I believe I've gone off the deep end, but before you tell me it couldn't have been a very long trip, let me tell you that I've been enjoying 100% pure corn tortillas thanks to this wonderful machine.
I bought it in Puebla and had it shipped back. I'm really thrilled to know that after all my trials I will now always have decent masa.
My cactus plant is just in a giving mood these days. So much new growth to eat and tons and tons of new prickly pears waiting to ripen makes me about as happy as anything can.
Last night I grilled the cleaned paddles after rubbing them with olive oil and a little salt. I have a whole stack to use now throughout the week. The first thing I did was cut up one paddle and make a taco.
I just had some very spicy dry chorizo (from the new and excellent butcher at Mi Favorita Market in Napa), but you could use any dry Mexican or Spanish chorizo), gouda and the nopales.
Healthy and indulgent! That’ s my kind of snack!
I had a pal over for lunch last week, only I forgot to shop and had to make due with what was in the kitchen. I made a basic chile sauce, virtually the same as I had used for the enchiladas in an earlier post, and added barely cooked zucchini.
I fried the chile paste in duck fat, because that is what I had on hand.
Again, 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.
The rest of the lunch was grilled turkey that had marinated in my pineapple vinegar, oil and some chile powder, and Hidatsa Red beans. And of course tortillas.
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.
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.
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...
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 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.
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.
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
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.
Rancho Gordo: Experiments from my mostly New World kitchen and gardens 