Romesco Sauce

 Romesco is a traditional Catalan Spanish sauce served with grilled meats and vegetables, especially seafood and calçots (a variety of green onion that is similar in appearance to a leek). The sauce is composed primarily of nuts (almond, hazel or pine), garlic and dried chili peppers (traditionally the small round Romesco chili). Once again I was inspired by an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, this time in Spain.  Mr. Bourdain participated in an event called a Calçotada, a springtime festival that features grilled calçots, crusty bread and lots of wine! It looked like such a good time, and sounded so delicious I had to try making some Romesco. Here we go....

INGREDIENTS

1	head	Garlic
3	-	Roma Tomatoes
1	-	Red Bell Pepper
3	Tbl	Cider Vinegar
~1/4	cup	Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3	-	Dried Peppers, med-large
1/2	cup	Slivered Almonds
1	Tbl	Smoked Paprika
~1	tsp	Smoked Sea Salt (to taste)

DIRECTIONS

1. Roast the Veggies. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut bell pepper and tomatoes into quarters, remove seeds from both. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and salt. Place in a roasting pan with the head of garlic in the middle and roast in oven until garlic is soft.
2. Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil.  Add the dried chilies, cover, set aside and steep for at least 20 min.  Remove from water, de-stem and de-seed.
3. Toast slivered almonds over medium heat in a dry pan.  Roast and stir fairly constantly (or do that awesome pan tossing move) until nuts start to darken in color slightly and become fragrant.
4. Add all prepared ingredients but olive oil to a food processor.  Blend until smooth and thick, then slowly add the olive oil until the desired consistency is reached.

Thai Breakfast Sausage

This recipe is an adaptation of Thai style Sausage.  I had no idea that such a delicious thing existed out there.  I have never seen Thai sausage on any menu at any Thai restaurant, and I wasn't much of a foodie when I visited Thailand at the age of 17.  I was watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and my interest was peaked when these delectable treats were mentioned.  So I hit the web to see what I could find about these "Thai Sausages".

The ingredients lists from most recipes I perused were composed of the staple Thai flavors: galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, ginger, chilies, palm sugar & fish sauce.  Typically these sausages are stuffed into a casing before cooking, but I figured I could create a similar tasting patty style sausage .... I don't think I've EVER been so taken aback at something I've made. I didn't even have time to take pictures of the finished product because I wolfed it down so fast.  I am a sucker for Thai flavors, but this recipe will blow your mind regardless!  Here we go ....

INGREDIENTS

1	#	Ground Pork (or poultry)
2	Tbl	Galangal, finely minced
2	Tbl	Ginger, finely minced
4	-	Thai Chilies, minced (or to desired spice)
4	cloves	Garlic, minced
2-4	-	Green Onions, finely chopped
3	Tbl	Palm Sugar
1	tsp	Black Pepper
2	tsp	Fennel Seed
1	Tbl	Smoked Sea Salt
1	Tbl	Coriander
2	tsp	Fish Sauce

DIRECTIONS

Basically I just put all the roughly cut ingredients (minus the meat & fish sauce) into a small blender and processed into a semi-fine mince. Mix all thoroughly with ground meat until well blended. Let sit refrigerated for at least 1-2 hours (overnight would be better!). Form, cook and serve however you like.

Brewing a CDA with Adam

Adam and I met at the Evergreen State College in Washington State while taking a program entitled "Food, Health & Sustainability". We soon learned of each others passion for beer and homebrewing.  This particular batch of "Cascadian Dark Ale" (CDA) features Adam's homegrown Cascade and Chinook hops. CDA's are essentially Black IPA's made of ingredients from and brewed within the Cascadian bioregion. I really hope that with the spread of the local food movement, beers, wines, cheeses and other foods will gain regional qualities similar to those that exist(ed) in Europe.

The recipe we used is from NorthernBrewer.com, but ingredients used are either grown locally or purchased locally...

INGREDIENTS

0.25	#	Dehusked Carafa III
0.25	#	Chocolate Malt
0.5	#	Briess Caramel 80
3.15	#	Dark Dry Malt Extract (60 min)
6	#	Dark Dry Malt Extract (15 min)
1	#	Corn Sugar (0 min)
1	oz	Summit Hops (60 min)
1	oz	Chinook Hops (30 min)
1	oz	Cascade Hops (15 min)
1	oz	Chinook Hops (10 min)
1	oz	Cascade Hops (5 min)
1	oz	Cascade Hops (0 min)
1	oz	Summit Hops (dry hop in secondary)

Recipe directions and more can be found here.

Adam and I also concocted a strange mixture of a couple different fermenting beverages I've had lying around for a good while. Sweet Dandelion Wine (too sweet), Sour Gruit Ale (too sour) and a Ginger beer plant (symbiosis of ginger and yeast in an aqueous suspension). We made small mixtures using a 50mm syringe to record each ratio. Finally reaching a nicely balanced mixure, we bottled it so it could carbonate. The end result was a very pleasing sort of fruity, herbal and very booze heavy soda pop.

Below is a slideshow of the days events

Valentines ala Panama

I am not one to celebrate holidays in a "traditional" ways. I like black Xmas ornaments and pickled fish instead of Valentines chocolates (I wonder if Missy feels the same way??).  Either way, this Valentines I decided to make an entirely "hand-forged" Panamanian feast! A ceviche with bay scallops, tilapia and sole, coconut rice, homemade tortillas and pickled cabbage relish. It was a TON of work to do by myself, but the results were WELL worth it!  

I have also been really interested in using acidic ingredients, like lime or lemon juice to "cook" various types of seafood.  The citric acid in the juice denatures the proteins in the seafood in much the same way as applying heat would  The flesh even turns opaque when the acid has run its course. Ceviche is NOT raw sushi salad and is very safe to eat.  Check out these recipes!

Coconut Rice

INGREDIENTS

1 - Coconut (meat grated, juice reserved) 2 c Rice (~2 cups per # of grated coconut) 4 c Water 1/4 c Tomato, diced 1/4 c Bell Pepper, diced ~2 tsp Sea Salt 1/2 tsp Sugar 1/2 Tbl Hot Sauce 3 slices Bacon, streaky 1 can Red Kidney Beans 1 - Onion, small

DIRECTIONS

1. Boil the 4 cups of water with the coconut for 2 minutes, set aside to cool. When it has cooled enough to handle, squeeze dry, reserving the liquid, and combining it with the milk.
2. Chop the bacon and sauté it with the green pepper, onion and the hot pepper in the same pan that you will be using to cook the rice.
3. Toss in the tomato and kidney beans (with its liquid) and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the hot pepper from the mix.
5. Pour in the coconut milk, sugar and salt. Cover pot and bring to just a boil
6. Rinse and drain the uncooked rice before mix comes to a boil. Add the rice to the boiling milk mixture. Cooked uncovered for 1-2 minutes, cover and reduce flame to low. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender.

Recipe from world-food-and-wine.com

Ceviche

INGREDIENTS

~2	#	Seafood (shrimp, scallops, firm fleshed fish)
1/2	c	Tomato, diced
1/2	c	Cucumber, peeled & diced
1/2	c	Red Onion, diced
1/4	c	Cilantro, leaves & stems, chopped
1	Tbl	Hot Sauce
1	-	Jalapeño, minced
~1	c	Lime or Lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Chop seafood to a rough, large-ish dice (a little bit bigger than your veggies)
2. In a bowl, cover the chopped seafood with lime/lemon juice. Make sure everything is submerged, cover bowl with a lid and refrigerate for 20+ minutes
3. Drain off lime/lemon juice and mix the seafood with the veggies.
4. Salt & Pepper to taste
5. Allow flavors to blend together in the refrigerator for at least 30 min. Then serve with tortilla chips or tortillas!

Tortillas

I am still quite a novice at working with masa and making my own tortillas (getting the dough consistency right, getting the cooking surface the right temperature ... ). According to most recipes I found, you basically take equal parts masa corn flour and water, roll it into a ball, flatten it & cook it. I've got it all down aside from the cooking aspect I think. I made a handy-dandy tortilla press out of my table, a couple layers of wax paper and a flat board (this also works great when making meat or veggie patties).

Pickled Cabbage Relish - "Curtido"

I had made this yummy relish a long while back when I was making Pupusas ... and have been keeping it in the fridge to see if it either improves in flavor, or goes bad. As expected, it has remained a very yummy mix of cabbage, carrot and green onion.

INGREDIENTS

1/2	head	Cabbage, shredded
1	-	Carrot, shredded
1	quart	Water
3	-	Green Onions, diced
3/4	c	vinegar
1/2	c	Water

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring 1 quart water to a boil. Add shredded cabbage and carrot to boiling water, then remove from heat and cover. Steep 5-10 minutes.
2. Strain cabbage and carrot, discard water.
3. Combine with green onion, vinegar, 1/2 cup water and oregano in a large jar.
4. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Thai Shrimp Stir-fry

INGREDIENTS

1	#	Shrimp, shelled & de-veined
1	-	Green Bell Pepper, sliced
1	-	Jalapeno, sliced
6-8	-	Mushrooms
1	inch	Ginger, peeled and minced
4	cloves	Garlic, minced
4	tsp	Brown Sugar
2	Tbl	Soy Sauce
2	tsp	Fish Sauce
1	-	Tomato
1	-	Lemon, juice & zest
1	med	Yellow Onion
1	Tbl	Mint, chopped
2	tsp	Fennel Seed

DIRECTIONS

1. Clean, shell and de-vein shrimp
2. Heat ~2 Tbl veggie oil in a stainless steel pan on Med-Hi heat. Quickly saute sliced mushrooms until golden.
3. Add onions and cook until they start to soften slightly
4. Add Bell Pepper and Jalapeno. Cook 1-2 min
5. Add Ginger (and additional HEAT ingredients if desired ... fresh & dried Thai chili)
6. Add shrimp and liquid ingredients. Cook until shrimp is done, then serve over rice with mint, sliced cucumber and pineapple.

Roasted Baby Chickens

In a vain attempt at trying to reduce my dirty dish load, I used only one cooking vessel (my trusty 12" cast iron skillet). Looking back, it seems more plausible that using a single cooking vessel would more easily reduce fuel/energy consumption. These "Cornish Game Hens" are defined by the USDA as "a young immature chicken (less than five weeks of age), weighing not more than two pounds..." so nothing fancy here but the name.

Either Way, these little guys were tasty, and BOTH fit in my skillet!

The main principle I intend to demonstrate to myself (and you, dear reader) is that for even cooking of poultry, the "stuffing" you use should not be dense, and should not be crammed in! It is essentially a question of exposed surface area to volume ratio. In other words, the bird should be loosely stuffed to allow heat to cook it from the outside AND the inside simultaneously.

The dish I have prepared here is very adaptable. Just make sure you clean your bird with cold water and pat dry. Rub the carcass down with oil (olive oil, veggie oil .. what have you) and season with salt & pepper (or whatever spice blend you'd like to concoct). For stuffing you can use any type of herb, citrus/fruit, allium or combination thereof. Here I have used lemon rind (the yellow zest contains loads of fragrant and flavorful oils), Thyme, Shallot and apple, olive oil, smoked sea salt, and my fresh cracked Fennel-Pepper blend.

To cook, preheat your oven to 350° F and toss in your trusty Cast Iron skillet. When its nice and hot, pull the skillet out and sear the birds breast side down for a few minutes (until you get some golden brown starting). Then flip the birds onto their backs, toss in some chopped apples and a little hard cider and put back into the oven until the thickest part of the breast reads ~165°F on a probe thermometer. Rest the birds for several minutes to allow the juices to redistribute, then serve whole on a bed of the braised apples and cider from the pan.

Carrot & Hot Pepper Soup

AKA .. refrigerator round-up .. one of my favorite kitchen games! When I have an excess of small food tidbits in the fridge (a little bit of gorgonzola, one jalapeno, carrots that aren't quite crispy enough to be toothsome) its time to make soup!

This soup is mostly carrot based, so it is on the sweet side with a lovely velvety texture, then leaves a medium heat in your mouth.

INGREDIENTS

4	-	Carrots, Large
1	-	Pasilla Chili
2	-	Jalapeno Chilies
2	-	Roma Tomatoes
1	-	Yellow Onion
3	cloves	Garlic
1	tsp	Fennel Seed
3	sprigs	Thyme
1	-	Lemon (juice & zest)
1	Tbl	Gorgonzola
1	Tbl	Brown Sugar
		Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Roast chilies, onions and tomatoes and garlic, with a little olive oil and salt, in a 400° F oven until they are nicely browned and softened.
2. Chop carrots roughly and in a large pot, cover in water and bring to a simmer.
3. Add Fennel seed, lemon zest and Thyme sprigs when the pot reaches a simmer.
4. When carrots are tender, add everything else and remove woody part of Thyme sprigs
5. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth and thick. (if its too thin you can always reduce it as desired)
6. Salt & Pepper to taste. 
7. Garnish with chili slices, extra Gorgonzola cheese, yogurt and fresh cracked pepper. Serve with crusty bread.