostPeppers #ThaiPeppers

A post shared by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 12, 2018 at 5:46am PDT

She planted  more than 10 different kinds of peppers that I am not familiar  about but most of it are spicy so I stuffed and baked the  big ones and pickled some and freeze  the rest.

Cavetools has so many cool kitchen tools.  I got this  jalopeño coorer from them as well.  It's awesome in removing the  core of the peppers.

I am always happy serving my family an organic  food that we grew.  The canned  tomato sauce comes in handy  with this kind of dishes.  I never have to buy tomato sauce again when my garden is doing good because I can enough to last  for a year until the next gardening season comes.

Ever since I was a kid, I love eating spicy food.  My Mom was never  fond of spicy stuff but I  got my father's trait of eating super spicy food.  I was his  eating partner when it comes to spicy food.  Just talking about it makes me tear up, I miss him so much, he was a great cook and I miss all the food he  always cook for us.

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I pickled some #HotPeppers today. #organicproduce #backyardgardener #GardeningAddict #pickling

A post shared by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Aug 20, 2018 at 3:48pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

#PickledHotPeppers

A post shared by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 20, 2018 at 5:31am PDT

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the complimentary product/s mentioned  for testing purposes and to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Missing Achara

My husband  is craving for some  achara.  I don't have  anymore here  and  I don't see any kohlrabi at the stores around our area.  He said that he will drop by at Giant Eagle sometimes to get the Kohlrabi.

I didn't think that he would love the achara that I made  out of kohlrabi.  It was just n experiment for me to use the kohlrabi to imitate the achara that we have in the Philippines using Papaya.  I am thinking of ordering some seedling  online  to plant some kohlrabi in my garden next year..  It might be cheaper that way rather than buying the  gtown veggies from the store.  

Kohlrabi Achara

I don't know how many times I told you guys that I live in such a friendly neighborhood.  Our neighbors are like  family to us.  They always lend a hand when you are doing something, they give you things, I like it  here.  We look out for each other!  Anyway, one of our very good , kind, generous, and thoughtful neighbors are the  Fancher's.  They have a big garden and they always give me  veggies whenever they are harvesting.  They planted kolhrabi this year and they let me try it.  I have never   eaten kohlrabi  before nor try to cook with it.  IN fact, I did not know it's name lol.  They gave me two of them  to try.  When I was slicing them, it reminded me of papaya so I thought of picking or making it into achara.

We normally use papaya  for achara but thought of trying the kohlrabi.  I have never made  achara before but I always love eating it as a side dish.  My father used to  make it during fiesta and I missed it a lot!  Achara by the way, is the term we use for pickle.  It's Filipinos way of pickling Papaya.

Anyway, here is the recipe that I found at pinoyrecipe.net:  I slightly  altered it as I am using kohlrabi and not  papaya.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups grated fresh kohlrabi
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
• 1 red thai pepper, sliced into long strips
• 1 (2 inch) piece fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced
• 1 green jalapeño peppers, sliced into thin rings
• 1 (1.5 ounce) box raisins
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

• Combine the kohlrabi, carrot, red  and green peppers, ginger, and raisins together in a clean large bowl; mix.
• Transfer the mixture to clean, dry jars with lids.
• Stir the vinegar, water, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt together in a small saucepan; bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
• Pour the vinegar mixture into the jars, making sure the vegetables are completely submerged in liquid.
• Allow the vegetables to marinate in the liquid at least 1 day before using.
• Store in refrigerator between uses.

I let  them  taste what I made  with the kohlrabi  they gave and they liked it!  They gave me another two  and I made it for them.  The only difference is that I added  some dried cranberries to this batch  as I ran out of raisins.  

I like eating achara  with just about anything especially with  fried food like fish or BBQ.  MY husband eats it alone, he never had achara before and he said it rocks!

See, I eat it with my breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  It doesn't matter, it's just so good to eat!

So, do you want to try making achara?  Give it a try and I hope you like it as much as I do.  MY husband  like it so much that he said, he is going to make a big plot o  a garden next year just for kohlrabi lol.  Let's see about that haha.

Kohlrabi as Substitute for Papaya

Whenever we go to Pittsburgh, we always drop by at the  Farmer's Market and see if they have kohlrabi.  I find it a really good substitute for papaya in making a yummy achara.  

I got my husband addicted to this pickled kohlrabi so he  misses it when  it's gone.