Tacos with Hatch Chili's and local Goat's Milk Jack

Sean came home last night! Yay! I knew he'd be hungry when he got home, but not up for anything really heavy so late at night, so I mulled for a while over a suitable dinner. Looking in the freezer, I remembered that many months ago, he received a ginormous pile of fresh green New Mexican Hatch chili peppers from a co-worker. He and our good friend Brett set about roasting them, and at the time, put a number of them in a big batch of corn bread. There was too much to eat all at once though, so they froze the rest, and they've been sitting in the freezer ever since. I thought of it in time, the night before, so left them out to thaw, and they were ready to be peeled for dinner last night.

I had some Sonoma-made corn tortillas on hand, that were on sale at the grocery store, and a wee bit of goat's milk Jack Cheese I sampled from the market last week, from the fine people of Achadinha Cheese Company (basically a small family outfit: mom makes the cheese, dad and kids sell it at market)from Petaluma, CA.

Before leaving for the airport, I peeled the skins off the chili peppers so they'd be ready to go when we got home. After getting back, I minced and sauteed a clove of garlic in olive oil in a frying pan, sprinkled in some ground cumin and coriander, chopped fresh cilantro stems, and dried oregano, letting it meld for a minute or two, then dumped in a can of black beans.

I turned the beans down to low, and covered the pan to let the beans heat up slowly, while I sliced the peppers into long strips, and then laid the strips on top of the black beans, to warm up slightly (keeping them covered so nothing would dry out).

While the beans and the peppers warmed up, I chopped the last of my cilantro bunch, sliced a lime, and pulled out Sean's home-made Habanero sauce (another spicy joint venture with Brett). Last of all, I placed the corn tortillas on top of the beans and peppers, covered them again, and let them warm up for a minute, while I crumbled the cheese.

I then removed the tortillas and put them on plates, and scooped the beans and sliced peppers onto them, gave it all a squeeze of lime, sprinkled on the cheese and cilantro and a dash of Habanero sauce, and it was good to go...ready in about ten minutes.

Simple, light, quick and delicious!


The picture turned out a bit grainy...I need to work on my food photography techniques!

Awesome Recipe for Sweet Potatos, Greens, and Chickpeas in Anchovy Sauce

It seems only fair that I provide a more substantial recipe for the evening, to make up for the nothingness of tonight’s dinner. It’s related though, as it’s the first dish I ever made trying to be creative with sweet potatoes, and was the loose inspiration for tonight’s meal, in it's combination with anchovies. It’s much more exciting, and was a hit with my diners:

Roast Sweet Potatoes with Sauteed Broccoli Greens and Chickpeas in Anchovy Sauce, on Whole Wheat Pasta (serves 3-4, I think).

Part 1: Roasting the Sweet Potatoes in garlicky olive oil
2 medium sweet potatoes, washed and peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch dice
3-4 cloves of garlic, with peels left on
a couple of glugs of e.v. olive oil
several shakes or grinds of salt and pepper--it should be well-seasoned as these will bring a lot of flavor to the dish.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while you prep the sweet potatoes, and then toss with the oil, garlic cloves, salt and pepper, so they are well coated. Roast them in the oil with the garlic cloves for 20-30 minutes in a good roasting pan or tin (or follow your own method for roast potatoes, to make them crispier).

Part 2: Start a big pot of water to boil, while you prepare the greens and chickpeas. Put a lid partially on, so water doesn't evaporate too much, but turn heat down if water starts to boil over sides of pot.

Part 3:
Big bunch broccoli greens, well-rinsed and coarsely chopped (any greens will do, experiment with different kinds of chard, kale, rapini/broccoli raab, wild spinach etc. the tougher greens will take longer to cook and become tender)
12 oz canned (or dried and pre-soaked and cooked, but cans are easier) chickpeas, though one of those big 14 inch cans couldn't hurt either, if you want plenty of leftovers
1-3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely minced (i.e. chopped tiny), quantity depends on taste
1 medium shallot or small onion, finely minced
Tin of whole anchovies in oil
a couple of shakes of chili flakes to taste
a couple of shakes of dried Italian herb mix (includes sage, rosemary, basil, oregano etc) to taste (the sage in this mix is what really works so well with the roasted sweet potatoes)
a couple of shakes and grinds of salt and pepper to taste
1/3 to 1/2 of a box of Whole wheat (or regular) pasta (Barilla makes pretty decent whole wheat pasta, as well as high protein Barilla Plus made from legumes), otherwise, use regular de Cecco pasta, in whatever shape you like... stubby pasta shapes like rotini, penne, or farfalle would work equally well.
1 oz Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese (optional), grated straight on the pasta after dishing up

To rinse your greens, submerge thoroughly in a bowl of water, once or twice, to get thoroughly clean, then let drain in a colander. Chop greens roughly: the smaller you chop the greens, the more evenly they will cook and distribute throughout the pasta, but perfection does not really matter here.

(Check on the sweet potatoes and garlic every 10 minutes or so, to make sure nothing is burning...if it is going too fast before the rest of the dinner is done, turn the heat down to 325 degrees, or even lower).

While greens drain in colander, mince shallot/onion very finely, followed by garlic, finely minced. Put a large skillet/frying pan on medium heat, with a couple of generous glugs of olive oil. Let oil warm up 2 minutes-ish, then put the shallot and garlic in the oil (adjust heat if the garlic is cooking too quickly, you don't want it to brown). Add the chili flakes, italian herb mix, salt and pepper, and give a good stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. Let the shallot and garlic soften for several minutes, while you open and roughly chop up the anchovies from the tin (I use the whole tin, which says is 5 servings worth, but I like the flavor). Don't worry about getting the anchovy oil in the mix...tastes good! Add the chopped anchovies to the onion/garlic mixture, and stir it up for about 2 minutes-ish. (Times don't need to be very precise). The anchovies will gradually dissolve into the hot oil and make a yummy "sauce"-- basically a bagna cauda like they make in the Piedmont in Italy).(Keep checking on the temperature/cooking rate of the sweet potatoes in the oven!)

Add the chopped greens to the pan. You may need to do this in stages if the amount is too much to fit. Put in some, let wilt, and add more as it shrinks. If there doesn't seem to be enough moisture in the pan to wilt the greens, add a splash or two of water, white wine, or chicken or vegetable stock--you can always boil it down if you get too much liquid in there.

As the greens are cooking in the pan, open the can of chickpeas and rinse with running water in a colander. Add the chickpeas to the pot.

Let the greens and chickpeas cook together, partially covered but stirring frequently, for about 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the potatoes, and test for doneness. When they are really soft and cooked through, you can pull the pan out of the oven and just let it sit till the other stuff is ready. As the greens and chickpeas cook together, make sure the heat is high enough again to get the pasta water to a roiling boil. Once its ready, add a shake of salt to the water, then put in 1/3 to a 1/2 box of whole wheat (or regular) pasta, and follow the cooking time instructions on the box, but taste the pasta a minute before the official cooking time is up, to check for your own standard of al dente. Have a colander ready in the sink to drain immediately when the pasta is ready.

Have bowls and silverware ready to dish up into as soon as the pasta is done!

Once the pasta is done cooking, turn off the heat on EVERYTHING (pot, pan, oven, if you haven't already) and drain the pasta in the colander, and mix with the chickpea and greens mixture, in whatever bowl or pan is big enough to hold it all. Toss thoroughly to evenly distribute greens through the pasta. Scoop the roasted sweet potatoes onto the pasta and mix through as desired. Serve!

If desired, grate a bit of Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano onto individual servings, along with some extra ground pepper.

Drink with a crisp, assertive Italian style white (like Pinot Grigio or a Soave Classico), or a mellow, soft or medium bodied red....

The more you repeat the recipe, the more you will work out the timing of all the different elements...good luck!

Hot "Mexican Tabbouleh"

Yesterday evening, I had some leftover pearled barley from a bag I’d picked up a year or two ago on discount somewhere in Santa Cruz. I had originally just boiled what I had in a big pot of water for 25-30 minutes-ish, and then drained it, never having bothered to research the proper method for cooking barley. I’ve been using leftovers in various things for the past few weeks. Tonight, I had roughly a cup and a half worth’s left, and decided to combine it with some of the other random bits and bobs left in my fridge. I always have a few cans of beans in the cupboard, and decided to pull out the chickpeas for this. I had some leftover goodies from the market: a giant bunch of cilantro that I got for 75 cents because it was about closing time, a Lisbon lemon, which tastes is bit lime-ish, and some green garlic, just because. Green garlic arrived in the market just last week, so I was excited to experiment with it, but it is easily substituted with a clove or three of regular garlic, well minced, and maybe some scallions or shallot or whatever you have available. Because we don’t have a dishwashing machine, and my dear fiancé is generally the designated dishwasher, I am trying to be better about cooking one-pot meals, to reduce his washing-up time, so tonight’s dinner was an attempt to expand my repertoire in that direction.

I think this dish is a testament to the glory of simple, pure, well-matched flavors. I didn’t have to add any salt beyond what was residual on the chickpeas, and the balance of lemon/lime juice with garlic and cilantro was clean and vibrant against the soft and nutty flavors of grain and legume. The texture contrast between the chewy barley and the soft chickpea was also interesting and satisfying and made me feel like I was eating a well-balanced meal.

So, here’s what I did: While preheating a medium sized, thick bottomed non-stick sauce-pan on medium-low heat, rinse and chop the green garlic (if you’re using regular garlic, you want to keep your temperatures low and add your other ingredients quickly so you don’t burn it—green garlic is a little more forgiving of a loose approach to cooking times).

When the pot is hot, pour in a glug of olive oil (I follow Jamie Oliver’s intuitive approach to measurements) and let it get hot, and then throw in your roughly chopped garlic. This is generally when I add my seasoning, pepper and salt. I use a lot of fresh ground pepper, but I didn’t add any salt to this dish.

Making sure to stir the garlic every so often, squeeze a lemon, open your can of chickpeas, reserving about half, with its liquid, in Tupperware for another day, and started chopping your pre-rinsed cilantro. Add some chopped cilantro stems (getting some leaves in there is no biggie) to the garlic, and then toss in about ¾ of a cup of your drained chickpeas. Stir occasionally. While the chickpeas warm up, keep chopping cilantro, and adding in stages. I like having fresh herbs incorporated into the cooking process at different phases, because it brings out different aspects of the herb’s flavor, giving the whole dish more dimension. The key to this dish is LOTS of cilantro. Think tabbouleh quantities of green stuff.

Throw your cooked barley into the pot, and give everything a good stir. You just need to get the barley and chickpeas hot enough to eat, so it will only take a few minutes. In the last minute of cooking, pour in the lemon juice. You could just use the juice of one lemon, or go half lemon, half lime, or just use lime. When you dish up, throw some uncooked cilantro leaves on top, add another grind or two of pepper, and if you like some extra hot and tangy flavor, throw in a few sliced pickled jalapenos.

This dish is great because it expresses perfectly all my fundamental guidelines to nutritious, sustainable, affordable cooking. It is centered around in-season vegetables, involves (leftover!) whole grains and beans, all goes in one pot, and takes less than half an hour to prepare, if you are using leftover grains and beans, or beans from a can. You can make all sorts of substitutions if you want. Spelt, faro, coarse bulgur, rice, wheat berries: anything with an al dente sort of chewiness. You can use other kinds of beans, maybe cannellini or kidney or black or lima beans; other kinds of herbs, maybe taking it closer to a Mediterranean or even a Thai style tabbouleh, with basil and mint and lime and fish sauce…why not? It’s your kitchen, you can do whatever you want in it!

So, for the sake of scaling up or down, here’s a measured ingredients list. Let’s call it Hot Mexican Tabbouleh. This made two decent sized portions. I ate both of them.

1 ½ cups cooked pearled barley
half 14 oz can of chickpeas
1 stalk of green garlic, roughly chopped (substitute 1-3 cloves garlic, finely minced, plus scallion) several large handfuls roughly chopped cilantro
Juice of one Lisbon lemon, or a mix of lemon and lime
Lots of ground pepper
1-2 spoonfuls sliced pickled jalapenos (optional)