Reader’s Suggestions in the Kitchen

The last Rancho Gordo newsletter got a good response from readers when I said I don't really like recipes. I know it's fine for me to be happy with a little lime juice and raw onion but your average bean enthusiast needs a little more.

Among the best:

Sukie C. writes:
Christmas Limas are great in a soup with a rich chicken broth, onions,
lemon zest, cumin, parsley, some white pepper, salt, and i can't think
of the rest off hand, with finishing touches of lemon, juice, plain
yogurt, or both…  Play with it; you'll love it.

Anne W. suggests:
I really enjoyed your June-ish newsletter. Since you mentioned you love
Christmas Limas (I do, too!) I wanted to share this recipe that I found
on the web. All of these look good, but the Warm Christmas Lima &
Shitake Salad is the only one I've tried so far. It makes a really
great light summer supper.
http://www.iit.edu/~beans/christmas.html

Vicky B fears she's committing "flagatant self-promotion" when she suggests I check out her site. She needn't worry! It's a great entry and site worth bookmarking in your browser.

Reader’s Suggestions in the Kitchen

The last Rancho Gordo newsletter got a good response from readers when I said I don't really like recipes. I know it's fine for me to be happy with a little lime juice and raw onion but your average bean enthusiast needs a little more.

Among the best:

Sukie C. writes:
Christmas Limas are great in a soup with a rich chicken broth, onions,
lemon zest, cumin, parsley, some white pepper, salt, and i can't think
of the rest off hand, with finishing touches of lemon, juice, plain
yogurt, or both…  Play with it; you'll love it.

Anne W. suggests:
I really enjoyed your June-ish newsletter. Since you mentioned you love
Christmas Limas (I do, too!) I wanted to share this recipe that I found
on the web. All of these look good, but the Warm Christmas Lima &
Shitake Salad is the only one I've tried so far. It makes a really
great light summer supper.
http://www.iit.edu/~beans/christmas.html

Vicky B fears she's committing "flagatant self-promotion" when she suggests I check out her site. She needn't worry! It's a great entry and site worth bookmarking in your browser.

Not Brain Surgery

Internet friend and Ferry Plaza customer Erik Ellestad writes about his recent adventures with beans:

Threw a cup and a half of rancho gordo beans (I think they were Red
Nightfall) in a dutch oven with 6 cloves of garlic, 3 bay leaves, and
a few thyme sprigs.

Put it in the oven at 325.

When beans were close to tender, I washed and trimmed 2 bunches of
kale. Put those on top and let them steam there until tender.

Mixed together and had a most delicious side dish.




By the bye: roasted shitake mushrooms and potatoes.

Cut a couple pounds of potatoes as for oven fries. Clean and slice a
bunch of shitake musrhooms.

Toss with Olive Oil and a bit of salt.

Spead out on a half sheet pan and roast in a hot oven until crispy.

Remove from oven and toss with minced herbs like thyme and oregano.

You will not be able to believe how amazingly tasty the crispy slices
of shitake mushroom are until you try it.

Concentrated umami! Your vegetarian friends may swear there was bacon
involved...

Purslane and Eggs

I was weeding yesterday and found my first purslane. The thrill will be gone very soon, I know, as I grab buckets full and dump it in the chicken pen, but for now it's a thrill.

I sauteed onion, garlic and a serrano pepper until soft, added the purslane and then some scrambled eggs. Topped the whole thing off with cotija cheese. Tastes good and adds Omega 3s to the diet.

Vallarta Beans Are Back

Vallarta is a strange bean. Raw, it is green. Cooked, it looks like Yellow Indian Woman and even tastes a little like it but it’s denser, almost fudge-like. I love it but I think it works best with some sauteed greens like spinach or chard.

For breakfast, I had them with some scrambled eggs and then topped them with some raw white onion and cubed avocado. I was in a good mood after that.

Vallartas hold their shape and won’t fall apart but they have a very good pot liquor.

Simple Enchiladas

A lot of us grew up with casserole or lasagne type enchiladas. They were smothered in a chile-tomato sauce and loaded with cheese and then baked until bubbly and gooey. This kind of dish still has a certain appeal but for a quick, easy meal, it's hard to beat what most Mexicans would recognize as an enchilada.

The dish starts with a chile sauce. If you love chiles, try making it without tomatoes. It's a particular, nostalgic flavor that I'm nuts for.

Basic Chile Sauce
Clean
and the toast on a hot dry skillet 4 ancho chiles and 2 guajillos. Soak
in warm water for about 20 minutes and then place the chiles in a
blender with enough of the soaking liquid to keep the blades moving.
Add a small chopped onion, Mexican oregano and some garlic. Blend well
and the fry in some fat for 5 minutes. Thin with chicken stock or water
and cook another 15 minutes or so. Add salt as needed and a touch of
sugar if the sauce is bitter.

As you can imagine, this sauce can now be used in a lot of dishes. I normally have some leftover in the fridge and it's handy to make a big batch. For enchiladas, you need to heat up a small skillet with oil and when it's hot, dip a stale or day-old tortilla into the oil. Allow the extra oil to run off and immediatly dip it in the warm chile sauce. Lay the tortillas down and add some chopped raw onion and a little cheese. Roll it up and then repeat until you have a three or four. Pour a little extra sauce over the top and sprinkle with more cheese and onion. If the sauce is warm enough, the enchiladas are ready to serve. If you the dish is lukewarm, you can heat it up in the oven, but just until the cheese melts. If you have some leftover chicken or potatoes or something else appealing, you can add that to the filling, but keep in mind the stars of this dish are the tortillas and the chile sauce, not the cheese.

A friend once decided to make shrimp enchiladas and we were all giddy with anticipation but she was a dietician and decided to make the enchiladas healthier by avoiding the dip in oil. What a shame! The dish was boring and lifeless and a waste of shrimp.

I'm told that too-fresh tortillas absorb more oil. I do know the slightly stale one are much easier to work with.

Just Add Water

Here in California, we've experienced a lot of drought.
In this land of heat and sun
We never flush for number one.
Yes, this was my childhood. I've grown up knowing the value of water and this year has the potential to be really ugly. And yet, I waited until the last minute (this morning, actually) to install the drip system in my garden. I've done ok hand-watering and I've been careful to only water early in the mornings or just at dusk. The plants have been doing OK and it's actually relaxing watering the rows and rows of beans.

This morning we finished laying out and hooking up the irrigation tape (I like the expensive but near-perfect T-Tape) and i'm not exaggerating, you could almost see the beans sigh with relief. The emitters slowly release pressure-regulated drips of water and instead of flooding on top of caked mud and evaoprating or just wetting the top soil, the water penetrates deep down towards the roots where you actually want it. And it's shocking how much actual water is used.

I promise to do this next year before we actually plant. It's a much smarter way to prepare the soil.

Charro Beans

My friend Christopher Ann has a story for everything. Sometimes it's exhausting but it's always entertaining and the food tastes better when there's a tale to tell.

For years she told me about her famous Charro Beans and how she squeezed the recipe out of a disgruntled waiter. I never got around to making them but she swore these were the best charro beans to be had, so when she told me she was coming to California, I knew we had to set aside some time to make these famous beans.

Well, we had a little dinner party and everyone agreed on the superiority of Chris' charros beans. Despite a few steps that I normally would discourage, and perhaps because of these steps, they were great. So great, in fact, I asked her if I could repeat the instructions here for you. With a loving look in her eyes that comes from her grandmotherly heart, she said, "No way! The recipe is mine!"

Chris is an excellent writer and an inspirational cook and I have little doubt she'll have her own cookbook one day, so I don't blame her. In its place, I can offer James W. Peyton's  more traditional version from his La Cocina de la Frontera cookbook.

Frojoles Rancheros or Frijoles a la Charra

1 pound of Pinto, Vaquero, Rio Zape, or other Western style bean, cooked in the Rancho Gordo method.
3 pieces bacon, chopped
1/2 cup onion
2 cloves garlic
2 serrano chiles
2 medium-size tomatoes
1/2 teapsoon Mexican oregano

Prepare the beans until they are about 30 minutes from being done.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add and fry the bacon until it is just beginning to brown. Add the onion, garlic and chiles and continue cooking, stirring often, until the onion is well browned.
Add the tomatoes and oregano and cook 5 minutes more. Add the cooked vegetables to the beans and continue cooking until they are tender.
Serve the beans in bowls with the liquid and vegetables.

I can tell you I cooked the bacon and threw out all but 2 tablespoons of the fat to fry the onion. It was a mistake. If you're going to go for it, really go for it.

Party for Bay Area Local Food Guide

The new Eat Local guide is about to come out from the California Alliance of Family Farmers and we’ll have some to hand out at our booth at the Ferry Plaza farmers market on Saturdays.

To welcome the new edition, CAFF is having a party.

 

From CAFF

The 2nd Edition Bay Area Local Food Guide is Coming!

June 26^th, 2008 – 1 Fort Mason (Officer’s Club), SF – 4:30 – 8:30 PM

On Thursday, June 26, join CAFF and their sponsors for the release of the 2^nd
Edition Bay Area Local Food Guide. Get the most up to date places to
find and eat local food; meet the local farmers, businesses and
organizations that satisfy our local food cravings; learn about local
food from an expert panel and taste the flavors of the seasons brought
to you by farms, restaurants, vintners and food artisans of the Bay.
Limited general admission tickets available; get yours today at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34995

Some of the fabulous businesses providing tastings will include:

Restaurants:  Chez Panisse    * Eccolo   * Millenium   * Mission Pie  * Serpentine  * Slow Club  * Venus

Artisans:  * Acme Bread  * Bi-Rite Creamery   * Cole Coffee   * Fra’Mani

Farms: 
  * Drakes Bay Family Farms (oysters)     * Eatwell Farm    * Gabriel
Farms    * Harley Farms Goat Dairy    * Nana Mae’s Organic    * Redwood
Hill Farm

Wines: 
  * A Donkey and Goat Winery   * Concannon Vineyard   * Long Meadow
Ranch and Winery    * Porter Creek    * Preston Vineyards    *
Rosenblum    * Wild Hog Vinyards

For more information, you can view CAFF’s website at: http://guide.buylocalca.org/events.html

Here Come the Flowers!

When you're gardening, the first signs of life are the most exciting. No matter how many times you plant a seed in the ground, it's never gets old. The prepping of the soil, the moisture and the care really do help create life. The fact that you had some part of the equation is a thrill unavailable via Mastercard. There's just nothing you can buy that equals this feeling.

 

The next great payoff is the first blooms. My beans in the ground are coming along nicely but Napa's cool nights and this years' late frosts have kept the soil temperatures a little low. My beans in pots however have been sending shoots out and as of yesterday, the first flowers appeared.

I've made a tee pee with four bamboo stakes for this black runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus). I found the seeds in Puebla, between bites of cemitas. Imagine a runner cannellini or cellini only with a black skin. Most runner beans like cooler weather so with any luck they'll be even bigger grown up here than they were in Mexico.

What's really cool is most runners have a scarlet red flower. These black beans have a pinkish white blossom. Maybe I'm nuts but  think they're worth growing just for the look of the plant and flowers.

As a reference point, I planted these around the 10th of May, so in a pot, blossoms arrived just over a month after planting.