Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, September 30
A Day Without Chile....
... you know the rest, right? I hope so.
Our state question is purported to be "Red or Green?"; in any situation the correct response is another question, "Which is hotter today?" There are RARE exceptions to that dictum, like when one is in a place of high repute for one kind or the other: Mary & Tito's for red, Horseman's Haven for green. Those instances are not the norm.
A most helpful guide has been erected at my favorite "daily" chile-fix joint: Chilepeno's, in Sandia Park. [Yes, I live in the general vicinity, so its convenient to me. But the next time you're thinking of driving to a part of town that's 30 minutes away (say, the westside, or Corrales, etc), consider heading up to the East Mountains. From the east side of town you are a mere 10 minutes away from some fantastic chile, and also a phenomenal Asian noodle shop.] Anyway, this guide is in the form of a white board, which has a graph on it from "wimpy" to "muy caliente". Every time I go there, there are 2 bars, red and green, to indicate the relative strength of the current batch of chile. Now, is that helpful, or what? I will be begging all New Mexican places in town to do the same.
Chilepeno's - named after one of the toddlers in the family - is owned by the same family as Perea's Tijuana Bar & Grill in the north valley, and Seferino's in ABQ. I have been to Seferino's but not Perea's, and found the former just OK. Chilepeno's, on the other hand, is consistently good homey New Mexican and the chile can knock your toupee off (depending on what's showing on the chilometer, of course). I alternate between 3 dishes, depending on my hunger and mood. #1 is the bowl of red. It comes with beans and a tortilla, but I skip both so as to have more of the red stuff, and have them add an egg over hard. #2 is their "breakfast number 3", 2 eggs, beans or potatos, cheese, smothered in chile. When I'm really starving, I'll go with the traditional enchiladas, which is 3 cheese & onion, stacked, with an egg on top. Mmmm, egg.
I usually eat there with a companion, and I don't think our bill together has ever been more than $15, unless we both get drinks and also dessert (The "lava cake"? Skip it. Haven't tried the other desserts.)
Try it on your next pass through to the Other Side (of the mountain).
Time posted: 15:27 [permalink]
Monday, September 27
Green Salad
Tonight I was cooking some quinoa for my as-yet-undecided main dish, and I made a nice salad with a green pepper, half a cucumber, a strange mix of spices (mirin, red wine vinegar, sesame oil, 'thai seasoning' and toasted onions), black sesame seeds, and a bit of crumbled goat cheese. It tasted quite good, despite the complete "pulling it out of my ass" aspect.
After that I took the quinoa and 'dressed' it very simply with Za'tar, the spice blend containing sumac, thyme, and sesame seeds. It gave the grain a zingyness. *grin*
Time posted: 21:27 [permalink]
Friday, September 24
Fruits of Labor
Last night I arrived home at about 6pm. From then until 10:30, I was cooking non-stop. Now, I'm no Iron Chef, so I didn't churn out 5 dishes per hour, but here is what I managed to throw together:
- Batch #1 of slaw - traditional with mustard, vinegar, sugar, and apples.
- Thin-crust pizza, whole wheat. Trader Joe's made the dough, but I "rose" it, shaped it, added spices to it, made fresh sauce, and put it all together before firing it at 550 degrees for 7 minutes. Yum.
- Batch #2 of slaw - spicy Asian with soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and chiles.
- Creamy carrot-ginger-nutmeg soup. 1lb of carrots, slow-cooked in water w/ ginger, then pureed and nutmeg and cream added.
- Tiny batch (scaled down 1/6 to a 6x6" pan) of Ina Garten's "Outrageous Brownies". I successfully resisted the urge to have ANY last night. I know from experience that brownies are far far better the next day, thusly one is sitting on my desk right now, taunting me.
Time posted: 09:46 [permalink]
Tuesday, September 21
Not a bad and warming lunch
Being ignored by JN in my requests for lunch today, I turn to the fridge, where I have, like most days, brought my own food anyway. Today is the same as yesterday - the other half of the creamy kale soup I made over the weekend. However, from back on the shelf another container is pleading with me - some stir fried zucchini & bell peppers from about a week ago. "Eat me!", it whines, "or else I'll be BAD soon..."
Ok, ok, alright. It passes the sniff test, so in it goes with the soup. Now I have a very large bowl of creamy kale and spiced veggies soup. Since the kale soup had minimal embellishing flavors, the spice from the veg works very well with the thick and salty base. Assuming I don't end up in the loo in a few hours donating my lunch to the city septic department, it is a rather pleasing bowl of warmth.
Creamy Kale Soup
1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped
1 bunch's worth of kale stems
1T butter
1T olive oil
1 shallot, sliced or chopped
4 garlic cloves, sliced or pressed
2T flour
2c milk, or milk and water, scalding hot
1T corn starch + 1T cold milk or water
salt & pepper
FIRST, set your kale stems to steaming or braising. At the end you don't want a lot of cooking water to remain (1/2 cup or less), so keep that in mind. Those stems will take 20 minutes or more to cook.
Then, sweat your shallot and garlic in the fat, and when they have softened up add the flour to make roux. Stir that a bit until it has turned tan and doesn't smell raw anymore, then add the HOT milk, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Let that thicken for a few minutes, then add both the kale stems and their cooking water. Puree.
Once you have a pea green milky soup, season it to taste with salt/pepper and add the chopped kale. It will take just a few minutes to cook, so once it is looking wilty, mix the corn starch with a little more milk or water (COLD), and dribble it into the soup, waiting a minute or so after each 'application' for it to cook, until the desired thickness it attained. Taste and re-adjust seasonings. Serves 2.
*A rough approximation puts each serving at 250 calories, about 100 each from milk, oil, and 50 from the veggies+flour. This wins for being very thick and rich tasting, good for you, and light on the actual calories.
Time posted: 13:01 [permalink]
Monday, September 20
Busy Weekend
Ok, more like "busy end of week". On occasion of throwing a party at my abode, I was cooking finger food for many evenings last week. In the end, it came together nicely, with these items, ranked in order of popularity:
Lamb meatballs w/ mint & spices
Romano Gougeres
Cheddar-Fig crackers
Thomas Haas' Chocolate Sparkle Cookies
Artichoke Lemon Dip
Walnut Sandies
Orange-Almond Shortbread w/jam
I did not make (but think would have gone over well) Bacon-wrapped goat cheese stuffed dates.
Moral of the story? Savory stuff went much more quickly than sweet. Although those sparkle cookies kicked complete ass. Will definitely make again for gifts.
Time posted: 10:04 [permalink]
Wednesday, September 15
25 Cs of "good food"
I recently posted to eGullet to a forum entitled "Good Food". The request was the submit in 25 words or less - any any form - your definition of good food. It could be sentences, poetry, etc. Here's what I posted:
cheese
chile
chocolate
coffee
crisp/crumble
Clotilde
calamata
chowder
collards
cabbage
cantaloupe
caper
cardamom
caramel
cepe
chickpea
chorizo
coriander
cinnamon
cream
confit
cornbread
crepe
carne
custard
Time posted: 13:15 [permalink]
Tuesday, September 14
Comfort food night
I went home a little early yesterday - had a weird headache and felt slightly nauseous. After a bath and a nap I felt a bit better, but still not 100%. So of course I made some comfort food.
Mushroom Barley Soup with Leeks
1/2 lb porcini shrooms, chopped or sliced
1/2 c pearled barley
1t butter
1 small leek, sliced
2c chicken stock, plus water
1 knob ginger, grated
Salt & pepper
While chopping the leek & shrooms, toast the barley in the butter until fragrant. Add the veggies and stir over medium heat until they wilt a bit. Heat up the stock to boiling and add it. Add the ginger. Cook until the barley is done, about 45 minutes. Add more water if needed. Strangely, I did not taste the ginger at all in the finished soup. Kind of weird.
Coleslaw (see recipe from a few days ago)
Chocolate Pudding
3T unsweetened cocoa powder (All I had was Hershey's.... my Droste was all gone!)
3T cornstarch + 3T cold milk
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
dash salt
1/2t vanilla extract
Combine the cocoa power with a little of the milk and whisk to blend. Add the rest of the milk, add the sugar & salt, and heat to boiling. Add the cornstarch/milk mixture a little at a time, allowing the pudding to thicken. This should take about 10 minutes. Taste as you go to make sure the cornstarch raw flavor has cooked out. Once just shy of the right consistency (it will firm up a little when cooled), remove from heat and add the vanilla. Chill or eat warm.
Time posted: 13:33 [permalink]
Sunday, September 12
Vinegary Food
In the last week I realize that I've made a lot of food with vinegar in it or as a major component.
Example #1: Pickles.
Example #2: Coleslaw.
Example #3: Stoplight Salad (which had some basalmic for extra flavor).
Stoplight Salad
2-4 total tomatoes, yellow and red (also green if available)
1 avocado, ripe but not mushy
1-2 oz blue cheese, any kind
handful walnuts, toasted & chopped
salt & pepper
basalmic
Chop the tomatoes, squeezing out the seeds. Chop the avocado flesh. Crumble the cheese. Toss everything gently to not completely destroy the avocado. Eat.
Time posted: 21:32 [permalink]
Friday, September 10
Bad Apple
Swung through Albertson's last night to pick up some cheap dairy (that that is about to expire and the store slaps 50c off stickers on each container), some fruit for breakfast, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
This morning I had one of my apples, a "Royal Gala, Sm." from Washington State, and I have to say it is the worst apple I have ever had. It is a lovely color, with good crunch and juiciness, but no flavor whatsoever. This problem has occured to me before specifically with produce from Albertson's, but I guess I had forgotten just how bad the problem was. To be fair and see if its "supermarket apples" rather than "Albertson's apples" I should go back and purchase one of their organic Galas for comparison, and then get a regular Gala at Smith's.
But still.... blech. At least I have the $.20 (after discount) cup of Dannon yogurt to round things out. *grin*
Time posted: 07:11 [permalink]
Wednesday, September 8
Spinach Soup
Damn this wonderful spinach soup of mine! I made it a few days ago and completely forgot what I put in the creamy broth that made it so good.... lemon zest? Hmmm....
Time posted: 15:28 [permalink]
Slain by Slaw
Its a wonderful thing that I realized that the mayo goopy "dressing" on what most people think as coleslaw is completely optional. The base of true coleslaw is the crunchy cabbage, sweet apples, and tart vinegar & mustard. Additional items can be added, such as:
celery
cucumbers
onions, red or green
raisins
bell peppers
Also, your seasoning choices/additions include:
celery seed
chile peppers/powder
parsley (flat leaf)
I made a large batch (4 generous servings) on Monday, and when its gone I might make it again with variations, like the Asian style I made earlier this summer, or just using other veg (add jicama, maybe?).
Just don't believe it that "coleslaw" has to be greasy/fatty and can't be refreshing, light, crunchy, and spicy!
Time posted: 13:53 [permalink]
Tuesday, September 7
Extracuisine-ular Reading
I have been slacking on my posts lately, and for that I apologize. I do have some new photos of things I've cooked to post, but I will need to wait to do that until I am in the same room with said photos. :-)
In the meantime, you can read another food blog that truly puts me and mine to shame. Count me in (along with the rest of the world) as a Clotilde Cult member. Her Chocolate and Zucchini is thorough, lovely, inspiring, and decadent take on her food world in Paris. In addition, most of the items she loves to cook are convergent with my own tastes: lots of veggies, eggs, cheese, and of course chocolate.
Time posted: 10:11 [permalink]
Friday, September 3
Productivity Up!
This morning as I did my quick-scan of news headlines as I ascended to Minimum Caffeine Saturation, I realized that one of my reading sources will be unavailable for the next 4 days.
Trying to load eGullet brought this message:
"Last month, we announced that eGullet would soon officially reorganize as a not-for-profit public service organization: the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. This weekend, we will have the site offline in order to implement software and design changes to reflect our new identity."
I truly hope that means the site will not become:
1. Boring
2. Preachy
3. For-Pay (eek!)
Although, I will gladly take option 3 over the other two. I have learned many many things from that site over the last year, from new recipes to great places to eat to general commentary on the mental state of Tony Bourdain. Its all good.
Time posted: 08:02 [permalink]
|
|
| |
CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
|
|
|
