Juniper Berries: Aromatic Flavor

What we call juniper berries are actually small cones — green their first year and then changing to bluish the second year. They grow throughout the southwest at elevations of at least 3,000 feet and frequently in the company of pinon pines. If you’ve ever tasted gin you know the flavor of juniper.  Although gin is flavored with lots of different herbs and spices, juniper is the predominant flavor.

Chef Molly Beverly of Prescott College shared with me her recipe for Juniper Berry-Chili Rub for Meat.  Molly is a real activist in the Northern Arizona food world. Not only does she keep Prescott College students fed delicious, locally sourced, organic food at the college’s Crossroads Cafe, she also participates in spreading the word on healthy eating.  She teaches cooking classes, is active in Slow Food, and writes a column for a Prescott monthly.  You can read some of her columns here.

Chef Molly Beverly  of Prescott College                          

Here is Chef Beverly’s recipe for Juniper Berry-Chili Rub:

Heaping ¼ cup dried juniper berries

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon Mexican oregano powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 large fat cloves garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil

Water as needed

Using a blender, grind juniper berries.  Add remaining ingredients and grind all of a paste, adding water to keep liquid moving.  Rub into meat and allow to marinate, refrigerated for 4 to 6 hours. Roast, basting with excess marinade from pan.

(For more delicious recipes using juniper berries, check out my cookbook Cooking the Wild Southwest, Delicious Recipes for Desert Plants.  I include a recipe for Artisanal Gin made with juniper berries and nine other flavorings that people have raved over.)

Chile Heaven

Dena Rupp in her shop

Whether you are cooking a wild food like nopalitos or putting together a Three Sisters soup of corn, beans and squash, the extra indispensable ingredient is chile — the red of a ripe Anaheim, the deep green of a thick-walled poblano, or a brownish crackling dry guajillo.  And the place to find chile sauces all ready for your creations is Dena Rupp’s shop, Wild West Hot Sauce,  in Traildust Town on the east side of Tucson.  Dena is beginning her fourth year in this location. 

 It is a tiny shop, but Dena carries around a hundred different products and the variety is incredible — I circled several times and found something new to catch my eye each time I passed and re-passed a shelf.  Among the amusing offerings are Habanero Potato Chips, Hot Flash roasted green chile paste,  and super-hot jelly beans.  Ass Kickin’ Peanuts come in chipotle-honey, jalapeno-cheddar and honey with habanero. And of course there are all the delicious products from Cheri’s Desert Harvest.  For me, the most unusual product was Frostbite, a completely clear hot sauce made for adding to drinks without changing their color or giving them a foggy look. 

Dena buys locally made products when she can. Among those are the Poblano brand of hot sauces that have been made in Tucson since 1924 and Pecan Barbecue Sauce from Sahuarita.  

Dena has tucked a few surprises around the chile products — some antiques and collectables, a little art, some sculpture.

 

Because Traildust Town comes alive at night with its restaurants, mini-train and mock gunfights, Dena opens at 5 p.m. and welcomes customers until about 9 or 10 p.m.

Pick your favorite chile for these peanuts.