Zucchini Noodles with Thai Chili Coconut Sauce

 Here is a fresh, raw, delicious Thai Zucchini Noodle recipe that makes a great main course or a fantastic side dish. The fresh Chili Coconut Sauce gives the freshly shredded vegetable noodles an authentic Thai taste. Spicy, coconut, pea-nutty flavor with some heat from a habanero or Thai chili pepper.

 

 

 

Ingredients

Sauce:

1/2 cup young coconut meat

2 Tbsp. raw coconut butter

1 habanero or Thai chili, seeds removed

2 Tbsp. raw peanut butter or almond butter

Coconut water as needed (or filtered water)

1 small 1/2 inch piece ginger

1 clove garlic

Sea salt to taste

Juice and zest of a small organic lime

Pasta:

4 small zucchini cut julienne or spiralized

1 bell pepper, cut julienne

1 medium carrot, cut julienne

1/4 cup finely shredded dried coconut plus more for sprinkling

  

Directions

1) In a blender, combine the sauce ingredients and process until smooth.

2) In a large bowl, combine the sauce with the zucchini and bell pepper, carrot and 1/4 cup coconut and toss to coat.

3) Place on two plates and sprinkle with additional coconut.  Serve!

You can purchase an Asian vegetable spiralizer at your local Asian grocery store, farmers market, or online. This model is the Cook Help vegetable spiralizer from William Sonoma. You can also get them at Sur La Table online for $59.95. There are other less expensive models that achieve the same shredded noodles. Just look online.

Quick ways to get in touch with Chef Tony Pisconeri

My Email: chef@pisconeri.com
My Food Blog: www.tonypisconeri.blogspot.com
My Twitter: @piscochef
Phone Mail: 706-383-1045

Drying Herbs the Italian Way

Many people ask me about my dried herbs and how I get them so dry, but retain the green color and vibrant flavor. Well…I use the Old Italian method that I learned from my grandmother when I was a young child. If you went to her house and looked in the basement you would see sheets of newspaper laid out all over the place, and on it you would find basil drying. The basement smelled amazing of the pungent basil.

Drying herbs is easy. Harvest the herbs in the morning when they are fresh and dry of any water or dew. Pick the leaves off the stalks and lay them out in a single layer on sheets of plain old newspaper that has been placed on a tray. Then put the trays in a dry place out of direct sunlight and wait for the herbs to dry. The newspaper may not be popular to read any more but it is fantastic for drawing out the moisture in the herbs. Make sure that the paper is clean and dirt free, of course.

It can take a couple of days or a couple weeks for your herbs to dry depending on the moisture level of the herbs and the humidity level or you house/drying area. Make sure that the herbs are completely dried and no moisture is present. If they are not completely dry let them dry some more. They will mold if they are stored with any moisture in them.

When the herbs are dry you can crush them or cut them up and store in air tight containers. I use Mason jars for my herbs. Grandma used a Mason jar with a sheet of waxed paper and a rubber band for the lid. Good old Italian ingenuity.

Get out there and dry some herbs. This is a great way to preserve your harvest and not waste what you have grown. Also you will have delicious herbs throughout the year to use in your recipes.

Grow your own Fresh Sprouts and Micro Greens

Throughout the year I am always able to produce my own delicious spouts and micro greens for my salads. It does not take much to make a batch of sprouts. All you need is a Mason jar, some cheese cloth or tightly woven netting, some of your favorite seeds to spout (see list below) and fresh water. In a couple of days you will have more sprouts that you can eat. They are fresh, nutritious, chemical free (use organic seeds for sprouting) and they last longer than the sprouts that you buy at the market because they are fresh.

You can go online and get all the sprouting and growing information you need. Also, you can purchase a wide variety of seeds specially for sprouting and micro greens,

Growing micro greens (small salad greens) is just as easy! For this you need any type of plastic planter, peat pots (coconut variety works great too), or dirt free growing pads (that you can buy on the internet for growing and sprouting seeds) the dirt free pads are great because your micro greens are clean and dirt free and all you have to do is pic and eat them. Keep them watered and in a sunny window or deck and voila! micro greens. They can be eaten as young sprouts or let to mature into small lettuce leaves. I usually have several batches started at different intervals so I can keep a fresh supply to harvest.

Some great seeds for sprouting include: Radish seeds, broccoli seeds, clover, mung bean, garbanzo beans, mustard seed, alfalfa, fenugreek, lentil, soybean (bean sprouts), oat, wheat, maize (corn), rice, barley, rye, kamut, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, sesame, sunflower, almond, hazelnut, linseed, peanut, broccoli, cabbage, watercress, mustard, mizuna, radish, daikon (kaiware sprouts), rocket (arugula), tatsoi, turnip, and these are just a few of hundreds of varieties.

Micro Greens: carrot, celery, fennel, parsley, onion, leek, green onion (me-negi in Japanese cuisine), spinach, lettuce, milk thistle, lemon grass, mesclun, bok choy, beet, radish, lettuce, kale, cress, sorrel, arugula, chard, basil, cabbage, kohlrabi, amaranth, purslane, and these are just a few of hundreds of varieties.

*NOTE: All the sprouts of the solanaceae (tomato, potato, paprika, aubergine or eggplant) and rhubarb cannot be eaten as sprouts, either cooked or raw, as they can be poisonous.

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pineapple Mango Habanero Pepper Preserves

The perfect Summer recipe for Brussels sprouts with a fantastic blend of sweet spicy heat and salty flavors. I have perfected my recipe for Pineapple Mango Habanero Pepper Preserves and here is one of many recipes featuring its fantastic flavor.

 Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
3 tablespoons good olive oil
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons Culture Pisconeri Pineapple Mango Habanero Preserves

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves and cut into halves or quarters if they are very large. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Watch that they don’t burn. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Place the sprouts in a large bowl and sprinkle with more kosher salt to taste and mix in the Pineapple Mango Habanero Preserves. Serve immediately.

Makes 6 servings (however I can eat all of them myself)

You can purchase Culture Pisconeri Pineapple Mango Habanero Pepper Preserves at the River Church Farmers Market on Sixes Road in Canton on Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 – 7:00 or at the Waleska Farmers Market on Thursday afternoons from 4:15 – 7:30 or the Jasper Farmers Market Saturday Mornings from 7:30 – 12:00 Or you can order online, just send me an email at chef@pisconeri.com and tell me what you would like to order and send me your contact information and I will get it right out to you. I am in the process of creating an online order form to make this process easy.

Culture Pisconeri Pineapple Mango Habanero Pepper Preserves 8oz, Jar $5.00