Fare Exchange: Making herbal and fruity vinegars is not a chore

Good morning, readers. There is joy in cooking in the just-arrived spring. For today, readers are looking for Petunia's Silver Jalapeno's cole slaw, for Paleo bowls and other one-bowl meals, for black raspberry custard pie and for the black raspberries used to make it.

RHL speaks fervently. "I would love to have the cole slaw recipe from Petunia's Silver Jalapeno. I need a Petunia slaw fix before I go berserk. Help, Chef Cofer, help"

The one-bowl requests are repeats, and the black raspberry ones came from Shirley Newhard of Harrison. She explains, "Black raspberries make the best custard pies. I am from Pennsylvania and we all made them. The berries are sweet."

Homemade Vinegar

Ginny Gaines garnered her homemade vinegar wisdom from "two great herbal books, 'Southern Herb Growing' by Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay, a mother-daughter team, and 'Herbal Treasures' by Phyllis Shaudy." And then she learned from experimenting. An advantage: Vinegars require no refrigeration.

Here's what she's learned:

"Select a good quality cider vinegar, wine vinegar or red or white table wine. Do not use ordinary white vinegar. It is thought to be too strong for delicate and mellow flavoring. I remember that it must have a minimum of 5 percent acidity. I would imagine that a lovely champagne wine vinegar which has around 7 percent acidity would be grand. If you use a lot of oriental stir-fried entrees, use rice wine vinegar as a base and flavor it with fresh ginger root, garlic and lemongrass. If Italian dishes are your forté, start with a red wine vinegar and add basil, oregano, garlic and maybe hot peppers. If you will use your herb vinegar mostly to enhance green salads, use herbs you enjoy in those salads: dill, thyme, garlic, chives and parsley."

Before you begin, make sure all the herbs are thoroughly washed and dried. Also clean any equipment -- pots, pans, glass jars -- that you're going to use. For the actual making of the vinegars, there are several methods.

"Heating the vinegar before adding the herbs will hasten the mellowing process. Never boil," Gaines says. "Put into a nonmetal container and add herbs and let steep for about a week. The easiest is not to use heat, but allow the mixture to blend for a few weeks, three to four usually, in a glass jar, wide mouth preferable, or bowl or crock. I often add about a dozen blossoms of chives right to the bottle. It is the most delicate pink and, after about three weeks, has the most wonderful garlic aroma and taste.

"The general rule is 1 cup fresh herbs to 2 cups vinegar, but I have found the measurements don't have to be that accurate. And if you're doing fruit vinegars, use 1 cup of fruit to 1 cup of vinegar."

Vanilla extract

Last week we had a recipe for homemade vanilla extract, but Ann Rodgers' recommendation is to order the finished product from Penzey's Spices at penzeys.com. "They offer single and double strength. It is the best I have found so far."

Sugar-free tart

Here's another Helen Cooper sugar-free dessert.

Sugar-Free Dried Peach and Apricot Tart

1 package dried peaches or apricots or a mixture of the two

Splenda, if desired

1 refrigerated pie crust

1 pizza pan

1/4 cup milk

Parchment paper, cut to size of pan

Sugar-free vanilla ice cream (optional)

Heat oven to temperature suggested on pie crust package.

Cook peaches in just enough water to cover at low temperature, until tender enough to mash with a potato masher. Taste and add Splenda as desired along with any spices desired. Suggestions: cinnamon, nutmeg and/or ground mace. Use only small amounts to start with, then add more as taste desires.

Once the peaches are cooked, let them cool.

Let crust come to room temperature. When pliable, fix any holes or cracks in the crust, then place it on parchment paper in the pizza pan. Using a pastry brush, put a little bit of the milk on the outer rim of the crust. Pour the peaches on half of the crust, keeping them about an inch from the outer rim. Spread peaches evenly, then fold the other half of the crust over the peaches, with edges of both halves of the crust being even. Crimp the edges of the crust or use a fork to press down, going about inch in from edge. Using fork, perforate the top of the crust 3 or 4 times, then brush the entire top with the milk. Bake as directed on pie crust package. When done, allow to cool a few minutes, then cut into pie-slice pieces. Top with the ice cream if desired.

This will easily serve 4 people. To double, simply use 2 crusts and more peaches. Place 1 crust on the parchment paper in the pizza pan and follow above directions to prepare edge of crust. Pour peaches into center of crust and smooth out to within inch of the outer edges. Brush milk along edges of crust, then place other crust on top, matching edges of top and bottom crusts; crimp edges. Pierce top crust with fork 4 or 5 times, then brush with milk. Bake as directed.

Creme fraiche

Two correspondents unraveled the mystery of creme fraiche.

Shirley Newhard of Harrison has tried to find this delicacy in many local stores without success. "But I found a recipe in a cooking magazine." This version contains a good bit of confectioner's sugar.

The second recipe, from Linda Leake of LaFayette, Ga., is from "The Joy of Cooking" and keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It contains heavy cream and buttermilk and no sugar.

French creme fraiche, like English clotted cream, results from a specific method of cream production that both thickens the cream and gives it the characteristic nutty flavor, similar to but much more complex than sour cream.

Creme Fraiche No. 1

1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream

1 cup whipping cream

3/4 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

Beat on medium until mixture gets thick and holds stiff peaks.

Makes 3 cups.

Creme Fraiche No. 2

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon buttermilk

Combine in a small saucepan and heat to 100 degrees.

Pour into a jar and keep in a warm place, loosely covered, until the cream is thickened and has a pleasant mildly sour flavor. This may take as little as 6 to 8 hours or as long as 3 days.

Do not allow it to stand so long that the flavor becomes acidic or ammonia-like. If you multiply the recipe, the culturing time may be longer.

Cover and refrigerate. The cream will thicken further when chilled.

Just a Dash

A reader got this idea from a friend.

"Know how much trouble it is to entertain friends for lunch? Everything has to be pretty and perfect, with ironed napkins, too. That is the way my mother trained me. But today I was invited to a friend's house and she said, 'Let's all bring a sandwich and we will swap sandwiches for lunch.' Somebody brought tea and the hostess got individual cheesecakes from Fresh Market. She pulled out her beautiful Irish linen napkins, but hadn't ironed them, and who cares? After all, we were just going to crumple them anyway."

Here's to adventure and simplicity, and no ironing.