Tomatillo Time

Here’s a fresh, easy raw tomatillo salsa. It’s from Aida Gabilondo’s Mexican Family Cooking, still my favorite Mexican cookbook.

Green Green Sauce

1 pound tomatillos

2 fresh jalapenos

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 cup cilantro leaves

Salt

1 teaspoon sugar

Remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse. Pulse all ingredients together in food processor or blender, leaving a little chunkiness in the texture if desired. You may add a clove of garlic if you want.

Salsa Rapida with Tamales

We went to the Tucson Tamale Festival today and bought two and a half dozen tamales from various booths, all family operations. The best part was the free samples.

The main varieties on offer were green corn (made with fresh corn) and traditional (made with masa, a dough with lime-treated ground corn). They were filled with beef, pork, chicken, or cheese. Sweet tamales were also available.

I always serve Salsa Rapida by Aida Gabilondo with tamales. I thought I had posted it before, but here it is in all its simplicity:

Salsa Rapida

1/2 cup pure red chile powder (no spices)

1 cup boiling water

1/4 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon pressed garlic

Soak the chile powder in the boiling water until for about 15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, rest for a few minutes, and serve.

Deer Sausage and Mushroom Gravy

My friend Dave gave us some venison that his cousin shot and took to a processor. Item #1 was this entertainingly packaged sausage.

It looks like something you would buy from under the table at a flea market, but it is very tasty. It's seasoned like standard American breakfast sausage -- black pepper, sage, salt, red chile flakes -- and is well balanced in a way that highlights the dark, sweet deer flavor.

Item #2, unfortunately -- and Dave warned me about this -- is a packet of square patties with some kind of seasoning added such that they taste very much like fast food chicken sandwiches. They are quite alarming. The meat is too finely ground and the seasonings oddly chemical. They taste nothing like deer. They are nearly inedible.

I put some of the sausage to good use for a recent dinner. I made two sausage patties and browned them and set them aside -- they were probably medium rare at that point, but they cooked a little more in the sauce at the end.


I then used the same pan with a little extra olive oil to saute onions, garlic, shitake mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms. Then I added vermouth or maybe leftover Riesling and scraped up the pan goop left over from the sausage. There was a lot of it -- very effective. I added chicken broth, fresh sage, and thyme, and let the whole thing simmer a bit.

I thickened it slightly with cornstarch, which made for a nice glossy brown sauce.

At the end I added a bunch of parsley and reheated the sausage patties in the sauce. I served it over polenta/grits...I think I called it polenta that night.

Pasta Puttanesca

I had a couple of episodes of stomach pain in the last week, which prompted me to look up my symptoms on the internet. All articles advised me to examine my intake of alcohol and caffeine--uh oh.

So I began to follow Dr. Andrew Weil's anti-inflammatory food pyramid, which advises among other things to drink only green tea for caffeine, and up to two glasses of red wine per day. And we are not cooking meat at home, only fish and vegetarian for a while. I hate to admit that I feel practically reborn. I'll try this for a while since it's easy and allows for almost all of the things I like (although I did not see margaritas on that list).

Last night we had collard greens from the garden, and Pasta Puttanesca. I hadn't made that for a while--so easy and full of flavor. This is revised from Joy of Cooking. I used brown rice pasta.

Pasta Puttanesca

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried red chile flakes

Saute the garlic and chile in the olive oil until lightly colored. Add:

1/2 to 1 cup chopped pitted olives (Kalamata or oil-cured)

6 anchovy fillets, rinsed and chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Cook another minute. Then stir in:

1 one-pound can crushed tomatoes

Simmer for five minutes. Finish with:

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

2 tablespoons capers

Salt and pepper to taste

Toss with cooked pasta.

Cooking Habit Live and In Person: Plating

I liked this sequence of photos from when we made dinner together earlier this week, Mom.

First, roasted tomato vinaigrette.

Then polenta -- just coarse cornmeal and water simmered for a few hours and finished with butter and parmesan -- and pan-grilled grouper.

And finally swiss chard, grown and harvested by Dad and sauteed by you with some garlic.

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.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

My restaurant mainstay as a vegetarian child in the Southwest, sour cream enchiladas don't sound like they should work...but they do.

I'd never made them before, but we happened to have all the right ingredients around.

The filling was sour cream spiked with a little yogurt and a little Herdez salsa verde and a sprinkling of grated mozzarella.

The sauce was my regular New Mexican red chile sauce.

I used James Peyton's advice to roll the enchiladas loosely, which kept them from unrolling.

I covered them with the sauce, baked them at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, and served them with a cilantro-red pepper-bean salad similar to the one described here and here.

Please forgive our messy table and the Old Milwaukee.

Dry Rub and Barbecue Sauce

My previous post was about ribs--I was too lazy to include the sauce recipe then, so here it is.

These are both adapted from the 1997 revision of Joy of Cooking (I use this book so much--I loved the early version I received as a wedding present in 1969, but this is the one I refer to now).

Southern Dry Rub for Barbecue

1/4 cup toasted and ground cumin seeds, or cumin powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup chile powder (substitute part paprika if you're a weenie, or some cayenne if not)
1 teaspoon mace
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons black pepper

Mix thoroughly. Rub into ribs or chicken and refrigerate up to 24 hours before grilling.

Barbecue Sauce (to serve on the side)

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup or less brown sugar
2 tablespoons dry mustard
Up to 4 tablespoons chile powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger, or some fresh grated
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
Lemon slices, or a small lime cut in half

Simmer together for 5 minutes. You can also cook this in the microwave, but be careful. Remove citrus slices before serving.

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.

Psychic Cooking

You know, that recipe in your previous post was originally for scallops, and I decided to use shrimp instead. I guess you read my mind on that one--again. Lately I don't like handling and smelling the raw shrimp mixture and find it hard to enjoy the cakes unless someone (like Lawson) makes them for me, so I haven't made them recently. I'll try them with scallops. Here's the recipe for the sauce that goes with them. It's great on sandwiches also.

Cilantro-Lime Mayonnaise

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 dashes hot pepper sauce

Blend ingredients in food processor until finely chopped.

¾ cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Add mayonnaise and mix until blended. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill one hour or more.

Real Plum Pudding

I mean that it's made with real plums, not dried fruit and suet. This may be Swedish in origin, or my grandmother may have found the recipe on the back of a can of plums.

A child can make this dessert. In fact, I think you and Russell used to do it. As for the sauce, it's so easy it's magical. You can use rum or bourbon, but Grandma always uses Scotch because that's what she has in the house.

Give a serving of this to even the crabbiest, bah-humbuggy person, and he will begin to smile.

Real Plum Pudding

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sift first four ingredients together.

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 large can plums, drained, pitted, and diced
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Combine remaining ingredients and stir into dry mixture. Pour into greased casserole and bake at 325º for one hour or more, or until set in center. Serve with Rum Sauce.


My Grandmother's Rum Sauce*

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 egg, well beaten

Combine first four ingredients in sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

3 tablespoons rum, brandy, or bourbon

Remove from heat and stir in liquor. Serve warm.

*Actually I think my grandmother got this recipe from my typing teacher. She was a terrifying woman, and because of her I can still type 85 words per minute. I was astounded to learn that she was human and did normal things like cooking and eating.

Crab Cakes and Miscellany

I was so excited to get Molly O'Neill's American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classis Recipes from the library, and I did use one good recipe from it, but overall it was so disappointing. Where did she find 500+ pages of such boring writing about food? I am especially bummed out because I was thinking of sending it to you for your birthday, but it was a dud.

***

Once we were with Uncle George buying fried clams or something similar and I asked whether he wanted to get cocktail sauce. "Oh no!" He was firm. "That has to be homemade." Well, homemade cocktail sauce to George was ketchup, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. And very good it is, too. Last night I made some to go with our Crab Cakes.

Sections of King crab were on sale at our favorite store. The 4-inch lengths were so easy to deal with. A few minutes with kitchen shears and I had a big pile of crab meat (it cost about $7.50). I used the Joy of Cooking recipe which adds just a few seasonings, a little mayonnaise and bread crumbs; then you coat each cake in bread crumbs and chill. Fry about 4 minutes per side.

I served sweet potato fries (baked, really) and asparagus. We felt lucky.

Well, maybe Dad didn't feel all that lucky. I made a really big pile of dirty dishes in the process of making this meal!

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.

Food Day

Today was food-filled. I took Grandma shopping to our local Sprouts market, which was packed with beautiful, inexpensive produce as usual: strawberries, 4 quarts for $5; leeks, 99 cents a pound; peaches, 69 cents, Bartlett pears, 59 cents. Wild, fresh Alaska salmon has been plentiful this summer, and once was even as low as $6 a pound. I also hit the supermarket to complete my list (I got reduced-price farmed salmon for Emily--after all she is a dog).

Since I was going out to an evening meeting, I decided on a cold supper. I poached the salmon and chilled it, and boiled Yukon Gold potatoes to slice and serve cold. With both I served this sauce:

Mustard-Dill Sauce

2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh snipped dill

This time I used fresh tarragon, fresh parsley, and dried dill, and I added chopped cucumbers.

We also had Katherine's Caprese Salad with Corn, and fresh strawberries. And homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Caprese Salad with Corn

Small fresh mozzarella balls
Cherry tomatoes
Basil leaves
Corn kernels scraped from an ear of roasted corn

Dress with a little olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

While fiddling with dinner, I baked cookies; cooked a batch of barley in the crockpot outside (to use in dog food); and started the dough for a loaf of slow bread.

Today is a much lazier food day. We're eating out for lunch, watching a baseball game, and possibly eating some pasta for supper if we can find room.

Classic Sauces in the Blender

These recipes were included in the little cook-booklet that came with my first Waring blender back in the 70’s and are still viable. I used the same technique to make that fancy Aioli for our tapas meal.

Mayonnaise

1 egg
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Dash cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons white vinegar
¼ cup salad oil (I use canola, usually)

Put everything in the blender and start. After about 5 seconds remove feeder cap and add in a steady stream:

¾ cup salad oil

By the time all the oil is added, the mayonnaise will be thick. Scrape down and process a few more seconds if necessary.


Blender Hollandise Sauce

3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pinch cayenne
Dash salt

Put above ingredients in blender container and blend briefly.

1 stick butter

Heat butter until very hot but not brown. Turn on blender and add butter in a heavy stream, about 15 seconds total.