Kale Chips Update

I recently have been using a new recipe for kale chips that works better than my old one.  I have adapted it somewhat here, but the key is that it bakes at a lower temperature so they crisp before they burn and they cook more evenly.  It also has a bit of heartiness from a lovely sprinkling of ground cashews and the tartness of lemon.  Z and I like the nutritional yeast, but C prefers it without.

1 large bunch of kale, washed and dried

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt
juice from half a lemon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

1/3 cup cashews

1 Tbs nutritional yeast, optional

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, mix the olive oil, salt, lemon, and cayenne and set aside. Rip the tough stalks off the kale and rip the rest of the kale into pieces. Remember they will shrink a bit in the oven so bigger is typically better. Grind the cashews with the optional nutritional yeast in a food processor or blender or coffee grinder. You want them to be powdery/crumbly, not cashew butter.

Toss the kale in the dressing so that each piece is coated and sprinkle the cashew mixture on the kale, tossing lightly to make sure each piece gets some.  Lay the kale out in a single layer on 2 large baking sheets. Put the cookie sheets in the oven using both racks and set timer for 30 minutes. Every 30 minutes rotate the cookie sheets up/down, back/forth for more even cooking.  After an hour start sampling. They are done when they are crispy, not soggy. This tends to take about 90 minutes for all of them, but I will pull some kale chips off earlier and give other chips more time. Store in an airtight container.

Miso Ginger Carrot Dressing

Fun times for Labor Day. First a last trip to the pool with some friends that included a discounted hotdog at the snack bar and a good laugh at the looks a passing child gave their youngest as she was singing to herself by the side of the pool. Then off to more food and friends with a sushi feast and viewing of the charming and awe-inspiring documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi".

This is a delicious, low calorie Japanese style dressing that we like to have on spring greens as a side dish when me make sushi. (You can see the jar in the back of the photo, next to the salad). Sometimes I have a salad the next day for lunch with this dressing and the extra sushi fillings (cucumber, carrot, green onion, avocado, asparagus, tofu, etc. - not the fish). I like to think it counteracts having overeaten the night before.

Miso Ginger Carrot Dressing

1 Tbs. peanut, grapeseed, corn, or canola oil
1/4 c. rice vinegar (not seasoned)
3 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. dark sesame oil
2 medium carrots, peeled, in chunks
2 inches ginger, peeled, sliced across the grain
1tsp. sugar

Blend well in a blender until smooth. Makes about 11/2 cups.

Notes: Sometimes I have to add a little water to make it thin enough to blend. The original recipe had 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1 Tbs., but I like it fine without the extra oil.

Moosewood Gazpacho

Here's the other Gazpacho recipe, in case you want to try them both.  

Gazpacho 

from the Moosewood Cookbook

6 servings

4 cups cold tomato juice
1 small, minced onion
2 cups freshly diced tomatoes
1 cup minced green pepper
1 clove crushed garlic
1 diced cucumber
2 scallions chopped
1/4 cup freshly-chopped parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon & 1 lime
1 tsp. honey
2 Tbs. wine vinegar
1 tsp. dried tarragon
1 tsp dried basil
dash of ground cumin
dash of tabasco sauce
1-2 Tbs. olive oil
salt & black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours.  Sometimes I chop it all finely, and other times I put it in the food processor.  Both ways are great.

Sarah Jay's Gazpacho

Do I ever post a recipe that doesn't come from Fine Cooking or Rick Bayless?  I'm not sure.  But here's another one that we loved from Fine Cooking.  This one caught my eye despite the fact that I'm a diehard fan of the Moosewood Cookbook's Gazpacho recipe.  That one is not at all a traditional Spanish gazpacho, but it's so light and fresh and tastes so good for you its like medicine for the soul and a mouthful of summer all in one.  This one caught my eye because it was a recipe by Sarah Jay, who once served me the best Paella I've ever eaten when we were both visiting our husbands at a residency at the lovely Millay Colony, back before I'd ever heard of Fine Cooking, where she worked.  I was never tempted to repeat her Paella after seeing how much washing up it required, but I figured I could handle a cold tomato soup. 

The recipe is adapted from the traditional one by her Spanish mother-in-law, and it tasted so much like the ones we ate in Spain!  It was full-bodied and smooth on the tongue.  It's a totally different creature than the Moosewood Gazpacho, but I adore them both.  Such a nice way to enjoy these late summer tomatoes!

Gazpacho

by Sarah Jay

Best served icy cold, gazpacho needs to be chilled for at least an hour. Here it's garnished with croutons for crunch and cilantro for a burst of bright flavor, but chopped cucumbers and onions are another traditional garnish. Serves 4 or 5

1-3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
1/2 medium green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped (3/4 cup)
1/2 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup packed torn fresh bread, such as a soft baguette, Portuguese roll, or slice of white sandwich bread, plus 1/4 cup packed 1/2-inch cubes (crusts removed) for croutons
9 Tbs. good-quality extra-virgin olive oil; more for drizzling
2 tsp. sherry vinegar
1 small clove garlic
Kosher salt
Ground cumin
1 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro 

Put the tomatoes, bell peppers, torn bread, 6 Tbs. of the olive oil, the vinegar, garlic, 1 tsp. salt, and a pinch or two of cumin in a blender. Pulse until coarsely puréed, then blend until very smooth, 4 to 5 minutes (it may be a bit frothy). Season to taste with salt and refrigerate until very cold, at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 3 Tbs. olive oil in an 8-inch skillet over medium heat. Add a bread cube; if it sizzles immediately, add the remaining cubes (if it doesn’t, continue to heat the oil). Cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown all over, about 1 minute. Transfer the croutons to paper towels to drain and cool.
Taste the gazpacho just before serving and adjust the seasonings as needed. Serve drizzled with oil and garnished with the croutons and cilantro.

Make Ahead Tips

The gazpacho can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, covered. The croutons should be made the day of serving the gazpacho.

Guajillo Pork and Potatoes

Sorry not to post for so long. I've tried some great new recipes that I ought to pass on. Here's the first for you (I didn't take pictures tonight, but will try to get one of the leftovers tomorrow):

Tried a new recipe today, with some friends as guinea pigs. It was delicious, as I fully expected from my buddy Ricky (can I call him that if I only have an imaginary friendship with him where we hang out in Oaxaca and cook excellent food with the locals?). I had a little struggle with the chiles because I couldn't find regular guajillo chiles and substituted guajillo pulla chiles, which were a little old and dry (meaning they shattered when I tried to split and seed them, unlike fresh dried chiles, which are more leathery and flexible), and they were also quite a bit smaller and hotter than regular guajillos (meaning I had to split and seed and toast many more of them to make 2 oz). I made the chile sauce part and trimmed and cubed the pork the night before, knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time in the morning to throw it all in the crockpot. So you can imagine me in the kitchen at midnight, deciding that the sauce was way too hot and then doubling all the other ingredients and doubling them again, making quite a mess in the kitchen in the process. In the end, it turned out that all my doubling was unnecessary. After the long simmer and adding the other ingredients it turned out the guajillo pullas weren't as hot as I was afraid, and I think the original recipe would have worked out just fine. I ended up mixing back in quite a bit of the full strength original batch. This recipe is very easy if you don't make the mistakes I did, if your dried chiles are fresher and larger than mine, and you don't make the sauce 4 times. The recipe was delicious and well worth the effort, and thanks to all my doubling, we now have enough sauce for another batch. It made enough to serve 8 adults with leftovers (we also had tortillas, beans, rice, salad, etc.).

Guajillo-Spiced Pork and Potatoes

Serves 6-8
Adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless
6 medium (1.5 lbs. total) redskin boiling or yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 wedges
1.5 – 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, cut into 1″ cubes
8 medium (2 oz. total) dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into flat pieces
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 tsp. dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt
cilantro and chopped white onions (I used green) for garnish
Spread the potatoes over the bottom of your slowcooker and top with the pork.
Set a small (8″) skillet over medium heat and once it’s hot, toast the chile pieces, pressing them against the pan with a spatula until they are aromatic and lightened in color underneath–about 10 seconds per side. (Anything more than a whiff of smoke and they're burning - take them off FAST. And don't breath the smoke. Trust me). Transfer the chiles to a blender.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, Worcestershire, about 1.5 tsp. salt and 1 – 1.5 cups of water (I would choose this based on your slowcooker’s history for drying out foods, how much liquid is already in your tomatoes, etc.). Blend until as smooth as possible, and then strain the mixture through a mesh strainer directly into the slowcooker.
Cook on high for 6 hours, then it can keep on the warm setting for up to 4 hours. I spooned most of the fat off the top and discarded it. Also, my sauce was too runny because I had added the extra tomatoes, etc., so I ended up simmering down some of the sauce to thicken it and returned it to the crockpot.

This was my first attempt at a goal I have for the next year to have people over at least once a month. With so many dear friends moving away, I'm starting to feel cut off and decided I need to make more of an effort to reach out to other friends and to make some new ones. This recipe was a good one for keeping today low stress - once I had it in the cooker this morning, there was little else to prepare. Just threw together a salad, heated some tortillas, warmed beans from the freezer and put some of Rick's Gulf Coast White Rice Pilaf in the rice cooker. It was nice to have so little last minute preparations to do when our friends arrived. Lower stress and more time to enjoy their company. Plus it helps to let them do some of the prep work: one brought guacamole and the other brought a flourless chocolate cake. Both were fantastic. Good company, good food; I think I can get into this new habit! Anyone up for an Indian curry party next month? Everyone has to bring a curry. (Yes, A, I obviously stole the idea from you).

Menu planning

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to transition to summer menus. I'm afraid the meals I've planned are too heavy, but they use what we have on hand. Recently I've been planning 2 weeks ahead, which I think should save me some shopping time, since then I can get obscure ingredients when I happen to be in the neighborhood of whatever store carries them.

For this week, my monthly menu plan overview suggested:
lentils
chinese
leftovers
tacos or quesadillas
polenta
fish
bean soup/chili.

It helps me to have the starting point of ideas and to remind me that I want to eat more legumes and fish.

I started my menu with a carryover I never got around to last week, African pineapple peanut kale stew, to use up the rest of the kale in our garden from last year. I'll have to do a post on that recipe if I end up making it.

In place of lentils, I decided I wanted an interesting summery salad that I could share with our vegetarian friends, so I chose a new recipe I haven't tried before, Quinoa Black Bean Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing.

For Chinese, I remembered that I had some fat udon noodles in the freezer that I picked up at the Japanese grocery store a couple of weeks ago. I found a recipe in Fine Cooking Magazine that I want to try: Udon with Tofu and Stir-fried Vegetables. We loved a recipe from the same article for Chinese Egg Noodles with Five-Spice Pork, and I've been wanting to try more of those recipes.

For Tacos, I chose Chicken Veracruzana tacos. It's been too long since I've made that and I have most of the ingredients on hand.

For Polenta, I chose our most frequently made version, where I top it with caramelized peppers and onions and some blue cheese.

For Fish, I decided to skip it this week because I already have too many things to make with the carryover of the African stew.

For Bean Soup/Chile, I chose to use some bean soup out of the freezer, either White Bean and Ham Soup or White Bean Pesto.

For next week, the suggestions and my choices were:
Potatoes: Kale and Mashed Potatoes with ham (in the freezer, leftover from Easter)
Thai: Salmon with Thai Curry Spinach (adds in the fish I skipped the week before). I may also make Thai Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes to use up ingredients on hand.
Leftovers: just clear out the fridge
Burritos: whatever fillings we have on hand, usually bean and cheese. Might have some leftover chicken from the week before.
Use-it-up Pasta: skip (pasta being used in the Pork Ragu)
Meat: Pork Shoulder Ragu (I've been wanting to try this recipe from Dinner a Love Story)
Vegetable Soup: Quick Blender Tomato Soup with some crusty bread or melted cheese sandwiches.

I generally find that even planning for one night a week of leftovers, between eating out and with friends I often have one more dinner plan per week than I manage to make. I sometimes just push it to the next week, sometimes make it for a lunch, and sometimes skip it altogether.

Maybe this will give you some ideas for your menu this week!

Cooking Class: Mole Negro and Quesadillas

I just spent a most pleasant morning at a cooking class with Pilar Cabrera, chef of "La Olla" restaurant in Oaxaca. We have been consistently delighted with the food at her restaurant and as soon as C tasted her mole de fandango, he said I really ought to take her cooking class and get that recipe! So I did.














We started by preparing some of the ingredients for the mole. She had them already measured out.













We took the seeds out of the chiles and roasted the chiles and the garlic on a comal (a large flat ceramic dish) over a charcoal fire.













Pilar sauteed the other ingredients in a ceramic casserole over a charcoal fire, starting with the nuts,














then moving on to the raisins, the bread, the spices, and the plantain.












Finally, she toasted the chile seeds over the coals until they were black. That made for some seriously lung burning smoke.













Then we went to the market, where we bought ingredients for the rest of our meal. We bought huitlacoche and bean blossoms from this woman.












I learned a few new things there about some of the ingredients, like the difference between quesillo doble crema and plain quesillo. It made me wish I had more time to spend enjoying the new foods I learned about: queso botanero, a salsa sold at the butchers, blue corn tortillas and fresh salsas at the entrance, the best vendor for fresh vegetables...









Then we stopped at the molinillo, where they ground our mole ingredients in a big grinder. They had a different grinder for each of the things they grind: coffee, corn for tamales and tortillas, cooked black beans, rice for horchata, and the one for mole. They ground first all the spices, nuts, bread and plantains, then the dried chiles, adding just enough water to make a good paste.













Back at her house, we started with the rose petal sorbet: we cooked together sugar, milk, blanched almonds, and dried and fresh rose petals, then cooled it in an ice-water bath, blended them in a blender, then froze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer.










In the meantime, we prepared the ingredients for the quesadillas. We cleaned and sauteed huitlacoche with a bit of garlic and salt. Huitlachoche is a highly prized corn fungus that has a delicious mushroom taste - they call it the Oaxacan truffle. I never dared try it before this visit, but I'm so glad I have. We also sauteed pretty red blossoms from a bean plant - they kind of look like scarlet runner bean blossoms. We shredded quesillo doble crema, the stringy Oaxacan cheese that vaguely resembles fresh mozzarella. We chopped yerba santa and cleaned squash blossoms.





We toasted and peeled chiles de agua (hot green chiles) and tomatoes,













then I ground them into a salsa with a molcajete - starting with garlic and sea salt, then adding the chiles and then last the tomatoes and a bit of green onion. We made a minted rice with soaked and drained rice, sauteed in garlic and onion, then cooked with chicken broth and a few sprigs of mint. The staff did all the clean up as we went, and they also washed the produce and cooked the chicken for the mole. It was amazing how much faster so much cooking went with their skilled help.







We went back into the courtyard where we had cooked over the charcoal fire and cooked the mole,



















then made little tortillas and made them into quesadillas with the different fillings: squash blossoms, bean flowers, and huitlacoche, all with a bit of hierbasanta, which is an herb you can only find here that tastes more like fennel than anything else I can think of.

After everyone else tasted some mescal with lime, orange, and sal de gusano (salt ground with chiles and -yuk- maguey worms), we sat down to a feast of quesadillas with the fresh roasted tomato salsa, mole and rice, and the rose petal sorbet for dessert.



Pilar was a good teacher, giving lots of details and answering lots of questions. She was very personable and patient (even with the British woman in our group who thinks Mexican food is "stodgy" and had never even heard of tamales - I still can't quite figure out why she took the class).

All in all, an excellent experience!








Mole Negro

Serves 10

4 chilhuacle chiles
8 mulato or ancho chiles
8 pasilla mexicana chiles
3 tsp. lard
1/4 c. almonds
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. pumpkin seeds
1/4 c. peanuts
1/4 c. pecans
4 slices of egg bread
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1 tsp. dried thyme, marjoram and oregano
2 cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp. anise
3 whole cloves
1/8 tsp cumin
3 whole black peppercorns
2 plantains, cut in slices
1 tomato, roasted
3 tomatillos, roasted
3 cloves of garlic, roasted
1/2 medium onion, roasted
4 cups chicken broth
8 pieces of cooked chicken
3 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup Oaxacan chocolate
salt to taste
4 avocado leaves

Preparation:
1. Clean the dried chiles with a damp cloth. Open the chiles by making a lengthwise slit down one side of each. Take out the seeds, veins, and stems. Reserve the seeds.

2. Fry the chiles in a saucepan. Remove each chile from the saucepan as soon as it begins to change colors and blister, and place them in a bowl lined with absorbent paper towels.

3. Fry the raisins until they puff up and brown a bit. Remove the raisins and add the almonds, pecans, and peanuts, frying for 5 minutes until they are a dark brown color. Fry the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, anise, cloves, cumin and black peppercorns, until they obtain a deep brown color, remove them and add the dried bread pieces in the remaining lard for 2 minutes, then remove.

4. Fry the plantains in oil until they are golden.

5. Roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic on a comal. Peel the tomatoes.

6. Place in a food processor the spices, tomatoes, one plantain and 1 cup of chicken broth. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a blender and blend again until as smooth as possible. Put into a bowl and set aside.

7. Place the toasted chiles and 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth into the food processor, then blender. Blend until the mixture is a smooth paste.

8. Heat the remaining unused lard in a deep, very hot pot (le crueset or cast iron are good substitutes for the ceramic dish) and pour the blended chiles into the pot. Cook for 3 minutes, then add the spice mixture and cook for 3 more minutes. Add more chicken broth as needed.
Add the sugar and chocolate, and stir for 5 minutes. The sauce is ready when, while stirring, you can see the depth of the pot.

9. Add the rest of the chicken broth and avocado leaves. Season with salt. Cook for 3 more minutes over medium heat. Add the pieces of chicken before serving.

Please note that I added photos (finally) to my post about the baptism.