Reminded that it is now Fall and faced with the geographic dilemma of living in Santa Barbara (no leaves don’t change here), where not only is our county dry as compared to say Boulder, CO (I mean as far as Anaheim or Hatch Green Chile are concerned), Dan and I mulled over a number of options of how we were going to score Green Chile (GC) this year. Last year we tapped one of our favorite Uncles living near the source in New Mexico, who magically turned two Liters of Walnut Oil into a box of Hatch Green Chiles on our front porch. We were thankful for that box last year, but it seems to only have compounded our addiction as this year our GC plans ballooned into a pilgrimage of a slightly different magnitude.

We discussed a special road trip. Then maybe a flight followed by a road trip back. In the end we settled on sending one representative, via a Canada Regional Jet to purchase, peel, bag, and return with as much GC as allowed by TSA.

So what is that measure? How many peppers are we talking about? Or better yet, how will one know when they are standing at Mecca how much to ask for? Best to send the representative who can speak in “bushels” not “pounds” and certainly not “Liters”. But wait, what the Hell is a Bushel? To which you and I can now reply with its many equivalents:

• 1 Bushel = $15 ($25 if you head to Pueblo, CO pronounced “pway-low”)
• 3 Bushels = 25 lbs
• 6 bushels = 8 hours of your life in front of a sink
• 6 bushels = a clogged drain and unhappy Adam (sorry duder!)
• 6 bushels = 1 checked baggage ($23 if you check in online)
• 6 bushels = 1 box of latex gloves (lightly powdered)
• 6 bushels = 1 year of  GC “aromes” in your sister’s car (Thanks SheShe!)

Any GCP (Green Chile Pilgrimage) requires a destination of either New Mexico or Colorado. Last year we sourced our chiles from New Mexico, so this year with a wedding invitation in beautiful Confier, CO (from Andrew & Rebecca) our destination was set. One stupid-cheap flight ($150 direct SB – DenCO with Frontier) later, and I (the lucky representative) found myself knee-deep in peeled green chile skins flooding one of my sister’s restaurants.

The day had started outstandingly well…a serious cup of Iranian Tea with my boy Omid, Pho for breakfast at Pho 79 -complete with a Vietnamese Coffee, plans of Ban Mai (that is Sheila pointing out the “special combination” at Bakers Palace -an assortment of, well, probably pig served on a bun) for lunch with another Vietnamese iced coffee, but now with “crushed ice”!

and all the GC once can pack into a car awaiting us at the corner of Federal and Louisiana (I love the street-view image of this corner by the way): View Larger Map

Before I discuss how I managed to flood Sheila’s kitchen and consequently Adam’s office, let me first relay some real knowledge dropped from my dad (the man who makes this pilgrimage every year Fort Collins to “pway-low” and returns with no less than 10 bushels -this dude is serious). He recommends scoring the “Pueblo” varietal rather than the “famous Hatch” GC. I would have to concur, the Pueblos are for those who appreciate some heat (spice) with consistency throughout the harvest. Don’t get me wrong, the Hatch varietal is top-notch, but a lot of anecdotal evidence suggests that the range of capsaicin levels can vary dramatically throughout the Hatch harvests and a bag of “Dynamite” could sneak into your freezer.

I didn’t need to take my chances with the Hatch GC, instead after chatting up “mi senorita” at the chile stand about coming out from Cali just to bring back the best green chiles, she wasn’t going to let me leave with anything but 6 bushels of the Pueblo variety…

Seeing these dudes work, you know they are totally pro. Envision the sound of a jet engine mixed with corn popping and a set of “aroms” filling the air that just speak fall. A rotisserie steel-drum with a torch, and a dedicated chute that shoots the GC into a trash bag. Minutes later the transaction is complete and you are stuffing your sweating chiles into your car.

Of course, I had completely underestimated the time commitment of peeling, bagging, and freezing 6 bushels, which I only later realized as I finished bagging the last 25lbs hours before my flight back to SB. I don’t recommend doing this. I do recommend a box of latex gloves, and a “food-saver” or a grip of ziplock bags to hold all of the peeled peppers, an industrial sink and a well ventilated work area.

I scored all of the above accommodations thanks to my sister (let me just say Sheila rocks). With a 12 foot long triple sink, a box of latex gloves, and 6 trash bags of GC I set to work peeling my life away.

With a kitchen full of foodies, no matter what location, but especially so in Jax, everybody peppered me with their stories of Green Chile memories as they came by to check my progress and sample this years crop. At least initially. Once I was pushing hour 4, crusty-sleeved, runny-nose, and blurry eyes, everyone instead looked over and just shook their head in pity. At hour 6, I at last caught a shout out from Adam, “dedicated, dude, dedicated”.  And then it happened… I had been mindful of pausing every so often to unplug the sink from all the skins I had removed, push the guts, veins and remaining skins through the sink and continue, but what I hadn’t done was look down lately (I chalk it up to the intense flavors causing a sort of tunnel vision an all-consuming focus on the task at hand). About 5 bushels (I had to be on the last one) of GC seeds were now floating across the floor riding a lake of water as it spread all around me. Fuck. That is about all I could say as I sloshed out from the behind the wall of green chiles I had amassed and looked around the corner as the lake continued to flow charting new borders into Adam’s office.

I grabbed Coy (the dishwasher) and we set to work removing the filter in the floor (nice design by the way). Moments later we had restored flow and I got to play with a squeegee. With a functioning sink I knocked out the last bushel before the kitchen closed. I threw my crunchee-sleeved t-shirt straight in the trash and enjoyed a custom Jax burger (topped with fired oysters) and a cold one at the bar. The beer and a burger were delicious both of which helped me relish the fact that the next day I would be checking one of the most important pieces of luggage on that Denver-to-Santa Barbara flight.

Pilgrimage complete, but only because of the support from the DenCO crew. Sheila for housing me and letting me live my fantasy of working in a world class restaurant (if only peeling green chiles for the rest of my life), The Jax crew: Adam, for being so class even with an ocean of green chile water on your office floor (& Coy for helping me un-plug that shit!); Scanner (Rocking the Choco & Cheese), Matteo (Happy 21st B-day!), Laura, “Big JO”, and Jared, for tolerating all the GC aroms; Riley for the fresh “Deep Bay” oysters; and Josh & Jess (Vanilla-on-Vanilla cupcakes) for the stiff drinks after 8 hours of peeling. Much love and respect.

The basics of ceviche:  raw salmon and onions cured in lime juice with a few diced mangoes, some bell peppers, and cilantro, topped with popcorn.  Yep, popcorn.

Clean off the salmon by removing all the skin and brown/gray parts.  The brown bits are oxidized and can lend a fishy flavor to the final product.  Then cut the salmon into medium-thickness bite-size strips and soak them by covering them in lime juice.  Also toss in about half the volume of salmon in diced onions (1/4 in cubes).  If you’re working with sub-perfect fish or have a ton of limes to spare, discard the first soaking of lime juice and replace with fresh stuff.  The lime juice should cover the fish during the soaking, but you shouldn’t necessarily use all of it in the final product anyway.  Add about as much sliced mango as you have of fish, and mix it all up.  If it’s not sweet enough, add more mango, or supplement with a bit of honey or raw sugar – taste is more important than quibbles about the origin of sugar in the final product.  That said, don’t overdo it.

Cut up some bell pepper and mix it in as well.  Now pick all the leaves off of the cilantro – a lot! – so there are no stems in the final product.  Cut them coarsely and toss everything together.  It’s worth the effort to really avoid the stems.  Add a bit of fresh-ground black pepper and serve up with a healthy scattering of fresh (and not from a microwave bag!) popcorn.

Perfect weather nice, but optional.

I can’t shut up about this cake. First, I am no not a baker, nor am I a “chocolate cake guy”, especially not in the sense that our favorite Polish-American roommate is (let me stress the Polish here…the dude keeps a jar of nutella under his pillow). That said, take a Chinese-American who dedicated a childhood to obsessively studying cake decorating and let her go sick on a pound of chocolate and you start to understand my obsession.

About all I can say for my contribution here is the outstanding coffee ( Alegra Sumatra medium-roast), Uta takes the cake here. Enjoy the pictures, and remember I got to eat this beauty.

Pie filling:

• Simmer rhubarb stalks (remember to remove the leaves that shit will poison you) in a bit of butter and white wine (left over Pinot Grigio from the last party you hosted will be perfect).
• Add strawberries and simmer a bit more – until softish
• Add honey to taste

Pies are hard to get right – but this guy tasted delicious warm and later chilled for breakfast. Serve with some frsehly whipped cream.

It’s a pretty simple idea, really, just some chicken, sausage, and grilled peppers in a RFCS base.

The process that really takes it to the next level is brining the chicken. T. Keller specified the basics, and we went from there:

• Almost a cup of salt per gallon of water (a few)
• A half-dozen or so halved lemons (some oranges too, if you happen to have a tree)
• Parsley stems and leaves
• A dozen bay leaves
• Black peppercorns

Next-Level Chicken!

Bring these to a boil and let them cool before soaking the meat in them for 12-18 hours. Since then, we’ve experimented with it, and it’s a great idea to brine any white (as opposed to red) meat. So far, it’s worked wonders on chicken, goose, duck, and pig.

After brining the meat, fry it in some butter. Don’t cook it completely in this step, just give it a nice texture. Separately, fry up some chopped onions and celery. Once they’re golden, pour in some RFCS, lots of grilled red peppers (some crushed, some sliced), crushed artichoke hearts, and a few jalapeños (grilled, peeled, de-veined, and sliced). Let that come up to temperature, and simmer for a few minutes.

Toss in the chicken (or duck! yes!), and let this simmer for a while until you can’t stand to wait any longer, and serve with some poached eggs (another story altogether), grilled asparagus, and some crusty fresh-baked bread.

Oh, and invite some friends over! This is the meal that made us decide – never cook white meat without brining it.

I called up my dad for a refresher in his culinary vision, and hit Whole Foods to pick up the ingredients I was missing.  In true form, I did a few modifications (notably, RFCS instead of bullion), and whipped it up.

It truly blew me away, the richness of the sauce paired with the creamy texture and the complex, subtle flavor of the scallops was more than I could have hoped for.  My dad told me that when he first made this meal, he repeated it the night after, and the night after that.  If we didn’t have a whopping chicken brining for tomorrows dinner, we’d probably do the same.

A quick love note to RFCS (real freakin’ chicken stock):  I’ve spent a lot of my life really going for bullion.  It’s a great shortcut, and you can get far with it.  It is, however, a shortcut, and you miss out on two things.  The first one that you notice is the lack of the journey.  While more important to the cook than to the guests, this is key to me.  Watching everything I cook come together – from things I can imagine dangling from a tree or clucking merrily underneath one – is meaningful and satisfying.  I’m a ground-up kinda guy, so take it for what it’s worth.  The second thing is umami: proteiny-flavor.  There are two ways to get this flavor, MSG and actual protein.  Most bullion comes with MSG – which gives me the willies (and hives).  Even the ‘natural’ stuff comes with ‘yeast extract’, which is close to the same thing.  I have given up searching for a magic cube that gives a meal the same roundness and satisfying mouthfeel that comes from a well-prepared chicken stock.  Allright, allright, that’s enough.

Flat Leaf Parsley & Scallops

This meal is a composition of three parts.  The bottom is orzo (rice-shaped pasta).  Layered on top of that is a parsley-cream sauce.  Crown jewel: seared scallops.  Orzo is easy, follow directions (boil, drain, serve).  The parsley cream sauce goes as follows:

Take two big bunches of parsley (I did one flat-leaf and one curly-leaf), and chop them up finely.  While chopping, sizzle up some garlic in butter, being careful not to burn it.  Fry the parsley with the garlic for a while, and pour in a few cups of RFCS.  Let that simmer for a while, and add 3/4 cup cream to it.  Mix around and keep the heat going, and then thicken with a good mixture of flour and milk.  Mix the flour and milk together in a small jar, using a spring whisk or similar.  When adding to the sauce pass it through a sieve so that it doesn’t get clumpy.  Keep adding more until it’s the right consistency (I used around 1/2 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk).

Once the sauce is where you want it, get some butter hot in a pan and sear your scallops in it.  I used really nice scallops and so I let ‘em be a bit rare.  It doesn’t take much time to get these suckers done… better a bit underdone than a bit overdone.

Then, layer, serve, and enjoy.  Garnish with a sprig of parsley!

We had some chicken limbs left over from a chicken stock endeavor from last week. Tonight was the last night to cook ‘em, and we had been dreaming of hot wings. We poked around the web looking for recipes, and the resounding theme was surprising: Coke, as in Coca Cola. Neither of us is really into soda, but we decided, tonight is the night to go crazy. We simmered and grilled almost 5 lbs of meat over the course of an hour, cleaning up the kitchen from the weeks’ messes along the way. It turned out so juicy, delicious, and caveman-satisfying that we barely managed to save two legs for lunch!

This is a meal that anyone can cook, and it’s pretty near impossible to screw up. Here’s the basics, adapted from allrecipes.com (we didn’t have two cups of Louisiana-style hot sauce!):

Grab a cast-iron skillet that will fit most/all of your meat (we had ~5 lbs of wings, legs, thighs, etc.), and pour in enough coke to half-submerge everything (about 4 cups for us). Then pour in about half that amount of mixed hot sauces, orange juice, apple cider vinegar, a touch of orange zest, and some lemon juice. We had more hot sauces, and juices, less vinegar, but cooking isn’t exactly scientific in this household. We’ve got plenty of science and precision going on outside of the kitchen, no reason to bring it in!

Bring the slurry&meat to a gentle simmer on your stove, and move it out onto a warm gril (yes, put the skillet on the grill!). Keep the side the pan is on a bit hotter, and swap meat from the skillet onto the grill, rotating about every 10 minutes for a bit more than an hour. All of our meat didn’t quite fit into the skillet, so we had half on the grill, half in the pan, which worked out great.

Serving and eating was the other half of the fun: Erik and I ate off of newspaper, with a bowl of ‘slop’ (the sauce) each. Don’t put out forks like we did, you won’t need them. Dive in, and never look back. Cleanup was a breeze!

I like to serve the eggs “fluffy scrambled” (that means I add whole milk or even heavy cream mmmm.) accompanied by a crustee french baguette, and let’s be honest the eggs are really a vehicle for delivering your favorite hot sauce (ours being The Blue Sky Cafe’s very own blend of peppers) so enjoy your Sunday with what Uta has proclaimed as her Best Western Breakee.

yum!

Left: just pan 2 Right: total mixture

Pan 1:

onions

garlic

mushrooms

eggplant

spices (pepper…. allspice…)

RFTS

milk

Cook these in this order (waiting after the garlic, spices, RFTS for timing).

Pan 2:

chicken

spinach

spices (nutmeg…)

Cook for 15 minutes with only the water of the spinach.

Place contents of pan 2 in pie crust, cover with contents of pan 1, and close crust.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes.

]]> http://letsgetfat.net/2010/01/pot-pie/feed/ 0 http://letsgetfat.net/2010/01/happy-birthday-month/ http://letsgetfat.net/2010/01/happy-birthday-month/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:43:37 +0000 erik http://letsgetfat.net/?p=169 In celebration of a great man turning 60 years young, I would like to acknowledge the idea of what he calls his “Birthday Month”.

As part of Tony’s HBM, he has already been to Females On Fire, his daughter’s 5 course, 5 wines, and 5 chefs, event to support Women in the culinary arts and in this Foodie-spirit of Birthday-month I am posting 3 Tony Lucero original recipes that have been a serious thread in my life and that I think my dad would be happy to share with you all.  These recipes have helped me survive grueling Colorado winters and Sunny Santa Barbara ones as well. So everyone lift a shot of Tequila and help me wish my dad a Happy Birthday Month. Cheers!

Number 1: Green Chile

Fall is the season for scoring your Green Chiles, and if you are anything like me it can be hard to ration your Green Chile supply so it lasts through the winter, but stay strong my friends and tuck those chiles in the back of the freezer so you can rediscover them later in the year. This year I need to make a special shout out to Dan’s Uncle for shipping us a bushel of the Green magic all the way from New Mexico. Thanks man!

To make this dish you really only need 4 ingredients, but spicy Anaheims are the most important one. I am talking about New Mexico green chiles that pack some serious heat. Cuidado! Tony makes a pilgrimage every fall to the South-West corner of Colorado to score enough chiles for some 10 families. Then he regales us of stories of freshly roasted green chiles on a drive-thru burger with “a cold one”, (that should be an underground order at “In and Out” call it “Tony & Matt” style). Here is to the green chile pusher man.

• 3 Quarts of Roasted Green Chile (chopped)
• 8 Tomatoes
• 1 Whole Globe of Garlic
• Pork. 2lbs of Pork Loin (diced)

OK, so there are a few more ingredients…

• 2 Tablespoons of Bacon Grease (Pork part 2)
• 3 Tbl of flour
• 8 cups H2O (Variation can use RFCS)
• Salt to taste

Fry the pork in a pan until brown. In a big stock pot, brown the flour in bacon grease (use your favorite whisk and don’t burn the flour!) keep stirring it. Add water  and stir until thoroughly mixed. Add chile, tomatoes, pork, garlic, and salt. Bring it all to a boil and then back off the heat to a slow simmer for about an hour. I like to rock a bag of tortilla chips nearby so I can sample the chile throughout its transformation. This makes a shit-ton of Green Chile, so be prepared with all of your tupperware on hand (with matching lids).

Number 2: Enchiladas

We here at the Mesa house have come up with a really nice pipeline dedicated to Real Fucking Chicken Stock and Chicken enchiladas are the corner stone to that pipeline. We like to buy an entire chicken and process every part of it. If you aren’t in the RFCS spirit then just score some Chicken breasts for this recipe.

• 1 whole Chicken
• Lots (~1 cup) of Red New Mexico Chile powder
• Couple Tbl of flour
• Couple Tbl of Bacon Grease
• Granulated Garlic or Garlic Powder
• Bundle of Green Onions (diced. including the green section)
• 4 cups Sharp Chedder cheese (shredded)
• 2-4 cups of H2O (Variation: use RFCS or RFDS!)
• Bag of MASECA or ~15 pre-made corn tortillas

After walking down the street in Isla Mujeres to the “tortilla kitchen” in our barrio it is hard to shake the craving for fresh handmade corn tortillas. If you are an addict like me, then earn  your “yellow belt” by finishing your first bag of MASECA. Otherwise pay the $1 for a stack of corn tortillas at your local Mexi-Grocer.

Boil the chicken as you would to make RFCS (lots of carrots, lots of celery, etc.). Set the chicken aside to cool. I like to do this step early on a Saturday, or a day in advance. ‘Splinter’ the chicken. This is a laborious step, so convince your roommate to help you out.

Make up a “dry-rub”. It should include (but is not limited to) New Mexico Red Chile Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, and a touch of Cumin.

Throw the shredded chicken a big ziplock bag with the dry-rub and shake it up. Set aside.

Make your corn tortillas. We like to fry ours in Coconut Oil, makes a mean-seasoned cast-iron. Make enough to cover your casserole pan. My favorite variation on this recipe is the Enchiada (Enchilada-meets-Tostada), where I make a crispy corn tortilla-seasoned shredded chicken-cheese-onion-crisy corn tortilla stack up with lost of sauce and more cheese on top.Killer!

Or take the corn tortillas you bought and fry them to soften’em up a bit.

For the sauce:

Brown the flour (just like you learned to do above). Add water (or RFCS) to obtain a gravy consistency. Keep Stirring. Add chile powder & garlic powder (to taste). Keep Stirring. Once you have your sauce tasting mmmmm…then set the burner to low and keep some water around in case you need to thin the sauce a bit.

Here we come to a crossroads, you can choose to make individual enchiladas by laying the ingredients in individual corn tortillas and rolling them up, or if you are down with left overs (nod your head)and want to help keep the workplace microwave smelling like enchiladas go for the casserole style…Here is the stack up. Line the bottom of your casserole dish with corn tortillas. Add chicken, cheese, onions, and pour some of that delicious sauce all over shit. Cheese will melt mmmm. Cover that layer with another set of corn tortillas and repeat stack up. Set the oven to 325 and bake for ~15 minutes or until cheese is all melty.

Number 3: Pulled Pork

This recipe debuted at the Mesa for the Best Fucking Thanksgiving Ever (BFTE)  with both a vinegar sauce and a persimmon chutney. Pulled P has become a real crowd pleaser for large get togethers.

• ~5+ lbs Pork Shoulder or Butt (makes like 10-12 servings)

The Rub: Apply a day in advance

• Paprika
• Brown sugar
• Chili Powder
• Cumin
• Sugar
• S & P

Center the Butt on the grill, NO DIRECT FLAME! Grill on medium heat for 4-5 hours (~an hour per pound) Or until the inner heat regiters T=180 deg F. Serve on Kaiser Bun. Check back later if you need a chutney recipe…