Rotisserie Chicken Rancho Gordo-style

I think a lot of us have fallen under the charms of a well-made rotisserie chicken, expertly prepared and ready for us to take home and eat.  I think one of the best in the Bay Area is Roli Roti. I often get one at the Saturday farmers market in San Francisco and rarely does the entire bird make it home to Napa. By the time I arrive,  I’m left with memories, a picked-over carcass and a few roasted potatoes.

But life could be worse! Take some leftover chile sauce and use it to reheat the potatoes and whatever chicken you might have left. You can see from these photos I was a little short on the chicken but it made a great lunch.

Chicos

Don’t you love finding new ways to eat corn?

In the Southwest, locals know chicos are dried kernels of sweet corn that add a chewy texture and mild corn taste to a pot of beans. I like them for a change but wouldn’t want them in every pot.  You just throw a handful into the pot and cook as normal.

We’ve carried them at Rancho Gordo before but the problem is, and don’t laugh, our beans are so fresh that they cooked long before the chicos did. I’ve found a farmer in New Mexico who has sent me a limited supply of new harvest chicos and I’ll have them on the website soon.

Mushroom and Bean Tacos

I met Connie Green through a mutual friend. I just knew her as a really interesting, funny woman who was a mushroom expert. I had no idea that almost every major restaurant in the Bay Area gets their mushrooms from Connie and that she got a big two page spread in Thomas Keller’s seminal The French Laundry Cookbook!

Connie recently gave me some Hen of the Woods mushrooms and naturally they were married with some beans!

Sauté onion and garlic in a little olive oil.
Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel . Break into pieces and add to the softened vegetables. After a few minutes add cooked beans (I used Red Nightfall) and heat through. When cooked, add some chopped cilantro and a dash of hot sauce. Naturally, I used Rio Fuego!

I dusted the mixture with some dry cheese and stuffed several tortillas.
Any meat lover would be happy with this. Beans, garlic and mushrooms have a natural affinity that’s hard to beat. They’re meaty and delicious. You can use any mushrooms you have available but try to at least mix some wild mushrooms to the mixture to keep things interesting.

Cactus Juice in Baja

As I wrote earlier, food wasn’t the focus in Baja. I’m sure there were better places to eat but after a few excursions, I wasn’t inspired to dig too deeply.

An afternoon in the capitol city of La Paz did yield some good tacos (pictured here are tacos dorados with smoked marlin) and in the mercato, some cactus juice!

This was cactus with orange juice, made with a blender, and it definitely tasted "healthy". So much so that I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it. So as reader Pepe mentioned in the previous post about Nopales, the lighter version must come from a juice extractor.

A Weeknight Dinner

I’m nuts for beet greens. They taste great, cook quickly and I hear they are healthy. I wouldn’t serve this to company but it fits the bill on a busy weeknight.

After cleaning the greens (you can use chard, as well), saute with some onion, garlic and a serrano pepper, all chopped. I used bacon drippings but a smarter, more sensible person will use olive oil. Just as the greens start to wilt, add some leftover cooked beans.

This is a fine taco filling. Or serve with rice. I made quinoa, after starting a mirepoix (celery, carrot, onion and garlic) that again managed to make it’s way into bacon fat.

Bean Q&A: Flageolet and Spring Lamb

After a weekend at the farmers market explaining to people that they were looking at dried beans, not candied nuts, it was a real pleasure to get this interesting question from a customer in the great Pacific Northwest:

Hi Steve,

I recently made a recipe of braised lamb (shoulder
blade steaks) in a red wine sauce (a variation of recipes by
epicurious, Patricia Wells and your recipe section) with your flageolot
beans that I cooked separately in a mirepoix (as described on your
site, but this one added the mirepoix raw, not sauteed first)… and
then when all was done, I served the beans in a bowl covered with the
tender falling off the bone lamb, and the the defatted stock drizzled
over all. Plus the garnish of cilantro and lemon zest. It was
absolutely out of the world yummy. (although I left the cilantro off of
hubby’s as he does not like it).

I am going to replicate this
dish for a potluck next Sunday and my question is
this… Do you think the dish tastes better with the beans cooked
separately, like I did in the raw mirepoix liquid, or would the dish
taste better with the beans and lamb cooked together as described in
one of your recipes on your site? And do you think the beans taste
better in a sauteed mirepoix or a raw one? I don’t have time to make
all renditions before the potluck on Sunday and wanted your input!

Thanks!

I think your method of cooking them apart was wise. Unless I’m being very lazy, I do the same. I prefer separate, distinct flavors and textures to a one pot mixture. People are often surprised to hear that I prefer the traditional Texan recipe for chili, which does not include beans. But I wouldn’t dream of serving chili without a side dish of pintos. It’s just the thought of one pot of overcooked mess that does nothing for me.

I’d also be a little concerned that the red wine would have too much acid and may keep the beans from cooking soft.

I’ve always sauteed my mirepoix in olive oil but this dish sounds so rich, I don’t know that it’s at all  necessary.

Please send me an invite! This sounds like a great dish.

Bean Q&A: Flageolet and Spring Lamb

After a weekend at the farmers market explaining to people that they were looking at dried beans, not candied nuts, it was a real pleasure to get this interesting question from a customer in the great Pacific Northwest:

Hi Steve,

I recently made a recipe of braised lamb (shoulder
blade steaks) in a red wine sauce (a variation of recipes by
epicurious, Patricia Wells and your recipe section) with your flageolot
beans that I cooked separately in a mirepoix (as described on your
site, but this one added the mirepoix raw, not sauteed first)… and
then when all was done, I served the beans in a bowl covered with the
tender falling off the bone lamb, and the the defatted stock drizzled
over all. Plus the garnish of cilantro and lemon zest. It was
absolutely out of the world yummy. (although I left the cilantro off of
hubby’s as he does not like it).

I am going to replicate this
dish for a potluck next Sunday and my question is
this… Do you think the dish tastes better with the beans cooked
separately, like I did in the raw mirepoix liquid, or would the dish
taste better with the beans and lamb cooked together as described in
one of your recipes on your site? And do you think the beans taste
better in a sauteed mirepoix or a raw one? I don’t have time to make
all renditions before the potluck on Sunday and wanted your input!

Thanks!

I think your method of cooking them apart was wise. Unless I’m being very lazy, I do the same. I prefer separate, distinct flavors and textures to a one pot mixture. People are often surprised to hear that I prefer the traditional Texan recipe for chili, which does not include beans. But I wouldn’t dream of serving chili without a side dish of pintos. It’s just the thought of one pot of overcooked mess that does nothing for me.

I’d also be a little concerned that the red wine would have too much acid and may keep the beans from cooking soft.

I’ve always sauteed my mirepoix in olive oil but this dish sounds so rich, I don’t know that it’s at all  necessary.

Please send me an invite! This sounds like a great dish.

Baja California Sud

It kills me to rub it in, but while you were most likely freezing and cold these last weeks, I was having fun in the sun in Baja. OK, maybe I’m gloating.

I haven’t spent much time in Baja and it’s a very weird wonderful place. Despite being Mexico, it’s not "my Mexico" and the focus seems to be more on the wild beauty of the place than eating and drinking.

I went hoping to find a wild bean (frijol silvestre) that I’d heard about but didn’t have much luck finding it. There are some wonderful species of cactus, obviously, and a lot of odd and beautiful legumes, but I never came across a good bean for eating. The markets in La Paz, the capitol, were pretty sad and I’d guess most of the beans were from the American Midwest.

On a hike to a waterfall near a small town called Santiago, I was lucky enough to find some wild tomatillos. About the size of a pea, these sweet, small yellow tomatillos were worth saving so I brought the seeds back and with a little luck, should have them available this autumn.

After finding the seeds, I started looking around our rental property and found a similar, slightly bigger tomatillo. Of course I brought some of those seeds back as well.