Yesterday was (hopefully) the last day of the year above ninety degrees. To celebrate that fact, I started the evening by making the Summertime Lemonade on page 35. I can't tell you the last time I had lemonade made truly from scratch, so I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from school and picked up a few lemons.
What I wasn't so sure about was how many lemons it would take. Ideally, my goal was to make two batches, because if this was going to take a fair amount of time, than I wanted plenty of the stuff. Also, my grand plan was to use some of one batch to make ice cubes out of the lemonade, that way my drink didn't get diluted as it sat there. When I got to Kroger, all I could remember was that I needed somewhere around two cups of lemon juice if I wanted to double the recipe. But what I didn't know was how much juice the average lemon would provide. My guess (which, if you continue to read was dead wrong) was that a good-sized lemon would give up about one-third of a cup of juice. With this in mind, I bought the six largest lemons at the store. From there, I began juicing.
After the first lemon I realized I had a problem.
The lemon gave me far less than one-third. There was no way that I was going to be able to double my recipe if this kept up.
Three lemons in and the problem is becoming serious. Half of my lemons are used up, and I'm barely above one-half of a cup. In looking at the recipe, I needed a little more than one cup, so at this point not only have I given up on doubling my recipe, I am now concerned that I didn't buy enough to make one recipe.
Oh crap. All the lemons are gone, and I don't have enough. Normally I wouldn't be too concerned and I would improvise something. However, I was treating this recipe like a formula, so I clearly needed to scale the rest of the recipe to follow what I had. At this point I have to show the world just how much of a dork I am.
Yup, that's right. I used a chalkboard that I have in my kitchen to calculate a proportion. How in the world did I ever end up with my Bride? To prevent future problems with this recipe, I did what all good cooks do. I marked up my cookbook, leaving myself notes.
I'm always surprised when I hear people tell me that they don't mark up their cookbooks. From there I followed the directions by adding the sugar (in our case, Splenda) to the water and bringing it to a boil.
From there the recipe stated to allow the syrup to cool to room temperature before adding the lemon juice. So I poured it into its container and began the waiting process.
To help pass the time, I went on to prepare the side dish that I had picked out for dinner. I wanted to use some of the peppers from my garden as it was getting out of control. So I gathered what I needed for the Poblano Rellenos on page 344.
For those of you new to the game, a relleno is a stuffed pepper. I do grow my own poblanos, but they still aren't ready to harvest. My New Mexicos, however, are bountiful. I picked out a few, and fired up The Forge. While the coals were warming up, I prepared the stuffing. I began by plumping up the raisins.
I also needed one cup of cooked rice, so I brought half of a cup of dry rice to a boil. I knew that rice generally doubles when cooked, so I wasn't too worried about that one going wrong like the lemon juice fiasco.
The lemonade was ready!
This stuff was SUPER awesome and completely worth the wait. I showed tremendous restraint by not drinking all of it while waiting for The Bride to return from work. Meanwhile, back at the ranch....
The stuffing was complete and it was time to roast the peppers. One of the reasons I love New Mexico peppers is that they roast rather well. Their skin blisters beautifully, which allows them to peel easily, revealing the sweet, soft flesh underneath. First up, I threw them on the fire.
As the skins began to blister, I turned them over. For those of you new to roasting peppers, they ARE supposed to be this burnt. The trick is to burn the skin, leaving the flesh underneath cooked but not burnt as well.
While Weber doesn't say to, I have enough experience roasting peppers that I remembered a simple trick. Take the roasted peppers off of the grill and put them in a bowl, covered with saran wrap. This traps the escaping steam and helps the skins peel off later.
While the peppers were steaming themselves I cooked the tomatoes on the grill, pretty much following the same technique as the peppers, but with slightly less charring. Here they are, fresh off The Forge.
I cored and peeled the tomatoes, and added the chipotle (smoked jalapeno).
I gave them a brief whir with the immersion blender, and it was ready to be reduced.
I placed it in a saucepan and slowly reduced the mixture by half to thicken it up and concentrate the flavors. During this I began peeling the skins off of the peppers. If you are good, and you followed the technique properly, you can get the entire skin off in one piece.
See that? The skin underneath is uncharred and beautiful. I stuffed them, placed them on the grill, and cooked the fish (not a Weber recipe) that I had readied for dinner. They came off the grill, and I called The Bride to dinner.
It all came together nicely. I let loose on the lemonade, sauced the peppers, and plated the fish.
Regarding the lemonade, it was perfect. For some people it may be a bit tart, but that's the way I like it. I'm sweet enough. For those of you who like it sweeter, add more sugar. For those of you who like to walk around looking like Renee Zellweger, add less.
I loved the peppers. I didn't do a stellar job of seeding them, which I don't mind; The Bride, however, came across the occasional bite that made her blush. The sweetness and texture of the stuffing is surprising, and none of it went to waste. I admit to being a bit skeptical when looking at the recipe, but this really worked. The sauce is also quite nice, but for you non-chileheads you might want to only use half of the chipotle pepper.
I think this was my longest post ever. Why are you still reading this?
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