Crop Rotation in New Mexico, and a Quinoa Pilaf

We stayed at Percha Dam State Park along the Rio Grande River in southern New Mexico again last week. Last October when we visited there, the surrounding fields were full of red chile pods awaiting harvest. Now, in May, those same fields were planted with onions, with many acres of alfalfa interspersed for healthy crop rotation. If the Midwest is the breadbasket of the world, this valley is surely the salsa bowl of the world.

I made a delicious, though unrelated, dish in the camper while here. I sauteed sliced onions, garlic, sliced red bell pepper, and strips of chicken breast in olive oil in a skillet. I added 1/2 cup quinoa and stirred until lightly toasted, then added a cup of chicken bouillon, covered the pan, and simmered until the quinoa was tender and the liquid absorbed--about 20 minutes, I think.

New Cookbook

One of the best things about Christmas is getting new cookbooks: I received a check from Bob and with it I bought The Book of Latin American Cooking by the famous Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz.

Much of the book is taken up with Mexican cooking, about which I already know a lot--I was looking for Central and South American stuff. The Mexican things in this book, though, tend to be more exotic, very far away from Tucson-Sonoran and Tex-Mex.

Tonight I cooked a halibut steak which Russell and Brittany sent from Alaska for Christmas. I loved the simplicity and flavor of this dish. Here is the recipe.

Pescado con Cilantro

1 pound fresh fish fillets (snapper, flounder, etc)

Salt, pepper

Juice of 1 fresh lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Canned jalapenos, chopped

Sprinkle fish with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Heat olive oil and saute onions until tender and lightly browned.

Place the fish in a baking dish and cover with the onions. Top with chopped cilantro and jalapenos. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until just cooked through.

Poblanos

We had stuffed poblano chiles again tonight. I love them because they're not battered or fried--more like a stuffed bell pepper. I served them with soupy beans and a Dad salad. Life is good.

Do you realize that we have 22 posts with the label "beans"? That's a good thing. I made a traditional bean and vegetable soup last week (with the addition of some boiled ham) for Grandma, and for Mary Ellen, who had a cold. They both seem better now.

Curry Chicken

What do you do with leftover hoppin' john from New Year's Day? You re-purpose it as Caribbean peas and rice.

And what do you do with the unexpected midwinter gift of a few fresh homegrown chiles? You make Caribbean curry chicken.

On New Year's Eve, my friend Ken showed me and Lawson his nifty greenhouse and gave us a few fatalii peppers he'd grown in it. I'd never had them before. They were like small yellow habaneros, so I thought I would use them in a scotch bonnet-worthy recipe.

I used almost exactly the same recipe as I did for the goat, with two substitutions: 2 nice organic chicken leg quarters instead of lamb, and 2 regular white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes. All else was the same: rub the spices into the meat and let it sit for a while, then brown everything and make a curry.

The taste was warm and wonderful, quite similar to the curry chicken I've had at good Jamaican places. And it tasted nothing like the goat did, despite having the same spice blend. I served it with beet greens and leftover hoppin' john peas-and-rice.

Homemade Tabasco Sauce

Lawson grew a tabasco chile plant this year. It was beautiful: all graceful sweepy branches and upright chiles ranging from a pale green to bright bricky red.

So I read up on tabasco sauce, which involves fermenting crushed-up tabasco chiles and then mixing the strained goo with vinegar.

When ripe, tabascos are soft and juicy, not firm like most other chiles. I used the food processor to briefly mash them up. They formed a wet red paste full of seeds.

I added a bit of salt (sorry, forgot how much) and put them in a jar for two months with the lid slightly vented. The top of the goo got a little moldy after a month, but it was a mild mold that didn't spread, and after I spooned that part out, it didn't come back. Heck, aged beef gets moldy, and people just hack the moldy part off and eat the rest.

The goo was really intense at first, but the smell began to mellow after a few weeks. It took on a peppery, fruity, more complex odor.

So after a few months I mixed the whole gooey mess with a bunch of white vinegar and let it sit for another week or two. This was not a required step; I just couldn't find good jars for bottling it. Eventually I just strained it into the jars you see here.

It's good. It's not great. I'll try it again next year with a longer fermentation. It was excellent on hoppin' john on New Year's Day, though.

Pizza Again, with Chiles

I made a few pizzas the other night. Same crust recipe as I've been using for the last two years, though I got away from it for a while -- I kept making my pizza doughs as wet as my bread doughs, and they just weren't holding together. I also had some not-so-delicious over-risings and one or two mediocre batches with spelt flour. So I'm pleased to report that my pizza-fu is back.

This one had hot Italian sausage, red bell peppers, and onions, all pre-sauteed; plain tomato sauce from a jar; mozzarella; and parmesan. You can see the little shaved thin pieces of parmesan in the picture.

I also made a delicious pie with homemade pesto and fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, but it didn't photograph so well.

I know I post pictures of garden chiles all the time, but they're so pretty that I can't help it. And they are the perfect pizza accompaniment. Here we have ordoños (the purple and small yellow), chiltepins (the tiny green and orange balls), a Thai chile (the wrinkly tall red one), dedo di moças (the big glossy orange and green ones), and tabascos (the bigger yellow and the red at the bottom right. Whew.

This is how you eat fresh chiles, in case you are wondering how I consume all these fiery peppers without doing myself physical harm.

Spinach Quesadillas

There is no easier, more comforting meal for me than a quesadilla.

Ever since I learned to make microwaved tortilla-and-cheeses as a kid (open-faced -- just grated cheddar on a white flour tortilla: I would nuke it until the oil separated from the cheese and I could pour and blot it off, then microwave it some more until the degreased cheese became hard and crunchy) this has been a standard meal.

Anyway, this dinner took 5 minutes to make.

The night before, I started a batch of beans in the crockpot, adding the seasonings the next morning before work. They were steamy and soft and delicious by dinnertime.

The quesadillas consisted of:

• whole wheat tortillas
• chopped fresh garden tomatoes, drained in colander
• fresh spinach, lots of it, since it cooks down so much
• slices of queso fresco. I don't grate the cheese, because I hate washing the cheese grater, so I just cut slices and they melt just fine.
• a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. I love cotija, too, but when I don't have it, feta or Parmesan works well.

I usually just heat up a pan on medium, put the tiniest bit of olive oil or butter in the pan, and toast the quesadilla on both sides. I'll put a lid on during the early part to help the cheese melt, but too much of that will make the tortillas too soft.

We ate the quesadillas and the beans with some fresh chiltepin and ordono chiles from the garden. Salsas are nice, but they take time, and this was supposed to be a fast dinner.

Other things I have put in quesadillas:

• scrambled eggs
• leftover pork, chicken, or beef
• chorizo
  
• leftover grilled fish
  
• sauteed shrimp
• black or pinto beans from a can or homemade
  
• any kine cheese
• leftover cooked collard greens
• arugula
• mixed lettuces
  
• avocado
  
• roasted green chiles or red bell peppers
• fresh chopped bell peppers
• a chopped chipotle, preferably mixed with beans or something to distribute the heat
  
• caramelized onions
  
• chives
• cilantro
• watercress
• lime zest
  
• Herdez salsa verde

What have I missed? Anything else I should try?

Spicy Pork Tacos!

Spicy pork tacos! I don't know why that requires an exclamation point, but it does.

Lawson smoked a pork butt last week. We ate the meat with his homemade barbecue sauce for the first few days, but then I decided to try something else. I added chopped roasted green chiles, a fresh green chile, some diced tomato, lime juice, and salt to the leftover smoked pork, and I served it with corn tortillas. On the side we had roasted cauliflower. It was pretty delicious -- the smoked pork stood up really well to the roasted green chile flavor. I will try it again next time we have smoked pork around.

Note to readers: Kris/Mom is going to be on the road for the next 40 or so days, so it'll just be me posting...and she'll have a lot to catch up on when she returns.

Pipián Verde

So I made a pipián, the pre-Columbian dish made from toasted squash seeds, tomatillos, chiles, cilantro, and a few other things ground up and stewed with poultry. James Peyton's recipe called for duck, preferably wild, but I used a chicken.

I didn't know quite what it would taste like -- I'd never eaten one before -- and couldn't quite imagine the flavor, so I didn't tweak the recipes much (Peyton + Gabilondo + internet). Next time I will. It was rich but not as full of chile flavor as I would have liked. And a whole chicken was too much food with all that thick nutty sauce. It was mostly like a dull mole (and indeed, Peyton says pipians are like ancestors of moles -- basically pre-roux sauces thickened by tortillas or nuts).

Toasting the pumpkin seeds was fun; they popped and danced and browned nicely. But even with a whole cup of cilantro and some green chiles, the sauce was a kind of an icky light brown. Next time I'll use a whole bunch of poblanos and tomatillos and fewer pumpkin seeds. A little white wine or vermouth would be good. Maybe more oregano. Lime juice instead of vinegar for brightness. And I think I'll cook the sauce for less time -- use breasts or smaller pieces and only cook the thing for 45 minutes or so once the chicken is browned. I don't think it was improved by the few hours of stewing.

Lawson's growing tomatillos this year, so it shouldn't be long before I try again.

Red Chile Plate II

Here's my own attempt at recreating Santos' red chile beef plate. Like you, I boiled the beef first, then cut it up and browned it -- so strange, but it works! I made the sauce from soaking whole dried red chiles, though. I brought them to a simmer, then soaked them for about two hours until they were nice and bright red, then blended them up with the strained broth from boiling the beef. Same seasonings as you, pretty much, though I added a bay leaf, a touch of red wine vinegar, and one small minced garlic clove.

It was tasty! We ate it with corn tortillas and a salad. Homemade tortillas would have been much better, and since the beef was so much work, it would have been worth it to take that extra step.

Southwestern Brunch

I made this brunch for Eva and Lawson before they got on the plane to go home. The menu was poblano chiles stuffed with goat cheese; Anasazi beans; and fresh pineapple.

Pierce the chiles and put them under a preheated broiler, turning halfway through, until they are brown and blistered all over. It takes about 10 minutes in my oven. Put them in a plastic bag to cool, and in half an hour the skins will slip off easily. Lay the chiles in a baking dish. Make a stuffing by mixing half softened goat cheese and half grated Cheddar-and-jack cheese, adding 1/2 teaspoon oregano. Fill the chiles, then bake at about 375 degrees until the cheese is melted.

Serve in a pool of this sauce:

Tomato Sauce for Chiles

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

1 pound canned tomatoes

1 canned or fresh jalapeno, seeded

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put these six ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a sauce pan and cook the puree in it for 10 minutes.

Pork Filling for Tamales

I've used this filling for the last two years for holiday tamales. It's an amalgamation of various tomatillo salsa recipes and some pork recipes from Aida Gabilondo and James Peyton. It's very satisfying. It would work anywhere, really -- enchiladas, quesadillas, grilled sandwiches...on a spoon straight out of the bowl...

I suppose one could make a small batch, but I think it's hardly worth it.

First, you need a big chunk of pork. I used a 3.5-pound bone-in rib-end loin roast. Brown it all over, then cover it with water and poach it in a Dutch oven until the meat is soft and shreddable. Add a few cloves of garlic and a few bay leaves to the water. I wouldn't use boneless pork -- without bones, the meat would end up too watery and bland.

Anyway, cool the pork, debone it, and shred the meat.

Chop a small onion finely and saute it over medium-low heat just until translucent. Mix with the pork.

Cover 1 pound of tomatillos with water in a small pot and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer tomatillos to food processor with tongs and process very briefly. Add to pork mixture. If you can't find tomatillos or are in a hurry, you could use Herdez salsa verde, but fresh tomatillos are so pretty.
Add and mix thoroughly:

- 3/4 cup or more roasted green chiles, diced. I used some from the garden that I roasted and froze a few months ago, but you could use 2 to 3 cans of whole green chiles and dice them yourself. (Pre-diced canned green chiles are icky, somehow -- I have to buy the whole ones and cut them up myself.)
- One small bunch of cilantro, chopped
- Salt to taste
- Fresh lime juice to taste

That's it! I made a big batch yesterday and will probably assemble the tamales tomorrow. More on that when the time comes.

Posole

As far as I can tell, the only essential ingredient in the wonderful Mexican stew posole (also spelled pozole) is hominy. After that it varies wildly. It is so flexible, nutritious, comforting, and delicious. It's also a great food for entertaining because you can make up a whole tray of pretty garnishes for guests to add according to their tastes. Some typical garnishes are crumbled Mexican or grated Monterey Jack cheese; sliced radishes or green onions; cilantro; pickled jalapeno slices; olives; lime slices; and cubes of avocado.

Pictured above are some freshly roasted Anaheim chiles. Dad peeled them.

Here is a traditional pork version of posole, as well as a vegetarian one.

Pork Posole

Olive oil
1 or 2 pounds boneless pork, cubed
2 onions, sliced
4 or more cloves of garlic

Heat the oil in a large pan and brown first the pork, then the onions and garlic. (Most Mexican recipes do not brown the pork--it is just boiled. But I prefer the added flavor that comes from browning. You can skip it if you want.) Cover the meat with water and simmer, covered, until very tender. I often do this step in the crockpot.

Add:
1 large can tomatoes, or 1 pound fresh tomatillos
2 large cans hominy, yellow or white, drained
Salt
1-2 teaspoons oregano
Fresh or canned green chiles to taste

Last night I used 8 large, fresh Anaheims, and it was pretty spicy.

Simmer everything together for about an hour. Serve in bowls with optional garnishes.


Vegetarian Posole with Roasted Vegetables

3 to 6 dried red chiles (or 1/4 cup or more pure chile powder)
2 cloves garlic

Soak chiles in 1 quart hot water for ½ hour, then drain, reserving soaking water. Puree chiles with garlic and ½ cup of the reserved water.

1 large onion
2 tablespoons olive oil

Saute onion in oil until very golden. Add chile puree and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

1 or 2 large cans hominy, drained
Vegetable broth (you can make this more or less soupy to taste)
1 can tomatoes
2 teaspoons oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Add these ingredients to puree and simmer about ½ hour.

1 large onion
1 green pepper
2 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil

Meanwhile, chop these vegetables, toss with olive oil, and roast at 450 degrees until charred and tasty, about ½ hour. Add them to the posole and simmer until everything is cooked and flavorful. Serve in bowls with optional garnishes.

Salsa and Quesadillas

The other night we made two salsas and ate them with quesadillas and salad.

On days I have a big, meat-containing lunch, I often want a very minimal dinner like this. The quesadillas were simple -- cheddar, jack, and a tiny bit of queso anejo inside, sauteed in a pan with a touch of olive oil. Queso anejo is wonderful -- have you tried it? It's the feta of Mexico, all salty and chewy and weird.

Lawson makes a carrot-habanero salsa from Belize that blows my mind and lasts all year in the fridge. The carrots keep it from being unbearably hot, but it's still quite tasty. It is neon orange. He made the first batch of the year the other night.

I made a classic tomatillo salsa: boiled tomatillos, chopped fresh green chiles, lime, salt, garlic, onion, and cilantro. It tasted fresh and well balanced but ultimately not enough better than a can of Herdez salsa verde for me to make it again.

Kris is out of town, by the way, for those of you who are wondering. She and my Dad are visiting family in Massachusetts and will no doubt return with tales of scrod and kelp.

Chiles Rellenos

I want to document this, because I don't know that I'll be spending another evening fidgeting with our tiny garden chiles in quite this way, wonderful as they were. I love chiles rellenos -- love them. Lawson grew some beautiful poblanos and Anaheims this year, and for the first time they were big and thick enough to stuff. But they weren't big enough to work with comfortably.

First I roasted, peeled, and deseeded them. I remember when Russell and I had to help you peel and deseed a giant batch of roasted green chiles every fall, Mom. Nothing sticks to the hands like chile seeds.

Then I stuffed each with little twigs of Monterey Jack cheese and prettied them up a bit.

The batter was just eggs, with the whites and yolks beaten separately and folded together, and salt. Following James Peyton's suggestion, I sauteed them in a little olive oil, then baked them for just a few minutes to finish them off.

They were phenomenal. I made tortillas, too, and a big pot of Anasazi beans, and Lawson cut up some fresh tomatoes. Oh, man. But it was a lot of work.

My new favorite drink helped me through: bourbon, soda, and a mint sprig. It's the good parts of a mint julep without the oppressive sweetness of a sugar syrup.

Chili

Because I was a vegetarian for so many years, chili is to me a bean-based dish, with meat only an incidental ingredient. I know this is blasphemy to those amateur chefs who enter chili cookoffs and seem to slice onions even more ineptly than I, if 8,671 Food Network chili cookoff specials are any evidence.

Chili should be a big, serious meal suitable for powering a person through a day of telemark skiing or ice climbing (or, in today's case, college football-watching). And for that it requires beans.

The glorious thing about chili is that just about any of the ingredients are optional or substitutable. It also requires only one pot, a big Dutch oven, though I often use a big skillet to brown meat and onions before dumping them into the Dutch oven.

Here is my infinitely variable recipe, based on your old vegetarian chili recipe:

Roast at 400 degrees any or all of the following:
- 2-3 carrots, sliced
- 1-2 bell peppers
- 1-9 fresh chiles of any sort -- today I am using a few green Anaheims (Big Jim), a few red Anaheims (cowhorn), and some poblanos (ancho mulato).

(Actually, I guess I roast the carrots first, then turn on the broiler to char the chiles.)

Peel and chop the roasted peppers and chiles.

If you don't have fresh chiles, put canned or frozen green chiles in the chili. You can also make a dried red chile-based chili -- soak and then puree dried red Anaheims. A person could even use red chili powder and some bell peppers.

Procure 1-2 pounds meat. Cheap beef stew meat of some sort is good -- just cube it. Ground beef is fine. Leftover shredded chicken is good. This is definitely the way to use up scary things you find in the freezer (squirrels?) If the meat is raw, begin by browning it, then removing it from the pot or pan.

Saute:
- 1-3 onions, diced

Put everything in the Dutch oven if it's not already there. Add any or all of the following:

- Beans. I usually use 2 cans each of black beans and pinto beans. Sometimes I soak dried beans for a day and use those. I think red kidney beans in chili are too big and sweet, but I know lots of people like them.
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 large cans of tomatoes
- beer or red wine, cheap or fancy. (Note to readers: I happen to know that Kris, who is on vacation and thus can't protest, uses Old Milwaukee.)
- leftover coffee
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, or a small handful fresh, or whatever
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and possibly ground
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon or more chile powder, the fresher and purer the better
- cider vinegar or lime juice if necessary to correct acidity
- sugar if necessary

Simmer very gently for 2-5 hours. I serve it with homemade cornbread (cornmeal only, no flour, and no sweetener, made in a cast-iron skillet).

Red Chile Sauce

Living way out here in South Carolina, I have profound and regular cravings for New Mexican enchiladas.

I don't think I've ever posted the family red chile sauce recipe here. If you believe James Peyton, this is pretty close to the standard New Mexican recipe. My version is slightly modified from the version you wrote down for me years ago, Mom. A tiny bit of cinnamon and nutmeg seem to warm up the sauce without overpowering the main flavors...but I picked that idea up from a Guatemalan guy who ran a Veracruzana restaurant, so who knows what's really authentic.

Place in saucepan and cover with water:

- 12-18 dried red New Mexican chiles, destemmed and deseeded

Bring to simmer, cover, turn off heat, and let sit 30 minutes or until chiles are soft and pliable. Put chiles and 1 cup of soaking liquid in blender, and process until very smooth.

Make a roux by combining over medium-high heat:

- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons flour

Stir until light brown and nutty. Turn down heat and add the chile puree all at once; stir very quickly to incorporate without spattering or lumps. Then add:

- Several cups chicken or vegetable stock
- More soaking liquid if it needs more heat -- depends on the chiles
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Simmer for at least 15 minutes.

Easy New Mexican enchiladas consist of red chile sauce, cheese, chopped green or white onions, corn tortillas, and sometimes sour cream. I like them stacked, not rolled, and topped with fried eggs. I miss the Southwest.

Chiles as a Condiment

I never really understood how to eat fresh chiles until recently. I used to see them served with meals in Mexico and the Southwest, especially breakfasts -- just a small bowl of jalapenos or serranos, usually. And I love chiles. Also I have this macho compulsion not usually found in women where I have to lift heavy things, spit cherry pits, and eat extremely spicy foods to show off. But eating a plain, really hot chile does not facilitate the tasting of other parts of a meal, so I never really knew what to do.

Lawson taught me that you have to eat them literally with other food -- bite of sandwich, bite of chile, chew. Eaten this way, they actually enhance the main flavors of the meal and are seldom too hot. (Well, maybe not those habaneros in the foreground up there -- I wouldn't eat one of those with my tomato-egg sandwich.)