Pork, Chile, and Tomatillo Stew--and positive ravings about La Perla

Ingredients:

• 3 LB pork loin, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ancho chiles and 6 guajillo chiles
• 1 cup water, reserved from rehydrating the chiles
• 2 garlic clove, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 small small onion, diced finely
• 1/4 tsp cumin seed
• About 16 tomatillos with the husks attached
• flour, if necessary to the thicken the stew.

Directions:

• Put the pork in a large pot and cover with water, cook over medium heat while preparing the other ingredients.
• Remove the stalks from the dried chiles, cut in half and scrape out veins and seeds.
• Cover with hot water, and soak for about 15 minutes.
• In a mortar and pestle add salt and the garlic clove and grind into a paste.
• Chop rehydrated ancho peppers into small pieces and scrape the flesh out of the guajillo peppers, discarding the skins.
• Add the peppers and cumin seeds to a spice grinder or blender and blend into a paste.
• Add the pepper mixture and the onions to the mortar and pestle and blend into a thick paste.

• Add the blended ingredients to the pork.
• Slice the tomatillos into quarters, leaving the husks attached, they will give flavor to the stew.
• Add the reserved water from the peppers.
• Let the meat cook for about an hour to let all the flavors blend.
• If the broth is still watery, place a tsp of flour in a small bowl and slowly blend in some broth from the stew, stir this paste into the stew and continue to cook until thickened.
• Do not eat the tomatillo husks.

Note: If you live in the Little Rock area, La Perla off of Rodney Parham is a great location to find a variety of dried peppers and other Mexican ingredients. I was quite chagrined to have paid $5 for 5 ancho peppers at Fresh market and then walk into La Perla later that evening with a friend and find them in bulk for much cheaper. The proprietor was very friendly and helpful as well. Other positives about La Perla included Mexican snacks, such as the spoons of spicy/sweet/sour tamarind paste that I adore, and they had fresh, perfect little loafs of bread for tortas, and a small quantity of fresh produce including tomatillos and plantains and jicama.

chilaquiles

These eggs, from Mexican: Healthy Ways with a Favorite Cuisine by Jane Milton has been a quick dinner lately. The author calls them huevos rancheros, but we've always seen them referred to as chilaquiles at our local restaurant and rancheros usually have a hot sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 corn tortillas, several days old, fried crisply
• oil, for frying
• 2 fresh green jalapeno chiles, diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 4 scallions, sliced
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup light cream
• small bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Directions:

• Heat 1 Tb oil in a large frying pan.
• Add the garlic and scallions and saute gently for 2-3 minutes, until soft.
• Stir in the diced tomato and cook for 3-4 minutes, then stir in the chiles and cook for 1 minute.
• Pour the eggs into the pan and stir until they start to set.
• When only a small amount of uncooked eggs remains visible, stir in the cream so that the cooking process is slowed down and the mixture cooks into a creamy mixture rather an a solid mass.
• Stir in the chopped cilantro.
• Arrange the tortilla strips on four serving plates and spoon on the eggs.
• Serve immediately.

Mexican Style Hash

This is one of my favorite dishes to serve with Mexican food. I can't remember where I got the recipe, so I always throw it together from memory.

Ingredients:

• 1 TB vegetable oil
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• 6-8 small red potatoes, small dice
• 3 pickled jalapenos, sliced into thin rounds
• A small handful of fresh oregano, or a tsp dried
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parmegiano Reggiano to taste

Directions:

• Heat the oil in a skillet and add garlic clove, sauteing until fragrant.
• Add potatoes and fry until golden brown.
• Add jalapenos and oregano, salt and pepper and fry for a couple of minutes longer.
• Add shredded parmegiano on top and serve.

An Evening with Friends--Tortilla Soup

Making tortilla soup.

My friend Michelle had us and some other friends over for Mexican food. She made pork and potato tacos, stuffed poblano peppers, and tortilla soup. Our friend Aga made guacamole and pico de gallo. I've show cased the tortilla soup recipe, courtesy of Michelle, because it is one of my all time favorite foods and this version was just as good as my favorite restaurant version. I didn't get too many pictures this time, because I was busy helping make the soup.

Tortilla Soup Ingredients:

• 8 cups chicken broth
• 2 bone in chicken breast (I didn't have this, just used B&Sless)
• 1 lg white onion quartered
• 2 cloves garlic (I used 4, love that garlic!!!)
• cilantro
• 1 chipotle chile
• 2 tsp adobo
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 jalapeno
• 1Tb veg oil

Directions:

• Boil chicken, 1/2 onion, garlic and 8 sprigs cilantro for about 20min.
• Shred chicken, set aside.
• Strain broth; set aside.
• Process chipotle, 1tsp adobo, 1/2 onion, tomatoes and jalapeno.
• Heat oil in a dutch oven, add sauce and 1 t salt.
• "Fry" about 10 minutes, sauce will get really thick.
• Add broth and simmer about 15min
• Add shredded chicken and 1 tsp adobo.
• Heat through.
• 8 6" corn tortillas cut into strips.
• Drizzle with oil.
• Cook at 425 for 7min, turn and cook additional 7 min.
• Iput some jack cheese in the bottom of the bowl, spoon soup over, top with tortilla strips and cilantro

Stuffed poblano peppers.


Michelle and I.


Aga and Jerzy eating guac and pico.

Old West Jerky Chili

I found this recipe in The Real Chili Cookbook: Americans 100 All-Time Favorite Recipes by Marjie Lambert. I use this cookbook as a starting point for a lot of my chili experiments. Our brother-in-law had brought us jerky from the ranch that his parents run a week or two back and in the fridge it had dried to a consistency that was impossible to chew. So I thought I'd try the jerky chili rather than throw the jerky away.

This is definitely a novelty chili, not an everyday chili--an experiment to see what chili would have been like on the chuck wagons. The result? Meat that was hydrated, but still jerky for all that! The sauce was very flavorful between the chili powders and the spices in in the jerky.

My jerky was a mixture of beef, turkey and sausage. I changed the books recipe up some as I usually do, making my own chili powder and substituting an onion for dried onion flakes, etc.



My Ingredients:

• 3 TB vegetable shortening
• 1 onion, diced
• 8 oz jerky (chopped into small pieces, it will swell)
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp whole cumin seed
• 4 TB home made chili powder (commercial chili powder would have too much salt combined with the jerky)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 TB flour

Directions:

• Melt the shortening and cook the onion, garlic, and cumin seed until the onion is soft.
• Add the jerky and cook for 3 minutes.
• Add 2 cups of water the chile powders and oregano.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer.
• Simmer at least 2 hours, then taste and adjust seasoning.
• To thicken the chili, mix the flour with 2 TB cold water to make a paste and then add the paste to the chili.
• Cook, stirring, until thickened

Farm Fresh Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce

A friend gifted us with some farm fresh eggs, so I wanted to do something simple but special. If you've never had fresh eggs you'll be surprised at the difference in taste. I served these fried with southern biscuits, smothered in hollandaise sauce.

Hollandaise Sauce for two

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp cold water
• 5 TB plus 1 tsp. cold unsalted butter finely diced
• salt and white pepper (I was out of white pepper so I used black)
• cayenne pepper (I was out so I used ichimi)
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

• Pour water to a depth of about 1 inch into the bottom of a double boiler, or a large saucepan.
• Heat the water until it simmers, then reduce the heat to low.
• Place the top of the double boiler over the bottom; or set a rack or trivet, into the water bath and place the saucepan on the rack or trivet.
• Put the egg yolk and the cold water in the upper pan and beat until smooth.
• Whisk a handful of the butter into the yolks and beat until the butter has been absorbed; continue adding butter in this way until all of it has been used.
• Beat until the sauce becomes thick and creamy.
• Season the sauce to taste with salt, white pepper and cayenne pepper.
• Then add the lemon juice.

Getting Ready to Make More Chili--Home Made Chili Powder

To give credit where credit is due: I copied this recipe from Alton Brown's chili powder, substituting the chiles that I had in the house. I only made a 1/3 of the recipe because I needed a 1/4 cup non-commercial chili powder for the Old West Jerky Chili I'm planning to make. The jerky already has plenty of salt so I need a chili powder without any salt, thus an excuse to make a home made chili powder which I was planning on starting to experiment with anyway. And who else to riff off of than AB? He's one of my reliable starting places for beginning my own experiments in the kitchen and one of the few food network cooks that I have much use for.



Ingredients:

• 2 guajillo chiles
• 1 chipotle chile
• 2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/3 tsp sweet paprika (since it was in the house and since I was using chipotles for a smoky flavor)

Directions:

• Place all the chiles and the cumin into a cast iron skillet over high heat.
• Cook, moving the pan around constantly until the cumin becomes fragrant and starts to pop.
• Set aside and cool.
• Once cool place the chiles and cumin into a coffee grinder along with the garlic powder, oregano and paprika.
• Process into a fine powder.

Cheesy Beef and Chipotle Quesadillas

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• A garlic clove, diced
• 1/2 a chipotle pepper, soaked in hot water for 1/2 an hour and chopped
• A sprig of oregano, chopped
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• A pinch of commercial chili powder
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• Shredded cheddar cheese to taste
• 6 flour tortillas

Directions:

• Saute the onion and garlic until soft.
• Add the oregano and the chipotle pepper
• Add salt and pepper and chili powder.
• Saute until fragrant.
• Add ground beef and brown.
• On a griddle head some more oil, lay down a tortilla and cover with shredded cheese, 1/3 of the meat mixture, and then more cheese, and top with another tortilla, press together with a spatula.
• After a couple of minutes, when the bottom tortilla is browned, flip and cook the other side.
• Repeat twice.

Huevos Rancheros with Guajillo and Chipotle Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 dried guajillo pepper
• 1/2 chipotle pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, small dice
• 1/2 TB minced garlic
• reserved water from rehydrating the chili peppers
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 TB white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• small handful oregano leafs
• 1/2 TB lime juice
• 4 eggs

Directions:

• Bring water to a boil and cover peppers in a jar with the lid on for half an hour.
• Meanwhile dice garlic, onion, tomatoes, and oregano.
• Dry toast the cumin in a frying pan until fragrant and begins to pop.
• Add the oil, onions and garlic.
• Saute for two minutes.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, including 1/3 cup of water from rehydrating the chilis, and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Remove the seeds from the pepper and scrape the meat off the skin, chop finely and add them to the saucepan.
• Add another 1/3 cup of chili water if the sauce is thick, cook another five minutes.
• Break the eggs into the sauce and cover tightly with a lid for another 5 minutes or so, depending on how cooked you like your eggs.
• Serve with tortillas.

Chili is Serious Business at our House

Chili, sans beans, which will be added right before serving.


Midmorning today I started the first pot (no doubt of many) of the season.

Ingredients:

• 2 LB pork loin cubed
• 2 TB oil
• 1 1/2 medium onion chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 4 dried gaujillo chilis
• 2 chipotle chilis
• 2 TB chilli powder
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• A small handful of oregano leafs
• 12 oz bottle of beer
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 x 15 oz can of beans (I used 1 can kidney and 1 can pinto)

• I chopped the vegetables while defrosting the meat.
• I also brought water to boil in a pot to have on hand to rehydrate the peppers.

• When the meat was defrosted, I cut it into cubes.
• When the water came to a boil I put the peppers into individual jars and filled to the rim with boiling water. I used a pint size jar for the chipotles and a larger jar for the guajillos.

• I set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and put the peppers to the side.
• I browned the pork.

• And sauteed the vegetables in the oil for 5 minutes.

• I then combined the meat and vegetables and poured the tomato sauce over and stirred well to combine.
• Next I prepared the cumin seeds.

• I dry fried them in a small cast iron skillet until they were fragrant and began to pop.

• And then ground them in a mortar and pestle.

• I broke off several sprigs of oregano from the window box and chopped the leafs into small pieces and added it, the cumin, and the chilli powder to the meat and vegetable mixture.

• When the peppers were ready I cut off the stems and cut in half, and then removed the seeds and chopped the peppers into small pieces.
• I reserved the water that the chipotle peppers had soaked in and added it to the chili mixture.

• I added the peppers to the chili and then poured a bottle of beer over the mixture and stirred well to combine everything.

• I cook my chili all day long, starting in the morning and then 10 minutes before I'm ready to serve it I add the salt, sugar, and canned beans.
• I keep coffee and reserved liquid from rehydrating the guajillo peppers on hand, just in case the chili gets too thick.

Getting Ready to Make the First Pot of Chili of the Season

Guajillo chilis



Chipotle Chilis


Chili Powder

Nutella French Toast

Yummy, yummy french toast. I used old challah and spread nutella between two slices, and just followed the rosemary french toast recipe, without the rosemary.